Shining a Spotlight 4.26.07: The Four Horsemen (Part 2)
Posted by Michael Weyer on 04.26.2007
Concluding my look at the greatest heel stable of all time with their attempts to reform in the dark days of WCW.
To continue my special history of the Four Horsemen, 1989 seemed to have the group dead and buried with Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard in the WWF, Barry Windham soon following and Ric Flair the monster babyface champion feuding with Terry Funk in the NWA. However, events in WWF were about to change all that.
I find it interesting that on the Horsemen DVD, James J Dillion says what I've always believed, that Vince McMahon will always put emphasis on stuff he himself helped create. While the Brainbusters had achieved a good run as tag team champions, they realized that the focus was on the likes of Demolition, the Hart Foundation and the Rockers, among others. Seeing their chances for rising limited, the two decided to go back to the NWA.
The plan was for them to rejoin together but Blanchard's hard living lifestyle caught up to him. After a wild night of partying that included him doing cocaine, Tully showed up to work the next day only to find a surprise drug test was coming. He failed, of course but wasn't really punished as he was leaving anyway. However, when the Turner execs heard of the drug use, they refused to resign him so Arn had to come back alone.
He did make a splash as he and Ole made a surprise appearance to save Flair from an attack by Gary Hart's evil J-Tex Corporation, the fans going wild and flashing the four-finger signals. At Starrcade, Sting won a somewhat complicated tournament to earn a World title shot and afterward, was inducted into the group.
The induction of Sting was surprising. Yes, he was the biggest face and star the company had but allying with the Horsemen was something else. As it turned out, it was all part of the plan. At the February, 1990 Clash of the Champions card, the Horsemen told Sting point-blank to either drop the title shot or pay the price. He refused and was beaten down and Flair and the Andersons were instantly heels again. This was part of Flair's grand plan to have Sting beat him for the belt at WrestleWar, then helping Sting become a huge champion with his booking.
But one errant move ruined not only that plan, but, in my own humble opinion, indirectly sent WCW into the tailspin it never quite recovered from. As the Horsemen and the Corporation fought in a cage match in the main event, Sting came out to attack, scaling the cage but as he did, legitimately tore his knee out, putting him on the shelf for months. While this certainly helped sell the Horsemen as bad-asses, it also meant the Sting-Flair match was off for the foreseeable future.
Desperate, the promoters turned Lex Luger face and wanted him to beat Flair for the belt at WrestleWar. But despite two years of experience, Flair still felt Luger wasn't ready for the big belt and refused. Instead, they had Sting come out on crutches to urge Luger on, Luger counted out saving Sting from an attack by the Andersons. He and Flair would feud for a while, culminating in a match at Capital Combat where the Horsemen locked Sting in a cage and a guy dressed as RoboCop came out to save him. Yes, you read that right.
All of this naturally led to a downturn in attendance as fans were waiting for Sting to come back. During all this, Flair and Herd had their big falling-out for reasons never explained and Herd decided to give Ole the book. It's about here that you should imagine the foreboding music in the background…
Going along with Herd's request to cut costs, Ole decided to let go some of the young hot talent around the company and instead fill it with cheaper, older workers like Paul Orndorff and Junkyard Dog. The latter two actually teamed up with the Steiners and the returning Sting to form "The Dudes with Attitudes" who would feud with the Horsemen before being dissolved. One major example of the "old guys" push was when they managed to make the Nasty Boys stars with a terrific feud with the Steiners but failed to sign them up to long-term contracts so WWF snatched them up and gave them the tag titles within months.
Sting did return faster than expected and thus finally got to face Flair for the belt at the Great American Bash. Unfortunately, it was not the classic match fans expected as it was cut to only 16 minutes and featured some crazy overbooking: If Flair was disqualified, he'd lose the titles; the Horsemen were barred from ringside; the Dudes would be there to keep the Horsemen away; and Ole would be handcuffed to Rick Steiner. Despite all that, it was still a great moment when Sting pinned Flair to finally win the title.
