All language subtitles for Biography WWE Legends s05e03 The Four Horsemen

- The Four Horsemen-

Ole and Arn, Tully and Ric
masterminded by JJ

You know what?

We can walk the aisle.

- Wow.

It brings back some great
memories

of a magical time
in the business.

Because we say diamonds are
forever,

and so are The Four Horsemen.

That is the living truth.

We each individually

were at the top of our game.

You put us all together.

Basically, we ruled the roost.

- We are the best there is.

We are The Horsemen.

Four guys that can work and
talk.

Custom-made.

- Ric Flair, he was very
colorful.

- Arn and Ole Anderson, the
original bad guys.

- Tully Blanchard was so smart,
so good.

It was magic.

- We're one unit.

We're The Four Horsemen.

Full blown gang, we were pushing
the envelope.

- They wanted us arrested for
assault.

- They made everybody believe
The Four Horsemen

were the strongest faction in
wrestling.

- We are-

what's happening?

This.

- The symbol of excellence.

- This is what being a Horseman
is all about.

- As a kid, you're looking up
and you're like,

"Oh, man, this dude's so
[bleep] cool."

- The lifestyle of the rich and
the famous.

- They were intentionally
obnoxious.

Like the greed of the 1980s.

- We got the women, the money,
the limos.

We got it all.

- Being flamboyant and being on
top of your game.

- The Horsemen rule, raid and
make professional wrestling just

exactly what it is today.

- We felt like we were the best.

There was a lack of respect.

- I got really mad one time and
quit.

And then he quit with me.

- You can't lose the foundation
and expect

the building to stand.

- I just had lost my
self-confidence so bad.

- The arm just went numb and I
knew instantly you're done.

But had the time of my life.

- The Four Horsemen.

[yelling]

- Yes.

- Woo.

- I don't know that there has
ever been a greater group

of guys that influenced this
business.

- To this day, the greatest
faction that's ever existed.

?

- These are Anderson boots,

Minnesota colors,

maroon and gold.

It's a different feel.

It's almost like you have an
advantage

because you're an Anderson.

That started with Lars and Gene
and moved to Gene and Ole,

and Ole passed it on down to me.

It, uh, changed my career.

If it wasn't for the Andersons,
there wouldn't be

The Four Horsemen.

The foundation all began with
the Andersons.

Ole was born Alan Rogowski.

Then he became Ole Anderson,

and it was like he stepped
into someone else's body.

- From Minnesota, at a combined
wrestling weight 520 pounds,

Gene and Ole Anderson.

- I grew up in Chesapeake,
Virginia watching Mid-Atlantic

Championship Wrestling with my
dad, Ole Anderson,

just rough, tough, solid.

- We sure as hell can wrestle,
and we wrestle better than

anybody else in the world.

- He was like a boulder of
granite.

To come up against in that
ring.

- They're an intelligent team as
well as two rough individuals.

- Way back when, there were a
lot more people that believed

the business was 100% legit

because the guys protected the
business in that fashion.

It's a show, but that guy just
knocked

the piss out of that guy.

That's the way Ole was.

- These men are doubly, doubly
dangerous.

- Ric came down to the, uh,
Carolinas,

and we took him as our cousin,
Gene and I.

- I was a big fan.

I just liked wrestling my
birthday present every year,

my dad took me to wrestling
matches.

Once I was in it, man, I was
hooked.

Huge.

I just couldn't get enough of
it.

I started in 72, but I was only
working, you know,

probably four times a month
in Minneapolis.

I moved to Charlotte in April of
'74 with $200 in my pocket.

I was married and had my first
daughter.

I came into the Carolinas as one
of the Anderson's cousins

because I was from Minnesota.

- And we did everything we could
to teach him

because the guy
didn't know nothing.

Well, of course not.

Nobody knows anything.

- He was somewhat green,
but when you take him

and put him with top talent, you
learn in the ring every night.

So he learned extremely fast.

That helped make Ric.

- I liked him.

He did have a certain amount of
flair.

- Flair-

Mr. Excitement himself.

- And who knew that Ric would
end up with this gift of gab?

- Kiss stealin'

Woo.

Wheelin' dealin'.

Limousine ridin'

Jet flyin'.

Son of a gun.

- The flamboyant World
Heavyweight Champion.

- This is what makes Ric Flair
tick.

When I won the world
championship in '81,

I thought I was
the coolest thing-

Because the NWA championship,

you traveled the world different
city every night.

- The first time I met Arn was
in 1981 when he was working

in the Pensacola Territory.

- I started out wrestling as my
name.

- From Rome, Georgia,
Marty Lunde.

- Arn resembled,
Ole, the physical

resemblance was unbelievable.

And the way they performed in
the ring was very, very similar.

- Ole looked at me went,

"I'll be damned.

You do look like me."

So he gave me his endorsement.

- From Minneapolis, Minnesota,

Arn Anderson.

- That was worth its weight in
platinum.

Ole Anderson was a huge star.

- Of course, we knew Arn
Anderson as Marty Lunde.

Apparently Ole Anderson, his
uncle, had put him out to get

experience before revealing the
ties to the Anderson family.

- Next 14 months, my life would
go 15 different ways,

but all positive.

I met my wife.

- We had a mutual friend, his
roommate I knew.

Then I went to one of the shows,

and we just started
dating after that so-

He's really funny.

Great personality.

- During this time, Ric Flair,
who was the world champion

back in the day, when the
champion would come in,

somebody would be asked
to go pick him up,

take him to the town, bring him
back to his hotel,

and for the whole week he was
there,

you would basically be is
chauffeur in waiting.

I was blessed to have that.

We became friends and he said,
"I want to get you in Charlotte.

We're fixing to make some moves
for Jim Crockett Promotions."

- State of wrestling was, well,
for lack of a better word,

they called it territories.

Vince McMahon of WWE,

he decided that he wanted to
take over all of wrestling.

- He was going around and
assembling a all star team.

He was getting top guys from
each territory

to come to the WWE,

so Jim Crockett decided he'd do
the same thing.

- Vince was on USA and we
realized that we needed to do

that on cable to have any chance
of survival.

Turner broadcasting-

TBS was hot.

People were watching it and it
helped us.

- World Championship Wrestling.

- So we brought a new talent in.

- March of '85,

I went to Jim Crockett
Promotions and Ole joined in

and we had a brand new heel
team.

There was a history of Ric Flair

being a cousin with
the Andersons.

Dusty Rhodes, who was the booker
at the time,

wanted to give it a try and
see how it worked-

The Andersons with Ric and that
was strong.

You can't get any hotter than
this.

Tully Blanchard was laying in
the wings.

- My dad was a full time
wrestler after he played

football up in Canada, and we
moved to San Antonio

because he wanted
to be a promoter.

We had our own building that we
ran every Wednesday night,

and there are so many different
things to -o do when you're

raised in the wrestling
business, all aspects of it,

from peanuts and programs to
sweeping,

to setting up the ring.

And he wanted and expected me to
be an athlete.

I was taught that you needed to
be a ring general

if you were one of the heels.

And I didn't reach my potential
until I switched heel.

And once I got the Crockett
Promotions,

it was on a tidal wave and my
career exploded.

- Ladies and gentlemen, Tully
Blanchard is a winner.

Always will be a winner.

- They hated him for so long.

A good fit for us.

He looked the part.

Great wrestler.

And he had a great manager,
JJ Dillon.

- I'd known Tully for a long
time.

I mean, I worked for his father
in San Antonio,

so I had known Tully for years.

I was always a fan.

When I was 15 years old, I had a
fan club for Johnny Valentine.

I helped put the ring up, help
tear the ring down,

and sold in the concession.

I did everything.

I had 3,200 wrestling matches
over a 20 year period.

