Arn Anderson Makes His WTBS Debut (1981-1982)

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

Time to take a look back at Georgia wrestling in 1982 and a match between a Mid-Atlantic superstar and a young kid who would one day become a superstar himself.

It was the first Georgia wrestling show of 1982, and current Mid-Atlantic star Paul Jones was making the second of two guest shots on "Georgia Championship Wrestling" for booker Ole Anderson, who was booking both the Georgia and Mid-Atlantic territories at that time.

What is more notable from a historical perspective about Jones's appearance, however, was his opponent on this show. His name was Jim Vertaroso and host Gordon Solie billed him as a power-lifting champion out of Rome, GA. What you will see is a big guy who is pretty green in the ring, but shows great promise. The longer you watch though, you will notice that the young man in the ring with Paul Jones is the future Arn Anderson. (Arn's appearance is at 12:54 in this video.)

We believe this was the week after Arn's television debut and may have been his first singles match. (Edit: Arn mentions on the debut episode of his podcast "ARN" that his recollection was his first appearance on Georgia TV was in a tag team match with partner Zeke Rivers against Bob and Brad Armstrong which aired 12/26/81.)

Virtaroso (and we're assuming that's how he would spell it) would later wrestle under his real name Marty Lunde in Southeastern, Mid-South, and Georgia, before Ole Anderson gave him the name Arn Anderson when he came back to work for him in Georgia in 1983.

Arn's look here in early 1982 is quite different as he is much heavier and with that big '70s looking mustache. In fact, he looks a lot like his son brock now who is learning the ropes in AEW. Who knew watching this show just after the New Year's celebrations were over that they were seeing a future superstar and Hall of Famer in action against "No. 1" Paul Jones.

The match with Paul Jones vs. Jim Virtaroso (Arn Anderson) is at 12:54 in this video.

The show features co-host Roddy Piper with Gordon Solie, and also includes The Masked Superstar and the Super Destroyer, Dick Slater, Stan Hansen, Dory Funk, Jr. and Terry Funk, Tommy Rich, Buzz Sawyer, Mike Jackson, and many others.

Plus, fellow belt-enthusiasts will enjoy the presentation of new National tag team title belts to reigning champions Bob and Brad Armstrong at the opening of the show. 

Edited from a post originally published October of 2016 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway
Thanks to Kyle Rosser for additional information.

Wrestling Art: Arn Anderson on the cover of Mid-Atlantic Magazine

Art by Robby Bannister

Back on November 27, Robby Bannister presented his first throwback-style art cover to the Mid-Atlantic Gateway, a tribute to the old issues of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Magazine sold at arenas back in the 1970s and 1980s. 

The first one featured Blackjack Mulligan as United States champion back in 1976, when Mulligan was the top heel in the Mid-Atlantic territory for Jim Crockett Promotions.

The second installment jumps ahead almost a full decade and features the wrestler who would become known as "the enforcer" Arn Anderson. 

A member of the legendary Anderson family in wrestling, Arn was a cousin of Gene, Lars, and Ole Anderson in Anderson mythology, although he was briefly recognized at times as a brother, and even initially a nephew when Ole Anderson first introduced him in Georgia Championship Wrestling in 1983. 

I like to think this could have been a cover in the spring of 1985 when Arn was relatively new in the territory. It wouldn't be long before Arn would have always had a title belt around his waist, whether it be the National Tag Team title, NWA World TV title, or NWA (or WCW) World Tag team title. 

Arn was a great singles competitor as TV champion, and was most famously a member of the legendary Four Horsemen. But he is best remembered for his tag team success, holding the Southeastern tag team titles with "Mr. Olympia" Jerry Stubbs, the National Tag titles with Ole Anderson, and the NWA/WCW World Tag team titles with Tully Blanchard, Bobby Eaton, Larry Zbyszko, and Paul Roma.

Arn sadly never had a cover of Mid-Atlantic magazine, but With Robby's artistic vision we can now imagine what such a cover would have looked like. 

* * * * * *

Check out more of Robby Bannister's art on his Facebook page featuring wrestlers from various territories over different eras. 

NO. 2 IN A SERIES

Heroes and Villains: Crockett TV Taping in 1986

Pro Wrestling's Heroes and Villains May Change But Show Remains Same 
by Steve Phillips, Salisbury Post
June 11, 1986

One hundred degrees and rising. The overhead television lights beam down from the rafters and render the air circulation system at Goodman Gymnasium virtually worthless.

At ringside, things are getting hotter. Referee Tommy Young has turned his back to admonish Robert Gibson of the Rock and Roll Express for attempting to enter the rang without mating a legal tag. 

Ric Flair and Arn Anderson know this is their chance. They've got an illegal doable-team going on Ricky Morton and they're having a field day. 

The crowd responds with an angry collective roar. 

Why doesn't Young turn around? How can any referee worth his salt allow two thugs like Flair and 
Anderson to flout wrestling's code of ethics?

By the time Young finally gets back to the business at hand, Flair and Anderson have brought Morton to his knees. But Flair has re turned to his corner, a picture of wide-eyed innocence. He answers Young's glare of suspicion with an exaggerated shrug.

* * * * *

NWA World Champion Ric Flair

Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling returned to Salisbury Tuesday night with the creme de la creme of the profession in attendance. Dusty Rhodes made the scene, Baby Doll in tow. Jim Cornette waved his tennis racket and screamed at the TV cameras. Magnum T.A. made the ladies swoon.  The Rock at Roll Express, clearly the crowd favorite, wrestled no less than three matches.

I had seats at ringside in Section B, courtesy of a friend who went after advance tickets the day they went on sale. He wasn't the only one. The Salisbury Jaycees reported that all 400 ringside seats ($10 apiece ) were gobbled up three weeks ago.

General admission seats ($8.00) went on sale at 5 o'clock Tuesday afternoon, 2 1/2 hours hours before the start of the first match. A line already stretched from the ticket window down the steps and onto an adjoining sidewalk.

"I must have gotten 100 calls at work and 30 more at home about this thing," said WSTP radio announcer and Jaycee Doug Rice. The Catawba Sports Information office also fielded a number of calls even though the college had no official connection with the event.

Pro wrestling keeps packing 'em in, and will continue to do so as long as the forces of good and evil tug at one another. The names eventually change (although many of the assorted heroes and villains hang around for eternity) but the show remains the same.

And as long as pro wrestling endures, so will the Great Debate. But the lines are clearly drawn on each side and one is better off arguing ACC basketball, politics, or the relative merits of liquor by the drink.