Sadly, his reign was not the shining path fans had hoped for. Apparently, Ole still held a grudge against Flair for letting him go from the company years ago as he suddenly pushed Flair down the card rather than have him face Sting. Flair was soon forced to tag with Arn in the title scene there and even made to face the man many believe to be the worst wrestler in history, El Gigante.
With his new responsibilities, Ole turned more into a manager for the Horsemen, adding some faces. First was Windham, whose WWF tenure had been a failure, which was good. He then added Sid Vicious which was…not so good. Make no mistake, Sid had the look of a wrestler. More importantly, he had the look of a wrestler who'd not only kick your ass but enjoy it. But his backstage attitude was worse than Luger's and his in-ring experience wasn't much better. He viewed the Horsemen as a way to elevate his own career, which didn't make him friends.
With Flair out of the picture and a lack of other key candidates to face Sting, Ole cooked up what has to rank as one of the top five worst ideas in wrestling history: The Black Scorpion. Basically, it was a masked guy who'd make videos talking about a past with Sting and saying he wanted him dead. Sting would find himself confronted by a series of men dressed as the Scorpion but the real one would always be out of touch and laughing that he was coming. The angle started to get really bad when the Scorpion would do magic tricks like turning an audience plant into a tiger to mess with Sting. Say what you will about WWE but at least none of their heels start acting like Doug Henning.
Halloween Havoc had a decent main event as Sting was to defend against Sid who, despite his rough edges, was still over with the crowd. Realizing it wouldn't look good for either man to go over the other, Ole managed to screw both them and the paying audience. As the match went on, Sting chased Arn Anderson to the back as Sid was in the ring. Sting came back but with the exception of the announcers, pretty much everyone in the arena could see this Sting was now six inches taller and about 40 pounds heavier. "Sting" was quickly pinned by Sid but as balloons rained down from the ceiling, the real Sting came out with a rope around his hand, hit Sid with his Stinger Splash and pinned him. The fake Sting was Windham, the idea being that the Horsemen had attacked Sting and tied him up so Windham could replace him. One of my all-time favorite Apter mag articles was an Inside Wrestling story that actually tried to logically explain how the Horsemen would know not only what tights Sting would be wearing that night but what color and pattern his face makeup would be. As you no doubt can guess, this ending only made both men look weaker, especially Sid as he seemed to need the Horsemen to win the belt.
Everything was building up to Starrcade, with Sting ready to face the real Black Scorpion. And it was here the key problem of the whole scheme came to light. As incredible as it sounds, Ole Anderson had never given any thought as to who the Scorpion would eventually be. They had planned for it to be a guy named the Angel of Death, once partners with Sting when they were rookies but he refused. Seeing as how the company had spent the better part of a year promoting all this, they needed someone big under the mask to make it work in the slightest. So, Ole and Herd were forced to suck it up and ask Flair to be the Scorpion. Flair agreed, on the condition he be given back the World title in the near future.
So, at Starrcade, four UFOs dropped down four Scorpions, with the real one coming out of a mother ship. Yes, they couldn't pay to keep the Nasty Boys but they had enough to blow on this. Sting and Scorpion fought in a cage match where the Scorpion oh so subtly managed to do just about every single Flair mannerism. In the end, Sting won, the Horsemen and the fake Scorpions rushed the cage but Sting managed to unmask Flair as the real Scorpion and the whole angle was never mentioned again.
As 1991 began, Flair got his wish and won back the title from Sting. It was a surprise to the Apter mags, which had followed Herd's lead and begun to bury Flair as too old to be on top anymore. Ole was soon shown the door as the company formally became WCW on air. Wrestle War was marked by a War Games match, with Larry Zybsko filling in for the injured Arn, during which Sid damn near broke Brian Pillman's neck with a power bomb gone wrong. Things seemed to pick up for a new Horsemen domination.