- The experienced Jim Dillon.

- Then I became a manager.

It's a desperate move, is what
it is.

Because you're the National
Champion.

And you're going to stay that
way.

- Tully Blanchard had JJ with
him,

and I think it was just simple.

There wasn't a major angle that
just defined him being with us.

I think there was one day that
it just worked out that they had

Ole and I, Tully Blanchard,
JJ Dillon,

Ric Flair all on the
same interview.

Something popped into my head.

We were talking about our
matches-

Biblical-

Four Horsemen of the apocalypse.

Never has there been so much
destruction

by so few on so many.

I just dumped that out there and
I went,

"You're looking at The Four
Horsemen."

The main thing is

what you've got right
here in the ring,

you've got a champion, you've
got Tully Blanchard,

you've got Ole Anderson,
you've got myself.

And last but by no means least,
you've got Ric Flair-

The World's Heavyweight
Champion.

You're talking about The Four
Horsemen

of professional wrestling.

The people that make things
happen.

It immediately sealed us as
one unit-

Flair, Ole, Tully, Arn,

JJ, that's five,

but we didn't count him in the
four,

but everybody got it.

That stuck.

- You truly had your four
baddest [bleep] together

in one group as The
Four Horsemen.

- It's rolling, stand by guys.

- I was going to do it.

- Ready?

Hey AA I just saw you, uh,

three times in the
last three hours.

And, uh, Tully, we saw you at a
wrestling convention,

and here we are, The Horsemen.

The crux of The Horsemen.

- You and Arn you go to an
autograph show,

you just meet somebody at a
restaurant.

"God, you guys when I was a kid,
my dad took me

to the matches-"

- Right here.

"-and-and."

- Stick up four fingers.

- Since the day Arn did it-

This deal, it's never going to
get old.

- Our mindset

for those that don't know, was
not about who's beating who and

who's going on last and all that
stuff.

It was who could steal the show.

That's what drove us.

And it wasn't a competition so
much against our opponents,

ironic as that is.

- Yeah.

- It was a competition amongst
ourselves.

And the beneficiaries of that,
dare I say, was the audience.

- And the reason that we all
thrived with that friendly

competition was because in the
in, when the inception of it,

it wasn't us sitting in a room
going, "God, you know,

we need to be called
The Four Horsemen."

That's not what was done.

You just put it in one of your
interviews and it clicked.

- This is it.

It'll always will be.

It was first and it was the
best.

- The faction in pro wrestling
is just a it's a huge thing-

DX.

- Suck it.

- nWo.

- Too sweet.

- The Bloodline.

- Acknowledge us.

And really that all goes back to
The Horsemen.

- No, it was unheard of at the
time because you're taking your

top guys and you're putting them
together basically as one.

- When you're the world
champion,

you always hang out with the
elite people.

in the greatest sport in the
world.

I'm talking about professional
wrestling.

- You look at the great Tully
Blanchard,

the United States Heavyweight
Champion, right here.

- There they are.

- My own family.

The national Tag Team Champions
Ole and Arn Anderson.

and the new World's-

And I mean World's Television
Champion,

the great Arn Anderson.

- You get these top four guys
all coming together,

and this was unheard of
in pro wrestling.

Imagine if WWE had put together
Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage,

and the British
Bulldogs as a team.

So having these four elite guys
together,

it-it really put Jim Crockett
Promotions on the map and

solidified their
place in wrestling.

- Anybody out there watching,

we're a unit,

The Four Horsemen are not four
individuals.

- It's not just that they were
all great wrestlers

and they were together.

It's how they were all great
together.

- Don't get in my face again.

You are going to make an
ultimate mistake.

You are way too far in the youth
of your career.

- All right.

- The sum was greater than the
parts.

Ric Flair in 1985 was a big
deal.

But he wasn't quite Ric Flair
yet.

He was emerging as that guy.

The Horsemen are a major part of
why Ric Flair

is the Ric Flair that
he is right now.

- We are the studs in
professional wrestling.

I needed him.

This is a collective effort.

I was blond and had a flamboyant
lifestyle

and flamboyant character.

Ole and Arn were the epitome
of mean,

tough, rugged wrestlers.

Tully was a combination of both.

We interacted beautifully and
brought a lot to each other.

- Notice how they're keeping the
action in their corner.

- Greatest unit in the world.

- In order to qualify as one of
The Four Horsemen,

you got to be able to back up
what you say.

- A crew of people who rolled
together.

And if you mess with one, you
mess.

You mess with everybody.

- Let me just say something to
you and all fair warning.

A lot of guys have walked out
here and made the mistake of

jacking around with The Four
Horsemen.

And you know what happens to
'em.

They get hurt real bad.

- He always had this vibrant
energy of confidence,

of swagger.

And when you put that in front
of a team like

he thrives in those situations.

- Just because I'm Slick Ric
stylin' and profilin' doesn't

mean that I don't know how to be

just as mean and tough and nasty
as my job

dictates I have to be.

- He could talk his [bleep], and
he could back it up.

which was the coolest part.

- To be the man, daddy, you
gotta beat the man.

- I'm a big fan of Ric Flair.

I think if you're going to be a
champion,

if you have to have no limits
to what you do.

- I'm the dirtiest player in the
game.

- The fact that he was a
champion,

no matter what challenges he
was faced against,

he was always going to be fine,

even when one of The Four
Horsemen helped him to win,

or whatever the case may be.

- Tully Blanchard
and JJ handed him a shoe.

- We wanted to be the best.

The main four main dudes were
The Four Horsemen.

- It's proven to people that we
are superior and we have to step

on a few to make sure all other
professional wrestlers know

where The Horsemen are coming
from.

- They were considered at one
time by many,

the most dangerous
men in wrestling.

- You take public opinion,

put it above your own
aspirations.

You're going to be a failure.

We do what we want to do

because we want to
do it.

- Those were the original bad
guys.

- Look out, look out.

- It's Tully and Arn Anderson.

- Here they come-

Arn Anderson.

Tully Blanchard.

JJ Dillon.

It's three on one.

Look out, knee right across the
head.

Rams his face right down the
mat.

And the news is that at this
time, Ricky Morton,

a very severely broken nose,
shattered his nose.

- You know, I remember as a kid
watching WWE,

the very shiny,
super kid friendly.

- The ultimate in Sports
Entertainment.

- I would see some Jim Crockett
stuff that came up

on different channels
in the D.C. area.

It just was a little more like a
real fight.

And you were kind of like,

"Oh my God, what is going on
down here?"

They were so good at beating
people up.

- He's going up on that top
rope.

- Somebody's got to stop this.

- The knee right- oh.

- This was before there was a
Horsemen fandom.

These guys were hated.

- In those days, they would
throw batteries,

water bottles that were frozen.

- They had people
wanting to take them out.

- There was a young lady about
80 years old with the nickname

Spyder in Columbia, South
Carolina, who sat ringside and

had a wooden walking stick-

Threw Ricky Morton out there.

He landed at her feet.

Not by design.

I went out to get him and as I
snatched Ricky up,

she cracked me over the head
with that walking stick.

But she knocked me cuckoo.

- He kind of protected us from
things that happened at work.

Like I wouldn't hear if there
was something

with a fan or an altercation.

I mean, he didn't bring that
home to me.

He came home with scrapes.

[laughing]

- She was my nurse.

She was my cheerleader.

And without her putting me back
together and sending

me out the next day-

Been- probably been some days
I wouldn't have made it.

It's not all fun and games

once you push it to the limit
with the audience and they go,

"Well, they may need some help."

- It was just the theme of
believability

that The Horsemen did.

I mean, it was the way the
Anderson family oozed

destructive dominance.

- Gene and I, we did things that
made people upset.

I was so damned good.

