Andrew Lutzke
Presented by Sean Oliver and the Kayfabe Commentaries Crew
The Group: What do we the fans – the marks- picture when we think of the aftermath of a Horseman soirée in the pent house of a five star hotel back in the day? A double D bra hanging on a lamp shade, random piles of cocaine still sitting out on the glass –untouched, the dried lipstick from a ring rat forming a crinkled ring on Ric Flair’s penis, champagne and booze bottles – empty and tipped over on their sides, condom wrappers strewn on the floor next to the master bedroom….Thanks to J.J. Dillon we’ll soon find out if the life of the Horseman was as I – and maybe others – pictured it.
The Four Horseman were famously formed by accident – Arn Anderson, Ole Anderson, their “cousin” Ric Flair and Tully Blanchard were all NWA title holders and due to time constraints, all four men were put together for a quick TV interview . Arn Anderson looked at all the titles and mentioned that “The only time this much havoc had been wreaked by this few a number of people, you need to go all the way back to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse!” The fans picked up on it and a new stable was born. Tully’s manager J.J. Dillon took on all the men as his charges.
The group was hardly a natural foursome as Flair and Ole had battled often in tag team bouts in the Mid-Atlantic region several years before, and more recently Tully Blanchard had pursued Flair’s NWA World championship – with Flair being aided by Dusty Rhodes – his friend/rival.
Big Dust wouldn’t catch on to Flair’s real motives until Dusty tried to once again save Flair – this time from an assault from the Russian’s in a cage match. The resulting beat down of Rhodes would see his leg “broken” and set up a Dusty Rhodes versus Ric Flair match at Starrcade ’85.
Dusty and Flair would feud for years and years – trading the NWA World title and also being the marquee matchup that JCP would use when they would enter into a new marketplace. The Horseman would also battle Dusty’s friends like Magnum T.A., Wahoo McDaniels, The Rock and Roll Express, Ron Garvin and The Road Warriors through the 1985 and 1986 time frame.
The structure of the babyface resistance to the Four Horseman changed dramatically in the Fall of 1986 as Magnum T.A. suffered a car crash that left him partially paralyzed and the hated Communist Nikita Koloff was so touched by his enemies condition, that he offered regret for his past actions and joined Dusty Rhodes on the side of good. Nikita would be rewarded with a NWA title shot at Starrcade ’86 against Ric Flair. Meanwhile Dusty continued his wars with Tully Blanchard – injuring Tully’s leg in response to his own leg injury. The Horseman would not accept such rebuttal and took out Dusty Rhodes yet again – leading to Tully facing Dusty at Starrcade ’86
The Andersons meanwhile failed to defend the NWA tag belts at Starrcade – losing them to the Rock and Roll Express. Ole took the pin and it began a slow process of the older Ole being considered a weak link of sorts in the Horseman army.
In February of 1987, Lex Luger asked and was granted a position as an associate member of the Four Horseman. This was an interesting move on Luger’s part as he had already taken Flair to the limit several times in Flair’s title defenses in Florida and thus perhaps Luger felt by joining Flair and company he could gain a competitive advantage when his future inevitable title matches came about. Meanwhile the Horseman were able to claim one of wrestling’s hottest prospects as an ally – and Luger’s natural power and athleticism would be valuable in matching muscle with the Road Warriors and the high tempo offered by the Rock and Roll Express, among others.
With Luger on board, it only took a few weeks before the Horsemen found an excuse to kick Ole out of the group and make Luger a full-fledged member. Luger made good on his potential soon after as he captured the United States title from Nikita Koloff in July. That same month Luger and the Horsemen faced off with The Road Warriors, Dusty Rhodes and Nikita Koloff and other various partners in a series of “War Games” matches.
Ultimately the Luger/Horseman relationship would fall apart – starting in November when Luger refused to use a chair against Dusty Rhodes during a steel cage title defense at Starrcade ’87. Rhodes used the chair on Luger instead and won the gold. After this insubordination, Luger and the Horsemen were at odds and a full split occurred when Luger refused to intentionally lose a battle royal to J.J. Dillon a few weeks later – tossing his manager out and becoming a top babyface in JCP.
Luger would team with Barry Windham and upend World tag champions Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson for the belts. The Horsemen, now only 3 men strong were reeling badly – the tag belts were now gone and Flair was facing stiff new competition in the form of young powerhouse Sting and the pending challenges of Lex Luger and Barry Windham. A desperate Dillon went to his enemy Barry Windham and proposed that Windham join the Horsemen – and Barry would choose financial gain over his goal to beat Ric Flair for the World title, turning on Luger and handing the tag belts back to Tully and Arn.