Detractors scoff at the showmanship of the whole affair. Sports purists resent the attention the spectacle receives. Sports Illustrated did a full-color spread on pro wrestling last year and received a slew of nasty letters, mostly from high school and collegiate coaches bemoaning the comparative lack of coverage for their "legitimate" sport.

But supporters point to the numbers. Roughly 3,000 people turned out Tuesday night. That's about as many as you'll get for anything in Salisbury, be it American Legion baseball, Catawba football or a meeting on a high school merger.

In my high school days, I followed wrestling with a passion. Flair, then a cocky 24-year old fresh out of the University of Minnesota, became my personal favorite. His weekly TV exchanges with the likes of Paul Jones, Chief Wahoo McDaniel, and tiger Conway were classics. Flair always seemed one step ahead, just a little smarter.

The verbal sparring inevitably set up a big match at Raleigh's Dorton Arena the following Tuesday. My friends and I would fork over the $6 for ringside seats.

Pro wrestling and I went our separate ways during my college years. I did pick up on enough to know that Flair finally won the world heavyweight title. But the antics of Hulk Hogan, Cindy Lauper and Rowdy Roddy Piper that sparked such widespread interest a few years back aroused no more from me than passing attention.

Some of the old spark returned Tuesday night. But I also felt old beyond my 28 years.

Flair remains a big drawing card, but he has become an elder statesman. Johnny Weaver, the big name of the '60s and early '70s, is out to pasture as a television commentator. And what of Paul Jones, the All-American hero of my wrestling days, the man loved by all except those of us who cheered for rogues like Flair, Greg Valentine and Blackjack Mulligan?

Well, it seems old Paul has become a rogue himself. He was always short, 5-foot-8 or so. Now he sports a military uniform and a bushy black mustache that makes him a suitable candidate for the lead role in a documentary on the rise of the Third Reich.

Jones has gained 20 pounds and he doesn't wrestle anymore. He manages an "army" that includes a bald-headed German "baron," a slick talking black guy in a top hat and some evil looking character who wears a mohawk haircut and war paint.

Only on a soap opera, I told myself, could people and events change so in 10 years time. But therein, I think, lies the answer to what makes the whole thing tick.

If I can scurry home at lunch-time to watch "All My Children" and you can plan your Wednesday nights around "Dynasty," can professional wrestling enthusiasts live in that much of a different world?

* * * * *

The match is over. The Rock and Roll Express have done it. The crowd roars its approval. Flair charges Young, claiming Morton's pin on Anderson was illegal. It's a wasted argument.

The overhead TV lights flick off. The boos begin as Flair pleads his cased to a ringside cameraman.

"You saw it!" Flair yells. "Tell him (Young) what they did!" 

The cameraman backs away. His expression tells Flair to "leave me out of it." 

Flair shakes his head. "You know that's not right" he says. Wadded-up Coke cups fly as the boos intensify. 

Finally, Flair gives in. But the strut is still there and the blond hair still bounces as he marches towards the dressing room under police escort. Flair reaches the exit and throws a few choice comments over his shoulder.

But in this business, no one ever gets the last word. Somewhere tonight, the show goes on.

Originally published in August of 2015 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

The Anderson Family Tree: How Ric Flair and Rip Hawk were all Part of Wrestling's Greatest Family

We've joked over the years that if Flair was Rip Hawk's nephew and he was also Gene and Ole Anderson's cousin, then that must have meant that Rip Hawk and the Anderson Brothers were somehow related.

THE ANDERSON FAMILY TREE
(aka, All in the Family)
by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

It's probably fair to say that in the storybook world of pro-wrestling, especially back in the territory days, worked family connections were just as common as bonafide family relationships.

For all the Funks, Briscos, and Von Erichs there were just as many Valiants, Fargos, and Andersons.

Ric Flair and Rip Hawk
Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Champions

Sometimes wrestling would even take an actual truthful family relationship (like father and son Johnny and Greg Valentine) and create a worked relationship (Johnny and Greg Valentine as brothers in the mid-1970s when Greg first arrived in the Mid-Atlantic.)

But then there is the special case of the "Nature Boy" Ric Flair. Flair would, for a very short time, be a member of two different wrestling families soon after arriving to Jim Crockett Promotions.

RIP HAWK'S NEPHEW
Flair arrived in Charlotte in May of 1974, debuting for Jim Crockett Promotions against Abe Jacobs at the Charlotte Coliseum on Monday night, May 13.

Within two weeks, booker George Scott was toying around with different ways to align Flair to begin his slow push. There were two family relationships that sprung up almost at the same time.

Ric was first said to be the nephew of Rip Hawk, the "blond bomber" who had a notorious reputation in the area going back more than a decade. George Scott teamed Hawk and Flair up early, only a few weeks after Flair arrived, and the two would soon win the Mid-Atlantic Tag Team championship from Paul Jones and Bob Bruggers on the Fourth of July in Greensboro. Flair's star was quickly on the rise.


COUSIN TO THE ANDERSON BROTHERS
But during this same time, the story was also floated on TV and in newspaper event ads that Flair was a cousin of Gene and Ole Anderson, playing off the fact they were all three from Minnesota.

A newspaper article written in advance of a 5/24/74 show in Burlington, NC, listed the matches for the upcoming card, and included this little new factoid:

"Singles action has Ric Flair, a relative of the Anderson Brothers, facing Billy Ashe."

Three days later on 5/27 in Greenville, SC -- exactly two weeks after his debut - - Flair and Rip Hawk teamed for the first time, getting an upset win of sorts over area veterans Nelson Royal and Danny Miller. Flair's push was on.  Less than seven weeks later, they won the Mid-Atlantic tag team titles.

We've joked over the years that if Flair was Rip Hawk's nephew and he was also Gene and Ole Anderson's cousin, then that must have meant that Rip Hawk and the Anderson Brothers were somehow related. Maybe Flair wasn't a member of two different wrestling families - - maybe both were all one big happy family.

Now, go ahead and try to figure out that family tree. I dare you.


