The Rise And Fall Of The Four Horsemen

One of the most iconic stables in pro wrestling history remains The Four Horsemen. They were not the first stable ever created, but the group was a rock-solid faction of rogues who enjoyed an enviable lifestyle full of riches and glory. 

The inaugural version of the action was formed in 1985 in Jim Crockett Promotions with Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, and Arn & Ole Anderson of the Minnesota Wrecking Crew. Joining them was Tully’s valet Baby Doll, but she was soon replaced by JJ Dillon as the group’s manager. 

This version of the Four Horsemen talked the talk, walked the walk and, importantly, drew money, ratings and interest wherever they went. That original group couldn’t stay together forever, though, and between 1985 and 1999 there were many different incarnations of the Four Horsemen. 

They were top heels, valliant babyfaces and complete afterthoughts at various times, but their legacy remains intact and you will see the group’s influence on the business to this very day. 

The Original Four Horsemen

In the original Horsemen, you had Ric Flair, the perennial NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion who set the industry standard for in-ring work. Then there was Tullly Blanchard, who everyone assumed was a future world champion due to being the cool, cocky ring general who was a star on the rise, followed by Ole and Arn Anderson who were the perfect tag team as masters of working over their opponents and cutting the ring in half. 

Though every member of the group could cut a great promo on their own, JJ Dillon fit perfectly in the Horsemen as the ‘corporate face’ of the faction. It helped immeasurably that JJ was a former wrestler himself and was unafraid to take bumps or get his head cut open for the cause. 

From the moment they formed, the Horsemen ran riot across the territories of the National Wrestling Alliance, targeting beloved babyfaces like Dusty Rhodes, the Rock 'n' Roll Express, Nikita Koloff, and Magnum TA. 

The Horsemen would break bones and bust people open and then get on the microphone and brag about it, before promising to party like madmen in whatever city they happened to be in that night. 

They really did live the lifestyle too, decking themselves out in fine suits and expensive shoes, taking limousines to the arenas and consuming enough alcohol on any given weekend to shock anybody. 

The name itself, though, was a happy accident. The group were cutting a televised promo for a local market and were running out of time when Arn Anderson improvised a line likening the havoc they were wreaking to the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, while flashing what would become the instantly iconic hand symbol of four fingers raised in the air. 

For the group's early years, the Horsemen were the main thing that kept the NWA relevant in the pro wrestling war with Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Federation, but the group soon had to change. 

Four Horsemen Members Change

Ole Anderson became the first member to leave the Four Horsemen, being replaced by the young Lex Luger in early 1987. Ole’s departure from the group in storyline was inevitable after he cost himself and Arn the NWA World Tag Team Titles at Starrcade 1986, and it was only expedited after he missed a booking in order to watch his son wrestle, with Blanchard and Dillon questioning Ole's commitment to the group.  

With Ole gone, Arn formed his legendary tag team with Tully Blanchard, while there were high hopes for Lex Luger in the group and he teamed with his stablemates inside WarGames on the Great American Bash tour as they took on the team of Dusty Rhodes, the Road Warriors, and Nikita Koloff. 

Luger was out of the Four Horsemen by the end of 1987, however, as he cut his famous “I am an athlete” speech and indirectly challenged Flair, earning himself a spot to be kicked out of the group.

Luger would then feud with the Horsemen and he soon recruited Barry Windham to the cause, with the team even defeating Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard for the NWA World Tag Team Titles at Clash of the Champions I in March 1988.

In a great twist, though, the Nature Boy lured Windham to the Horsemen and he turned on Luger just one month later, handing the belts back to Arn and Tully on an episode of World Championship Wrestling.

This led to arguably the greatest version of the Four Horsemen of Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Barry Windham and JJ Dillon and the four members held gold across the National Wrestling Alliance. Flair reigned as NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion, Barry Windham was United States Champion, and Arn and Tully held the World Tag Team Titles.

Jim Crockett Promotions being a mess behind the scenes as they tried to compete with the World Wrestling Federation soon caused issues for the Horsemen, however, as Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard hastily dropped the NWA World Tag Team Titles to the Midnight Express before leaving for the WWF, forming the Brain Busters. Flair, Windham, and Dillon continued to refer to themselves as Horsemen and they even recruited Kendall Windham for a brief period, although Kendall is not recognised as an official member of the faction. By the end of 1988, Jim Crockett Promotions had been purchased by Ted Turner and TBS in a $9 million deal and World Championship Wrestling was formed.

