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One of
wrestling's greatest groups came about as the result of Ric Flair's desire to keep his world
championship at any cost. Under the growing pressure of
defending the NWA Title, Flair turned to his cousins Ole and
Arn Anderson (Ole had reformed the
Minnesota Wrecking crew with Arn) for help. Ole and Arn were more than happy to
interfere on Flair's behalf, especially since they shared many
of the same foes such as Dusty Rhodes. This alliance was
the beginning of the formation of the Four Horsemen, perhaps
the greatest faction ever assembled in professional
wrestling. One of the key moments in the formation of
the Horsemen was a cage match between Ric Flair and Nikita Koloff. After the match
ended, Ivan and Nikita double-teamed Flair, beating him
senseless. Fans rejoiced when Dusty Rhodes came to
Flair's aid. When Ole and Arn Anderson entered the cage,
the fans were astonished to see Flair repay Rhodes by
attacking him! Flair and the Minnesota Wrecking Crew
then locked the cage and
annihilated Rhodes, breaking his ankle. Flair
and the Andersons fought off an army of babyfaces from within
the cage until they had taken their fill.
Over the
next few months, Tully Blanchard and his manager James J.
Dillon entered the mix and the group became known as the Four
Horsemen. The Horsemen
became famous for their wild interviews where they talked
about their real-life partying and extravagant lifestyle as
well as for their brutal attacks on their opponents. They were also known for
being tremendously successful in the ring and it was a rare
moment when the Horsemen were without championship
gold.
Fans soon learned that whenever Flair's
title was in jeopardy, it was only a matter of time before one
of the Horsemen (or all of them) became involved. One
such instance was when Ricky Morton of the Rock-n-Roll Express
pinned Flair during a non-title match. After the match,
the Horsemen destroyed Morton's tag team partner Robert Gibson
while Flair rubbed Morton's face into the concrete. In a
subsequent encounter with Morton, Flair was aided by the
Horsemen who proceeded to break Morton's nose to send a
message to Morton and any other challenger- jump on one of us
and you jump on all of us.
The Horsemen's gang mentality knew no
boundaries. At one point when Ric Flair was battling
Road Warrior Hawk, the Horsemen jumped in and helped beat
down both Hawk and his powerful tag team partner Animal. After
dispatching of Animal, the Horsemen held Hawk while Flair
slapped Hawk repeatedly, giving his face the paintbrush
treatment.
As the saying goes, success breeds success and it was
inevitable that wrestlers would want to join the
Horsemen. The first person to seek membership in the
Four Horsemen was Lex Luger. Luger had challenged Ric
Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Title during his time in
Championship Wrestling from Florida and in 1987, he
relocated to Jim Crockett Promotions' NWA
territory. Flair was well aware of Luger's abilities and
for a while, the Horsemen made it known that they were aware
of Luger's desire to become a Horsemen. Over time, J.J.
Dillon decided to accept Luger into the elite group as an
associate but not a full fledged Horsemen since the Horsemen
had decided that they would limit membership to only four
members.
However when Ole Anderson was unable to make an
appearance with the Horsemen so he could watch his son Brian
wrestle, his colleagues questioned his loyalty and Ole soon
found himself replaced by Luger in the Horsemen. In true
Horsemen tradition, Lex won championship gold by defeating
Nikita Koloff for the United States Heavyweight
Championship.
As before, the Horsemen proved to be a powerful force
in professional wrestling with their gang-like tactics usually
proving to be too much for any opponent to overcome. As
a result of the Horsemen's continued interference in one
another's matches, the NWA devised a match known as War Games
in which the Horsemen's opponents got the opportunity to
battle the Horsemen on even terms. War Games, the Match
Beyond first debuted during the 1987 Great American
Bash tour. The first match pitted the Horsemen and
manager J.J. Dillon against the team of "The Super Powers"
(Dusty Rhodes and Nikita Koloff), the Road Warriors, and
"Precious" Paul Ellering. In the first War Games match,
J.J. Dillon was injured and forced to give up. Dillon's
place would be filled in by the masked wrestler known as the
War Machine for the remaining War Games matches on the Great
American Bash tour.
Unfortunately for Luger, as he grew more
successful the Horsemen questioned his loyalty and he
soon found himself on the outside looking in. "The
Total" Package went to prove that success is the best revenge
by teaming up with Barry Windham to win the NWA World Tag Team
Titles from his former partners Arn Anderson and Tully
Blanchard. However Luger's success was short-lived as
Windham turned his back on Luger during a rematch against
Anderson and Blanchard, allowing the Horsemen to regain the
tag team titles and find their replacement for
Luger.
With Windham as Luger's replacement, the Horsemen were
back at full strength. After Windham won the U.S. title
in a seven man tournament on May 13, 1988, the Horsemen now
held championship gold with the tag team belts held by
Blanchard and Anderson and the world title being held by Ric
Flair. Flair defended his title against the top
contenders while Blanchard and Anderson defended their belts
against some of the top tag teams in the area including the
Road Warriors and the Midnight Express. Barry Windham
found himself battling the Midnight Rider (who many suspected
to be Dusty Rhodes in disguise).