People tried to kill me.

I'd been stabbed seven times in
my pro career by fans.

- Everybody would like to see
the Andersons go down.

That hasn't happened yet.

It's never going to happen.

- They've jumped me in the back
room

while I was doing an interview.

- It's going to be the place.

[yelling]

- Those were believability
things that were so intense.

[yelling]

- Dusty wanted to create
attractions

that you had to come to
the arena to see,

and that you could appreciate

a struggle and being beat down
and coming back.

- Dusty was so smart.

He knew that the bad guys had to
have heat

if we were going to
fill those seats.

Audience will pay to see the
good guy beat up the bad guy,

so you better have
a reason for it.

- Dusty Rhodes had it.

He's just a genius.

Whatever he wanted to do, we
did.

All the good guys, you know,
chasing the bad guys

the way it should be.

- That's what made the magic.

- Dusty was a big picture guy.

And I complimented him by being
a detail person.

He and I were calling the shots.

- The Four Horsemen got into the
dressing room in Greensboro

and scrubbed their face
right in the dressing room.

- At that time, it just was a
look that we had not seen yet.

Much more gritty and hardcore.

- Because you can tell it's
so real to them.

Like that's what people resonate
with wrestling.

- Jimmy is very smart.

He-he knows what's going on.

He's given us the rope because
he's seeing that we know what

we're doing, and he's giving us
the leeway.

The thing with Dusty, it was
like, if you're going to take

over, you got to take the big
dog down.

- Dusty's the booker.

He's a creative mastermind
behind it all.

Booked himself as a star.

- The chant of Dusty from the
fans.

- His greatest strength was
creativity.

But he also was very, very
charismatic.

- Before it was fashionable,

I was the American dream.

And before it was fashionable,

I am the rap master, Ric Flair.

- Everybody loved him.

We were just polar opposites

in the eyes of the people.

He was a perfect babyface.

I was the perfect heel.

- Dusty Rhodes-

Don't ever make the mistake of
sticking your nose

in my business.

- He was the champion.

They all tried to protect him.

And that was the-

the story behind it.

Don't let nothing
happen to him.

- Tully Blanchard, the National
Heavyweight Champion,

does not like Dusty Rhodes.

- Breaking the chair on Dusty's
leg.

- Ole Anderson cannot stand the
man.

Arn Anderson cannot stand the
man.

and Ric Flair cannot stand the
man.

That is the reason why The
Horsemen are out here

and why we are what's happening
in professional wrestling.

And you can take that to the
bank.

- Dusty, you know, we had the
major angle,

which this is one that's famous.

We're in JJ's Cadillac,

followed Dusty down to the
office.

- That's him right there.

[laughing]

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's him.

[laughing]

- Hey.

- Go Arn.

[laughing]

- We were in my car and we had
the TV camera guy,

and we slunked up behind
Dusty, and-

- That's him right there.

Don't-don't get too close.

Stay back.

- He's turning.

We've got him.

[laughing]

We got it right where we want
him.

- And when he gets parked, you
block him so he can't get out.

We got him trapped.

"Get out."

[yelling]

[yelling]

- Get him.

- What are you doing?

[yelling]

[bleep]

- It was as orchestrated an
attack

as wrestling had ever
seen

because it was outside the
ring.

[yelling]

- Can you get him?

- JJ-

- Get a look at his face.

I want to [bleep].

- Make it good.

[yelling]

- Look at this.

[yelling]

- Yeah.

[yelling]

- Yeah.

- Look at him Arn.

JJ get his face.

Yeah, look.

How about it now Rhodes, huh?

How about it?

There were people who called the
police, the local police,

and wanted us arrested
for assault.

- This was a different way than
just beating up somebody

on TV outside the ring.

- It was one of the first times
something

like that ever happened.

- It becomes so real.

And that was
a real moment.

And The Horsemen
brought

that out of every
athlete that they faced.

That realness.

That's what made 'em great.

So it changed 'em.

Believability.

Saying, "Wow, man, they can't
do that to The Dream.

They can't do that."

It captivated a whole nation.

- We had to do these things on
television to get people

to get out of their car.

Go pay for parking.

Go buy a ticket.

Go sit and fight a crowd to
watch The Horsemen get beat up.

- The way the wrestlers made
money is through live events.

That's how they earn their
living

is they got a percentage
of the house.

It's how your positioned on the
card from preliminary

to the main event.

The more people that come in,
the more you're paid up top.

- I wanted to be on top because
that was the only place you

could make money, but you
couldn't be on top

if you didn't draw a crowd.

- The more people you can get,
as far as persuading them

to come to the matches
helps you and

what you get in your paycheck.

- The greatest four man group in
wrestling, The Four Horsemen.

- Horsemen were always main
event.

- Look at JJ-

[bell rings]

-nodding approval.

- The role that we all had to
play was being ring generals,

being in charge and making
people look good.

- We were all of the mindset
that it was-

We just made our opponent by
making our opponent.

We got over.

And we had great
opponents

Dusty, Sting, The Road Warriors
and Nikita-

- Oh, Nikita Koloff.

- I believe Ric was
instrumental,

including Tully and Arn
and Ole

be able to step in the ring with
a guy 285 pounds,

green like me and make us look
good?

It was an incredible honor to
work with him.

It really was.

- All of those guys individually
were at the top of their game.

The best of the best.

And when you're with that much
talent, it brings you up.

If you're out there pushing the
envelope every night, you know,

stretching it, trying to be the
best you can be,

constantly honing your craft,

you can't help but excel in that
kind of environment.

- What separated us-

We were going to go out and we
were going to make them scream

for as long as humanly possible.

- I just used to watch The Four
Horsemen,

even if they're booing you,
that's really another form

of cheer because it's validating
the impact

you have on their emotions.

- The key was to have people on
the edge of their seat

for 30, 40, 50, 60 minutes.

Whatever it took.

And your cardio was off the
chart.

Fortunately, we were in shape.

Oh, God.

- Remember the first time we
were in, uh,

at the Helmsley Palace
in Manhattan?

We're in the hallway doing-

Doing, uh, squats and pushups
before room service.

That was just became your way of
life.

Get up in the morning, fly,
check into a hotel, gym, eat,

rest, go to work-

-day after day after day
after day.

- From one arena to the next
arena to the next arena.

Sold out because The Horsemen
are on the marquee.

- We're put in a position of
drawing money and we did a lot.

- We pack major arenas all
over the world because people

like to see the best wrestlers
in the world today.

That's us.

- So much money, so fast.

The Horseman-

They meant dollars.

- Because we are the measuring
stick.

We are the reason that there's
tens of thousands

of people in every arena.

- I was making more money than I
had ever dreamt of.

My biggest year at that time was
$180,000.

And you want me up here
shaking in my $700 shoes and my

$500 sportcoat and shaking on
national TV.

- We were riding the fast pony
and boy, it was bigger than any

of us could ever dreamed that it
could be.

And the last thing, even though
we were working double shots

and working seven days a week,
nobody said,

"Well, what am I going to
get some days off?"

- Every time they wrote our name
down and they put it on

television and they advertised
it, we were there

and we were there ready
to rock and roll.

Period.

I don't remember one single day
where anybody had a sick day.

Twice on Saturday.

Twice on Sunday.

336 days.

- Oh, yeah.

- It was a different mindset.

We didn't have to be governed.

We governed ourselves.

You know, it's just-

- I-I would agree with that.

Because that was a mindset.

I mean, for us to get a day off.

Uh, I can remember when I got
married to wife number two,

and by just getting all of us
off so that you and Ric could-

And JJ could be in my wedding.

- And that's just for the one
day.

- We wouldn't have hung out on
our days off if we weren't,

if we didn't get along.

And we did.

- Marty always traveled.

