The Day We Met

Joe Laurinaitas was the first professional wrestler I met after moving to Minnesota. In fact, he was the first wrestler I had ever spoken to who was out of his usual element and working a totally different job.

I wanted to eventually check out the gyms in the Twin Cities and price memberships after I got settled-into my first apartment in Robbinsdale and adjusted to college life. After spending my life having a fast metabolism and therefore being underweight, I wanted to put on some muscle by lifting weights. One morning, I woke up to Jesse Ventura's voice when my clock radio turned on, set to AM 1500 KSTP. He was doing a radio ad for a Grand Opening celebration that was going to take place at The Gym In Fridley. He said there would be free food and celebrities on hand. He rattled-off a list of names with that growl of his, and I recognized a couple of them.

I decided that I would kill two birds with one stone by going to this event - I'd check out this gym and snag some autographs. I decided to drive there ahead of time to find out exactly where this place was and what it looked like, now that I was curious.

I drove up Highway 100 to I-694 East, went into Fridley, sat in the parking lot for about 10 minutes already feeling intimidated by the hardcore look of the place. When I finally got the courage to walk in, I went to the front desk and this huge, muscular guy wearing a baseball cap was the welcoming committee. "Hi, how're you doing."

I looked up at him. I didn't recognize him at first, but he sure was built like a grappler. "Hi, good, I'd like some membership information..." I said, and then I saw that this guy's t-shirt had an emblem on the front that was a reproduction of Road Warrior Animal's facepaint.

While the possibility sunk in, and I realized that without that paint, his face resembled Animal's... "Sure," he said, gesturing to the guy standing to his left, "Neal here can help you out with that."

Joe Laurinaitas, also known as Animal of the Legion of Doom and the Road Warriors, had not only welcomed me to The Gym, but had just introduced me to my future husband.

And that was the first of many times that I would run into Joe personally at The Gyms.

This was taken at the actual Grand
Re-opening Event at The Gym in Fridley:
Joe and me (for some reason I was more
comfortable around him compared
to how I was with the other wrestlers
I met that day) in February 1995