Four Horsemen (Wrestling)

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Four Horsemen was the name of a wrestling table that was founded in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and was best known nationwide through the later wrestling promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW). The name is derived from the four horsemen of the apocalypse .

The group originally consisted of the four wrestlers Ric Flair , Arn Anderson and his storyline cousin Ole Anderson and Tully Blanchard . The stable consisted of alternating line-ups and interruptions from 1986 to 1999 and was involved in numerous important feuds and storylines during this time . At times the members of the table held all titles of the NWA and WCW.

history

founding

Ric Flair was basically the core and thus the decisive person of the "Four Horsemen", since the stable was built around him as a multiple NWA champion.

The stable was founded in 1986 in the wrestling organization Jim Crockett Promotions , then the most influential member of the NWA. All founding members were already established in the wrestling business: Flair was multiple World Champion of the NWA, the Andersons formed the tag team "Minnesota Wrecking Crew", which between 1970 and 1981 with the cast of Ole and Gene Anderson held the NWA tag team title eight times. Blanchard was the son of a wrestler and wrestling promoter and had held individual and tag team titles in the Southwest Championship Wrestling promotion several times before the Horsemen was founded . The stables were managed by JJ Dillon , a former wrestler who also worked as a booker . The group's first feud was against Dusty Rhodes , who worked in front of the camera as a wrestler and behind the scenes as a booker. The involvement of both bookers in the storyline made the feud the most important of the promotion. The result was that the wrestling magazine Pro Wrestling Illustrated named the feud Horsemen against the Super Powers (consisting of Rhodes and Nikita Koloff ) and the Road Warriors , who supported the Super Powers within the storyline, as the feud of the year. The single match of the year was a feud between Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes, Ric Flair wrestler of the year.

First change and first end

In 1987 the line-up of the Horsemen changed. Ole Anderson , whose career was drawing to a close, was replaced by Lex Luger . Luger came from the NWA Florida , where he was very successful. Membership in the Horsemen naturally meant a career boost for Luger. In the same year he won the title of NWA United States Champion from Nikita Koloff, the second most important individual title of the NWA. After Luger had lost the title to the ore adversary of the Horsemen, Dusty Rhodes , and blamed the manager Dillon for it, Luger had to vacate his place with the Horsemen.

The next member of the Four Horsemen was Barry Windham , who had worked with Lex Luger in Florida and had been brought to MACW as his tag team partner . Was introduced Windham by Luger during a match against the Horsemen Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard betrayed . Windham's career also got a boost from being a member of the Horsemen. He also received the NWA United States Championship belt that same year. As a result, the Horsemen held all three national titles (World, United States and Tag Team) of the NWA at the same time for the first time, since Ric Flair was World Champion and Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard Tag Team Champions at that time. A union of these three titles within one table had not occurred before and was not to be repeated until 2000, when the WCW promotion of the New World Order allowed the same.

At the end of 1988 Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard switched to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), which had thus poached two of the four horsemen and thus the most important stars of the competition. Flair, Windham and Dillon initially ran the stable as a threesome until Dillon moved to a desk post at WWF. The name Four Horsemen was no longer used and in early 1989 Barry Windham also moved to WWF. Ric Flair was the only one of the original horsemen to stay with WCW, which had since emerged from Jim Crockett Promotions.

The second edition

In December 1989 the stable was rebuilt, which was made possible by the return of Arn and Ole Anderson to the WCW. After the Four Horseman had previously appeared as a heel group , this time a face- stable was created, the fourth member of which was Sting , a previous opponent and the showcase face of the WCW. Sting quickly became the # 1 contender to the title of World Heavyweight Champion, once again held by Flair at the time. To make the match possible, the break between the Horsemen and Sting was brought about by writing a storyline in which the rest of the Horsemen asked Sting to withdraw from the title match against Flair. Since Sting refused true to the role and the promotion wanted to keep him as Face, the other horsemen had to switch to the role of heels by beating Sting out of the group.