THE ANDERSON FAMILY TREE (WE PROMISE)
Extensive research (really) has unearthed the following genealogical information. This is our story and we are stickin' to it:

1. There was a family of Andersons that immigrated to Minnesota from Sweden in the late 1800s. The patriarch was Noah Anderson. He and his wife Alma had four children, two boys and two girls.
2. Their first son, Nils Anderson, married and had four sons of his own: Gene, Lars, Nils Jr., and Ole. All became pro wrestlers.
3. Their first daughter, Alma Anderson, married a Minnesota physician named Morgan Flair. They had a son named Richard "Ric" Flair who also became a pro-wrestler. (This makes Ric a first cousin to the four Anderson brothers by blood.)
4. The second daughter, Catherine Anderson, married a pro wrestler named Harvey "Rip" Hawk. (This makes Rip an uncle by marriage to Ric Flair and, as an aside, an uncle by marriage to the four Anderson brothers, too. Apparently Rip never wanted to publicly acknowledge them.)
5. Unrelated to this article, but to finish out the family tree, Noah and Alma's second son, Liam Anderson, had a son named Arn, which makes Arn blood cousin to the four Anderson brothers and Ric Flair, and as it works out, also a nephew by marriage to Rip Hawk. Liam and his wife Lesa moved to Georgia when Arn was just a baby, which would explain Arn's south-Georgia accent (as well his penchant for uttering classic southern phrases like "If I tell you a grasshopper can pull a freight train, hook him up!")
   
   

Mythical Anderson Family Tree (Click image to enlarge.)

Confused? Don't worry. As Ole Anderson would say, this is all horsesh*t. And it may go quite the way of making the argument that I had too much free time on my hands when writing this.

This article was originally published May of 2018 on the mid-Atlantic Gateway.

How Firm a Foundation: What Ole Anderson left to Arn Anderson and the Four Horsemen

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

On a recent episode of ARN, the terrific podcast with Conrad Thompson on Cumulus/Westwood One and Ad Free Shows, Arn Anderson spoke about the early days of the Four Horsemen. The context was his early association with Ole Anderson and how that association legitimized Arn early in his career.

During a recent "Ask Arn Anything" episode, a question about Arn's early family relationship with Ole Anderson and Ric Flair (a storyline that dated back to 1974 with Flair and the Anderson family), led Arn down the path of talking about what that "cousin" association with, not only Ric Flair, but with Ole Anderson in particular, meant to his career at that point, but also to the early formation of the Horsemen.  

"Ole was a huge part as far as giving us credibility off the get-go. He gave me credibility off the get-go," Arn told Conrad. "He helped give us a launching pad," Arn said, for what became the legendary force that was the Four Horsemen. 

The Enforcer, "Doube A" Arn Anderson
One-half of the National Tag Team Champions
with Ole Anderson
(Eddie Cheslock Photo)

And it wasn't lost on Arn what replacing a founding member of the Minnesota Wrecking Crew meant either. "It made me credible stepping basically into Gene Anderson's spot, being Ole's partner," he said. He described it as a "pretty stout" situation in those days. 

And while "the Rock" (Ole's longtime nickname, long before that other guy named the Rock came along) served as part of the foundation of the Horsemen for only it's first full year, that foundation he helped build proved firm enough for him to walk away and leave a valuable spot open for younger, perhaps hungrier members to take his place, including Lex Luger in 1987 and Barry Windham in 1988. 

Ole Anderson Returns to Full Time Action
Ole forming the team with Arn in the spring of 1985 meant a return to full time action in the ring. He had been retired from full time wrestling since the summer of 1983 when he devoted all of his energy into booking and promoting Georgia Championship Wrestling, in which was part owner, and later his own Georgia-based promotion after the takeover of the long-standing Georgia NWA office by the WWF that is part of the legend of Black Saturday. He wrestled sporadically in 1984 and early 1985, but more as a special attraction than as a regular part of any program or storyline. But when Jim Crockett, Jr. bought the TV time on the SuperStation in the spring of 1985 and basically absorbed Ole's struggling promotion, Ole committed to returning ot the ring full-time and finishing out the year of 1985, working to recoup some of his lost fortune that he has sunk into his promotion, but also to help develop Arn Anderson as a star for booker Dusty Rhodes. That later blossomed organically into the Four Horsemen with Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard and James J. Dillon. Ole took the late winter and spring of 1986 off to follow his son Bryant's amateur wrestling career. Business was so good for Jim Crockett Promotions that Ole came back for the balance of 1986 full-time as part of an amazing boom period for JCP. That would be his last full-time stint working in the ring, although he did come back for a part-time run, teaming with Arn in Ted Turner's WCW in late 1989 and 1990 as part of a reformation of the Horsemen.

"He was at the end of his career," Arn said on his podcast of his run with Ole in 1985. "He made that pretty clear when he came back (to working a full schedule in 1985). He wasn't going to wrestle for years, but he helped give us a launching pad."

Photo collage courtesy Mike Cline, Mid-Atlantic Grapplin' Greats

 

Arn Anderson's Launching Pad
Ole Anderson providing a launching pad for Arn actually had it's roots two years earlier. Arn has spoken often about Ole launching his career into the big time by making him an Anderson in April of 1983, when Marty Lunde was dubbed Arn Anderson, the nephew of Ole Anderson. Ole (as booker for Georgia) teamed him with second generation wrestler Matt Borne and gave them a push as part of an early version of Paul Ellering's fledgling stable, the Legion of Doom. 

Arn kept the Anderson name after leaving Georgia in Spetember of 1983 for the Southeast Wrestling territory (Alabama and panhandle of Florida) run by Ron Fuller, which was booked then by Bob Armstrong who gave Arn his first break as a main-event status wrestler, forming a team with "Mr. Olympia" Jerry Stubbs. The two were frequent Southeastern tag team champions. He made spot appearances back in Georgia during that time, returning to fight his "uncle" Ole Anderson in a few matches, who at that point was the babyface authority figure for Georgia Championship Wrestling. That additional exposure as a main-eventer on the nationally televised WTBS show gave Arn more recognition as a "top guy." 

When NWA World Champion Ric Flair toured the Southeastern area, he became friends with Arn and subsequently recruited him to join Jim Crockett Promotions in the spring of 1985, where booker Dusty Rhodes quickly teamed him up with returning Ole Anderson to reform a new Minnesota Wrecking Crew, changing the family relationship to cousins. 

The rest is history. How firm a foundation, indeed.

* * * * * *

The episode of the podcast with the discussion about Ole is "Ask Arn Anything #40" which originally aired April 27, 2021 and is available on all podcast platforms as well as the Westwood One website page for Arn's show.

 

Arn Anderson and the Significance of the Anderson Boots

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

"I was an Anderson before I was a Horseman."
- Arn Anderson

Anyone who has hung around this website for any length of time knows what a fan I am of the Anderson family in wrestling. It was Gene and Ole, the Anderson Brothers, who captured my fascination as a 13-year old fan in their epic feud with Paul Jones and Wahoo McDaniel back in 1975. And it was the match where Ole sacrificed his brother Gene to win the tag titles on television that hooked me as a fan for life.

