Four Horsemen

Blitzkrieg

The Four Horsemen were a popular professional wrestling stable in the National Wrestling Alliance and later World Championship Wrestling. The original group featured Ric Flair, Arn and Ole Anderson, and Tully Blanchard. Ric Flair and Arn Anderson have been constant members in each incarnation of the group.

The Original Four Horsemen
The Four Horsemen formed in January 1986 with Flair, the Minnesota Wrecking Crew consisting of Arn and Ole Anderson, and Blanchard, with James J. Dillon as their manager. They feuded with Dusty Rhodes (breaking his leg), The Rock 'N Roll Express (breaking Ricky Morton's nose), Nikita Koloff, and The Road Warriors. They always had most of the titles in the NWA, and they often bragged about their success (in the ring and with women) in their interviews.

The Four Horsemen moniker was not planned from the start. Due to time-constraints at a TV taping, production threw together an impromptu tag team interview of Flair, the Andersons, Blanchard and Dillon. It was during this interview that Arn said something to the effect of "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!" Nevertheless, Arn has said in an RF Video shoot interview that he, Flair and Blanchard were as close as anybody could be away from the ring while they were together. They lived the gimmick outside of the arena, as they took limos and jets to the cities they wrestled in. Baby Doll was Flair's valet for a couple of months in 1986.





Luger and Windham
In February 1987, Lex Luger was made an associate member of the group. The others started to leave Ole out of things and eventually he was kicked out in favor of Luger. The fact that Ole missed a show to watch his son Brian wrestle was used in the split as Blanchard and Dillon questioned Ole's loyalty and Tully called Brian a "snot-nosed kid."

During this time, they wrestled Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, the Road Warriors and Paul Ellering in a series of War Games matches. These matches were brutal and ended up with all 5 members of each team in the cage at the end trying to make somebody submit.

Luger was kicked out for being selfish in January 1988. He teamed with Barry Windham to feud with the Horsemen. In April 1988, Windham turned on Luger and took his spot in the Horsemen. This group of Horsemen has been called the greatest as far as technical wrestlers goes. It was also in this year when the Horsemen held all of the major NWA titles at once, with Flair as the World Champion, Windham as the United States Champion, and Arn and Tully as the Tag Team Champions. This feat would not be duplicated until the 2000 reformation of the nWo with Bret Hart as World Champion, Jeff Jarrett as United States Champion, and the Outsiders Kevin Nash and Scott Hall as Tag Team Champions, as well as Evolution's dominance at Armageddon 2003.

In September 1988, Arn Anderson and Blanchard left to join the World Wrestling Federation. Nobody ever filled their slots. In February 1989, Barry's brother Kendall Windham appeared to have joined them and even held up the 4 fingers after turning on Eddie Gilbert. Then, Dillon left for the WWF, and they dropped the Horsemen name, going their separate ways.


Sting and Sid Vicious
The Horsemen reformed in December 1989 in the NWA. Flair, Arn & Ole Anderson, and long standing rival Sting formed the group in a shocker. They were faces and feuded with Gary Hart's J-Tex Corporation of Terry Funk, Great Muta, Buzz Sawyer and Kendo Nagasaki (called the Dragonmaster). At the culmination of this feud the group returned to being heels, kicking Sting out for daring to challenge Ric Flair for the World Title. Woman soon became Flair's valet. They feuded with Luger, Sting, Rick Steiner, Scott Steiner and El Gigante during this time.

In May 1990, Ole became the manager and they added Barry Windham and Sid Vicious to fill out the group. They feuded with the Dudes With Attitudes which consisted of Sting, Luger, the Steiner Brothers, Paul Orndorff and Junkyard Dog. By the end of 1990, Ole and Woman left the NWA. Ted Turner had bought Jim Crockett Promotions, the largest faction of the NWA, and turned it into World Championship Wrestling.

In October 1990, another Horsemen legend occurred. Barry Windham dressed up as Sting and attempted to get pinned by Sid Vicious for the WCW World Heavyweight Title. It completely backfired as Sting ended up winning the match.

In May 1991, Sid left for the WWF. The other Horsemen broke up and went their own ways.



Three horsemen
The next incarnation was from March 1993 to December 1993. Flair returned from the WWF to WCW to rejoin Arn and they promised a Horsemen reunion at the Slamboree PPV. WWF jobber Paul Roma had to replace Blanchard who could not work out a contract to show up. Ole was on hand as the advisor but did not show up onscreen again. This group of Horsemen is considered the weakest group. They were good guys again and feuded with Barry Windham, Steve Austin and Brian Pillman. This group ended with Roma turning on Arn to join Paul Orndorff as the tag team of Pretty Wonderful.


The 1995-1997 incarnation
In 1995, Flair and Arn (back to being heels) were teaming with Vader to torment Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage. After Vader lost to Hogan in a steel cage match at Bash at the Beach, Flair entered the cage and lambasted him. Vader snapped and attacked Flair, and Arn came to his rescue. This led to a handicap match at Clash of the Champions XXXI, in which Vader defeated the team of Flair and Arn. Flair and Arn began to bicker, as Arn always felt he was doing Flair's dirty work; a feud developed that led to a match at the Fall Brawl PPV on September 19, 1995 in Asheville, North Carolina. Arn defeated Flair with the help of Brian Pillman. Flair begged Sting to help him against them but he did not trust Flair. After weeks, Sting agreed and Flair ended up turning on him at the Halloween Havoc PPV to reform the Horsemen with Arn and Pillman. They quickly added Chris Benoit to fill out the group. This version of the Horsemen feuded with Hogan, Savage, Sting, and Lex Luger. Flair eventually took Miss Elizabeth and Woman from Hogan and Savage, and they were his valets for the next 6 months.