A little later, Ole Anderson ended his career as an active wrestler and became manager of the Horsemen. To bring the group back up to four, it was replenished with Barry Windham, who was back on the promotion, and Sid Vicious . Vicious and Windham were also involved in one of the most famous Angles of the Horsemen: At the pay-per-view event Halloween Havoc 1990, Windham appeared, disguised as Sting in his place, for a title match against Sid Vicious. After some apparent resistance, he should lose. However, the plan did not work because the real Sting, of course, at the most dramatic moment, did appear in the ring.

The stable fell apart again in 1991, after first Sid Vicious and then Ric Flair left the WCW in the direction of the WWF, Barry Windham switched back to the role of a face and thus Arn Anderson remained as the only member of the stable.

The third horsemen

Ric Flair returned to WCW in 1993. The Four Horsemen emerged again, this time with Flair and Arn Anderson, and with Ole Anderson as manager. Paul Roma , a former WWF wrestler, was hired at short notice to replace Tully Blanchard, who was not hired by the promotion because of a positive drug test. Roma and Anderson received tag team belts for a month. In December 1993, the stable disappeared after the promotion wrote Paul Roma from the tag team.

Four Horsemen for the fourth

The next incarnation of the Horsemen was born in 1995, as always with Flair and Arn Anderson. This foundation was prepared in a longer storyline, in which Flair and Anderson were first written in a feud, in which Brian Pillman on Anderson's side and Sting on Flair's side were then drawn. At the pay-per-view Halloween Havoc 1995 promotion, the storyline as a trap of the Horsemen Flair, Anderson and Pillman for Sting was solved. A little later, with Chris Benoit, the number of horsemen was brought back to four. After Pillman left WCW, he was replaced by early footballer and casual wrestler Steve McMichael , whose place was temporarily claimed by Jeff Jarrett . After the establishment of the nWo stable, which announced its intention to take over WCW, the Horsemen stood for the tradition of WCW. The promotion bookers used this for an intense feud. The fourth horseman seat became a transit station for wrestlers, because the horsemen members usually had to decide for themselves who to include, while during this time the WCW had a very strong influence on their storylines. In August 1997, Arn Anderson ended his career as an active wrestler due to the consequences of numerous back and neck injuries and was replaced by Curt Hennig with the Horsemen, who had the promotion change to nWo after just one month. At the same time, a storyline made Ric Flair “President”, which effectively disbanded the Horsemen.

The end of the horsemen

In the next year there was the last reincarnation of the Horsemen, this time with Steve "Mongo" McMichael, Flair and Arn Anderson as managers, supplemented by Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko . These horsemen tried to build on their predecessors by feuding against the nWo, but did not become popular. A change in the group image to heels was also not accepted. McMichael's departure reduced the group to three members, who were primarily used by the promotion, at the head of which, according to the storyline, was Ric Flair, to keep Ric Flair's son David Flair in possession of the WCW United States Champion Belt. In May 1999, Malenko and Benoit left the stable in protest against Flair's selfishness, thereby ending Flair's existence.

Tributes to other promotions

  • The wrestling promotion Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling founded a stable in 2003 called "The Xtreme Horsemen". This was formed from the former ECW wrestlers Steve Corino , Justin Credible , Simon Diamond and "The Enforcer" CW Anderson (a homage to Arn Anderson ). At times the group was accompanied by JJ Dillon, the manager of the original Horsemen, and reinforced by Barry Windham, who was also part of the original group. This formation appeared in various independent wrestling promotions.
  • Although the "Four Horsemen" have never been part of the Promotion World Wrestling Federation or World Wrestling Entertainment, they released a box with 2 DVDs Ric Flair and the Four Horsemen in 2007 , as WWE has now also acquired all the naming rights of the former WCW Stables Has.
  • On March 31, 2012, the "Four Horsemen" with the cast of Ric Flair, Barry Windham, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard and JJ Dillon were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame .
  • In 2014, the “Four Horsewomen” stable was launched in the WWE Development League NXT . This consisted of Flair's daughter Charlotte , Sasha Banks , Becky Lynch and Bayley , who in Flair's opinion would be the "female horsemen". The stable dissolved again in 2015, as Banks and Lynch moved to the WWE main roaster.

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