Dusty Rhodes was out raged at his longtime friend Windham’s decision but before he could go after Windham, he was suspended for accidently hitting promoter Jim Crockett with a baseball bat during an angle where Dusty came to the crippled Magnum T.A.’s defense when Tully Blanchard was bullying him. Rhodes returned as the “Midnight Rider” and The Rider and Windham were slated to battle during the first round of the tournament to name a new U.S. champ now that Rhodes was stripped of the title. In a bizarre bait and switch move, Rhodes substituted himself with a jobber for the match and Windham got an easy win on his way to capturing the U.S. title. The Horsemen now had the World, U.S. and World tag belts under their banner but they had an angry group of babyfaces to fend off during the summer of 1988.
Things came to a head during the “Great American Bash” pay per view, where Luger would battle Flair, Dusty would clash with Windham and Arn and Tully would defend against Nikita Koloff and Sting. Ultimately however it would prove to be a good night for the Horsemen as Sting and Koloff could only manage a twenty minute draw with Anderson and Blanchard, Windham would defeat Rhodes – thanks to Rhodes’ friend Ronnie Garvin accepting a payoff from Dillon, and Luger would fail to defeat Flair in the main event – losing via a controversial blood stoppage while Flair was trapped in Luger’s “Human Torture Rack” back breaker.
The good times were just about over for the Horsemen though as Arn and Tully had a contract dispute with JCP that September – leading to them losing the belts to the Midnight Express and leaving for the WWF. Dillon would follow 4 months later. Meanwhile Flair and Windham took on some new associates who were “unofficial” Horsemen: Butch Reed, Kendall Windham and Michael Hayes. Reed was briefly managed by Dillon before J.J. left – Kendall turned heel on Eddie Gilbert and actually held up four fingers afterward, and Hayes briefly joined Flair after Barry was injured – but Hayes turned his focus to reforming the Fabulous Freebirds.
As mentioned – Barry was injured during a failed title defense against Lex Luger – Windham never returned in 1989 to the NWA after healing, instead jumping to the WWF. Flair, now without his back up, would trade the NWA World title with Ricky Steamboat. The arrival of Terry Funk and his subsequent attack on Flair led to Flair turning babyface and aligning with his enemy Sting to battle Funk, Dick Slater, and The Great Muta (The J-Tex Corporation). Buzz Sawyer and The Dragon Master would also join the fray and Flair called in back up in December of 1989, in the form of Arn and Ole Anderson.
Later that month, Sting beat Ric Flair in a non-title “Iron Man” tournament match, but despite this Flair invited Sting to join him and the Anderson’s in the Horsemen. The alliance was short lived though as Sting’s tournament win earned him the spot as number one contender to Flair’s belt and that would not sit well with the rest of the Horsemen.
Sting, Luger, the Steiner Brothers, Paul Orndorff and Junkyard Dog were all hounding the Horsemen, and so the Horsemen sought out reinforcement by adding the monstrous Sid Vicious and bringing back Barry Windham in spring of 1990. Sting would defeat Flair for the title during the summer. That Fall Flair and Arn would focus on challenging Ron Simmons and Butch Reed for the World tag belts and Sid would receive his chance at capturing Sting’s World title. Ultimately Flair would resort to donning a mask as “The Black Scorpion” to attempt to intimidate Sting – however it would not be until he was unmasked that he would once again recapture the gold.
The Horsemen once again came apart in the spring of 1991 as Flair and WCW came to a contractual dispute and Flair would quit WCW with the World title. With the leader gone, Windham turned face, Sid joined Flair in jumping to the WWF and Arn would take his “Enforcer” role into a new stable – the Dangerous Alliance.
The Horsemen would not be reunited until May of 1993 when Flair returned to WCW. As part of a “Legends Reunion” PPV event, Flair promised the original Horsemen would be brought back together – however Tully and WCW failed to reach a contract and WWF mid carder Paul Roma was brought in as the new Horseman instead – along with Ole, Flair and Arn. Ole was long past retired by this point and disappeared quickly, leaving Roma and Arn to pursue tag title glory and Flair to battle Barry Windham and Rick Rude over the NWA “World” title. A real life incident where Sid stabbed Arn Anderson ended this incarnation of the Horseman before that winter.
August of 1994 saw Ric Flair and Arn Anderson end their long friendship and begin a series of one on one matches. Brian Pillman would aid Anderson in these bouts and force Flair to beg Sting to once again trust him and be his partner. Sting was reluctant but ultimately agreed. Of course Flair would turn on Sting instead and join Pillman and Anderson as the newest Horsemen. Chris Benoit, perhaps WCW’s best pure technician at this point, was added to make them a foursome again. The Horsemen focused on attacking Hulk Hogan, Sting, Luger and Savage during this period – while the Dungeon of Doom (Kevin Sullivan, The Zodiac, Kamala, Avalanche, The Giant among others) had a loose alliance with the Horsemen – which was tested by Brian Pillman’s erratic behavior.