In early 1996, Pillman started his infamous "Loose Cannon" storyline and started a feud with Kevin Sullivan. He ended up leaving WCW for the WWF in February and Benoit took over to create one of the most talked about feuds of all time. In this feud, Woman (Nancy Daus), who was really married to Sullivan, left him for Benoit. However, life imitated art, as Daus did in fact leave Sullivan for Benoit. This feud got heated and it is a common belief that some of the matches were shoot fights rather than the pre-planned matches.

In June 1996, former football player Steve "Mongo" McMichael turned on Kevin Greene in a "gimmick match" and joined them. Debra was chased to the back by Woman and Elizabeth. She came back with them and a briefcase. Mongo opened it to reveal a shirt and money. He took the case and hit Greene. That gave the group another ringside valet, as Mongo's then-wife Debra came with him. The online rumors pages said that Debra and Woman did not get along behind the scenes. This quickly played out on TV too, as they constantly bickered and Benoit and Mongo would have to step in.

When the nWo invaded WCW in 1996, the Horsemen became babyfaces again to feud with them. Miss Elizabeth left the Horsemen for the nWo.

Flair let Jeff Jarrett join in February 1997 but the others did not want him. He bickered with Mongo over Debra's attention and in July he was kicked out by Flair. Uncharacteristically of the Horsemen, Jarrett was allowed to literally walk away, instead of receiving a classic Horsemen beatdown, as was expected. He eventually took Debra from Mongo but Mongo took Jarrett's United States Title.

In August 1997, Arn Anderson retired due to a neck/back injury that would not allow him to wrestle. Curt Hennig took his spot as "The Enforcer." In September, Hennig turned on the Horsemen and joined the nWo. Flair disbanded the group and they went their separate ways.


The final incarnation
The last incarnation came in September 1998. Dean Malenko and Chris Benoit kept going to Arn about reforming the Horsemen. He kept saying no. James J. Dillon, back in WCW's front office, even made a request. Arn eventually gave in and they reformed the Horsemen with Mongo and Flair and Arn was the manager. They feuded with the nWo and Eric Bischoff, who Flair had some real backstage problems with.

In early 1999, the Horsemen turned heel again. Mongo had recently departed the wrestling world and they were down to Benoit, Malenko, Flair and Arn as the manager. They also had a biased referee for them, Charles Robinson. David Flair started hanging around with Torrie Wilson and Flair had the Horsemen help David keep the US Title that Flair had given to him. Flair was the (onscreen) President of WCW at this time, and had stripped Scott Steiner of the title. Flair started being selfish and ignoring Benoit and Malenko in favor of other wrestlers so they left him in May, which effectively ended the Four Horsemen.

The Four Horsemen were supposed to reappear in the WWE when Stone Cold Steve Austin was feuding with Ric Flair and Eddie Guerrero. This time it was going to consist of Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit. However Stone Cold walked out on the WWE so it was not meant to be.

Legacy

Xtreme Horsemen
Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling had a stable called the Xtreme Horsemen with Steve Corino, "The Enforcer" C.W. Anderson (a wrestler with a look and gimmick of Arn Anderson, but of no relation) and Barry Windham as its founding members. The Xtreme Horsemen stable later appeared in Major League Wrestling, and across Japan, during this time Corino and C.W. Anderson were joined by Justin Credible and Simon Diamond. This version was also briefly managed by James J. Dillon before MLW folded.


Apocalypse
A Live Action Wrestling stable created by then LAW Heavyweight Champion C.W. Anderson, along with David Flair (Ric's son), and Max.


Evolution
In 2003, rumors began circulating that Ric Flair (now working for World Wrestling Entertainment) was going to reform the Four Horsemen with Triple H, Randy Orton, and Batista. This group was eventually formed, but under the name Evolution instead of the Four Horsemen. They served much the same function as the original heel Horsemen had, dominating the titles on RAW and feuding with that brand's top faces. The group slowly died between August 2004 and October 2005. Orton was kicked out of the group after he won the World Heavyweight Championship. In February 2005, Batista left the group after winning the Royal Rumble, in a storyline where Triple H tried to protect his title from Batista. During a Triple H hiatus, Flair turned face, and at WWE Homecoming, Triple H returned as face, but turned heel by the end of the night, officially ending Evolution.


Titles Held by the Four Horsemen
These are titles held while they were Horsemen

WCW World Heavyweight Championship: Ric Flair
NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Ric Flair
NWA United States Heavyweight Championship: Tully Blanchard, Lex Luger, Barry Windham
WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Steve McMichael
NWA World Television Championship: Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard
WCW World Television Championship: Arn Anderson
NWA National Heavyweight Championship: Tully Blanchard

NWA World Tag Team Championship: Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson & Paul Roma

WCW World Tag Team Championship: Arn Anderson & Paul Roma, Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko

NWA National Tag Team Championship: Ole & Arn Anderson

Awards

They were very involved in the 1987 Pro Wrestling Illustrated Feud of the Year (Four Horsemen vs. Road Warriors & Super Powers).


Books
Arn Anderson 4 Ever: A Look Behind the Curtain (1998)