Just over a year after signing with the WWF, the Legion of Doom won the WWF Tag Team Championship and held it for about eight months. When they lost the titles, they briefly left the WWF, only to return with longtime manager Paul Ellering by their side, as well as a wooden ventriloquist dummy called "Rocco". Both members of the L.O.D. thought the Rocco gimmick was stupid, and it led to Hegstrand walking out of the WWF immediately following SummerSlam 1992, leaving Laurinaitis on his own for the first time in nine years. Animal went ahead and finished his contractual obligations with the WWF, as a singles wrestler and occasionally teaming with former rival Crush, formerly of Demolition. During a handicap match in Japan against the Beverly Brothers in September 1992, Laurinaitis legitimately injured his back from a botched double suplex and had to take a lengthy hiatus. His last match was a victory over Papa Shango in San Francisco, California on October 16. After this his back was too injured to allow him to wrestle.