But of course, Herd had to screw everything up yet again. Seeming to forget how Flair had bailed him out months earlier, Herd wanted to cut Flair's salary and control in the company, feeling he was still too old to carry things. He even went so far as to suggest that Flair cut his hair, wear an earring and change his name to Spartacus. The arguments went back and forth with Herd finally deciding to commit his final big blunder and fired Flair outright.
This, of course, was the worst move he could make. Apparently, Herd was unaware Flair basically owned the World title belt (well, technically, he didn't but that's a whole other can of worms), which Flair took with him to WWF, launching a very ugly legal mess. Back in WCW, Herd had vastly underestimated how liked and respected Flair was as the entire locker room rose up in rebellion and the fans chanted "WE WANT FLAIR!" at every show. This was showcased in the 1991 Bash, which many consider one of the worst PPVs of all time. It was a show so bad, in fact, that there's actually a school of thought that claim the entire locker room held a meeting and decided to go out of their way to make it bad as protest for Flair's firing.
Now, the DVD throws what's been long believed about the Bash in some doubt. It's long been held that Luger was going to face Flair for the belt, with Luger finally going over. With Flair gone, Barry Windham was pulled out of the midcard to face Luger in a cage match for the vacant title. On the DVD, Windham claims that Flair was making plans to put the belt on him instead. Either way, Luger won and turned heel but still wasn't accepted by the fans, proving Flair had been right all along resisting giving him the belt.
Let's skim over the next two years as Flair won a couple of titles in the WWF and Arn joined Paul E. Dangerously Dangerous Alliance, which, like the Horsemen of old, dominated WCW in 1992 with multiple titles. By the end of 1992, the group was (to borrow a phrase from "Coffee Talk's" Linda Richman) no longer Dangerous nor an Alliance. In the spring of 1993, Flair decided to leave WWF and go back to WCW. Due to a no-compete clause in his contract, they gave him an interview segment, "A Flair for the Gold" where he would lounge around a penthouse set with a French maid named Fifi.
The segment was home to hands down the lowest Horsemen moment ever. At Slamboree, Flair promised the Horsemen would be reunited with Ole brought back in. However, Tully Blanchard turned down the offer to rejoin, having retired to become a born-again minister and insulted at how low the money offer was. With Windham busy in the mid-card, WCW needed a new face. So the moment came, everyone was excited and set as Flair announced that the newest member of the most elite group in wrestling was…
Paul Roma.
Wait a minute. Paul Roma?
Roma had been the epitome of "midcard filler" in the WWF for years. In 1990, he did rise a bit as he and Hercules were paired as Power & Glory, who rose in the tag ranks. Indeed, the plan was for the Rockers to beat the Hart Foundation in late 1990 for the titles and by Wrestlemania, P&G would get them. But then WWF reversed themselves and let the Harts stay as champs. Roma figured they'd get the big shot next but, if you recall from above, the Nasty Boys were signed up in late 1990 and thus at Mania, they beat the Harts for the titles as Roma and Hercules took a dive in the ranks and were soon split up.
So Roma's career hadn't been anywhere near enough to rank as a Horseman and the fans turned on him right off the bat. Despite attempts by Flair and Anderson to give him the rub, Roma was booed everywhere and thus this grouping was doomed from the start. One of the biggest surprises of the DVD is that they actually talk to Roma who at first admits he didn't fit in but then blasts Flair and Arn for being two old and "riding a drug they didn't want to come off of." He then, with a completely straight face, says that Flair wished he could be Roma, with the good looks, physique and ring skills. Damn, ten years after being kicked out of the major promotions and the guy's still an arrogant prick.