The faction only continued to fall apart, however, as Dillon left for an office job in WWF, while Windham suffered an injury when dropping the United States Title to Lex Luger at Chi-Town Rumble 1989 and he soon jumped ship to WWF as The Widowmaker.

The Four Horsemen were then briefly renamed The Yamazaki Corporation under the management of Hiro Matsuda after JJ Dillon headed to New York as the group feuded with the likes of Ricky Steamboat, Lex Luger, Eddie Gilbert, and Sting but that name failed to stick and the group disbanded in May when brief member Michael Hayes reformed The Fabulous Freedbirds and Matsuda left.

While the Four Horsemen were largely gone for the time being, this didn’t slow down Flair who engaged in a classic rivalry over the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Title with Ricky Steamboat that was ultimately won by the Nature Boy, who lost the series 2-1 but ended the programme as the world champion courtesy of his win at WrestleWar 1989. 

The Four Horsemen Turn Babyface

While the group was in limbo for several months, a new version of the Four Horsemen would be formed as 1989 came to an end.

Flair had popular programmes with Ricky Steamboat and Terry Funk in 1989 and he would soon form an alliance with Sting against Funk and the Great Muta, making The Nature Boy a babyface in the process. This would lead to a babyface version of the Four Horsemen composed of Flair, Arn Anderson, Ole Anderson, and Sting forming following Arn’s return to WCW from his WWF stint. Tully Blanchard would have also joined the group, but news of his failed drug test while in WWE made its way to Atlanta and WCW opted not to sign him.

The Four Horsemen feuded with the J-Tex Corporation of Terry Funk, The Great Muta, The Dragonmaster, Dick Slater, and Buzz Sawyer in the early portion of 1990, but Flair's group wouldn’t be babyfaces for long as they kicked Sting out of the faction at Clash of the Champions X in February after he challenged Ric Flair to a match for the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship. In reality, though, Steve Borden wanted to be on his own away from the Horsemen.

A new version of the Four Horsemen was soon formed as part of the group's feud with Sting and others, with Ole Anderson becoming the group's manager in April 1990 when he retired from in-ring competition. Barry Windham then returned to WCW and the Horsemen in May and Sid Vicious was added to the stable one week later.

Vicious didn’t exactly endear himself to his stablemates, however, as  Sid was known to be embarrassing, inept, selfish, and ridiculous, according to his stablemates. By May 1991, Sid had left WCW for the WWF and turbulence behind the scenes under the leadership of WCW Vice President Jim Herd resulted in the firing of Ric Flair while he was holding the big gold belt and he showed up in Vince McMahon's promotion with the title later in 1991.

The exits ended the Four Horsemen for the time being. Windham and Anderson remained a part of WCW, with Anderson teaming with Larry Zbyszko as The Enforcers before they joined the Dangerous Alliance. Anderson and Windham even feuded with each other during the period Flair was away from WCW.

Three Horsemen?

After a couple of years in WWF, Flair made his triumphant return to WCW in February 1993 and he soon linked up with Arn and Ole Anderson. It was then decided that a full-scale Four Horsemen reunion would take place at that’s year’s Slamboree in May.

This was supposed to bring about the return of Tully Blanchard but he and WCW failed to agree to terms on a deal. WCW then scrambled for a replacement and, for some reason, landed upon that wrestler being Paul Roma.

Roma was a puzzling choice in the Four Horsemen and his brief seven-month run as part of the babyface Three Horsemen is rightly regarded as the weakest point in the stable’s history and a further indication that WCW didn’t really know what they had with the group.

This version of the group spent their time feuding with Barry Windham and The Hollywood Blondes, with Arn Anderson and Paul Roma enjoying two reigns as WCW World Tag Team Champions while Flair defeated Windham for the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Title at Beach Blast.

The group came to an end on an infamous night in Blackburn, England on October 27, 1993, however, when Sid Vicious stabbed Arn Anderson with a pair of scissors in a hotel brawl that left both men hospitalised. With Arn on the shelf, Roma left the group and formed Pretty Wonderful with Paul Orndorff.

Reformation & Feud With The nWo

The Horsemen were put on ice until 1995, although Arn Anderson and Ric Flair continued to team across WCW programming. Eventually, however, Flair and Anderson began to have issues which led to a match at Fall Brawl 1995 where Arn’s new friend Brian Pillman helped him secure a big win over his long-time friend. 

