Arn Anderson Says The Four Horsemen ‘Just Popped Into My Head’, Reveals His Favorite Lineup Of The Group
Photo Credit: Lee South / AEW
WWE Hall of Famer Arn Anderson recently appeared on The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling Podcast and reflected on his legendary career. During the interview, he looked back on the Four Horsemen, War Games and more.
On if he has a favorite version of the many different incarnations of the Four Horsemen:
Anderson: “The first will always be special just because it was the first. It was unique. I would say that I agree with the fans that say the Barry Windham incarnation was probably the most functional and most fun to watch and most exciting and best group bell to bell. You can probably name any other grouping and it is open to conjecture but certainly the first one and the Barry Windham version would be the top 2.”
On the lasting effect that the War Games matches had on those who competed in them:
Anderson: “It was a full days work that is for sure. A lot of nights I thought that this was a hard way to make a living. When you are trapped in that cage with Dusty, Nikita, The Road Warriors, Luger and whoever else it was like a Barry Windham or Ricky Steamboat it is a hard 35-40 minutes. But it also played perfectly into what we were and we always said and we made no bones about it, if you jump on one of us you will jump on five of us. We were in our element and I can’t remember a War Games where we got dominated. I don’t if we won (if we won any) but the fact is if you ask anybody today who won War Games in a particular town that they were in that night now I am not sure if they can tell you but they would say; ‘My God what a blood bath and what a war.'”
“That is what sold tickets and to be able to pull off 22 out of 36 days one summer where we went on tour in the stadiums and all of us almost bled to death that summer. It was something special and has also stood the test of time and that is one of those instances where adversity introduces you to yourself and in one of those War Games matches is probably where that quote came from.”
On the process of trademarking the ‘Four Horseman’ name for pro wrestling purposes and he talked about what led to that decision and the process of trademarking it:
Anderson: “I came up with it. I came up with the name, and it was on a promo and it just happened generically. It just kind of happened, and it came from the Bible verse and all that stuff. I’ve never trademarked it, I never owned it but I have since, since I’ve been the one constant as far as Horsemen go throughout the years, I thought, ‘Well, I will check into this’ and had a lawyer check into this, trademark lawyer and it hasn’t been trademarked. So, we’re right now in the middle of attempting to trademark that and it’s — I don’t think you can use it just for anything but — and I know you can’t but Notre Dame had some issues with it, obviously. Comes from the Bible, you can’t really fight the Bible nor do I want to.”
“But for wrestling purposes, for appearances or the name of a group or something like that, that’s solely what I’m trying to do. Whatever we do, if anything, the name going forward, I just wanted to make sure it was protected, it’s special. Somewhere down the road, somebody might wanna break it out and use it again, who knows?”
On if he felt his infamous “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” promo would have as big of an impact on the business as it did:
Anderson: “No. Just like I didn’t walk into that interview planning to say any of that. It literally was and a lot of people don’t believe it but most do because this is the absolute truth and it all just popped into my head. It was just born that day and it is funny the very next week people were starting to chant “Four Horseman” and after that the four fingers went up and it was something that literally came out of nowhere but as soon as it was done, Tony Schiavone stepped up and said; “You just named you guys”. I could see the look in everybody’s face and they immediately got on board and we knew we had something special, we just didn’t know how special.”
The full interview is available here:
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Transcription courtesy of John Pozarowski of The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling Podcast