Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson were two of the cornerstones of the infamous Four Horsemen faction that dominated the National Wrestling Alliance throughout the 1980’s. When Arn and Tully abruptly quit the NWA and joined the WWF in 1988, it was huge news at the time. This is the story of how it all happened and why a little over a year later…the tag team was no more.
Tully and Arn were an extremely successful tag team for the NWA, winning the world tag team titles on two different occasions. They were not only red hot as a team for the promotion…helping sell out arenas across Jim Crockett Jr dominated territories…they were also one of the finest technical teams going at that time. The team were making money hand over fists, but things between the two Horsemen and the NWA began to sour. Naturally, it was all over money.
At the Great American Bash on July 10th, 1988…Arn and Tully successfully defended their world tag team titles against Sting and Nikita Koloff in a 20-minute time limit draw. When the pay per view payouts came in…Arn and Tully discovered that their manager J.J. Dillon received three times as much money as they did. As a matter of fact, the Road Warriors also got a bigger payday than the tag team champions.
Feeling disrespected and slighted, Arn and Tully began having secret discussions with Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation. Nothing significant came out of those discussions. That is, until another incident occurred that led to their departure. Jim Crockett Jr was in the middle of the sale of his promotion to media mogul Ted Turner. Turner executives sat down and interviewed various personnel about how it to work for Crockett and Tully Blanchard was one of them.
Still feeling bitter about how he and Arn Anderson were “stiffed” out of money from the pay per view a couple of months prior…. Tully bad mouthed Crockett and his upper management. When the word got back to Jim Crockett Jr. he was livid…feeling Tully intentionally tried to sabotage the deal with Ted Turner. As retribution, Crockett no longer allowed Arn and Tully to fly on his personal jet to shows. Only the upper card talent was allowed to fly on the jet and now Arn and Tully were forced to drive to make appearances.
It was then that Tully went to the bookers and told them that they wanted to drop the tag team titles and were quitting. Soon after, Arn and Tully jumped ship to the WWF in October of 1988. They were paired with Bobby ‘The Brain’ Heenan as their manager, because Tully was familiar with Heenan from Heenan’s days working for his father’s promotion. Arn and Tully were rechristened ‘The Brain Busters’ but were able to keep their names Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard.
According to Tully, they enjoyed their time in the WWF as they were given a run with the WWF tag team titles and had the opportunity to wrestle at Madison Square Garden. They were also very well-liked by NBC executive Dick Ebersol who constantly featured them on Saturday Night’s Main Event shows. While having a successful run in the WWF, Arn and Tully’s hearts were still with the NWA (now known as WCW) They were able to give notice to Vince McMahon and negotiated deals to return to WCW and reunite the original Four Horsemen. They agreed to deals worth up to $750,000 each and were ready for their triumphant return to their home promotion.
It all came crashing down when Tully Blanchard celebrated a little too much with Cocaine and failed a random WWF sponsored drug test. Word had gotten back to WCW and the Tully’s deal was pulled off the table. Arn was still allowed back, but at a reduced offer. That cause legitimate heat between Arn and Tully that lasted for years. The tag team was no more and the plans to reunite the original Four Horsemen fell through.
Tully Blanchard joined the AWA instead, but that didn’t last too long either. In 1990, Blanchard was offered a new contract with WCW to reform the Horsemen..only the promotion low balled him and feeling insulted turned the contract down. He would make sporadic wrestling appearances after that for different promotions…but ultimately his active wrestling career faded away.