Four Horsemen (professional wrestling)

The Four Horsemen was a popular professional wrestling stable in the NWA and WCW. The stable has had numerous incarnations over the years. Ric Flair and Arn Anderson have been constant members in each incarnation of the group.

History

The Original Four Horsemen

The Four Horsemen formed in January 1986 with Ric Flair, Ole Anderson, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard and James J. Dillon. They feuded with Dusty Rhodes (breaking his leg) Rock 'N Roll Express (breaking Ricky Morton's nose) and the Road Warriors. They always had most of the titles in the NWA and they always bragged about it in their interviews. Arn has said in an RF Video shoot interview that him, 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. They always bragged about having all of the women too. Baby Doll was Flair's valet for a couple of months in 1986.

They were the first group to constantly gang attack the good guys, or baby-faces. They constantly "cheated" to win their matches, and this really helped the fans to hate them.

Horsemen add Luger

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.

Windham replaces Luger

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. In September 1988, Arn & Tully left for World Wrestling Entertainment. 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 WWE, and they dropped the Horsemen name.

Sting is a Horseman!

They all went their separate ways after this and finally reformed in December 1989 in the NWA. Flair, Arn & Ole Anderson, and Sting formed the group. They were good guys 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, Sting was kicked out as they returned to being heels. Woman soon became Flair's valet. They feuded with Luger, Sting, Rick Steiner, Scott Steiner and El Gigante during this time.

Heels Again!

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 which was 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 backfired as Sting ended up winning the match. The Black Scorpion, which was Ole's voice and a variety of wrestlers' bodies, was chasing Sting around this time too. Ric Flair ended up being unmasked as the Scorpion.

In May 1991, Sid left for World Wrestling Entertainment. The other Horsemen broke up and went their own ways.

Only 3 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. 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.

Loose Cannon Days

In 1995, Flair and Arn were teaming with Vader. He left them and they started bickering because Arn always did Flair's dirty work. They ended up feuding and had 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 group feuded with Macho Man Randy Savage, Sting, Lex Luger and Hulk Hogan. Flair eventually took Miss Elizabeth and Woman from Savage, and they were his valets for the next 6 months.

In early 1996, Pillman started his infamous "Loose Cannon" angle 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, who was really married to Sullivan, left him for Benoit. The ironic thing was that she really left him for Benoit in real life! This feud got heated and it is a common belief that some of the matches were shoot fights rather than the pre-planned matches.

Horsemen with an NFL star

In June 1996, former football player Steve "Mongo" McMichael turned on Kevin Greene in a "gimmick match" and joined them. That gave them 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 television too, as they constantly bickered and Benoit and Mongo would have to step in.

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

Flair let Jeff Jarrett in 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. He eventually took Debra from Mongo but Mongo took Jarrett's WCW United States Heavyweight 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.

Horsemen's Last Stand

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 WCW US Title that Flair had given to him. Flair was the President of WCW on air 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.

Rumors of a WWE Four Horsemen Group

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.

Titles Held by the Four Horsemen

These are titles held while they were Horsemen

Ric Flair-NWA World Title, WCW World Title

Arn Anderson-NWA World TV Title, NWA World Tag Team Title,

Ole Anderson-NWA National Tag Team Title

Tully Blanchard-NWA US Title, NWA Tag Team Titles, NWA National Title

Lex Luger-NWA US Title

Barry Windham-NWA US Title

Paul Roma-WCW Tag Team Title

Chris Benoit-WCW Tag Team Title

Dean Malenko-WCW Tag Team Title

Steve McMichael-WCW US Title

External Links

The Illustrated History of the Four Horsemen: http://www.angelfire.com/music2/jumpcity/horse/horse1.html