The Illustrated History of the Four Horsemen

Part 5: The Birth of the Horsemen- The Steel Boot and how Tully Blanchard became involved- A week or so after the steel cage incident, Ric Flair faced Sam Houston in a re-match from their earlier bout. After defeating the courages young Texan, Flair decided to teach him a lesson. Arn Anderson was summoned to the ring and attempted to administer the same treatment given to Houston' mentor Rhodes. But Dusty was on the scene and foiled the attack by jerking Arn off the turnbuckle. He then attacked Anderson using a steel reinforced boot (the white one on his left foot in this scene) which he had been fitted with in order to allow him to continue wrestling despite his injury.

Flair and Anderson beat a hasty retreat. Now the battle lines were definately drawn between Flair, the Andersons and Dusty Rhodes.

Not long after the incidents described above, Sam Houston was again the catalyst for bringing yet another player into this drama.

During a match with Tully Blanchard (see the photo above), the Andersons again showed up at ringside. As Blanchard held the youngster, Ole Anderson mounted the turnbuckle and drove a knee into Hustons left arm and attempted to break it! Then Arn entered the ring and helped Tully hold Houston in place while Ole finished the job.

The three then continued to beat on the helpless (and now crippled) young athelete untill other wrestlers came to the ring and broke it up. Clearly this was meant as a further signal to Dusty about what he was up against.

It has been said here and other places that JJ Dillon came up with the name "The Four Horsemen", but Arn Anderson tells a different story. In his autobiography, "Arn Anderson 4 Ever", he decribes the origin of the name this way: Because of TV time constraints, he, Flair, Ole and Tully were thrown into an interview together at the end of a program. During the interview, Arn ad-libbed a line that went something like, "The only time this much havoc has been wreaked by this few people - you need to go all the way back to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse." The name stuck and the rest was history.

In the months to come Flair, the Andersons and Tully Blanchard would formalize their relationship and bring in Blanchard's manager, J.J. Dillon as the mastermind behind the new stable.

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This page is a personal tribute and is in no way connected to any of the wrestling promotions mentioned on it. It is dedicated to the Dean of Wrestling announcers, Gordon Solie.

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