There are some days that just scream that they’ll be memorable, and This Day in Wrestling History, June 7, 1986, is no different as it was when the original Four Horsemen debuted.
Little did we know that it would become the staple for what stables or factions would be measured against for years to come.
We all have our favorites. Degeneration X during the Attitude Era was my second favorite next to the nWo, but it wasn’t until that time I started appreciating the Four Horsemen as they stood in the nWo’s way.
What’s even cooler about them is their beginning and how they Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, and Tully Blanchard were already friends out of the ring and lived the kayfabe lifestyle.
The beginning
It wasn’t until Ole Anderson returned from a leg injury and interfered to give Dusty Rhodes the DQ win over Ric Flair and the subsequent interview that we officially heard the name on the airwaves.
Special thanks to @awrestlinghistorian for the upcoming excerpts from books and interviews.
“What you’ve got right here in the ring, you’ve got a champion. You’ve got Tully Blanchard. You’ve got Ole Anderson. You’ve got myself, and last but by no means least, you’ve got Ric Flair, the World’s Heavyweight Champion. You’re talking about The Four Horsemen of professional wrestling, the people that make things happen.” – Arn Anderson, NWA Interview.
While it may seem like a lot of forethought went into it, Arn Anderson cleared that up in a later interview.
“Yes, it was on a local promo. And in fact, I just said it off the cuff, not really intending to be coming up with a name for us or anything like that. It was Tony Schiavone, who actually validated the whole thing. He looked at me after the promo was over and said, ‘I think you just named yourself.’ And that led to us starting to refer to ourselves as The Four Horsemen.” – Arn Anderson, Mid-Atlantic Gateway interview August 30, 2015.
We went further in explaining his thought process, as cited by Ric Flair:
“I put no thought into it beforehand, it just popped into my head. I was trying to think about all the negative things we represented and all the horror we were going to rain on the world. It was an interview line for one individual day that grew into a gimmick. Whenever the Four Horsemen were together, we’d turn our hands toward our bodies and hold up four fingers. We were just missing the thumb, which was actually our manger, J. J. Dillon.” – Arn Anderson, To Be The Man book by Ric Flair.
We often hear how the best ideas are ones that aren’t planned and this was one of them. For many, the Four Horsemen embodied everything that is awesome in professional wrestling.
Their legacy continues to this day whenever we see a faction come together and comparisons are made. Things like this makes This Day in Wrestling History special.
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