That was our life.

Back then, the wrestlers
were all in Charlotte

and they all hung together.

- Going over to Ric's in those
days where he had

a real nice gym in his home.

- As far as the families,

it was just basically the
Flair's and us-

because Tully didn't
have children,

and JJ, his
kids were older.

We had kids.

Barrett and Ashley were the same
age and went to school together,

and we spent a lot of time
together.

The only one that didn't live
here was Ole.

Ole lived in Atlanta.

- I had four boys at that time
who were wrestling in amateur,

and so I wanted to spend time
with them,

and I just incorporated that
into the interview.

- The proof is in the pudding.

Am I right or wrong?

- That's exactly right.

- Here's Ole.

- Is that supposed to be
something that you want to say

to me or what?

- If the shoe fits, wear it Ole.

- Get him Ole.

- If you'd have been taking
care of business

instead of that snot nosed
kid, you'd be you.

- Why you-

- Oh.

Goodness gracious.

- Get him out of here.

- Being part of what we were
doing wasn't important to him,

and that was fine with me.

Ole had money.

He was successful in his own
right.

And so he kind of distanced
himself

to go be with his son and his
wrestling tournaments.

- I finally maybe learned myself
that there is something that's

very important, that is family.

I did interviews like that.

A lot of people thought it was
all part of the show,

but that was that was a
shoot on my part.

I wanted time off to go watch
him wrestle.

- It was one of the things that
was legitimate in the business.

He was leaving.

He gave us a date.

Then we found out about Luger.

- A man that has taken the
wrestling world by storm,

Lex Luger

- Had a different feel,

and immediately
everything changed.

- I played seven years of
professional football in total.

I did not grow up a wrestling
fan.

And had no aspirations to be a
pro wrestler.

- This is Lex Luger.

- But the injuries-

And I was definitely looking to
make another move.

- I'll tell you what, he is as
impressive a man

as I've ever seen in my life.

- Flair came down, worked for me
in Florida,

which I was in wrestling less
than a year.

He said, "This guy's got
something."

- Lex Luger just out powered the
champion,

and the champion a look of
utter amazement.

- I met him, I was like, "Wow,
this guy looks like

a million dollars."

You're a great, great, young
wrestler.

- I told Jimmy Crockett, I said,

"You got to see this
kid in Tampa,

and he's built phenomenal."

- I guess Dusty made the
decision that Luger had the

trillion dollar look, which he
did.

He looked as good as anybody in
the business,

but he needed some guys around
him to teach him.

- I told the guys down in
Florida that he could bring me

in and make me one of
The Horsemen,

and I was like, everybody's
like, "Oh my gosh."

Because they were like the
group.

I didn't know who the other
Horsemen were.

I heard their names, but if you
showed me a lineup,

I couldn't have picked
Tully or Arn

or JJ out of a lineup.

All I knew was Flair.

He had come to Florida and
worked with me.

- Lex Luger, a man like this
only comes along once in a

lifetime and he is a great,
great athlete.

- He was the right place at the
right time and he had the body.

- Whatever I want in life, it's
at my fingertips.

It's at my disposal.

- He had a very daunting task-

particularly being thrown in a
group of people that were

the bar of excellence in terms
of performance in the ring,

but thinking, how are they going
to camouflage this Greek Adonis

who doesn't know a wristlock
from a wristwatch, so to speak?

- Now, it went from me in
training

to Luger in training.

I moved up a level, which was
fine.

I mean, he had that star
quality.

He just, you know, needed reps.

- Tully and Arn would take me to
the ring on their off days,

which I'm looking back now.

I'm like, "Wow, I'm sure they
want to do that

like a hole in the head."

And worked with me to get my
work better because

those guys are all
premier workers.

They didn't want me look like a
total idiot out there with them.

- We managed him, you know.

We told him where to go, what to
do.

- Coach a little bit.

Do this, try this.

To try to get him up to the
level where the rest of us were.

- It was a great learning
environment for me as a new guy.

We are the heartbeat of
professional wrestling.

The present- the future, and we
are the straw

that stirs the drink.

- Listen, Luger was not a talker
at all.

And while he could work in the
ring, he certainly wasn't the

wrestler that the other guys
were-

But, the look that he brought

- Back the camera up
and get all of it.

This right here is the finest
physical specimen

in professional sports today.

- Esthetically, it changes the
dynamic because

Ole was the most old school-

- We're killing it one by one.

- -classic southern wrestler
looking guy they had.

You get rid of Ole
Anderson,

and you inject Lex Luger.

You add in a guy who's just
physically perfection

on top of it.

It adds a whole
different layer

to what The Four Horsemen
were.

- Now come on in close.

You got a cover shot for GQ
magazine?

- Yeah.

- The line down the center of
the territory was Ric Flair-

custom made head to toe.

- From the lizard shoes, huh?

About 700 bucks.

To the Rolex watch.

To the biggest diamonds my
finger could hold.

- And Dusty Rhodes, Magnum TA
blue collar worker.

- The man stands up and does his
fighting for himself.

They don't gang up on a kid.

They do what they had to do by
themselves, one on one.

- We're fighting against these
ritzy, you know, high class guys

that, you know, think money can
buy everything.

- This is what all of them are
wearing

on Wall Street, daddy.

Huh?

Let's check this out one time.

- The Four Horsemen were so
flashy, right?

- You're jealous,

and we expect that.

- They were intentionally
obnoxious

about the way they dressed.

Look at us,
only we can look-

- It really is sort of perfect,
though, when you think about it.

With the greed of the 1980s, you
know, when you think about

Reaganomics and think about

Lifestyles of the
Rich and Famous.

- With champagne
wishes and caviar dreams.

- The Michael Douglas movie Wall
Street, Gordon Gekko.

- Greed-

For lack of a better word, is
good.

- The rise of Donald Trump as
this New York business mogul.

- Billionaire developer Donald
Trump has put his name on

a New York City hotel, shopping
center and apartment buildings,

as well as the casino
in Atlantic City.

- All of these people were sort
of entering our lexicon,

and for a regular like average
blue jean wearing, wrestling,

watching Southerner, that was
sort of the face of a villain.

- This you cannot by hanging on
a rack at any clothing store.

Ric Flair does not dress of
class.

He reeks of class.

- The elevated image of a
wrestler that they didn't really

have prior to that.

- Top unit in the sport today,
The Four Horsemen.

And right here, the limousine is
pulled into the arena right now.

- The look of The Horsemen was
important

to be what they saw on TV.

Dress like a star, look like a
star.

You are a star.

- Look.

Check that watch out baby.

Check that little timepiece.

- I didn't wear a Rolex,
but I had a gold

Geneva diamond bezel face.

And it was diamond time, and-

[laughing]

But it was the enlarging of your
character.

- $600 custom made lizard shoes
and this $13,000 Rolex.

- I was spending more than I was
making.

I tried never to wear the same
thing on TV-

for like three years.

I was having fun.

That's why the sportcoat
costs $800 and that costs $200.

And I don't know what that
costs,

I'd be ashamed to wear it.

- If you look really good,

you're going to play
at a higher level.

- Thousand dollar shoes.

- He was at his best before he
even stepped in the ring.

- I am

Slick Ric.

- And just was super
player about everything,

you know, wheelin' and dealin'.

wheelin' and dealin'
limousine riding,

jet flyin',

Son of a gun.

Woo.

- He said image is everything.

He lived that image.

- I'm stylin', woo, and
profilin'.

- It was real.

I went out and bought a
Mercedes.

When I started making a little
bit of money

because Ric drove Mercedes.

- The family at home was getting
rewarded in many ways

because you were
making big money.

- I did some nice things for the
family.

Buy my wife, nice jewelry,

nice luggage,

nice vehicle to drive.