One of the trademarks of the Anderson team was their unique maroon-and-gold striped boots they always wore in the ring. Gene and Lars Anderson (the third Anderson brother, before Ole came along) wore those boots back to the mid-1960s in Georgia. Once Ole became a member of the family in 1968, I don't think he ever wore any other style of boots in his entire career, a career that stretched across four decades.

When Ole made up-and-comer Marty Lunde an official member of the Anderson family in April of 1983 and gave him the name Arn Anderson, Lunde's career was seemingly made at that point, although I'm sure he had no idea then how significantly that name would impact his entire career, a career now entering its fifth decade.   

Arn Anderson understood the significance of the gift Ole had given him, having been a fan of the Anderson brothers himself as a teenager. When Ole took Arn as his partner in April of 1985, Arn ordered dered his own pair of "Anderson boots" and the transformation to a full blown member of the Minnesota Wrecking Crew was complete. 

Arn has talked about the boots before and their significance to him, and recently did so again on his Westwood One podcast ARN. Executive producer and co-host Conrad Thompson asked him about boots in general, and wondered if any particular color combination was a particular favorite to him.  

I love hearing Arn talk about the Anderson boots. Here is that one-minute audio clip, with a transcript below.

 

 

Transcript

CONRAD THOMPSON: Tell me about the boots. You had quite a few different color combinations - - the red and the black, black and silver, the white and the red. Is there a favorite pair or a favorite color combination, that you were really feelin' yourself, like aw sh*t, these are my best ones?

ARN ANDERSON: I felt like when the Horsemen were in their infancy . . . first of all, I have a pair of Anderson boots that will always be special, which means when Ole Anderson made me a member of his family, which made me a member of Gene's family, that's about as strong as it can get for a kid with my aspirations at that time. And the fact that I was allowed to copy his boots and for us to match was a big deal for me.

CONRAD: Yep.

ARN: And that's the boots that I hold nearest and dearest to my heart because that's when I was given my career. I was an Anderson before I was a Horseman. And for them to accept me as equals at the point of my career I was at, they'll always mean the most.

(from the episode Ask Arn Anything #29 of ARN podcast on Westwood One.)

Anderson Boots on the Arn Show

TAGGED TO THE ANDERSON BOOTS DISCUSSION

Thank you, Sarah!

Anderson Boots

 

For three decades those boots meant tag team wrestling to me. Gene and Lars in the 60s, Gene and Ole in the 70s, Ole and Arn in the 80s. I’m so glad Arn still has his. I love this picture. #MinnesotaWreckingCrew pic.twitter.com/tBQkgjuKeT

— Mid-Atlantic Gateway (@magateway) April 30, 2020

The Arn Anderson Podcast Spotlights Arn's Four NWA World TV Title Reigns

We're celebrating @TheArnShow’s World TV title episode:

Many folks may not know that the NWA World TV title, which later became the WCW World TV title, traces its origins back to the Mid-Atlantic TV title in 1974.

• Mid-Atlantic TV Title (1974): Danny Miller became the first champion, defeating Ole Anderson in a tournament that took place on TV.
• NWA TV Title (1978): Jim Crockett Promotions renamed the championship in 1978 during the reign of Baron Von Raschke. The story was that a tournament was held featuring all of the regional/territorial TV champions to crown one NWA TV Champion.
• NWA World TV Title (1985): After Dusty Rhodes defeated Tully Blanchard for the NWA title, Jim Crockett announced that the title would now be classified as a "World" title. Funny how that happened when Dusty won the title!
• WCW World TV Title (1990): Ted Turner's new wrestling company which he had just bought from Jim Crockett a little over a year earlier renamed the championship to reflect the companies new name. Arn was in the middle of his second TV title reign.

Some other TV title history tidbits we recently included on our twitter feed:

• Early TV champions (1974-1975) included Danny Miller, Ivan Koloff, Paul Jones, and a young Ric Flair!
• In fact, Ric Flair's first singles title was the Mid-Atlantic TV championship in early 1975, defeating No. 1 Paul Jones. It was Arn's first singles title for JCP in 1986.  
• OK, we know Arn Anderson officially won the World TV title from Wahoo McDaniel in a tournament in Greensboro NC on 1/4/86. But we all also know he REALLY won it when he and Tully Blanchard kicked the crutches out from under Dusty Rhodes months earlier on WTBS and Arn walked away with the belt. 
• Tully Blanchard brought the TV title back into main event prominence in 1984, but Arn Anderson took it to a whole new level in 1986 as Jim Crockett Promotions expanded nationwide and the TV title had tremendous exposure on Superstation WTBS, defended regularly on TV by Arn Anderson.

 
Don't miss the TV title episode of the the Arn Anderson podcast, available at thearnshow.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

Arn Anderson Goes Deep into Starrcade '85 on the latest Arn Show

Arn Anderson and Conrad Thompson's latest episode of the Arn podcast (12/10/19) is a grand-slam home run.

For 108 minutes, Arn dives deep into his memories of his very first Starrcade for Jim Crockett Promotions, the big two-city closed-circuit megashow Starrcade '85.

It was Thanksgiving night and JCP was putting on their biggest show in their history to that point. It sold out two of their biggest arenas simultaneously, the Greensboro Coliseum and the Omni in Atlanta, with each city seeing the matches in the other city via closed circuit mixed in together. The entire event was also broadcast closed circuit to other arenas throughout the southeast and even in the Superdome in New Orleans.

As is usual for Thompson's podcasts where they review big events from the past, the rundown of the card and Arn's thoughts and memories on it is interesting, but the real gold nuggets in this show are found early on before they even get to the show itself.  In providing context to that time in Arn's life, there are several stories that shed a fascinating light into what it must have been like for a young 25 kid with the wrestling world in front of him at the time. The most interesting to me was his story about almost leaving JCP in those early months and returning to the Pensacola territory because of being unhappy with early payoffs. If that had happened, imagine how the wrestling world would have looked different for JCP in the next three years - - it was Arn who named the Four Horsemen later in 1985.

There is also an interesting discussion about the things he learned working and traveling with Ole Anderson in those years, and some interesting light shed on Ole's transition from owning his own territory (albeit a struggling one in the end) to going back to just being one of the boys and working the road. Great stuff if you are a fan of that time period like we are.

The "Starrcade '85" episode from Westwood One is up now on the Arn Show website and is available everywhere and anywhere you get your podcasts. Required listening!