As before, the biggest threat to the Horsemen seemed to
come from within. After losing the tag team titles to
the Midnight Express on September 10, 1988, Arn and Tully left
the NWA for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). For a
while, it seemed as if J.J. Dillon had found replacements in
Kendall Windham and Butch Reed but when J.J. left for the WWF,
the Horsemen were no more.
With J.J. Dillon gone, Ric Flair and Barry Windham's
contracts were purchased by Hiro Matsuda. After
having his neck broken by Terry Funk, Ric Flair
began wrestling as a babyface and fought his matches on
his own. However in late 1989, when Flair found himself
outnumbered by the J-Tex Corporation heel faction, he
called up some old friends. Flair entered the ring
and challenged the J-Tex members to face him. With Flair
seemingly outnumbered, the J-Tex members smelled blood and
closed in for the kill. Much to their surprise, Flair
was aided by Arn and Ole Anderson. Flair proclaimed that
"Nobody's jumpin' in my matches" and the Horsemen were back in
action.
A fourth member was needed however and the new version
of the Horsemen recruited longtime foe Sting into the group. With the
Horsemen wrestling as babyfaces, Sting had no problem joining
forces and he helped the Horsemen battle the J-Tex
Corporation. At one point Sting was injured during a
cage match with the J-Tex Corporation but the Horsemen held
his spot while he recovered. However when Sting earned a
title match for Ric Flair's NWA World Heavyweight
Championship, his fellow Horsemen were shocked when he
actually asked for the match. The Horsemen confronted
Sting in the ring and Ole Anderson told Sting that by
requesting the title match, he had relinquished his membership
in the Horsemen. However if he gave up the title
match, the Horsemen would let him leave under his own
power. Sting of course refused and the Horsemen attacked
him, turning heel in the process. Sting then began
feuding with the Horsemen and campaigned unsuccessfully for
Flair's title.
In the spring of 1990, Ole stepped aside as an active
Horsemen in order to manage the elite unit of professional
wrestling. Barry Windham returned to the Horsemen and
newcomer Sid Vicious filled out the remaining slot.
However the babyfaces of World Championship Wrestling (WCW)
had learned from the past and formed their own group to combat
the Horsemen's gang warfare. Sting renewed his challenge
for Flair's NWA World Heavyweight Championship and formed his
own faction known as the Dudes with Attitudes (made up of
Sting, the Junkyard Dog, El
Gigante, Lex Luger, and the Steiner Brothers). On July
7, 1990, the Dudes with Attitude offset the interference of
the Horsemen, allowing Sting to defeat Flair with a small
package and win the NWA World title.
For a while the Horsemen seemed to lose focus and Sting
found himself being challenged by a masked wrestler known as
the Black Scorpion. However the Horsemen were very
active and in the end, fans learned that the Black Scorpion
was actually Ric Flair. This bizarre plot by the
Horsemen enabled Ric Flair to defeat Sting for the NWA World
Heavyweight Title on January 11,
1991.
In May 1991, the WWF split the Horsemen up when
Sid Vicious jumped to the WWF. When Ric Flair
joined him in September 1991, the Horsemen were once again a
thing of the past. That is until Flair returned to WCW
in spring 1993 and reformed the Horsemen. This
incarnation featured Arn and Ole Anderson and the surprising
choice of "Pretty" Paul Roma. The Horsemen seemed to be
back on track with Arn and Paul winning the WCW World Tag Team
Championship and Flair regaining the world title.
However this version of the Horsemen was short-lived and after
Andertson and Roma dropped the tag titles to the Nasty Boys,
Roma left the Horsemen to team with Paul
Orndorff.
The Paul Roma version of the Horsmen left a bad taste
in many fans' mouths and for nearly two years, it appeared
that the Horsemen were over and done with. This seemed
clearer than ever when Ric Flair began feuding with his
longtime friend and former Horsemen Arn Anderson. Arn
teamed up with Brian Pillman and Flair found himself in need
of a tag team partner. After pleading with an
understandably suspicious Sting, Flair convinced his
former foe to help him against Pillman and Anderson.
However it was all a ruse on Flair's part and Sting found out
the hard way that the Horsemen were back together. Chris
Benoit soon joined the group and the Horsemen resumed their
routine of battling the area's top babyfaces including Sting,
Lex Luger, Hulk Hogan, and Randy "Macho Man"
Savage.
The 1995 version of the Horsemen scored some impressive
wins highlighted by Ric Flair winning the WCW World
Heavyweight Championship from Randy Savage. However
Flair and Anderson began to realize that Brian Pillman could
be a liability to them after he attacked Paul Orndorff without
any reason. Pillman began to lose control and became
known as a loose cannon. In early 1996, Pillman left WCW
unexpectedly, leaving the Horsemen short a
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