Andrew Lutzke
From Highspots.com
Taped in February of 2007
Baby Doll and Tully are sitting on a couch, almost snuggling, with Blanchard’s hand on her leg.
Blanchard recalls the 1984 “Perfect 10” contest that was to have fans send in their pictures, trying to prove themselves to be the perfect woman and earn the right to be by Tully’s side as his valet.
The planned angle was for WCCW valet Sunshine to come in as the new valet, but she was in rehab and Jim Crockett Jr. and Dusty Rhodes couldn’t find her.
JCP ran some joint shows with Florida Championship Wrestling, where Nicola Roberts was working – Dusty and Tully both knew they had found their girl.
Baby Doll mentions that she first met Blanchard before he was a star, while he was a ref in the Texas territories while going to college. Roberts was only a young teen then.
Baby Doll’s parents were both wrestlers and she was raised partially raised in a locker room. When she was old enough she sold tickets and merchandise and other odd jobs at the house shows.
Blanchard was setting up rings for his dad by the time he was ten. He also handed out fliers, swept the arena and other things that needed done.
Tully explains how having to do all the manual labor made him appreciate the inner workings of the business.
The wrestlers were worked to the bone when the business was booming in 1985. Baby Doll says she and Tully had a total of 15 days off that year.
A fan chopped Baby Doll one night so she kicked his butt, then had him arrested.
The security was always a problem because the cops didn’t like the heels and wouldn’t defend them.
Doll and Blanchard traveled together, Doll would have to miss the bar action a lot of the times because she had to go clean herself up after having spit, soda, beer and whatever else tossed on her.
Baby Doll would wear leotards to help prevent fans from being able to grab at her.
Blanchard explains how they kept Baby Doll away from being struck by wrestlers for a long time to build heat and anticipation for the moment it would occur.
27,000 people came out to see Dusty Rhodes win Baby Doll’s services away from Blanchard.
Magnum TA and Rhodes rode in a two seat car, so Baby Doll ended up riding with Sam Houston and they ended up dating, creating massive heat backstage. She and Houston ultimately got married.
Blanchard describes his wrestling robes and how some have been stolen.
Tully explains how JCP had him sign paperwork that removed his royalty rights or else his paychecks wouldn’t be able to be cashed.
Rhodes was infatuated with Baby Doll and she can understand why since she was a cook, travel planner, organizer and so on.
The relationship with Sam Houston ended Doll’s big push as she was seen by fans being with a jabroni after having spent the past year plus being around the main-eventers.
A newspaper took a photo of Houston and Doll together and Doll named him as her “constant companion”. Rhodes took this badly.
JJ Dillon was working in the JCP office, so having Baby Doll around to manage Blanchard gave Dillon the chance to work in the back instead of having to head to the ring so often.
Baby Doll didn’t like being a babyface. You had to be cheerful and nice all the times.
Rhodes chewing tobacco grossed Doll out. She implies Rhodes sexually harassed her.
When Doll cheated Rhodes out of the World title, her career peaked. The heat was unreal.
Blanchard feels Arn Anderson, Barry Windham, Ric Flair and himself comprised the best version of the Horsemen.
Blanchard strived for real heat with the fans and wanted more than to just use cheap tactics to get easy cries of dismay from the fans.
Arn Anderson and Ric Flair were naturally nice guys, Blanchard’s arrogance was obvious and kept the fans against them.
Baby Doll explains how the Horsemen went through upwards of 5 women each a day. Blanchard playfully denies this for the sake of their marriages.
Ric Flair was “Ric Flair” 24/7. Baby Doll hated how high maintenance he was.
The weekly travel schedule was crazy. They’d work upward of 10 plus matches a week.
Baby Doll shows off what great shape she is in at the age of 45.
Doll says she’s on the “Bruiser Brody diet” which is tuna fish and green beans.
Baby Doll had to buy a $1400 set of luggage to look the part of a Horsemen woman.
Blanchard laments that Baby Doll never went after him sexually in real life. Blanchard explains they intentionally avoided dated to prevent it from hurting business. They even remained Platonic while living together.
Baby Doll talks about how much she misses Big Bubba Rogers.
Jim Cornette revealed that an angle was proposed where Bubba would sexually assault Baby Doll in a parking lot – Doll and Tully were never told this.
Cornette’s promos where he ripped on Baby Doll’s size actually hurt her feelings.
Corny accidentally elbowed Doll in the face and chipped three of her teeth.
Sam Houston was sent to work in the Kansas City territory, so Baby Doll asked to be moved there too. The crowds were non-existent and the newly married couple starved for six months.
Vince McMahon didn’t want to use Baby Doll because of her size.
Blanchard has a delusional moment where he claims that JCP was a bigger product than Vince’s in 1988.
Tully can’t believe that he went from a main-eventer in the NWA to jobbing to the Bushwackers in a matter of months.
At the Bunkhouse Stampede ’88, Lex Luger had just turned on the Horsemen and was the hottest act in the territory.
Despite that, Dusty Rhodes put himself over in the PPV main event cage match that night. Blanchard went to the Crockett’s after that and explained to them that the company is sinking and Rhodes’ booking is a big part of the problem.
Baby Doll explains how the lack of telling a story within the confines of a match is hurting the WWE and no one can work a match like the JCP heyday.
Oddly, Baby Doll thinks Jeff Hardy would have excellent old school thirty-minute matches.
Blanchard explains his view on how TV is so full of hullabaloo that house shows now come across as a secondary thing. Whereas in the old days TV built to the house shows and the arenas are where the fans got the A+ product.
Playboy called JCP twice about having Baby Doll model for the magazine.
Baby Doll doesn’t like how women are exploited by wrestling today, Blanchard gave up watching the product in 1995.
Blanchard doesn’t consider Ric Flair to be the leader of the Four Horsemen since everyone could talk. Flair being the champ gave the group prominence.
At Slamboree ’93, WCW promoted Blanchard returning to reform the original Four Horsemen, Blanchard was offered $500 to show up and he never agreed to the deal. They promoted him as being there the whole time anyway. Infamously, Paul Roma stepped into his role.
Blanchard was offered a role as a WWE agent, but he didn’t have the passion for it.
When asked if anyone else would have fit as a Horsemen during their peak years, Blanchard can’t name anyone.
Baby Doll considers the legend reunion shows are like a paid vacation.
Final thoughts: The chemistry between these two remains obvious, that along with above average production values and the little banter that the hosts and principals shared during the interview all made for a pleasurable viewing experience!