Arn Anderson Talks About Leaving Jim Crockett Promotions

The latest episode of the great new podcast ARN (arnshow.com) covers the sad time when Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard bolted Jim Crockett promotions and the NWA to join the rival WWF. It's called "Leaving Crockett", and it's available now.

This was a sad day at my house! The Four Horsemen, for all practical purposes were dead, the end of an era. And two of our favorite wrestlers ever were now in the hated WWF.

Host Conrad Thompson and the legendary "Double A" Arn Anderson talk about everything behind the scenes taking place that led to this black day in the history of Jim Crockett Promotions.

Download now on your favorite podcast provider or get it on their website at ArnShow.com.

Nobody had a career like Arn Anderson. For more than three decades he has been the epitome of “old school.” Hear him as you’ve never heard him before every Tuesday at 6am Eastern as you gives you a peak behind the curtain for the first time ever. Each week Conrad Thompson will examine Arn’s days in the territories, becoming an Anderson, creating the Four Horsemen in the NWA, becoming a Hall of Famer, and being a producer behind the scenes for years for WWE proving “The Enforcer” has a story unlike anyone else. Known for his trademark Spinebuster and incredible “promos” in front of the camera, it’s his timing and wit that has kept “the boys” in stitches behind the scenes. Hear for yourself why ARN is the new “symbol of excellence” in professional wrestling podcasting exclusively on Westwood One Podcast Network, Tuesdays at 6am Eastern.

Andersons Don't Wear Fedoras (The Arn Show)

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

On the debut episode of the Arn Anderson podcast (arnshow.com), Arn and host Conrad Thompson discuss Arn's early career touring some of the southeast territories in the NWA including Mid-South, Southeastern (Pensacola/South Alabama), and Georgia. The topic inevitably turned to Arn becoming an Anderson and wearing the infamous fedora.

We thought we'd reprise an earlier article her on the Gateway talking about that very thing.

The Arn Show drops every Tuesday at 6 AM ET at arnshow.com and soon on all podcast platforms.


ANDERSONS DON'T WEAR FEDORAS
When Arn Anderson arrived in Georgia Championship Wrestling in 1983 and began teaming with Matt Borne, the two began wearing fedoras to the ring. It was a trademark Arn kept through his time in Georgia and Southeastern Wrestling in Alabama, and on through his early days for Jim Crockett Promotions in the Carolinas.

Arn Anderson (1985)
(Photo by Eddie Cheslock)

During a visit to the Conradisson in August of 2015, I asked Arn about the origin of the fedora.

"That was all Matt Borne," he said. "He wore it when he was part of the "Rat Pack" in Mid-South Wrestling teaming with Ted DiBiase. I liked it and so we started wearing them as a team [in Georgia]."

Their manager, Paul Ellering, would occasionally wear one, too.

Right away, Georgia booker Ole Anderson didn't like it.

Ole: "What the hell are you wearing?"
Arn:  "It's a fedora,"
Ole: "Well I hate it."

"Ole just shook his head and walked away," Arn told me. "I'm not sure I completely fit the Anderson mold yet."

When Matt Borne was fired from the Georgia promotion a few months later, Arn lost his spot with the company. Bob Armstrong was leaving Georgia, headed to work for the Pensacola, FL booking office known as Southeastern Championship Wrestling. Bob got Arn booked there and the fedora went with him.

Arn soon formed a very successful tag team with Jerry Stubbs in Southeastern Championship Wrestling. Stubbs wore a mask working as "Mr. Olympia" and Arn came in also under a mask as "Super Olympia." Eventually they both worked without their masks and held the Southeastern Tag Team championships many times. Just as Matt Borne had passed on the fedora tradition to Arn, Arn now passed it on to Stubbs, and the two wore the trademark hats during their championship run there.

Southeastern Tag Team Champions Jerry Stubbs and Arn Anderson in 1984

When Arn went to work for Jim Crockett Promotions in the spring of 1985, he occasionally wore the fedora there, too. This time, when paired with Ole Anderson as the new Minnesota Wrecking Crew, Ole put his foot down.

"Ole told me,  Andersons don't wear fedoras.  And that was that."

Ole made Arn ditch the fedora (although it popped up a time or two after that) and order the trademark maroon and gold striped boots that had been worn by Andersons going back to 1966 when Gene and Lars first wore them in Georgia. Those boots became the Anderson trademark, and had been worn by Gene and Ole ever since. While Arn didn't wear them all the time, he did often wear them teaming with Ole in 1985 and 1986.

Personally, I always loved Arn in the fedora. It just suited him well and was a common thread through his early career in his first three territories.

So at least one Anderson did wear a fedora. And in the great tradition of the Anderson family, that Anderson had one of the great tag-team careers in the history of pro wrestling.

This story was edited from a larger post about Arn Anderson originally published on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway in August 2015.

Check out the complete timeline history of the Andersons in the book "Minnesota Wrecking Crew" available on Amazon.com or directly from the Mid-Atlantic Gateway (look for the PayPal link.).

For more information visit the Minnesota Wrecking Crew page on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

The Arn Show is LIVE!

TheArnShow.com

Nobody had a career like Arn Anderson. For more than three decades he has been the epitome of “old school.” Hear him as you’ve never heard him before every Tuesday at 6am Eastern as you gives you a peak behind the curtain for the first time ever. Each week Conrad Thompson will examine Arn’s days in the territories, becoming an Anderson, creating the Four Horsemen in the NWA, becoming a Hall of Famer, and being a producer behind the scenes for years for WWE proving “The Enforcer” has a story unlike anyone else. Known for his trademark Spinebuster and incredible “promos” in front of the camera, it’s his timing and wit that has kept “the boys” in stitches behind the scenes. Hear for yourself why ARN is the new “symbol of excellence” in professional wrestling podcasting exclusively on Westwood One Podcast Network, Tuesdays at 6am Eastern.

Best Of: With Ric Flair, It's "All in the Family"

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

It's probably fair to say that in the storybook world of pro-wrestling, especially back in the territory days, worked family connections were just as common as bonafide family relationships.

For all the Funks, Briscos, and Von Erichs there were just as many Valiants, Fargos, and Andersons.

Ric Flair and Rip Hawk
Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Champions
(Photo by Bill Janosik)

Sometimes wrestling would even take an actual truthful family relationship (like father and son Johnny and Greg Valentine) and create a worked relationship (Johnny and Greg Valentine as brothers in the mid-1970s.)

But then there is the case of the "Nature Boy" Ric Flair. Flair would for a short time be a member of two different wrestling families soon after arriving to Jim Crockett Promotions.