One highlight of this run was when Brian Pillman and Steve Austin dropped by the set for an interview. The Hollywood Blondes were hugely over as the heel tag team champions and during their interview, ran down Flair on his age to make themselves bigger jerks. They soon began to mock Flair by doing "A Flare for the Old" bits, with Pillman wearing a white wig and a walker as Flair and Austin stuffing his shirt to be Anderson. So a feud was natural. Unfortunately, the circumstances surrounding it were not.
Among the biggest brain-farts WCW ever had (I know, that's saying a lot), was that in 1993, they decided to do some tapings at the Disney-MGM Studios that basically shot four months worth of weekly shows in one go. Fans were screened out and told specifically who to cheer and boo for as they gave away months of title changes in advance. There were literally bits where a guy would do a promo with a title belt, then walk off and hand it to someone else so they could cut a promo set weeks later when they won the title.
As you can tell, this was a huge mess, the biggest break in kayfabe the business had ever seen. Worse, the real fans who managed to sneak in got on the Internet and gave away all these months of title changes. Among them was the revelation that by Fall Brawl, Anderson and Roma would have the tag team titles, a move that didn't please fans as they loved seeing the Blondes as champs and hated Roma.
The two teams met at Beach Blast and everyone thought this would be the title change. Instead, WCW tried their first Internet swerve by having the Blondes retain the belts. Before they could congratulate themselves on their cleverness, Pillman suffered a leg injury that forced him out for a while. So at the August Clash of the Champions, William Regal, who had never been involved with the Blondes, was forced to be Austin's partner as they lost the belts to Anderson and Roma so they wouldn't mess up the taped footage of the two as champions. The Blondes were soon split and Austin's legendary bitterness against WCW began.
One of the other things the MGM tapings had given away was that Sid was going to beat Vader for the World title at Starrcade. But during a tour of London in October, Sid and Arn got into a fight with Sid stabbing Arn several times in the arm with scissors. With the publicity this got in the papers, Sid was fired, which left no main event for the biggest show of the year. Like Jim Herd before him, Eric Bischoff was forced to swallow his pride and beg Flair to save the day again. In a powerful, emotional battle where he vowed to retire forever if he lost, Flair beat Vader for the belt.
As 1994 began, the Horsemen were pretty much disbanded as Flair was tearing down the house with more classic battles with Ricky Steamboat and planned to start a program with Austin. But then Hulk Hogan was brought in and WCW immediately went into a tailspin that ended up turning it into the very circus they'd long been the antidote to. The Horsemen, like so much of classic WCW, was pushed aside in favor of the Hogan show with Flair briefly retiring as part of Hogan's dominance.
By mid-1995, Flair was back as he and Arn faced Vader in a handicap match at Clash of the Champions XXXI and lost. Afterward, they argued as Arn began to imply he was tired of always being there to bail Flair out. He decided to show Flair what it'd be like to fight on his own, leaving Flair alone in various matches. At Fall Brawl, they were finally ready to fight one on one for the first time. The problem, as the DVD illustrates, was that fans just couldn't buy these long-time friends actually hating each other at all. It was a good match that ended with Brian Pillman racing in and kicking Flair in the back of the head, allowing Arn to DDT him for the pin.
Pillman and Arn made noise about forming a new Horsemen and challenged Flair to a tag match at Halloween Havoc. Flair asked Sting to be his partner, even getting a bunch of kids to guilt Sting into accepting. At the start of the show, Flair was found beaten up with bandages, urging Sting on. Everyone and their brother could see where this was headed as Flair came down in street clothes, tagged in, then joined Arn and Pillman in pounding Sting down. Rather than be upset, the fans cheered as Flair ripped off the fake bandages and the trio laughed on their scheme.
The final slot was filled as Anderson and Pillman announced on a Saturday episode that the Fourth Horseman was recent WCW arrival Chris Benoit. Benoit was a great fit, with his amazing ring skills and rough attitude, showing the perfect aggression needed to stand out with the others and the unit was going great. Flair beat Randy Savage for the World title after Miss Elizabeth turned on him to join Flair and Woman (Nancy Sullivan, Benoit's real life love) started to hang out with them too.
