Check out the Blogs for more Details on Title History of The 4 Horsemen.
Lets get one thing out there. I am NOT ANY MEMBER of the Horsemen. I am just a huge fan and I wanted to pay tribute to the men that changed the face of wrestling.
In Jan. of 1986 The NWA World Champion, Ric Flair, Tully Blachard, and The Minnisota Wrecking Crew (3rd Teaming) Ole & Arn Anderson (The Original Wrecking Crew were Gene and Lars Anderson) Formed What became the First "gang" or "faction" of pro wrestling "The 4 Horsemen".
****The begining... The horsemen were formed by chance. The Andersons and Flair were associates since 1974 when Flair was brought in as their "cousin". Tully Blanchard got together with the Andersons Through "a chance booking" the company saw something and kept them together. As for JJ Dillon? Well JJ Was Tully's Manager at the time and fit the role perfect.
The name The 4 Horsemen Came from AA Arn Anderson. During a TV taping There was a small amount of time to promote the three matches They had in a coming event(Flair had a world title match, Tully either the TV or US not sure, and the Andersons had a tag match). Arn made the statement "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!" and it stuck. from that moment on the Horsemen were born.
In Feb of 1987 a new wrestler by the name of Lex Lugar came to the NWA. Lex Quickly became The newest member of the Horsemen, Taking Ole's spot. Ole Anderson was "kicked out" after costing he and Arn the Tag titles at Starrcade 1986 and wasn't around do to seeing his son wrestle. At an event Tully and JJ Questioned Ole's loyalty to the Horsemen. After Tully called Ole's son a "Snot nosed kid" Ole Punched Tully and from that point on the Horsemen and Ole would fued... at least for a short time.
During this time with Lugar as a horsemen they were feuding with a number a stars. Because of so many fueds the WAR GAMES were formed. Two rings a cage around the entire thing with a roof to the cage too. The first WAR GAMES would see the 4 Horsemen vs Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, & the Road Warriors with Paul Ellering. The Horsemen lost the match but history was made.
By the end of 1987 Lugar would leave the Horsemen due to JJ Dillon costing him the United States Title on Nov. 26 1987, and after He won the Bunkhouse Stampede (all the Horsemen agreed to let JJ win). In Jan. of 1988 Lex teamed up with Barry Windham to take on the Horsemen. The team even managed to beat Tully and AA to win the NWA World Tag Team Titles at the very first "Clash of the Champions".
In April that year, During a title defence Windham turned on Lex and took the spot as the fourth Horsemen. At this time the Horsemen had all the major titles in the NWA (Flair had the World title, AA & Tully the Tag titles and Windham the United States title) the first time in history a group would do this... The only other times were with the nWo in 2000 and Evolution in 2003(And Flair was in 2 of those 3 groups).
In Sept. 1988 AA and Tully left for the WWE(WWF) and formed the tag team the "Brain Busters" becoming part of the Heenan Family, on July 18th 1989 won the WWE Tag titles holding the belts for 76 days (team Rated-RKO held them for 77, Rotundo & Windham 69).
After the loss of The Horsemen's Tag Team Champions Flair, Windham and JJ kept the horsemen together and almost adding Butch Reed to the Horsemen. Instead in Feb 1989 Barry's brother Kendall joined after turning on Eddie Gilbert in a tag match. Shortly after that JJ left for the WWE also,for a front office job. JJ would be replaced with Hiro Matsuda but Hiro couldn't speak english so had little to add to interviews. At this time Windham would loose the U.S. title to lugar and Windham then also left for the WWE Becoming the Widow Maker... With Flair being the Only Horsemen left in the NWA/WCW most people agree this was the end of the Horsemen.
In Dec. of 1989 Flair along with Ole & AA reformed the Horsemen as a face (or good guy) group have a number of fueds with heel groups and even added STING. Sting being a Horsemen was only for a month and AA and Flair even said on the DVD it was only for a story line,"The Horsemen didn't need Sting and Sting didn't need the Horsemen" After these fueds were done the Horsemen would return to the heel role now fueding with Sting who would be the next Challenger for Flair's World title. and Flair had a new Valet... Woman
By May of 1990 Barry Windham would return to the Horsemen, Ole would now become manager (taking JJ's role) and enter Sid Vicious to the Horsemen. The Horsemen would fued with Sting, Lugar, the Steiner Brothers, Paul Orndorff and Junk Yard Dog. By the end of 1990, After Ted Turner bought NWA turning it into WCW, Ole would leave the NWA and Woman would Leave for a NEW company called ECW with her then Husband Kevin Sullivan.