Ric Flair arrived in Charlotte in May of 1974, debuting for Jim Crockett Promotions against Abe Jacobs at the Charlotte Coliseum on Monday night, May 13.

Within two weeks, booker George Scott was toying around with different ways to align Flair to begin his slow push. There were two family relationships that sprung up almost at the same time.

Ric was first said to be the nephew of Rip Hawk, the "blond bomber" who had a notorious reputation in the area going back more than a decade. George Scott teamed Hawk and Flair up early, only a few weeks after Flair arrived, and the two would soon win the Mid-Atlantic Tag Team championship from Paul Jones and Bob Bruggers on the Fourth of July in Greensboro. Flair's star was quickly on the rise.

But during that same time, the story was also floated on TV and in newspaper promos that Flair was a cousin of Gene and Ole Anderson, playing off the fact they were all three from Minnesota.

A newspaper article written in advance of a 5/24/74 show in Burlington, NC, listed the matches for the upcoming card, and included this:

"Singles action has Ric Flair, a relative of the Anderson Brothers, facing Billy Ashe."

Three days later on 5/27 in Greenville, SC -- exactly two weeks after his debut - - Flair and Rip Hawk teamed for the first time, getting an upset win of sorts over area veterans Nelson Royal and Danny Miller. Flair's push was on.  Less than seven weeks later, they won the Mid-Atlantic tag team titles.

We've joked over the years that if Flair was Rip Hawk's nephew and he was also Gene and Ole Anderson's cousin, then that must have meant that Rip Hawk and the Anderson Brothers were somehow related.

Try to figure out that family tree!

Wait ... we did.

Extensive genealogical and ancestral research has unearthed the following information:

1. There was a family of Andersons that immigrated to Minnesota from Sweden in the late 1800s. The patriarch was Noah Anderson. He and his wife Elsa had four children, two boys and two girls.
2. Their first son, Nils Anderson, married and had four sons of his own: Gene, Lars, Nils Jr., and the youngest Ole. All became pro wrestlers.
3. Their first daughter, Alma Anderson, married a Minnesota physician named Morgan Flair. They had a son named Richard "Ric" Flair who also became a pro-wrestler. (This makes Ric a first cousin to the four Anderson brothers by blood.)
4. The second daughter, Catherine Anderson, married a pro wrestler named Harvey "Rip" Hawk. (This makes Rip an uncle by marriage to Ric Flair and, as an aside, an uncle by marriage to the four Anderson brothers, too. Apparently Rip never wanted to publicly acknowledge them.)
5. Unrelated to this article, but to finish out the family tree, Noah and Alma's second son, Liam Anderson, had a son named Arn, which makes Arn blood cousin to the four Anderson brothers and Ric Flair, and as it works out, also a nephew by marriage to Rip Hawk. Liam and his wife Lesa Anderson moved to Georgia when Arn was just a baby, which might explain Arn's south-Georgia accent (as well his penchant for uttering classic southern phrases like "If I tell you a grasshopper can pull a freight train, hook him up!")

This research illustrates the uncle-nephew relationship between Rip Hawk and Ric Flair and the cousin relationship with the Anderson brothers. Ahhh, the many wonders of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling lore.

Mythical Anderson Family Tree (Click to see larger image.)

Confused? Don't worry. As Ole Anderson would say, this is all horsesh*t. And it may go quite the way of making the argument that I had way too much free time on my hands when writing this.

Originally published May 23, 2018 on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway. 

Updated with Family Tree diagram in 2019

Arn Anderson Unleashed at Starrcast II in Las Vegas

1983: Arn Anderson and Matt Borne

It was Marty Lunde's first big break on the national scene when he became Ole Anderson's "nephew" in Georgia in 1983 and teamed with Matt Borne managed by Paul Ellering.

This was an excellent tag team and, even though only in the business less than 18 months, Arn already displayed the skills that would propel him to the top of the industry only a couple years later as one of the top tag team wrestlers in the world.

This video is relatively poor quality, but a rare glimpse of the Anderson/Borne tag team.

A little Minnesota Wrecking Crew nugget is included here:

At the 2:40 mark in the video, Pat Rose breaks out of a Borne front-facelock with a fireman's carry. As Rose moves to tag his partner, Borne tags Anderson and quickly goes to block Rose from making the tag as Arn regains the advantage on Rose. It was perfectly executed. This was a trademark move of Gene and Ole Anderson during their years together where they would constantly prevent opponents from tagging with what was known as the "tag and block."

Paul Ellering made note of this (in his usual sarcastic demeanor):

"Did you notice that block? Now what other team can be that precision timed to do something like that? I know of no other team except maybe ... deja vu ... the Andersons. But, we are the team of now."

Ellering was guiding young Anderson's career at this point, much to the frustration of Uncle Ole in the storyline. Ellering constantly trolled Ole with the fact that Ole and Gene were the Andersons of the past, but Arn, with partner Matt Borne, were the tag team of now and in the future.

It should be pointed out that while Arn was being billed here as Ole's nephew, he would later be billed as both his brother and his cousin as no one seemed to be able to keep that story straight.
 
Paul Ellering, heard here doing commentary with Gordon Solie, would soon form a stable of wrestlers called "The Legion of Doom" which would include Anderson (briefly), King Kong Bundy, Jake Roberts, the Spoiler (Don Jardine) and of course the Road Warriors.

Arn is most remembered of course for his tag teams with Ole Anderson, Tully Blanchard, and Bobby Eaton, amoung others. But his two early partnerships with Matt Borne (Georgia 1983) and Jerry Stubbs (Southeastern Wrestling 1983-1984) made for two fo the best young tag teams in the business at that time, and should not be forgotten.

Best of the Gateway: Andersons Don't Wear Fedoras

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

Arn Anderson (1985)
(Photo by Eddie Cheslock)

When Arn Anderson arrived in Georgia Championship Wrestling in 1983 and began teaming with Matt Borne, the two began wearing fedoras to the ring. It was a trademark Arn kept through his time in Georgia and Southeastern Wrestling in Alabama, and on through his early days for Jim Crockett Promotions in the Carolinas.

During a visit to the Conradisson in August of 2015, I asked Arn about the origin of the fedora.

"That was all Matt Borne," he said. "He wore it when he was part of the "Rat Pack" in Mid-South Wrestling teaming with Ted DiBiase. I liked it and so we started wearing them as a team [in Georgia]." Their manager, Paul Ellering, would occasionally wear one, too.

Right away, Georgia booker Ole Anderson didn't like it.

Ole: "What the hell are you wearing?"
Arn:  "It's a fedora,"
Ole: "Well I hate it."

