The Warlord

Terry Scott Szopinski (born March 28, 1962) is an American professional wrestler.

He is best known by his ring name The Warlord and for his tenures in National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as one half of The Powers of Pain alongside The Barbarian.

In 1986 while working out at a gym in Minnesota, Szopinski met its owner Joe Laurinaitis, better known as the professional wrestler Road Warrior Animal.

After coming up with possible ring names with Sharkey and Animal, Szopinski adopted the "Warlord" as his ring name and sent some photos of his work to Dusty Rhodes.

Soon afterwards, Rhodes hired him and he began wrestling for the National Wrestling Alliance's Jim Crockett Promotions later that year.

After a brief stint in JCP, the territory's owner Jim Crockett, Jr. sent him to the Kansas City-based Central States Wrestling territory for more training.

While there, he teamed with Karl Kovac and won the territory's tag team championship on June 8, 1987, in a tournament.

However, he and Kovac were soon stripped of the title when Kovac was fired and Szopinski traveled to Japan for more training.

In late 1987, Szopinski returned to Jim Crockett Promotions under his Warlord name and began teaming with Ivan Koloff with Paul Jones as their manager.

His first national exposure was in the NWA territory Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), where Powers of Pain held the World Six-Man Tag Team Championship until they departed the company in 1988 and joined WWF, where they competed in the tag team division until the team was quietly split in 1990.

In 1988, he then formed a permanent tag team with the Barbarian known as "The Powers of Pain", the heel counterparts to the Road Warriors, while retaining Jones as their manager.

While continuing to team with Koloff, The Powers of Pain feuded heavily with The Road Warriors, and defeated them and Dusty Rhodes for the World Six-Man Tag Team Championship.

To continue the feud, JCP management wanted them to do some scaffold matches against the Warriors, but this was met with opposition from Szopinski and Vailahi over fears of injury.

As a result, they both left JCP and joined the World Wrestling Federation, vacating the six-man tag team title in the process.

The Powers of Pain made their debut in a dark match (of which footage survives) at a TV taping on June 18, 1988, as a replacement for Strike Force (Tito Santana and Rick Martel) in a WWF World Tag Team Championship match where they beat Demolition by countout when the champions walked out.

Their televised debut was filmed later that evening and screened on the July 16 episode of Superstars where they defeated enhancement talents Iron Mike Sharpe and Tony Ulysses.

Although the Barbarian had already been wearing face paint in JCP, it was at this point that the Warlord began to also use face paint.

Upon their arrival, the Powers of Pain were faces managed by Santana.

They feuded with Demolition who had defeated Strike Force for the title and then injured Martel (kayfabe).

The Powers of Pain were introduced as mercenaries to help Martel and Santana gain revenge on Demolition for both the title loss and the injury to Martel.

They had their first televised rivalry against The Bolsheviks (Nikolai Volkoff and Boris Zhukov).

They defeated Bolsheviks in their pay-per-view debut at the inaugural SummerSlam, where they introduced their new manager The Baron.

The Baron left the WWF in early November.

At Survivor Series, the Powers' team defeated Demolition's team in a tag team elimination match, with the Powers being the sole survivors of their team.

Near the end of the match, Demolition's manager Mr. Fuji double-crossed them and after they beat him up and left, the Powers came to his aid, gaining Fuji as their manager in the process, in return for which his interference helped the Powers eliminate the last remaining opponents, the Conquistadors.

Afterwards, the Powers and Fuji celebrated until Demolition returned and drove them from the ring.

As a result, the Powers became villains while Demolition became fan favorites.

Following this, Demolition and the Powers (with Fuji now in their corner) engaged in a series of championship matches at house shows, typically ending in double disqualification or a narrow countout victory for the Powers.

On December 12 episode of Prime Time Wrestling, Fuji was confirmed as the new manager of The Powers of Pain.

On February 20 episode of Prime Time Wrestling, Powers of Pain received an opportunity for the Tag Team Championship against Demolition, which they lost via disqualification.

In 1989, Szopinski entered the Royal Rumble as the twenty-first entrant, but lasted only two seconds before being eliminated by Hulk Hogan, setting the record for shortest time spent in a Royal Rumble match, although this record would be broken by Santino Marella at the Royal Rumble in 2009.

At WrestleMania V, Powers of Pain and Mr. Fuji competed against Demolition for the title in a handicap match, where Demolition retained the title by pinning Fuji.

In March 1990, The Powers of Pain split, with Fuji selling Barbarian's contract to Bobby "The Brain" Heenan while selling Warlord's contract to Slick.

After the team's split, Warlord received an attire change, where he abandoned his Road Warrior-like reverse mohawk and face paint in favor of a shaved head and a silver metallic Cyborg-style Phantom of the Opera-like half-mask and black armor.

He also brought a metal staff topped with a W with him to his matches and used it as a weapon on occasion.

He began a feud with the British Bulldog leading to a match at WrestleMania VII.

He was granted a chance at the world title against Hulk Hogan on August 2, 1991, in which he was defeated.

He then began a long-running series of matches with the Texas Tornado, which rarely had either man winning.

However, he did manage to score a singles victory over a high-profile wrestler in Jake Roberts on August 23, 1991.

Warlord then competed as a singles wrestler until departing in 1992 and had a small stint in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1996, where he briefly reunited with The Barbarian as The Super Assassins.