But in early 1996, Pillman started his "Loose Cannon" act that led to his eventual release. Like everyone else, the Horsemen were unaware Pillman's erratic behavior was an act and that led to backstage problems. They did need a new spot and their pick to fill it seemed even more bizarre than Paul Roma: Steve "Mongo" McMichael.
It's hard for me to rank on McMichael. I'm from Chicago so naturally anyone from the 1985 Bears team is automatically golden in our eyes. After his retirement, McMichael had been hired as a color commentator for the premiering "Nitro" and quickly established himself as one of the worst wrestling commentators of all time. Making him a wrestler didn't seem much better as he and Kevin Greene challenged the Horsemen to a match at the '96 Bash card. It ended with McMichael hitting Greene with a metal briefcase to let the Horsemen win and soon joined them. His wife, Debra, would also join him on-screen.
Another surprise on the DVD is that rather than being trashed as you expect, Mongo is really put over well as Flair and Arn talk about him having the perfect Horsemen attitude. He was a partying guy and despite his lack of ring skills, got over better than expected. Debra seemed to love the limelight, showing up in a tiara and evening gowns (an act later copied by Queen Sharmell) as she and Woman would bicker a lot. This was actually due to backstage problems as Woman wasn't happy putting up with someone who (as Bischoff puts it on the disc) "showed up for a cup of coffee and decided she had an opinion." So while on paper looking bad, this was actually a strong Horsemen unit.
But the coming of the New World Order would change everything. The Horsemen were turned into de facto faces as Arn was attacked by the nWo and the Horsemen declared it would be open war. At Fall Brawl, Flair and Anderson teamed with Luger and Sting, losing when Sting walked out on the team when they doubted him after an imposter attacked Luger. With the nWo dominating going into 1997, the Horsemen seemed to be as weak fighting them as the rest of WCW.
In early 1997, with Benoit taking time out for injuries, Jeff Jarrett suddenly expressed his desire to join the group. It's pretty clear that Jarrett has always modeled himself after Flair: the blonde hair, the strut, the arrogance, the figure-four finisher. Indeed, I suspect the reason Jarrett kept the NWA title on him so long in TNA is because he honestly believes he can be the profitable champ like Flair. The problem, of course, is that despite what he may think, Jarrett just isn't the same star Flair is.
Jarrett basically wanted to be a Horsemen since coming to WCW and petitioned for it. The idea was Flair liked him but the others didn't so Jarrett had to beat first Benoit, then McMichael to join. He did so, aided by interference gone wrong in both cases. However, Benoit came back full-time and Flair got tired of Jarrett's arrogance and the group kicked him out. There's actually debate on whether or not Jarrett should be recognized as an official Horsemen as those on the DVD say that (like Roma) this was a case of the promoters pushing someone they didn't want on them.
It was shortly after the Jarrett mess that Arn made the announcement that due to severe neck surgery, he was retiring from wrestling. On an August "Nitro," Arn gave a powerful, emotional speech thanking the fans for following him all these years and even Flair was teary-eyed during it. For his final act, Arn offered his spot in the Horsemen to Curt Henning, who accepted. Henning seemed to fit the Horsemen perfectly with his tough and technical ring skills and his wild partying attitude as well. It was an incredible moment that gave the Horsemen more heat than they'd had in some time.
So, of course, WCW screwed it all up as only they could. A week after that announcement, the nWo came out to mock the speech with Kevin Nash wearing a pillow, combover and liver spots as Arn; Syxx in a wig and big nose as a crying Flair; Konan as a silent Mongo; and Marcus Bagwell as an overeager Henning. While funny on paper, the act went too far with Nash mocking Arn's alleged drinking problem, a major no-no as his mother had died of alcoholism. The Horsemen were outraged and even more so when the plan to have them run in and stop it was vetoed by Nash. Flair refused to do an interview later, arguing it would just make the Horsemen weaker. (To his credit, on the DVD, Bischoff admits he made a big mistake allowing this and wouldn't do it again). This was to set up a War Games match at Fall Brawl but that turned into another mess as Henning, showing up with an arm in a sling, entered last and turned on the Horsemen to join the nWo, further burying the group. A nice bit on the DVD has Arn noting how this was karma for all the times the Horsemen had done the same thing to people.