In May of 1991 Sid left for the WWE becoming Sid Justice. Later in Aug. that year Flair would follow Sid Taking the WCW world title belt with him. Showing up on WWE TV with the belt. A short time later Flair would win the WWE title and Disguard the WCW title. After Flair left, Windham Turned to a face (good guy) and defeated Lex for the World title.
As for Arn? He start taging with former AWA World Champion Larry Zbyszko and then Joined Paul E. Dangerously's Dangerous Alliance. Again if looked like the Horsemen were dead.
March of 1993 Flair returned to WCW and promised a return of the Horsemen at Slamboree. The Horsemen would now be the Nature boy, Double A, Ole as manager(only showing this one time) and after Tully couldn't get a contract worked out the newest Horsemen would be Paul Roma. Again the Horsemen were faces and would fued with Barry Windham and the Hollywood Blonds In that same year, only 9 months later Roma would team with Paul Orndorff, turning on Arn.
for all of 1994 the Horsemen were nowhere to be seen and the following is why...
On Oct. 28, 1993 there was a fight at a hotel between Martin Lunde(Arn Anderson) and Sid Eudy(Sid Vicious) That ended with both men being rushed to the hospital. Arn received 20 stab wounds to the face, chest, arms, stomach, and back. both men survived.
1995 would see the first ever Horsemen vs Horsemen match between AA and Flair at that years Fall Brawl. At the time both were heels again and teaming with Vader to fued with former WWE world champions Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage. during the fued Vader would turn on AA and Ric which led to a handicap match at clash of the champions XXXI. Vader would win and would lead to the match on Sept. 19th.
AA would win with the help of Brian Pillman. After Flair would try and have Sting help him take on Pillman and AA. After weeks Sting finally agreed and the match was set for Halloween Havok. During the match (like no one saw it coming) Flair turned on Sting and with Pillman in the mix the Horsemen were back. a short time later AA would hand pick Chris Benoit as the 4th Horsemen.
This line up of the Horsemen would fued with Hogan, Savage, Sting, & Lugar and by the end of the year the Horsemen would take the valets Woman and Miss Elizabeth.
At the start of 1996 Brian Pillman stated feuding with Kevin Sullivan. I was short lived thought after he left WCW for the WWE in Feb. and would join a new group the Hart Foundation. Benoit took over the fued and it became one of the most famous in WCW history. Sullivan's Valet and real life wife woman (nancy) left Sullivan for Benoit only to have it happen for real also. The fued got heated leading to very physical and full contact matches.
In June that same year, at the Great American Bash, a match that had the Horesmen face then Monday Nitro commentator, Steve McMichael and NFL great Kevin Greene. During the match Mongo's wife Debra would be chased to the back by Horsemen valets Woman and Elizabeth. A short time later they would return with Debra holding a briefcase. The briefcase would later be known to have money and a Horsemen T shirt in it. Mongo would then hit Greene with the case and become the newest Horsemen.
After the introduction of the nWo, the Horsemen would somehow right away become Faces, allowing Flair and AA to team with former Horsemen Sting and Lugar to take on The nWo (Hogan, Nash, Hall and a fake Sting) at that years War Games. After the match AA would fued with Lex due to he being the one that lost the match.
In Oct. of 96' two things happened to the Horsemen. Jeff Jarrett had come to WCW from WWE and right away showed a desire to be a Horsemen. A week later Miss Elizabeth Left to join the nWo.
By Feb. on 97' Flair finally let Jarrett into the Horsemen (after beating Benoit and Mongo in matches) a few months later JJ finally got his first Horsemen gold after beating Dean Malenko for the U.S. title. Then in June Flair would kick out JJ just as easily as he was let in. Double J was lucky enough to walk away without the typical Horseman ass kicking, but he would take Debra with him a short time later, As pay back Mongo got his first horsemen gold by taking the U.S. title from JJ.
To this day many fans and even some Horsemen don't consider JJ ever a Horsemen. Even in Arn's book he stated: Jeff Jarrett was never a Horseman." His "membership" and his easy departure leaves the situation ambiguous. The Four Horsemen usually pick their own members, but at the time, WCW held extreme control over storylines and this may have forced them to accept a member for those purposes only and not by choice." *(As far as I'm concerned. Once a Horsemen Always a Horsemen... Sorry Double A)
In Aug. of 97' The Enforcer, Double A Arn Anderson retired from ring action due to a very serious neck injury. He would pick as his replacement as the "Enforcer" of the Horsemen the Legend Curt Hennig. This would be short lived as Hennig turned on the Horsemen at that years War Games in Sept. and Hennig joined the nWo. After the War Games the Horsemen were disbanded by flair...
