We often hear wrestlers talk about the brotherhood they share with one another after spending so many years working together, and it’s the same athletes have talked about in other sports.
There’s a certain bond that can’t be explained to anyone that hasn’t stepped on the field or in the ring, and it’s often unbreakable.
Arn Anderson Explained Why he and Tully Blanchard Didn’t Talk for Ten Years
Unfortunately, that unbreakable part seemed to be in jeopardy when it came to Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard’s friendship after the two had a falling out when they left the WWE in 1989.
While they’re widely known as two of the Four Horsemen, at the time in the WWE they were dubbed the Brainbusters and were part of the Heenan Family.
Change of scenery gone wrong
The former WWE tag team champions gave their notice to the WWE in 1989 as they were going to go back to WCW, but things didn’t go as planned.
The problem arose when Blanchard wasn’t signed by WCW after they learned he failed a drug test.
As it turned out, the fallout from that led to them not talking for ten years, and on a recent episode of his podcast, Anderson talked about it and how he blamed Jim Herd for the decision.
“Once we figured out what had happened and they weren’t going to hire him, I mean, that was probably the last conversation that we had for maybe 10 years. I didn’t blame Tully. I blamed Jim Herd. For him to look at me and say we weren’t worth as much as singles as we were as a team, and since Tully was not going to be hirable because of what had happened, he was going to cut me 150 grand. My focus with Herd went off of Tully because Jim Herd wouldn’t have been smart enough to come up with that. Somebody told him that and who knows who it was. Maybe somebody was fulfilling a grudge from times past? I don’t know. But when I went home and discussed it with Erin, she was the voice of reason.
“She said you’ve made the move. It’s still a lot of money over a three year period. We can plan our lives. She said all the right things. It’ll be fine. The main thing that I had in my back pocket was I was going from 24 days on the road to about 8, and even though the contract got screwed a little bit on what it was supposed to be, that was still my chance to be home when I’d never been home. I’ve been on the road with Crockett, been on the road with WWE, I mean every day, and this gave me an opportunity to spend some time with my family and that just was the most important thing for me.”
It’s great the two eventually started talking again and this is another great insight into what wrestling was like behind the curtain. Ric Flair especially has been critical of Jim Herd, and others have claimed Herd hurt WCW more than helped.
SUBSCRIBE NOW: Get The Overtimer’s Hottest Stories, Breaking News and Special Features in your email, CLICK HERE!