I've said it before but it has to be repeated. One of the key reasons why WCW imploded so huge when they were on top of the world was Eric Bischoff's inability to accept that the New World Order could not last forever. The whole point was that eventually, WCW would rise up and fight back and the Horsemen were the prime group to do it. But, regardless of how much he'll deny it, Bischoff was wrapped around the finger of Nash and Hogan and went along with their ideas to make themselves stronger and the expense of WCW's power and fanbase. By this point, the fans were ready to see WCW fight back and get wins over the nWo but Bischoff just couldn't see that and kept shoving the guys in black down everyone's throats.
Needless to say, this did not make Flair happy. He'd bled and sweated and given all he had for this company and he could see Bischoff was taking it to disaster. Bischoff, of course, assumed Flair was just whining over losing his spot and told him to shut up and do his job. Flair just ignored the demands and took time off to see his on in a wrestling tournament. Angered, Bischoff leveled a lawsuit on Flair and removed him from TV for months. He then called a locker room meeting where he first declared that "except for Hogan, Piper and Savage, none of you have ever drawn money." That, naturally, didn't go over well. Bischoff then declared he was tired of playing with Flair and would make him an example by suing him to bankruptcy.
The speech made an impact but not the way Bischoff wanted. Instead of coming off as a strong boss, he was a whiny jerk blaming everyone but himself for the company's problems. His statement on who was drawing money was a clear indicator of what he thought of the company's various stars and their potential. Of course, the big one was going after the man everyone knew had kept this company going for years, with many fearing for their jobs. If Bishcoff could do that to Flair, what was to stop him from doing it to anyone else?
In September of 1998, on a "Nitro" emanating from North Carolina, Anderson had a special ceremony on the Horsemen, accompanied by many tuxedoed men. He introduced Dean Malenko as the newest member and then introduced Flair, unseen for months. Flair came out to one of the biggest pops ever made and it was several minutes before he could speak over the emotional outburst. When he did, he was interrupted by Bischoff and Flair tore into a live tirade calling him name after name and begging to be put off the air.
Once again, plans were set for the Horsemen to rise and once again, they were set aside for the by now quite tired nWo to keep themselves on top. Mongo left unexpectedly in late 1998 and Flair soon found himself being made WCW president, champion and asylum inmate among other things. And so, the Horsemen faded out with a whimper as Benoit and Malenko soon went into singles programs and the name passed on for good.
Theirs was a legacy that paved the way for so many heel groups since, not just in power but in attitude, in wild matches and promos and getting over. They threatened to kick ass and did it, said they'd win titles and did so and as much as fans hated them, they also respected them. They rode roughshod on wrestling in a way no other group has done before or since and did it all with style.
The Four Horsemen may be gone now but every wrestling fan should remember the legend they created and how it helped shape the business we know now. So get the Four Horsemen DVD and saddle up for a wild ride through a time when wrestling was truly fun and four men showed you why.
Also around 411mania:
You're an Idiot and Here's Why tackles the whole Lawler/Hogan mess.
Keys to the Game examines the WWE tag scene.
Julian counts down the Top 10 Backlash matches.
That Was Then tracks Andre's last years.
Evolution Schematic takes on...Visceria?
The Ripple Effect brings up the question we've all been asked: Why wrestling?
Don't forget Column of Honor, Navigation Log, Ask411, Fact or Fiction, Three R's, Triple Threat and the rest.
That's all for now. For this week, the spotlight is off.