"Ole just shook his head and walked away," Arn told me. "I'm not sure I completely fit the Anderson mold yet."

When Matt Borne was fired from the Georgia promotion a few months later, Arn lost his spot with the company. Bob Armstrong was leaving Georgia, headed to work for the Pensacola, FL booking office known as Southeastern Championship Wrestling. Bob got Arn booked there and the fedora went with him.

Arn soon formed a very successful tag team with Jerry Stubbs in Southeastern Championship Wrestling. Stubbs wore a mask working as "Mr. Olympia" and Arn came in also under a mask as "Super Olympia." Eventually they both worked without their masks and held the Southeastern Tag Team championships many times. Just as Matt Borne had passed on the fedora tradition to Arn, Arn now passed it on to Stubbs, and the two wore the trademark hats during their championship run there.

Southeastern Tag Team Champions Jerry Stubbs and Arn Anderson in 1984

When Arn went to work for Jim Crockett Promotions in the spring of 1985, he occasionally wore the fedora there, too. This time, when paired with Ole Anderson as the new Minnesota Wrecking Crew, Ole put his foot down.

"Ole told me,  Andersons don't wear fedoras.  And that was that."

Ole made Arn ditch the fedora (although it popped up a time or two after that) and order the trademark maroon and gold striped boots that had been worn by Andersons going back to 1966 when Gene and Lars first wore them in Georgia. Those boots became the Anderson trademark, and had been worn by Gene and Ole ever since. While Arn didn't wear them all the time, he did often wear them teaming with Ole in 1985 and 1986.

Personally, I always loved Arn in the fedora. It just suited him well and was a common thread through his early career in his first three territories.

So at least one Anderson did wear a fedora. And in the great tradition of the Anderson family, that Anderson had one of the great tag-team careers in the history of pro wrestling.

* * * * * *

This story was edited from a larger post about Arn Anderson originally published on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway in August 2015.  

Check out the complete timeline history of the Andersons in the book "Minnesota Wrecking Crew" available on Amazon.com or directly from the Mid-Atlantic Gateway (look for the PayPal link.).

For more information visit the Minnesota Wrecking Crew page on the Mid-Atlantic Gateway.

Big Star Bound: Sam Houston Upsets Arn Anderson (1985)

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway 

"...if you're big star bound, let me warn you, it's a long hard ride."  -David Allan Coe

 As the fall of 1985 began, I was convinced of one thing: Sam Houston was going to be a huge break-out star for Dusty Rhodes and Jim Crockett Promotions. It was probably a year or two away before he would be on top, but it was going to happen. He had that "it" factor.

But he never made it.

It's too bad because he was still so young and hadn't even filled out physically yet and already had so much potential and was so smooth in the ring. And he had that great Texas gimmick that Dusty would have pushed to the moon.

His personal demons took over, and it didn't help that Dusty put him in a position he just wasn't yet ready for as the top babyface in the Kansas City territory that Jim Crockett Promotions had recently taken over. That move helped finish off that territory and derailed Sam's career.

This match in the video embedded above was one of Sam's biggest moments as a "young lion" for the company. He upset Arn Anderson on "World Wide Wrestling" from September 7, 1985, at a time where Arn had only recently stepped onto the main event stage himself as one half of the modern day Minnesota Wrecking Crew. This was just as the Four Horsemen were starting to take form, even if we didn't know that at the time. You'll notice Sam with a cast on his arm; the Andersons and Tully Blanchard had jumped him weeks earlier and broken his arm as a warning to Dusty Rhodes and Magnum T.A. of what could happen to them.

Sam went on later to win the Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship and the Central States Championship for JCP before leaving for the WWF for a short stint.

On a side note, David Crockett calls the match (along with Ole Anderson and Tony Schiavone.) It always amused me how David mispronounced Arn's name as 'Iron' Anderson. He could say the word 'arm', as in "Sam Houston's broken arm", but he could never quite seem to say 'Arn' Anderson.

Also, as an avowed mark for the Andersons, I loved seeing Arn wearing the famous "Anderson boots" and executing two perfect "Anderson slams" (a modified hammerlock slam) on Houston's broken arm. Those slams even got Ole excited a little bit, as he was doing color commentary with David Crockett.

The match also features appearances by Dusty Rhodes and Magnum T.A.

1985 was a great year. Sam Houston was a part of what made that fall of 1985 special, even if part of a smaller background story. As Dusty liked to say, quoting David Allan Coe, he certainly was "big star bound."
 

A Second Look at "WWE Starrcade"

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway


When I first heard about the WWE calling their November 25 house show in Greensboro "WWE Starrcade" I was pretty down on the whole concept. (See "No Thanks. That's Not Starrcade" published 10/1/17.)

Now that the show is over, I've taken a second look and will admit that I see it in a little different light.

But just a little.

If I'm true to the normal way I feel about such things, I should celebrate what took place in Greensboro last Saturday night, right? After all, I celebrate the indies when they do something special to recognize wrestling's traditions and legends from the past. (The CWF's "Johnny Weaver Cup Tournament" and George South's sporadic "Anderson Brothers Classic" events are two examples.)

But what kept creeping into my mind was that it was the WWE that helped kill Starrcade. In 1987 they effectively blocked 99% of the cable systems from carrying Jim Crockett Promotions' first pay-per-view event which was one of what would be several fatal blows to Jim Crockett Promotions that forced the sale of the company, and an end to an era to go along with it.

If WWE had put this thing on their network, that at least would have given it more of a big-show feel, something a show with the name Starrcade deserved. In the end, it was just as I originally framed it - - a glorified house show.

Not that there is anything wrong with glorified house shows. It beats the heck out of "same-old" house shows. And there is no more special house to host one of those than the fabled Greensboro Coliseum.

