10 Things We Learned From Dark Side Of The Ring: Road Warriors
9. Why Hawk Punched Himself In The Face
...by socking himself in the face.
Yes, it's true. Before he was even a pro wrestler, Hawk would deliberately punch his own head and face to get used to how it felt. He reasoned that he'd have to take some serious abuse of a similar sort when he finally did break in, and wanted to get a head start (ahem) by acclimatising to punishment.
That's quite a unique strategy, and it shows the clear differences between wrestlers of old and wrestlers of today. It's unlikely, for example, that WWE told Rob Gronkowski, 'Yeah, spend a few minutes every day thumping your own face' before WrestleMania 36, or that hurting oneself could be considered training at all.
It's even stranger when hearing of The Road Warriors' own rules when working with others (more on that later). Hawk was accustomed to punching himself first, only so he'd know how painful it was and could toughen up.