by Dave Meltzer
Lunde, who played football, wrestled and powerlifted in Rome, GA while growing up, broke in under his real name in 1982. Due to his resemblance to Ole Anderson, he was re-named Arn Anderson after about one year in the business, and billed from Minneapolis, MN, since Ole & Gene Anderson had made the Minnesota Wrecking Crew legendary heels in the Southeast.
After being a headliner in the small Alabama promotion teaming with and later feuding with Jerry “Mr. Olympia” Stubbs, he was brought into the Carolinas to continue the Anderson family dynasty. He was billed as a nephew, cousin or brother, depending on the week, of Ole’s before the fictitious world seemed to settle on him being cousins of both Ole and Ric Flair. Put together with Ole, Flair and Tully Blanchard, they became the original pro wrestling Four Horseman in 1985, in many ways a forerunner to nearly everything that goes on in pro wrestling today, and a name that has remained in existence on-and-off in wrestling to this day.
With Flair as the perennial world champion, Anderson, known as “The Enforcer,” was generally the fourth banana on the four-man team which had later incarnations with the likes of Lex Luger and Barry Windham during its glory days after Ole phased out of active wrestling. Arn usually feuded over the tag team and TV titles holding tag titles with partners such as Stubbs, Ole Anderson, Blanchard, Larry Zbyszko, Bobby Eaton and Paul Roma. He and Blanchard are one of only four teams in history to have held both the NWA (or WCW) and WWF tag titles, and was TV champion on five occasions. Anderson was often times high on the Observer balloting for tag team of the year and best on interviews, capturing the 1990 award in the latter.
Although the run that solidified his reputation came from a push from booker Dusty Rhodes, by 1988, with Jim Crockett Promotions on the verge of bankruptcy which many blame on Rhodes’ booking patterns, Anderson and Blanchard, fed up with how things were going, quit JCP to join the WWF, where in a land of the Giants, they became the undersized tag team known as The BrainBusters with Bobby Heenan as manager and had classic matches against The Rockers, Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty.
The other irony of Anderson’s career is that he was considered too small to be pushed to the top during his heyday, yet by today’s standards he’d be considered a large wrestler. But in his heyday he was considered one of the best workers in the business, but by today’s standards his work, while solid, would be hard pressed to get him past the middle of the shows.
After the demise of Rhodes, and Ric Flair obtaining power in what was now WCW, Flair was able to lure both Anderson and Blanchard back in late 1989, although Blanchard never did return as after giving notice and dropping the tag team titles back to Demolition, he failed a WWF drug test, was suspended by the WWF and WCW pulled its $250,000 per year offer off the table.
Alternating between face and heel, Anderson had another strong run for a few years before it was believed that he had run his course. There were periods his career was virtually iced out. There were periods he was doing fast jobs for the likes of Erik Watts, Van Hammer or The Renegade, the next generation of supposed superstars of the future that he, and most of the fans as well realized—even though promoters at the time couldn’t see it—couldn’t even carry his jock.
At one time, when Bill Watts was brought back in control of WCW, after jobbing Anderson to his son, he basically cut Anderson loose figuring there was nothing left to get out of him. But in every case, both being jobbed out to the future nobodies of wrestling, after a herniated disc in a 1992 match against the Steiners that threatened his career and after an overseas incident where he was stabbed silly in a hotel room brawl with Sid Eudy after both had apparently had too much to drink, he came back, not quite to superstardom, but to that level one notch below where he seemed to fit perfectly.
The most recent neck injury, suffered nearly one year ago, was far more serious, and he didn’t come through surgery with flying colors. It had largely been acknowledged for a few months that Anderson wouldn’t be able to return to the ring, and every now and then ideas were thrown out, either of being a color commentator or as the late 90s version of the J.J. Dillon of the 80s with the Horseman to take advantage of his interview skills although the last word we’d heard was that the powers that be nixed the idea when Flair pushed for it.