Here are a few of the touches WWE put on this house show to make it a little more special:

1. Ric Flair appeared and introduced his daughter Charlotte (née, Ashley) who was defending her Women's championship that night in a steel cage. Flair was Starrcade, headlining all five Crockett events from 1983-1987. And I guess if you are going to have Starrcade in Greensboro again, you might as well have a Flair in a steel cage.
2. Ricky Steamboat appeared as well, and was was greeted respectfully by Shinsuke Nakamura in the ring. Steamboat was a big part of the first two Crockett Starrcades in 1983 and 1984.
3. The Rock and Roll Express (Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson) participated in a skit with the New Day and a four-way tag match. The Rock and Roll Express were a big part of three Crockett Starrcades in 1985, 1986, and 1987.
4. Dustin Rhodes wrestled in his "Natural" persona from the Turner WCW days. Dustin represented his father Dusty Rhodes well in a match against Dash Wilder. The American Dream was a part of all five Crockett Starrcades, headlining two of them, and is credited with coming up with the name of the event.
5. And speaking of Dash Wilder, I couldn't help but think of the Andersons seeing video clips of Wilder wrestling Rhodes on the event. Dash and his partner Scott Dawson make up our favorite WWE tag team, The Revival. Wilder wears those classic horizontal-striped boots (a style I dubbed "Anderson boots" years ago) that were synonymous with the Anderson tag teams (comprised at different times of Gene, Lars, Ole, and Arn Anderson) of the 1960s-1980s. Ole and Arn Anderson were a big part of the Crockett Starrcades, as was Gene Anderson behind the scenes. Wilder is a North Carolina native who grew up during the Crockett Starrcade era.
6. It was fitting that Charles Robinson was the main referee on this show, having been a part of so many WCW Starrcades in the 1990s and being such a huge fan of Jim Crockett Promotions and Mid-Atlantic Wrestling growing up in the 1970s and 1980s. That, and he's the best referee in the business.
7. And finally, maybe the best moment of them all from the whole night - - Arn Anderson executing a picture perfect spine-buster on Dolph Ziggler in the center of that Greensboro ring, and then reminding Dolph he was in Horsemen country. Arn was a big part of the final three Crockett Starrcades from 1985-1987.

Arn Anderson hits Dolph Ziggler w/ a Spinebuster at #WWEStarrcade! pic.twitter.com/MZ6LCEwBMA

— NXTFanNation 🎄⛄️ (@NXTFanNation) November 26, 2017

It isn't clear what percentage of the fans in attendance last Saturday truly understood the history of Starrcade, and the history of the event in that building. Some fans surely did, like Front Row Section D who made their own return to Starrcade, even if from the 5th row in 2017. But I guess in the end what's important is that the name Starrcade continues to be relevant and that those memories are kept alive. After all, that's our sole purpose here at the Gateway.

I guess I should give thanks for WWE Starrcade after all.

Make It Good: Dusty Rhodes channels his inner Marlon Brando

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

On a recent episode of "The JJ Dillon Show" podcast (mlwradio.com), JJ and co-host Rich Bocchini discussed the infamous incident in October of 1986 where the Four Horsemen jumped Dusty Rhodes in the parking lot of Jim Crockett Promotions on Briarbend Drive in Charlotte. That ambush left the American Dream with a broken arm as he prepared for a big steel cage tag-team battle with the Horsemen that weekend in Charlotte.

Dusty got the inspiration for this scene where he is tied to Klondike Bill's ring truck
from Marlon Brando in the movie "One Eyed Jacks."

As it played out, the Horsemen, in two separate vehicles, followed an unsuspecting Rhodes in his little red convertible to the offices of Jim Crockett Promotions where they attacked Rhodes in the parking lot, beat him down, and tied him to a ring-truck, arms stretched out as if he were to be crucified.

One of the most often-discussed moments in that big angle was when Dusty cried out three famous words just before the Horsemen smashed his right hand with a baseball bat - -

"Make it good!"

There was much discussion by fans at the time suggesting this was Rhodes' exposed attempt to verbally direct the action in the skit taking place that he was a part of. But JJ maintains that wasn't the case.

"There were critics that didn't like Dusty," Dillon told Bocchini, "who said, 'Oh, there's Dusty, he had to let everyone know that he was orchestrating everything' - - which was not true."

JJ explained that it all had to do with Dusty's fondness for the cinema. Especially westerns.

"Dusty was somebody who loved the movies," Dillon said. "and he loved seeing moments in a movie and re-creating those moments. And one of those moments was in the movie 'One Eyed Jacks' where Marlon Brando was this gunslinger who was terrorizing this town."

In the movie, Marlon Brandon's character Rio had been betrayed by partner and fellow-outlaw "Dad" Longworth (portrayed by Karl Malden) following a bank robbery the two had committed together. Many years later, Longworth had become Sheriff, and when Rio returns to town to confront Longworth, Rio is captured, tied to a hitching post and whipped. But the worst blow of all was still yet to come.

Sheriff "Dad" Longworth (Karl Malden) taunts Rio (Marlon Brando) in the 1961 film "One Eyed Jacks."

Rio, barely able to speak, tells Longworth, "You better kill me." His meaning was that after all you've done to me - - you've betrayed me, you've whipped me - - you might as well kill me. Because if you don't, I'll be back to kill you.

But Longworth says killing him isn't necessary. He picks up his rifle and smashes it down on Rio's right hand, the hand this gunslinger used to draw and shoot his gun. Without the use of that right hand, he would be no threat to anyone.

JJ said it is this scene that Rhodes was channeling in the angle with the Horsemen. Rhodes was telling the Horsemen that if you are going to try and take me out, you better make it good. 

In Dusty's recreation of the scene from "One Eyed Jacks" with the Horsemen, the rifle became Ole's baseball bat, and the hitching post became one of Klondike Bill's ring trucks. The Horsemen tied him to the truck, and you could hear Ole telling JJ to make sure his paid cameraman zooms in close. Even though Rhodes was tied to the truck, Ole and Arn held him still as Tully Blanchard wielded the blow of the baseball bat on Rhodes' right hand.

Make it good.  You better kill me.

It was a bit of revenge for Blanchard in particular, who was on crutches due to an earlier injury from a match in Greensboro when Rhodes refused to release a figure-four leg lock.

At the very end of the video tape of the Horsemen angle, you hear JJ Dillon tell Dusty, "I want this to serve as a warning, Rhodes. We'll see you tomorrow night in Charlotte, you cripple!"

In the movie "One Eyed Jack," Marlon Brando warns Karl Malden he'd better kill him. But Malden chose not to do so and at the end of the movie, his drawing hand healed, Brando returns to kill Malden in a final showdown.

And even though Rhodes had warned the Horsemen to "make it good", they didn't make it good enough. The next night in Charlotte, Ole and JJ Dillon (substituting for the injured Blanchard) entered the cage in Charlotte. Rhodes, his right hand and arm in a cast, introduced his mystery partner - - - Nikita Koloff. The hated "Russian Nightmare" had joined the "American Dream" Dusty Rhodes to battle the Four Horsemen in the wake of Magnum T.A.'s career-ending automobile accident. The huge crowd in Charlotte loved it. It wound up being the most dramatic and emotional moment of the year.

This post was republished in edited form on Friday, February 27, 2021.