WCW: 'Ric Flair & The 4 Horseman'

Source:Amazon- WCW's original 4 Horseman.

"One of the first, and coolest, factions in sports-entertainment was the Four Horsemen. This stable was a powerful group that ran roughshod over WCW and lasted for the better part of a decade with its various members, including 16-time World Champion Ric Flair. The constant among the Four Horsemen, the "Nature Boy" was joined by other members such as Arn Anderson, Ole Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Barry Windham, Sting, Lex Luger, Brian Pillman, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, and more. This release covers the creation of the Horsemen, with interviews from many of the superstars that were part of it, as well as highlights and complete matches." 

From Amazon 

"Originally formed over thirty five years ago, the Four Horsemen are still considered within the

professional wrestling industry to be the measuring stick as far as stables are concerned. Coming into existence in Jim Crocket promotions in 1985, the original Horsemen lineup consisted of

Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard and Ole and Arn Anderson, AKA the Minnesota Wrecking Crew... 

Source:Cultaholic Wrestling- the original WCW 4 Horseman.

From Cultaholic Wrestling 

I guess I look at World Championship Wrestling's 4 Horseman the way I look at the Pittsburgh Steelers Steel Curtain defense or the Showtime Los Angeles Lakers, or Phil Chicago Bulls from the early 1990s.. I'm interested in the original group. 

There's the old sayings in Hollywood that the original is always better than the sequel, or there will never be another original. Well, by the late 1980s the 4 Horseman in the WCW were no longer the Horseman. Ric Flair was mostly doing his own thing and settling his own scores with Ron Garvin, Ricky Steamboat, and Terry Funk personally. Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard were in the WWE. Barry Windham and Lex Lugar were never really full-time members of this new group anyway. The 4 Horseman were almost out of business all together, at least as a group until they short of came back briefly as a group in the mid 1990s. 

When I think of the 4 Horseman, it's Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, and Ollie Anderson. If Arn and Tully weren't part of the Horseman, they would be world heavyweight championship contenders themselves. They weren't the 4 best wrestlers in the WCW, but if they were all wrestling singles full-time, Ric, Arn, and Tully, would all be top 10 contenders for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. They were the best of the best in the WCW. 

The Horseman weren't just 4 friends, 5 friends if you include James Dillon their manager. This was a partnership whose job was to watch the back of each other and to make sure that all of their members were always taken care of. They were the originally bad boys of pro sports who were so good at being bad and eliminating the competition, that if you didn't have to like them as a group and individually, you at least had to respect them and be fans of them, even if you always rooted for any of them to loose, regardless of who they were wrestling. 

The guys after the fab 4 of the Horseman, were guys who were probably fans and admirers of the Horseman who wanted to be part of the elite wrestling, but other than Lex Lugar, Barry Windham, and Sting, were never good enough to be full-time members of the group. Paul Roma, Dean Millenko, and unfortunately many other WCW wrestlers who were never in the league of the Horseman, but were part-time members anyway.  

I think the Horseman went out of business in the 1990s because they were all getting older and perhaps their party lifestyles caught up with them, but also because the WCW was getting bigger and better, with more and better competition. But from about 1985-89, the 4 Horseman represented the best of the WCW.