Let her furnish the house, both
of them, any way she wanted.

- I had a wife.

She spent money and-

and then when she left, she took
all the money.

[laughing]

We're not going down that road.

I can laugh about it now.

It was pretty miserable at the
time.

- Back in those days, you worked
and you were on the road,

and I ran the house.

And that's pretty much how we
have been our-

our whole marriage.

- That's our story.

And, uh, you have no idea of the
worth

that you have in my eyes Erin.

You've made everything that
we have possible.

- That's not true.

- It's very true.

You would try to keep from
telling me that the dishwasher

blew up, or the car broke down,
because you didn't want to

stress me out on the road,

and I couldn't be there to help
you, which did stress me out.

- You've been gone consistently
for 40 years.

- Yeah.

- You drove a lot, but you got
home in the middle of the night.

And then when the private planes
came around,

added a lot more family time
during the day.

It was really nice.

- Now as business caught on,

Jim Crockett bought two planes.

Pull our car right to the steps
of the private plane.

- And we would go nationwide and
didn't have to deal with

commercial airlines, commercial
airports,

and that can spoil you.

- Like living like a rock star.

- I had a lot of fun.

We're first class-

Limousine ridin'.

Jet flyin'.

Son of a gun.

- For those that don't know and
those that don't believe it.

I have entered the computer age.

I have a podcast.

You want to hear some of the
stories and the lifestyles-

Look behind the curtain.

This is the place to do it.

It's a way to connect with the
fans.

They're still, for some reason,
after all these years,

and thank God for it,

the Four Horsemen are still
relevant.

And man, do they want to hear
the stories.

Back in the day, it was cable
and cable only.

That's how you connected with
your fans.

Everybody on this earth wakes
up every day of their life

wishing there was somebody else.

When you look around at us,

we're just ecstatic
being ourselves.

- Back in those days, the TV
show was an infomercial trying

to get people to buy tickets to
come to the arenas.

- And how do they do that?

By having incredibly charismatic
people in front of a microphone.

- We got nobody to impress

except our wallets
and our women.

You understand?

We live for two things.

Money and glory.

- Watching them on television.

That's a show in itself.

- You could have an hour of them
on the mic

and not have wrestling.

- We are rich women's lovers,

and poor girl's dreams.

- They promote where they're
going to be,

the hotel they're
going to be at.

- One more public announcement
after I beat up Dusty Rhodes-

- Yeah.

- I'm going ease across the
street

to the Hyatt Regency and drinks.

Anything you want is on the
world champ.

[cheers]

- Ric would pay the band extra
money to keep on playing songs.

Keep the bar open late.

- JJ Dillon has rented the
whole top of the hotel.

So all you girls out there,

if you are between 18 and 28.

- Tomorrow night-
woo.

We rented a suite on top

of the Bay Harbor Marriott.

Just had an elevator going to it
and I made that promo 18 to 28.

The Horsemen will be there all
night long,

and girls were leaving her
boyfriends and husbands

to come up to the
party.

We had 300 people in the damn
room.

I woke up in the morning.

My bill was $4,000 for booze.

- And when Flair and Tully
Blanchard Enterprises get

together, you know the party
time is on all night long.

- We stayed at first class
hotels.

Ric was renting limos, and that
was all very real.

- I rented the limousines we
all rode in.

I wanted to be with my friends.

The greatest time of my life.

- We eat together, we travel
together, we party together.

And that's what being a Horseman
is all about.

We stay out so late partying-

Sometimes I just lay down the
bed to say I laid in the bed for

for like 30 seconds for this
ultra expensive hotel room.

- The Four Horsemen spent more
money on bellhops and spilled

liquor last year than you made-

fact of life.

- I never heard of spilled
liquor.

I mean, I knew it existed, but
I never heard of spilled liquor

until he brought it up.

It was hilarious.

- Cause I got this.

And you don't.

Woo.

When I'm in my groove and I'm
making money,

and I have the responsibility.

I'm going to have fun.

Because we were stars and The
Four Horsemen were on the road.

I didn't think anybody would be
bigger than we were.

We are wrestling's elite.

Woo.

- They became bigger than the
industry.

Wherever you
would go,

they had such
a cult following.

I'd be sitting on the other side
of the bar.

They walked in.

It was like-

[flying noise]

"My God, The
Horsemen are here."

[Bleep] you thought they were
the [bleep] Rolling Stones,

you know what I mean?

- Don't be wrapping us up
until we tell y'all-

Baltimore.

Philadelphia.

Chicago.

The Four Horsemen, woo, are
going to tear it down.

- All right.

- That's all we had to say,
Saturday night,

we're going to turn this town
upside down.

And so when we got there.

- They would have lines sitting
out front when the limo would

pull up and drop us off, and
they'd let us in.

- Ric walk in first with that
hairdo glowing in the dark.

- And then once we walked
inside, I handed the bartender

my credit card and he says,
"It's not good.

I said, "What do you mean, not
good?"

He said, "Put it in your
pocket."

Look behind the bar.

And he said, "These are fans
that did get in that are here,

that want to be part of a
night on the town with you."

And he said, "Your money's no
good tonight."

- So after having some
cocktails, which we had.

The one thing, no matter what
you got up, went to the gym

because you had to be in
condition that night.

- I wanted to stay dialed in in
the gym and everything.

Ric would go to the gym too.

Ric would do all that
and go to the gym.

- We had worked hard to get our
images at that level

for the wrestling fans.

- Because if you didn't go out
and perform like Horsemen,

if you were just dressed up like
big shots and you couldn't pull

it off, that would have died
quickly.

It don't make any difference
what you wear out here.

Fine jewelry, because I got it
all.

Big cars-

It don't make any difference
because when you put your boots

and your tights on and you get
inside that squared circle,

you got to wrestle.

- In a time in which wrestling
was a lot of different things,

but not necessarily cool.

This, the whole energy that came
with The Horsemen was cool.

- And the wrestling fans just
grabbed on to it.

- Two of the finest.

- I don't know anybody who
wasn't a fan

of The Four Horsemen.

There was a coolness there.

- We are the best thing going
today.

Woo.

- And that really jumped off the
screen.

You can hear it Tony Schiavone,

you can hear these people right
here.

Horsemen.

Horsemen.

Horsemen.

That's what it's all about in
professional wrestling.

That's all it has to be said.

The Horsemen right here, baby.

- You know, they created heel
fans,

and they didn't cater to them.

It wasn't like they placated
them and and built them up.

There was a young group of 20 to
30 year old males that just

thought this was the coolest gig
they'd ever seen in their life.

If you want to be cool, you want
to be a Horseman.

- And you talk about your fans,

you look at all these people out
here in their shorts and beat up

t shirts, and then you look at
The Horsemen fans-

Coat and tie.

That's what it's all about.

The class of the wrestling
world-

are Horsemen fans.

They believe in the symbol of
success.

- The WWE targeted more kids and
our demographics

were more college kids.

I remember there was the group.

Somehow they'd all get together
in the same area of the arena

and sit as a group.

- And here's the whole front row
of the one whole section,

all dressed like we were jacket
tie, and we had a following.

- And I don't remember what city
it was in,

but the limo driver was
a college kid,

and he had saved his money and
bought a Rolex watch.

The impact of the influence that
we had.

- Look at that.

[laughing]

- We actually preached in some
fashion a way to live.

You could grab on to this
concept of being the best.

- They're there

because they want to be

associated with the best.

- Everywhere you went-

knew who you were.

It was amazing.

Wrestling was just red hot.

- It was a professional
wrestling war.

- Super towns of the superstars
on the superstation of the NWA.

Tonight, the NWA will take you
across the country to Super

Towns, Washington, D.C.,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,

Los Angeles.