Sullivan eventually felt compelled to challenge Pillman to a “respect” match – Pillman would come down and refuse to participate – doing a famous quasi-shoot by telling Sullivan “I respect you Bookerman!”. Arn Anderson would come in and try take Pillman’s spot in the match until Flair came down and made the men agree to a truce so the ultimate focus on ending Hulkamania could be executed. As part of the aftermath of the angle, Pillman was given a valid release of his WCW contract and left the company and the Horsemen.
Flair and Arn focused on teaming with the D.O.D. against Hogan and friends, but by summer the alliance was broken – The Giant took the World title from Flair and Sullivan started an endless feud with Chris Benoit. After Kevin Nash and Scott Hall showed up in WCW and declared war on the company, Flair and Arn figured they better shore up the troops and so they bribed Nitro announcer Steve McMichaels into turning on his NFL pal Kevin Greene and anointed “Mongo” a Horseman.
The following month the n.W.o was officially formed when Hulk Hogan turned on his friends Randy Savage, Sting and Lex Luger and the Horsemen were no longer the top stable in WCW. Flair and Arn would join Sting and Lex Luger in a losing effort against the n.W.o. in a “War Games” match that Fall. After Luger lost the match for his team, the brief partnership between long term enemies was over.
In 1997, Jeff Jarrett attempted to join the Horsemen, but other than Flair, he didn’t have the support of the unit to join. Jarrett would eventually be officially told off by Flair and would go on to feud with Mongo. The Horsemen would continue to feud with the n.W.o. – with Flair and Roddy Piper bonding and later splitting over the matter.
That August, Arn Anderson retired due to a neck injury and named Curt Hennig as his replacement. A few weeks later Flair, Mongo, Benoit and Hennig would battle the n.W.o in another “War Games” match – this time Hennig turned on the group and injured Flair. This set up a series of Flair and Hennig matches, while Benoit and Mongo were regulated to mid card matches.
Early in 1998, Flair and WCW President Eric Bischoff had a dispute that saw Flair taken off TV. In the interim, Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko could be seen on WCW TV trying to convince Arn Anderson to reform the Horsemen. J.J. Dillon even showed up to try and convince Anderson to bring back the group. Finally that September Flair was brought back in and he reformed the Horsemen with Malenko, Benoit and Mongo.
In late ‘98 Flair won the Presidency of WCW from Eric Bischoff and soon after turned the Horsemen heel once again. The Horsemen had referee Charles Robinson on their side and Flair brought in his son David gave him the U.S. title. Ric then ordered Malenko and Benoit to protect David – Flair’s nepotistic ways drove Chris and Dean to quit the group and end the Horsemen once and for all.
Many years after the end of WCW and the disrespectful and overall bad booking that plagued the last years of the Horsemen, the story ends with a happy note as they are inducted into the WWF Hall of Fame:
The Shoot:
Dillon was an office worker, so his schedule was different than the men he managed.
The guys were expected to arrive 2 or 2 ½ hours early before the arena opened.
The guys often slept in their own beds as the Horsemen were chartered to arenas via plane.
Dillon would act as the office guy and have to talk to the promoters.
JCP didn’t have agents – refs often had to run between heel and face locker rooms to relay messages.
Dillon would spend free time prepping for future TV tapings.
Tully Blanchard and Ric Flair would often work out at arenas – running stairs etc.
Locker room politics weren’t a big issue in JCP.
Tully was out spoken and got heat with other guys.
Dillon would not come out if the Horsemen wrestled a lower tier guy in order to keep his appearances special.
Flair would primp up before and after his matches. Always stylin’.
Ole Anderson avoided the bars with the Horsemen. Luger would go out but not drink.
Flair loved getting young women hammered.
The Horsemen once had 6 or 7 bottles of fine wine at a bar. Tom Selleck came in looking for some and had to be told the bar was out.
Wife and kids of the wrestlers weren’t uncommon at TV tapings.
Ric Flair and Jim Crockett had a very good relationship.
Dusty and Flair had issues over Dusty putting himself over so much.
Crockett would bribe Dusty to help convince him to push the Horseman harder.
The stars would usually thank the jobbers at each TV taping.
The Horsemen wives were a little jealous of each other.
No one was ever caught by their wives with a rat.
Dillon talks about Flair’s nude plane ride hijinks.
Flair would often rent limos to live the gimmick.
J.J. made as much between 85-88 as he did the rest of his career.
The Horsemen Families would gather for BBQs, etc.
Dillon stayed with Tully during a period after a divorce.
J.J. logged over 1.25 million miles during his career he believes.
TBS Studios had the wrestlers change in the lobby.
Ted Turner would occasionally drop by.
Dillon has his date book and shows that he worked 9 straight weeks without a day off.
Final Thoughts: Much like music acts and other such things,W The way the shoot was structured, I thought we would get some more wild party stories from the prime days of the Horsemen, but since the guys are still alive J.J. is probably a little more clammed up than he could be. Mildly recommended but the potential wasn’t met for me.