In Sept. of 1998 we would see the last formation of the Horsemen which took place on an episode of Monday Nitro.
Arn Anderson would be the man to start the night, with Benoit, Mongo, newest member Dean Malenko and would bring back to WCW Ric Flair. JJ Dillon was even in the ring.
This line up would fued with the nWo & Eric Bischoff who Ric was having real off screen problems with.
In 1999 the Horsemen would turn Heel, and Mongo had left wrestling which left the Horsemen a man short. Though they did have their own personal Referee, Charles Robinson.
After Ric became the on screen WCW President the story lines for the Horsemen were next to nothing. Flair would strip Scott Steiner of the United States title and give it to his son David. The Horsemen would help him keep the title till he lost it on Aug. 9th to Chris Benoit. Benoit and Malenko had left the horsemen in May due to Ric being what they thought to be selfish and was ignoring them even though in March they were the Tag Team champions after Beating Former Horsemen Barry Windham and Curt Hennig.
Most people considered the Horsemen dead after Flair walked out of a tag match with the other horsemen that year.
The Horsemen were the First group in Wrestling. Without them there wouldn't have been an nWo, a DX, a Dungon of Doom, and God knows where wrestling would be today if not for these men...
*** Currently the Horsemen are still in Wrestling, at least at some level:
*The Nature Boy Ric Flair is a super star for World Wrestling Entertainment on the Friday night CW show SMACKDOWN. In Sept. of 2007 Ric opened "Ric Flair Finance"
*The Enforcer Arn Anderson is also with World Wrestling Entertainment as Senior Producer for RAW, and working behind the sceens and helping WWE Diva Candice Michelle improve her skills.
*The Rock Ole Anderson is Retired and released a book entitled: "Inside out" in 2003. In July of 2007 it was reported that Ole suffers from multiple sclerosis.
*Tully Blachard left World Wrestling Entertainment in Oct. of 2006 and is now dedicated to his Prison Ministry.
*JJ Dillon is now working with Ring of Honor alongside Jim Cornette.
*The Total Package Lex Lugar is living with Steve Baskin, the pastor for Western Hills Baptist Church in Kennesaw, Georgia. He is said to be "figuring out a path in life." and was last seen on the NBC Today show shortly after the Death of Chris Benoit. On Oct. 19,2007 Lex suffered a "nerve impingement" in his neck that led to temporary paralysis. He is currently is still Paralyzed and in a Atlanta Hospital.
*Barry Windham works for World Wrestling Entertainment as a producer. he is now "Semi-Retired."
*Sting is working with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. No one Knows for how long though.
*Sid is planing on a WWE return. A time is not yet set.
*Kendall Windham Retired in 2002 after working for the WXO, WWC and All Japan Pro Wrestling.
*Paul Roma is working for Tech Depot, a division on Office Depot...(ya it looks like Flair wants to be you buddy)
*Brian Pillman Died Oct. 5th 1997 of an undetected heart condition: Agearteriosclerotic Heart Disease.
*Chris Benoit Was found dead at his Fayetteville, Georgia home, he had committed suicide.
*Steve McMichael is head coach of The Chicago Slaughter a football team in the Continental Indoor Football League. and his wife is expecting a child in Jan. of 08
*Jeff Jarrett in May 2002 Jeff and his father Jerry Started TNA, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. He is currently one of the Super Stars for TNA
*Curt Hennig Feb. 10 2003 Curt was found dead in a hotle room of acute cocaine intoxication. March 31, 2007 he was inducted into the WWE HALL OF FAME.
*Dean Malenko announced his retirement from the ring at the 2001 Brian Pillman Memorial show.
I will NEVER consider David Flair a Horsemen unless Ric or AA themselves contact me to do so...sorry Dave.
******* On March 31, 2007 While being inducted into the WWE HALL OF FAME Dusty Rhodes asked Ric Flair and Arn Anderson to hold up the "sign" and induct he and Harley Race into the Four Horsemen. It is not certain if Ric or Arn took it seriously but I for one think they should be inducted... they earned it.