- Jim Crockett was going to then
expand based off exposure on the

Turner network, and was going to
start to go national.

- Jim Crockett Promotions, going
to the best and biggest cities

all over the country San
Francisco,

Los Angeles at the Cap Center in
Landover, Maryland, this year.

- Philadelphia, the world
champion's, on his way.

- The first time we ever ran

head to head Crockett Promotions
TBS versus

WWE was in Philadelphia.

We were at the Civic Center and
they were at the Spectrum.

They did a gate of like 110,000,
and our gate was like 140,000,

which was huge because they
owned the northeast.

And we had started to grow into
the northeast

because of the superstation.

The National Wrestling
Alliance,

The Four Horsemen is what makes
professional wrestling revolve.

- Well, when I think of The Four
Horsemen,

I think of competition.

- Any combination of Horsemen,
it's pure and simple-

Better than everybody else.

- That's it.

- They were holding it down in
this whole southern belt

of the wrestling world.

- And they had a standard of
excellence in the ring

and with their promos.

- The five of us are what the
greatest sport in the world

has come to know.

Not as just The Four Horsemen,
but the franchise.

- To follow their act,

you really had to be on your
game.

- Everyone raved about Ric and
The Four Horsemen.

They were a real presence in
the business.

- The competition was the WWE,
and there was a lot of show

going to the ring and and
dancing around.

We didn't do a lot of that.

- We don't specialize in rock
and roll music.

We don't specialize in
Hollywood.

We specialize in professional
wrestling.

- It was a really cool contrast,
frankly, to have both.

That to me, is what made it such
a glorious time

if you were a wrestling fan.

- Two wrestling giants are going
at it.

No holds barred a grudge match
to win the biggest TV audience.

This is Entertainment Tonight.

- 1987 was the first true boom
year for professional wrestling.

- Wrestling is a big business.

A quarter of $1 billion a year
industry.

- Obviously, the most marquee
event is WWE selling out the

Pontiac Silverdome for
WrestleMania 3.

- A brand new indoor attendance
record.

- But it was also a huge year
for Jim Crockett Promotions.

- The Great American Bash on
tour in Charlotte Memorial

Stadium with a capacity crowd.

- The Great American Bash Tour
where you get

the War Games match.

- They're building a Dome of
Steel in Atlanta,

a cage to enclose the match

beyond the War Games.

- War Games was custom fit for
the Horsemen.

It was sold as payday for The
Horsemen for all the violence

they had pulled on everybody.

- Well, they say payback is
you know what.

There are some dues to be paid
during the War Games.

- I was the one they
had beat up.

I had the one that had to go get
my gang to beat their gang.

Needed a war to stop
this thing.

- You're in the cage, but it's
never before top on it.

Once you're in, you're in.

- The fans never sat down.

Man, the electricity was
second to none.

- War Games,

jumped business because of the
sheer brutality of it.

- Arn Anderson has bought
himself a lot of punishment.

- Those things were so
dangerous,

but the wrestling fans got their
money's worth.

- All The Horsemen in the main
event match.

That's a big card

making lots of money.

- I believe that we were the
biggest attraction

in the wrestling business.

We sold out everywhere.

We are the best.

And like Lex says-

He is the fastest rising star in
our sport.

- Yeah, I was red hot.

You are looking at the most
awesome physical specimen in

professional sports today.

Listen to that, Tony.

[crowd cheers]

- They love him.

- In Jimmy's mind, that's our
Hulk Hogan.

That's the guy we can build
around.

- Lex Luger is the most
marketable commodity

in professional sports today.

- And I think that was the
initial plan for him all along.

But he needed some guys around
him to teach him.

- My associations with them
skyrocketed

my career and really
launched it.

Just to have been a Horseman for
the time period I was,

I was just honored that I was
one of those guys.

When I left the group.

Barry Windham came in.

- Growing up my dad was a pro
football player

and a professional wrestler.

- Mulligan is about as big and
as bad as they come.

- So I just started hauling the
ring and refereeing,

and putting out posters on the
weekends,

and then I left college and
started wrestling.

I'm coming in the ring and I'm
coming there for one purpose,

and that's to show you what I
can do.

- Barry turned professional at a
very young age

and has done exceptionally well.

- I knew Dusty from
when I was a kid,

so he immediately took
me under his wing.

When I was traveling with Dusty,

and we were talking about me
becoming a Horseman,

it was partially because of my
ring ability.

Dusty and I talked about it for
six months before we did it.

- We had it all picked out for
ya.

- You look great.

- That's you brother.

[laughing]

- Let the party begin.

- You going to switch Luger, out
with Barry, I said,

"Im in."

Barry is 6'6",
moves like a gazelle.

And he was polished.

He was a superstar.

- He was a natural at it and
didn't miss a step.

And The Horsemen just kept
going.

- Once again walking the
turnbuckle,

Windham's go the bounce,

Windham with the belly to
back suplex

- Barry is better fit than me.

Barry was already a premiere
worker.

That was the best group
of The Horsemen-

In my opinion.

- The upper echelon of
professional wrestling

is right here.

And I have just carried it up
one more notch.

- That's the greatest iteration,

performance wise, that group
ever had.

Every single one of them was a
world champion.

- The only thing that matters in
this sport,

you're either a world champion
or you're not.

We had all the gold.

Arn and Tully
were tag champions,

Ric was the World Heavyweight
Champion,

and I was U.S. Heavyweight
Champion,

and it was
successful for a while.

- Business was going up, but
paychecks weren't going up.

- In the next few hours, it
will be pandemonium,

in this sold out facility,
ladies and gentlemen.

- We are so successful that
we're, if anything, being

hampered by the fact that it's
owned by a family.

- We were doing an awful lot of
things, right.

We just didn't have the
infrastructure to-to take

advantage of what
we were doing.

- Crockett was making a lot of
money back then, but if he had

just stayed east of the
Mississippi,

they wanted to go to Texas.

They wanted to go to California.

That- we just didn't have that
kind of saturation.

We didn't have TV like Vince
did.

- We have rented some of the
finest sports facilities

throughout the United States.

- It was growth by necessity,
not by-

We really wanted to do it.

All of a sudden, all this debt
started coming.

You know, we were imploding.

- When you're making money,
you're blind to a lot of stuff.

But there was one payoff in
particular-

Jimmy called me in a room, and
he said,

"I just want you to know that,
uh, I appreciate how hard you're

working, what you
mean to the company,

and he said, "For this
pay-per-view coming up,

I want to pay you 25 grand."

Well, when we ended up getting
paid, now we figure out things

were not as rosy as
they should have been

as far as the company earnings.

It was half that.

He should've never told me,

he just, I'd have been thrilled
with half of that.

So that was kinda started it.

I was damn nervous.

And so was everybody in that
locker room.

- The people at Turner, they
were going to buy it.

They called me and talked to me.

They were asking me questions
about the business and why

things were going the way they
were, and I just answered them.

And instead of being a rah rah
guy, I put on a different hat

promoter's kid, and I said some
things that obviously he

repeated to Mr. Crockett.

And Mr. Crockett didn't
appreciate it.

And Crockett called me and
kicked me off the jet.

- They took him off the private
plane

that meant traveling commercial.

And that's a different animal.

And it's insulting-

It's a slap in the face.

- I didn't need to be spanked.

So you want to spank me and kick
me off the jet?

I quit.

- We felt like we were the best,

and we didn't feel like we were
high on the priority list

like we should have been.

- And the next night in
Philadelphia,

we went out and

dropped the world championship
to the Midnight Express.

And we were done.

- After Philadelphia, Flair,

in his mind, he thought for sure
we'd just have a few drinks,

blow off some steam, and we'd be
at TV the next day.

Well, time for TV, no Tully,
no Arn

- It hit him.