He currently and has been working behind-the-scenes with the WCW booking department. He wasn’t supposed to steal the show on Nitro on 8/25. That was for today’s glamour boys who are just toooo sweet. But unlike the glamour boys from ten years earlier in the same position, this time Arn Anderson won’t be still around in a prominent role while they become “Whatever happened to?” trivia questions.
SEPTEMBER 8
This week’s major controversy revolves around the skit that Kevin Nash (as Arn Anderson), Syxx (as Ric Flair), Marcus Bagwell (as Curt Hennig) and Konnan (as Steve McMichael) did on Nitro doing their imitation of the now famous Arn Anderson interview from one week earlier.
As the story goes, the deal was played out ahead of time where they would dedicate the show to Anderson, and then the NWO would make so much fun of him with the combination of the two things theoretically building up tremendous heat. Which is what happened. We got more reaction, some very positive thinking it was hilarious and some very negative thinking it was in terrible taste, largely depending upon what part of the country people were from and who they grew up watching.
Originally the finish of the skit was going to have the Horseman run out and totally clean house on the NWO, with Anderson watching from the stage area with his arms folded and a big smile on his face. Before the show started, Terry Taylor was told by Eric Bischoff to nix the Horseman comeback and not let them do the run-in, which it is believed came at the suggestion of Nash. Later in the show, Flair was supposed to instead do an interview, but by this time Flair was so mad he refused to go on because he felt that by not coming out during the skit it made the Horseman look so bad that there was nothing he could do to salvage the situation.
Anderson wasn’t as mad immediately after the skit, but was said to be furious later that night including winding up in a confrontation with booker Kevin Sullivan after calling home and finding out how mad and upset his wife and 12-year-old son were. Flair wasn’t so mad about the portrayal of him, but of the portrayal of his best friend who he’s protective of and the mockery of the very serious retirement interview he did the week before. There were even reports Anderson wound up so mad he was thinking of quitting the company.
Flair’s contract expires in February and he hasn’t signed an extension, although WWF due to the lawsuit against WCW is very leery about doing anything that would look like they were interested in WCW talent right now even though you know they’d like to have Flair, if only as primarily a goodwill ambassador more than a full-time wrestler.
There are also reports that some or all of this behind the scenes controversy was simply a Kevin Sullivan/Brian Pillman angle although my impression is that isn’t the case. Of course this only make sense if the War Games were to turn out to be Horseman vs. NWO, which isn’t going to be the case.
The skit itself was absolutely hilarious in spots, particularly Waltman with the fake oversized nose, the clothes, the tears and the dancing, and Nash was incredible, but it went on way too long and realistically was so inside and biting, since Anderson’s mother died very young due to alcoholism, that one could see if the former scenario is the real one that it was designed that way by Nash to stick it to Anderson.
The heat between the Horseman and NWO is legit to a point that’s silly because at the Clash on 8/21, there was a bomb threat called in Nashville on the Flair match, and Nash was joking after the show that Anderson must have called it in because they wanted management to think somebody actually cared about Flair. And there is a major level of discomfort of late in the dressing room regarding people trying to take all the credit for the recent success.
The funny part is, the TV ratings are still slightly lower for the year as compared to the same period the previous year before th
ere was a such thing as the NWO. Buy rates aren’t all that different, and that’s with hotshotting guys like Kevin Greene, Reggie White and Dennis Rodman all over the place. House business is way up, but the most valuable person when it comes to that is Zane Bresloff and the fact that the television show Nitro, and not any of the individuals, has become super hot as the rank-and-file house shows aren’t put together with strong line-ups to draw big houses to begin with, and tickets are being sold mainly for the name brand as opposed to any singular individual.
Not that the wrestlers and angles aren’t overall hotter this year when it comes to drawing because they are, but WCW is at a point right now where any individual, whether it be Savage, Hogan, Flair, Sting, Hall or Nash could leave tomorrow and it would make no serious difference in ratings, buy rates or arena grosses.