Flair wasn’t having that and he recruited Sting to help him combat his former best friend and the Loose Cannon, only to perform a double cross on Sting, who had proven himself to the the most gullible man in wrestling by 1995, at Halloween Havoc. 

Soon after Flair, Anderson and Pillman added Chris Benoit to the group, forming the new Four Horsemen. Pre-New World Order, this version of the group feuded with the top babyfaces of the day, including Sting, Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage and Lex Luger, even temporarily joining forces with the Dungeon of Doom in their bid to end Hulkamania once and for all. This would see Ric Flair add two more WCW World Heavyweight Title reigns to his tally, twice winning the gold from Randy Savage.  

There was more glamour to the group too as Woman and Miss Elizabeth joined the Horsemen, but Pillman was out of the faction by February 1996 after working everyone into a shoot and getting released to he could sign with WWE via ECW.

A few months later, Pillman was replaced by Steve "Mongo" McMichael at the Great American Bash when Mongo turned on Kevin Greene during a tag team match against Flair and Arn, removing a Horsemen t-shirt from a suitcase before he decked Greene with the case. The change also added Debra to the faction as a new ringside valet, while the former NFL standout's charisma and hard-partying lifestyle made up for any grappling deficiencies he may have had.

With the formation of the nWo at Bash at the Beach 1996, the Four Horsemen became de facto babyfaces and Flair & Anderson teamed with longtime rivals Sting and Lex Luger against the nWo in a losing effort inside WarGames at Fall Brawl. The Horsemen remained prevalent in WCW's fightback against Hollywood Hogan and co. but they were far from the focal point of WCW as Nitro essentially became the nWo show.

The Four Horsemen was further diluted in 1997 with the arrival of Jeff Jarrett from the WWF. Jarrett was briefly a member of the faction from February to June, although his membership remains debated to this day.

The group would change forever in the summer of 1997 when Arn Anderson announced his retirement due to serious back and neck injuries. Arn brought in Curt Hennig as the newest member of the Horsemen as part of his retirement, but Hennig would turn on the stable after just one month inside WarGames at Fall Brawl, which allowed the nWo to defeat the Horsemen. After McMichael dropped the United States Title to Hennig shortly after, Flair disbanded the Horsemen once again.

The Final Four Horsemen

Issues between Ric Flair and World Championship Wrestling would arise in early 1998 when Flair no-showed a TV taping and was taken off TV. He and Eric Bischoff then sued each other, but the fans continued to let it be known that they wanted Flair back on their screens. 

Meanwhile, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko and JJ Dillon, who was back working for WCW, kept going to Arn Anderson and annoying him about reforming the Horsemen, until Double-A finally relented and did so, with the Crippler, Iceman and Mongo being joined by a returning Ric Flair in a historic moment in September 1998. 

Sadly, though the lineup was promising and the reaction to their reformation was very strong, the pay-off couldn't live up to the set-up. The group simply got lost in the shuffle, while Flair started a feud with Bischoff. 

The decline of the Four Horsemen coincided with the decline of WCW overall as the storylines involving the group descended into silliness and WCW slid towards the abyss. One of those storylines saw Ric Flair become the on-screen president of WCW and defeat Hollywood Hogan for the WCW World Heavyweight Title with the assistance of Little Naitch, AKA referee Charles Robinson.

The faction then lost a member as McMichael departed pro wrestling in March 1999, and the Four Horsemen would soon be no more as Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko quit the group in May in protest of Ric helping his son David Flair. Malenko and Benoit formed the Revolution with Shane Douglas and Perry Saturn and ended the Four Horsemen for good in the process.

It was a sudden and disappointing end to one of the greatest professional wrestling stables of all-time. 

The Legacy of the Four Horsemen

Though the Horsemen ceased to exist in 1999, their influence and legacy continues to be felt in wrestling. 

Even when they weren't riding high and on top, they were hugely influential. The most obvious homage to the Horsemen was WWE’s Evolution, fronted by noted NWA aficionado Triple H and featuring Flair in a prominent role, while Anderson helped mould them backstage in his role as a producer. 

In TNA there has been Fortune, an obvious tip of the hat, while AEW’s The Pinnacle managed by Tully Blanchard was unmistakably Horsemen-esque, albeit with a modern twist. 

The Four Horsemen weren’t always booked or pushed to their full potential, and several of their incarnations were weak, but when the Horsemen were good they were really good. 

They will often be imitated, but never quite duplicated. Deserved inductees into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2012, their list of accomplishments and accolades speaks for themselves.