He called me and he was pretty
emotional.

- Ah, God, when Arn and Tully
left for the WWE,

it was devastating.

I missed my friends, but big
void for me personally.

Here were my two closest pals on
the road.

They were gone.

I didn't blame 'em.

They got screwed and they
needed to go out and show the

world how good they were.

- Month later, were on WWE TV.

- I'd like to introduce right
now two of the newest members

of the Bobby "The Brain" Heenan
family-

Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson,

collectively known now as the
Brain Busters.

- We saw an opportunity for two
tremendous in-ring talents

in Arn and Tully,

and I thought they were a
great package.

- I remember Arn and Tully
coming to WWE

like it was yesterday.

That was a big deal.

That was the first time

that a super prime talent
from Jim Crockett

in the middle of their career,

would cross the
line and join WWE.

- You brought the best tag team
from WCW up, and Hart Foundation

has been the best team in WWE.

We were so not prepared that
they kind of ran circles around

me and Jim in that original
match that we had.

- My greatest growth in the
wrestling business

was our time with them.

They were just so smart, so
good, so in sync.

- The Brain Busters, tag team
title holders.

- We were the first team to do
that.

The WWE titles and Jim
Crockett's world titles.

It was great.

We thought we were the best team
in the world.

- Come on-

- Anytime.

Business was so hot for those
guys.

They were running 2 or 3 towns a
night.

We were skipping all over the
country with WWE.

- They traveled everywhere.

A lot of West Coast and
commercial flights.

He was gone.

- It's hard when you have little
kids,

and it's hard when
you have a wife.

When he was about three years
old,

I just remember him on the
phone crying, saying,

"When are you coming home,
daddy?"

And it sucks.

- It was just too hard.

He needed to leave.

[laughing]

He missed his family.

- To be honest with ya, that 14
months,

almost killed me.

- It was a learning process.

And during that time is when
Turner bought Crockett

and they were passing
out big contracts.

Turner owned a baseball teams
basketball team,

and he only knew putting
athletes on contracts.

And, uh, after about a year
with the WWE,

I told Arn, I said, "We need to
see if they'd like to put

The Horsemen back
together again."

- So we had already talked to
Ric and he said,

"I've got you a deal
with Jim Herd."

And Jim Herd was the executive
that was hired to run

the initial company
once Turner bought it.

Three years, 250 a year.

Ric was excited to have us
back.

So what we think is a done deal,

and we're going down there to
sign a contract.

- But that's when my life hit a
dynamic change.

Arn and I were-were in a bar,

and I had met some young lady

over there that, uh, wanted to
dabble with some white powder,

and I had a $100 bill in my
pocket and gave it to the

waitress, and she came back and
handed me a baggie, and, uh,

I gave it to the girls, and they
went to the bathroom,

and they brought it
back, and it was empty.

And, uh, but I wanted to look
like I knew what I was doing.

So I licked the inside of the
bag and, uh, walked into the

Philadelphia Spectrum at 2:00
the next afternoon,

and it said "Drug
test" on the wall.

And I flunked a drug test that
day.

And I didn't think that-that
would cause a problem.

It'd just get me to Atlanta
quicker.

But-

About ten days later, November
13th,

Ric Flair called me at 1:00 in
the morning,

and he told me that they had
found out about

the drug test and they reneged
on the deal.

- Ric Flair calls me on November
13th at 1:00 in the morning

and he says,

"Tully, I've got some bad news.

They found out about your drug
test,

and they reneged on the deal.

Now guys, there's only two
companies that you could work

for back in those days,

WCW or WWE.

That was it.

And in the course of 11 days,
I have gone-

[flying noise]

at both of them.

An absolute panic came over
me.

I am the only guy in
professional wrestling that ever

flunked the a drug test that
didn't go back to work,

but I went on a different path.

4:03 in the morning, gentlemen,
I said five words.

I said, "Jesus, take over my
life."

And, guys, that was the very
first time I'd ever used

the name Jesus when I
wasn't cussing somebody.

The power changed my life.

There was a calmness that came
over me

that I had never felt before.

I just do what the Lord says to
do,

and since 1994, that has been in
the jails and prisons,

and hopefully it has reached
people's lives.

Is there anybody who can say to
me,

"Tully, I need a
change in my life?"

If that's you, slip your hand
up.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Keep your hand up.

Thank you guys.

Everything about my life for
the last 35 years

has been promoting the power of
God to change people's lives.

- What a surprise,
The Andersons,

Ole Anderson, Arn Anderson
back in the NWA.

- The people in Atlanta did Arn
wrong because they hired him

without me and they cut his
contract.

- Jim Herd said, "You guys, to
be honest with you,

are worth more as a team
than you are a single.

So I'm gonna have to cut your
three year contract 150 grand.

50 grand a year, times three."

I go,

"I didn't do anything.

Mr. Herd, I- I'm getting
penalized.

I mean, because he screwed up."

That left a really bad taste in
my mouth.

That was a bunch of money to me
and my house.

- It was my fault for flunking
the drug test.

And, uh, sad thing.

- There's a myth that used to
exist

in the National Wrestling
Alliance that was called

The Four Horsemen.

And by God, it started here.

And by God, it's going to end
here.

So when I came back, Ole came
back,

Ric was there.

JJ had went to WWE in an
office capacity,

but you still had the makings
if we would have added Tully,

I think we could have done some
good things.

They tried to make a Horsemen
after that.

It just was not the same.

- The four greatest individual
wrestlers

right now in the world.

- The Horsemen aren't The
Horsemen without Arn and Ric and

Tully, so I mean, any other
combination

thereof is not the original.

So those three guys are it.

- The Horsemen, woo, are
reunited again.

All right.

- You try and try

throw something up
against the wall

and see if it stick.

And it didn't.

You cannot remake something that
was so perfect.

- Every time the Horseman would
come back,

they looked a little bit like a
shell of themselves.

So you'd get that initial pop
like.

"Oh, Horsemen."

But then you're like, "This
ain't the same Horsemen."

And they were not helped by the
fact that there was a new

faction in town that changed
everything, called the nWo.

- Woo.

- The following announcement has
been paid for

by the New World Order.

- Here's the nWo.

- Ready or not, here we come.

- The nWo was the new cool
thing.

And when you think about it,

one of the sort of unintended
effects of that is it kind of

ends up pushing Ric Flair aside.

So you have like this guy who's
been a big star for a very long

time, but he's not a part of
this thing.

- "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair,
they just sprayed him in the

face for crying out loud.

You can blind a person that way.

- I was just doing what they
told me to do,

but they don't want
The Four Horsemen.

I was lost.

- If you weren't directly a part
of the nWo,

it was kind of hard for you.

- You're either with us or
you're against us.

- It was all about those guys,
and I don't think it would have

mattered who their opponents
were.

It wasn't about their opponents,
it was about the nWo.

The good guys were The Horsemen
at that point.

There was no plan going forward,
so that disappointed me.

But I didn't think that was
going to be

the end of it for me.

- I don't think some of these
people realize

what's been going on in your
life over the last 90 days.

I happen to know you have been
injured.

- I had had a couple of
instances

where I got dropped
on my neck bad.

One time my bicep disappeared,

my rear delt disappeared,

and one time the arm
just went numb.

And when this turned into that
and this thumb quit operating,

now I'm left handed.

Life in general.

I can't do this button.

I can't zip my pants.

When this died,

life changed.

But what are you going to do?

That's when I had surgery, which
was '97.

I got a pretty serious scar on
my neck,

it's about seven inches.

I had a laminectomy.

I gave you everything I had,
and you knew that.

And when you did this to me-

That was your acknowledgment.

Well, the fact is I got
nothing left to give.

- I felt bad for him.