SEPTEMBER 15
The aftermath of the NWO skit where they did a parody of the Arn Anderson retirement interview is another interesting piece of curiosity.
The angle and much of what was said and done was known ahead of time to all the particular parties being mocked. However, from all accounts after the show in Pensacola, the heat was really bad between the two sides, supposedly because Kevin Nash in particular had gone too far or hit too close to home on certain subjects, in particular drinking, when mocking Anderson.
There was also supposedly a lot of heat from the Horsemen side as originally the parody was supposed to end with the Horsemen hitting the ring and cleaning house while Arn Anderson, who never appeared before the cameras on a show designed as a tribute to him, stood on the ramp and watched with a smile on his face. However, just before the show went on the air, Terry Taylor told Ric Flair that was being nixed and instead Flair was supposed to do an interview as his comeback later in the show. As is well known, Flair, after the segment aired, refused to do the interview and there was a lot of concern because of the heat with Flair, and Anderson after he called home, based on the parody hitting home. How much of that was a work and how much was a New Japan style shoot angle becomes a question, particularly in the current wrestling environment.
If Flair and Anderson’s reactions were an angle, done in conjunction with Kevin Sullivan and kept between those three with virtually nobody else knowing about it, everyone else in the company was being worked. We know for certain that the NWO and none of the other wrestlers were in on the angle. If it was a work, it was more a work on the wrestlers involved in the skit than it was on anyone else, but Sullivan likes doing those things such as attempting to work the boys in his angle with Pillman and in his wife having an affair with Chris Benoit and the two even having a fake bar fight in front of nobody but the boys after a Nitro in New Orleans.
In fact, the heat from the other side because of what they believed was heat from the Horseman side reached what could be termed scary proportions later that night to the point there were people thinking another Arn Anderson-Sid Vicious situation, not as severe but that basic situation, could take place. Even as late as after the 9/8 Nitro in Milwaukee, there continued to be what several close to the situation called legitimate heat between the two sides although the situation was no longer considered dangerous.
We’ve learned in so many cases that Sullivan and Eric Bischoff, stemming from last year’s Pillman angle, get off on working the boys on their angles even if it never pays off in traditional wrestling storyline fashion and in the long run only leads to even more mistrust then the natural wrestling day-to-day business produces naturally among the employees. In addition, sources close to the situation claim that Flair and Anderson’s acting was too good and emotions too real for it not to have been legit. Flair’s comeback angle on the 9/8 Nitro was his best interview in a long time and nothing short of yet another in a three week string of classic memorable stuff stemming from this angle.
This brings two other questions to mind. If Flair’s actions in not doing the interview on 9/1 were legit, how come there was no disciplinary action taken against him for refusing to perform on a live television show (oh yeah, because there is no discipline when it comes to behavior of any top star in wrestling, not that if Flair was truly as upset as he appeared to be with the manner of mocking the injury-forced retirement of his best friend that his actions weren’t somewhat understandable)? And how come the main event was changed for the 9/14 Winston-Salem PPV to Horseman vs. NWO to fit perfectly into this storyline?
This change was supposedly made mid-week at a WCW booking meeting stemming from the reaction so strong both positively and negatively to the parody that the main event change was an obvious business decision. The fact it wasn’t something planned out in advance could be confirmed by the fact that Benoit was booked into Japan starting 9/11 for the New Japan tour, and neither he nor New Japan were informed his debut would have to be delayed a week until the end of this past week because WCW was going to need him to stay for the PPV show.
However, if there was really internal fear about problems occurring, changing the main event wouldn’t take place. In a situation that was legit, like the Bret Hart-Shawn Michaels backstage problem at Raw, because of those problems the WWF was forced to keep the two apart for several months rather than book them against each other as had been planned and had already been built up in the storyline.
