The Four Horsemen are arguably the most iconic faction in wrestling history. Often imitated…sometimes replicated, adapted, and reworded to fit other factions. It seems like wrestling is always looking for that new Four Horsemen, but why were they so popular?
In an exclusive interview with Inside The Ropes, one of the original Four Horsemen, Arn Anderson, would open up to Gary Cassidy about their success, detailing the “formula” the team had.
“Well, the one thing I think that is lost on a lot of people, and you go back and you watch it, we had a formula. We would go on television and 100 percent of the time, just about, let’s say 99… It was a favourable outing for us. We would go thump somebody, we roll to the interview desk, we pick up a mic and we would become Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, Ole Anderson, Arn Anderson, JJ. Those characters came to life.”
The Enforcer continued, stating that the most important thing that made the faction successful was because they made sure they always gave the fans what they want.
“I think a lot of these factions these days, they don’t realise that our sole purpose was to go on that TV, piss a lot of people off, go to the live events at night and just get our ass handed to us. That’s what the people paid to see in those days, because we had a lot of heat with people, they wanted us to be shut up. “Somebody shut these guys up.” A lot of the other factions are there, and I understand this, to get themselves over, push themselves and once they get to the live events at night, they’re not that gung ho about giving the fans what they want, which is Four Horsemen getting their ass kicked for 30 minutes.”
Double A pin-points “unselfishness” as the ultimate key to the success of The Four Horsemen.
“That’s always going to be the difference, how unselfish that group of guys were. Didn’t matter whether it was Dusty, the Road Warriors, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express… One week, we could be getting our ass handed to us by the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express, the next week it was the Road Warriors, the next week it was Dusty and somebody, and it was always the same – let the audience have what they want. And that’s the key to our faction. That’s the reason it has lasted the test of time.”
Anderson, who also said he’s making up for lost time after not doing interviews “by design” to stay in character as a heel, would state that very thing is what gives him the “greatest compliment” now – knowing people back then genuinely hated his guts as a product of the work he was putting out there.
“I love to have a person your age come up to me and say, ‘Man, my grandmother hated your guts.’ That’s the greatest compliment of all! So I think that’s the secret to our success – unselfishness, knowing our job description and going out and giving the paying customer what they want.”
Thanks to Arn Anderson for taking the time to chat with Inside The Ropes. You can read the full interview here.
You can follow Arn Anderson on Twitter here, and check out The Arn Show via Patreon.com/AdFreeShows