One of the saddest moments in my
career.

He was saying goodbye to the
business.

- I think it was scary.

I mean, we had just bought our
house.

We had two houses at that point.

I just had Brock,

and it was a lot of pressure.

You know, because he wasn't
thinking his career

was going to end.

Luckily he, you know,
transformed to

behind the scenes.

But that wasn't his passion.

- As a producer/agent,

your job is to help guys with
matches.

Thank God I had that job to fall
back on.

And that's pretty much what I've
been doing ever since.

- I'm going to give you the only
thing I got left.

Not a spot.

Not a spot.

I'll give you MY spot.

- I have only one thing to say.

It would be a privilege.

- I think over time, while there
was still cachet

to The Four Horsemen,

it clearly was not what it was
originally.

- What?

- Oh, no.

- Hennig has just gone right
for Ric Flair.

- My God, what's he doing?

[bell rings]

- The Horsemen have fallen prey
to the nWo.

- Those guys just were no longer
positioned as top guys.

- Death of The Horsemen.

Right in their own backyard.

- Nothing can stay the same
forever.

And nothing can stay cool
forever.

- They smacked him right in the
face.

- There was a time when he could
say.

"Don't you know who I am?
I'm Ric Flair,"

and get things done.

Don't last forever.

I think that did a lot to
destroy his confidence.

And once you started down the
other side of that mountain,

in those days, you might not get
back to the top.

- I just had lost my
self-confidence so bad

from the experience of the WCW,
and-

so they just pushed me to the
side

and had anxiety and just all
kind of stuff.

The character Ric Flair was, he
was gone.

They cracked me.

- I'm honored and privileged to

still be around and be
recognized, I think.

- Good show.

- What's up [indistinct]?

- Hey, how are you?

- Good to see you sir.

- Good to see you.

Thanks for being here.

- Thanks for having me.

Appreciate it.

The fact is, it's been a long,
long time since he and I

wrestled to have people come up
to you and say

that they remembered.

It's a little overwhelming.

- Hello there.

How you doing?

- Good.

- My goodness.

Nice to see you.

- But, you know, you impacted
the sport

and you impacted audiences.

- The Horseman is always one
upping, the next one upping one

another, one upping their
opponents, but also, like,

that brought the best out of my
dad,

and I mean, if he was here, he
asked him that was the most fun

he ever had in his career.

- Yeah.

- I take that as them,
remembering us,

but remembering the quality.

- This company was mighty good
to me.

I was a producer here for 19
years after they bought WCW.

Ric came in later.

- Hey AA, what's going on my
brother?

How are you man?

- Once he came in, Hunter
decided they were going to put

him with Randy and Batista,

that they needed a name, and I
started picturing them-

I'm thinking, "Okay, so past,
future, present.

That's Evolution."

- What you see in this ring
before you is the greatest

example of Evolution you will
ever see.

- Evolution was just awesome.

Like the reincarnation of
The Four Horsemen.

- Ric Flair,

the greatest professional
wrestler of all time,

a living legend, woo.

- We did the same thing I've
been doing my whole life.

We made people look good.

I went around the country
putting everybody over.

I just had so much fun.

And gradually with them,

I got my self-confidence back.

Where are we going?

Woo.

It's L.A., Vince, we're going
down to the strip

to party, woo, with the champ.

[laughing]

- It thrust him back into
people's imagination

as the guy that he was.

And I think in a lot of ways,
Flair being in Evolution

help bolster the legacy of
The Four Horsemen.

And then it all came full circle
to get to see them,

then go into the WWE Hall
of Fame together.

- There you go.

That's a classic.

Wow.

- They recognized us and didn't
include Ole.

I don't think he was insulted,
angry.

It wasn't something that was
important to him.

It meant something to us.

It's a good fit

- It's a very good fit.

The highlight of my career,

and thanks pal.

- Thank you.

Proud to have been a part of
it.

- Congratulations.

- Thank you.

Appreciate it.

What an honor

it really, really is.

- The Four Horsemen rode that
lightning bolt.

into this business called
professional wrestling.

- Oh, please.

I have had and this is-

this is really hard to say.

I have had the most wonderful
career

than any athlete of any
sport could possibly have.

God, I've been doing this for 40
years, guys.

The eight years or nine years
that this group ran together,

good Lord, it was the best time
of my life.

We just loved being the best at
what we were doing.

[crowd cheers]

It was the first time that my
four kids

had seen me in that world,

because they weren't alive when
I was wrestling.

I know it affected Tessa because
she went that direction.

It's neat to be able to watch
Tessa when she performs, and

there's a part of me that holds
on to that.

Just like Ric, introducing his
children.

- Stand up.

Come on Reid man,

Ashley,

One more time, baby.

Boy, it lit her up

- She said dad I want to
wrestle.

Boy, did she catch on.

The greatest honor a father
could ever have.

I mean, how many other fathers
in the business have that?

- My son Brock is getting better
all the time.

He's paying his dues.

Son, there's not a lot more I
can give you in life.

How would you feel about those
being yours?

- Dang pops.

It's not lost on me.

The responsibility that comes
with those boots.

- That Horseman brand has lived
on.

It's just like, no matter how
much time passes,

this continues to resonate.

And it's so great that, like,
those guys have always they've

been around and you get to see
them pop up here and there

and have their moments together.

- Once a part of The Four
Horsemen, Arn Anderson, Tully

Blanchard, WWE Hall of Famers at
Saturday Night's Main Event.

- We got our name from the Bible

four horses that were not

positive horses.

To kill with sword, with hunger,

with death, and by the
beasts of the Earth.

But we changed that to mean
something very positive

to be the best, the symbol of
excellence.

- I've been in my car.

Stop at a traffic light.

I glance over and there's the
car,

and the guy does a double take
and does this.

Wow.

I'm lucky, God, am I lucky.

- I'm 42 years in the business

would have never had that length
of career had it not been

of a phenomenon called
The Four Horsemen.

- I'm livin' this great life
now,

and it's all because of what I
did in the 80s.

Post Malone, my man.

- Come on man.

- Woo.

Woo.

- Ric Flair.

- Woo.

Brought The Four Horsemen back
into mainstream.

And to this day, it's huge.

It's bigger now than it was
then.

- I'm honored to tell you on
behalf of WWE, we would like you

to be part of the 2025 class of
the WWE Hall of Fame.

- Wow.

- Working with The Horsemen, The
elite group and wrestling all

that has led to-to what's
happened right here just now,

shockingly.

Oh my gosh, I can't believe it.

Oh, look at that.

- Being one of The Horsemen was
probably

the highlight of my career.

When you got the right team
together and the right guys.

It just-

Everything just snaps.

- The Four Horsemen were showing
unity

before it was ever fashionable.

The camaraderie just reeked
across the television screen.

- The greatest memories was
traveling

for five years with you two.

- Mine too.

- There was a friendship
and a bond.

- The best way to say it is we
were legitimate partners.

- We're a unit.

The Four Horsemen are not four
individuals.

We love to perform.

We had a phenomenal chemistry.

We were friends and we loved
going to work together.

- Philly tonight.

- Woo.

- Chicago tomorrow.

The Four Horsemen, right here.

- Yeah.

- Woo.

- It was a culmination of a
group of individuals

that all shared the same passion
for this industry.

- You don't follow in the shadow
of a legend,

you create your own legend in
your own lifetime.

And we are as The Horsemen.

- The fans today,

the fans yesterday,

and the fans of tomorrow

watch films of The Horsemen and
they go,

"Oh my God, these guys
are fantastic."

- The Four Horsemen, one for
all,

and all for one.

We had a great gimmick.

There's nothing like The Four
Horsemen ever.

- Diamonds are forever and so
are The Four Horsemen.

- Woo.

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