Speaking of Benoit, in the angle the NWO was supposed to bring a mannequin out to play the part of Benoit. Several reasons were given that day as excuses as to why that was nixed, although it’s pretty clear from Nitro on 9/8 that the real reason was because Hogan and Bischoff were going to use a mannequin in a skit the next week.
SEPTEMBER 29
I don’t know if anything is certain in regard to the Four Horsemen. We’ve heard talk about the entire group disbanding with Flair going on his own as a single, and the group being put together again with Dean Malenko as the fourth member. There were complaints by certain headliners regarding Malenko’s size and having to sell for him that have the potential to stand in the way of the latter. The political problems between the Hall/Nash faction and Flair continue to be pretty heated. They’re cordial to each other, but the underlying animosity continues to exist.
27 – AJW Goes Bankrupt
SEPTEMBER 1
The future of the 29-year-old All Japan Womens wrestling promotion, the third oldest major wrestling promotion in the world, has come into serious question over the past week with word that the company may be one step from bankruptcy.
The company, run by the same Matsunaga Brothers who formed it in 1968, hasn’t paid its talent and office staff since the end of March which has caused several of its top stars and many key members of the office staff to leave of late including wrestlers Aja Kong, Kyoko Inoue and Toshiyo Yamada along with undercard wrestlers Yumi Fukawa and Rie Tamada. The company’s long-time headquarters, a combination business office, restaurant, dormitory type apartments and wrestling gymnasium, is up for sale. And all four Matsunaga brothers have had to sell their houses and move into apartments to keep the company going.
Exactly what the true story is as far as the financial picture and how things got to this stage are somewhat clouded and unclear. The general belief is that the problem is more stemming from non-wrestling business interests of the Matsunaga brothers than the wrestling company itself being a big money loser, although nobody can dispute the popularity of the company and the future of the company have hit the skids over the past year or two.
During the boom periods of the company, both in the mid-80s with the Crush Gals, and the early 90s behind Kong, Bull Nakano, Manami Toyota and Akira Hokuto, the company was tremendously profitable. The Matsunaga brothers at that point got heavily into real estate and a failed attempt at franchising a health-food style Ramen house restaurant chain. When the real estate market in Japan took a nosedive, the company took out heavy bank loans to keep up with its obligations in that business, and in recent times were having a hard time simply keeping up on paying the bank interest on the loans, let alone paying the principle owed.
Still, there is little question the wrestling side had hit the skids. With the exception of groups in Mexico, no company in the world ran more house shows that AJW, to the tune of about 250 shows per year. Attendance had dropped considerably since Japanese wrestling when it comes to drawing at spot shows is based on fans watching new stars grow up to the next level, and AJW had failed to find a new star that fans cared about in years.
Womens wrestling even more so, has in its history been based on teenage sensations who would draw fans only a few years younger than the stars themselves, but AJW was no longer a big deal to that age group since it’s TV was moved from weekly on Saturday afternoon delivering huge ratings to maybe a few specials per year, which aired well past midnight to tiny audiences.
In many ways, up until a year or two ago when the company was still doing well, it was living off the success of the Crush Gals era since so many young girls wanted to be pro wrestlers having grown up watching the heyday that they had a great pool of athletes to pick from. Even though all the Crush Gals attendance records were broken in the latest hot period from 1993-95, the promotion didn’t have the television visibility and it was more driven by traditional hardcore wrestling fans rather than teenage girls, so the pool of those wanting to become wrestlers with the group dwindled.
When the likes of Toyota and Kong debuted, AJW literally would get thousands of applications from teenagers wanting to be wrestlers and weed them down into try-outs where only a few would survive, and those that did were trained by Jaguar Yokota, whose departure has also resulted in a lowering of the quality of work of the newer women wrestlers. This past year, there were maybe 15 women who attended the try-outs, so the pool to get superior athletes for the future isn’t there and both Yokota and Chigusa Nagayo of Gaea were doing a better job of training the teenagers for the future.