The Four Horsemen was a pro wrestling stable in the Jim Crockett Promotions as part of Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling and later World Championship Wrestling.
The original members of the dominant faction were Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Ole Anderson, and Tully Blanchard with JJ Dillon as their manager. Flair and Arn Anderson were the only members who were present in each incarnation of the group except once following Arn Anderson’s back injury. Curt Hennig stepped in for Arn during that time.
The Four Horsemen – Formation
The faction formed in January 1986 with Ric Flair and his storyline cousins Arn and Ole Anderson, and Tully Blanchard. James J. Dillon, who was previously the manager of Blanchard, became the manager for The Four Horsemen.
The Four Horsemen faction was formed during an impromptu interview. The group feuded with Dusty Rhodes and broke his ankle and hand. They battled The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express (Ricky Morton and Robert Gilson) and broke Morton’s nose. They also injured Nikita Koloff’s neck during a feud.
The Four Horsemen had most of the titles in their control in NWA. They bragged about their success in their interviews.
Lex Luger’s introduction to the group
In February 1987, Lex Luger was made an associate member of the group after he expressed his wish to join the powerful faction. Ole was thrown out of the team as the other members thought he had cost himself and Arn the NWA Tag Team Title at Starrcade in 1986. Luger replaced Ole in the stable.
The fact that Ole skipped a show to watch his son Brian wrestle was used against Ole in the split as Blanchard and Dillon questioned Ole’s loyalty to The Four Horsemen.
Luger was kicked out soon after for blaming manager J.J. Dillon for costing him the U.S. Title when the latter’s underhanded tactics to make Luger win backfired. There was another reason for the split as well. Luger didn’t allow Dillon to win a Bunkhouse Stampede match as the Horsemen had agreed to among themselves.
Barry Windham’s introduction in place of Lex Luger
Luger teamed up with Barry Windham to defeat Arn and Blanchard for the NWA World Tag Team Championship at the inaugural Clash of the Champions. However, in their title defense match, Windham betrayed Luger and took the spot in The Four Horsemen that was vacated by Luger.
This was considered by many as the best four members of the group in terms of wrestling acumen. This was also the time when they held all major NWA titles at the same time. Flair was the World Heavyweight Champion, Windham was the United States Heavyweight Champion and Arn and Blanchard were the World Tag Team Champions.
1998 saw Arn and Blanchard leave for WWE and Flair, Windham, and Dillon continued to call themselves as “the Horsemen” while NWA tried to bring in new members into the group.
In February 1989, Barry’s brother Kendall Windham seemed to have joined the Horsemen as he turned on Eddie Gilbert and held up the four fingers which was the trademark for The Four Horsemen.
Yamazaki Corporation
Dillon left NWA and took up a front office job in WWF and the Horsemen name was dropped off and Hiro Matsuda as chosen as the new manager for the group that was now called the Yamazaki Corporation.
Yamazaki Corporation had some memorable feuds until they reformed in 1989 with Flair, Arn, Ole, and Sting. Blanchard failed to make the cut as he couldn’t pass a drug test while still in WWF. This time the faction was a face and not a heel.
The heel turn and Sting’s removal
They removed Sting from the group and became heels once again. The reason for the removal was that Sting dared to challenge Flair for the World Title.
Flair had Woman as his valet and the group feuded with the likes of Luger, Sting, The Steiner Brothers, and El Gigante at the time.
In May 1990, Ole became the manager and Barry returned to WCW as Sid Vicious was added to the group to fill the vacancy. By the end of 1990, Ole and Woman left the NWA. Ted Turner had bought Jim Crockett Promotions, the largest faction of the NWA, and turned it into World Championship Wrestling.
Three Horsemen
Flair returned from WWF to WCW to team up once again with Arn. Paul Roma became the third horseman. Negotiations between Blanchard and WCW regarding the former’s signing were not fruitful.
This group became faces once again and feuded with the likes of Barry Windham and The Hollywood Blonds.
Feud with nWo
With the inception of nWo in 1996, the Horsemen were the babyfaces, and in September, Flair and Anderson teamed with their bitter rivals, Sting and Luger to get an L against nWo members Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and impostor Sting.
Jeff Jarrett was included in the group later on by Flair but other members were reluctant. In August 1997, Arn Anderson retired due to a neck/back injury that did not allow him to wrestle. Curt Hennig took his spot as “The Enforcer”. The subsequent month, Hennig turned on the Horsemen and joined the nWo. Flair dissolved the group and they went their respective routes.
The last incarnation
In September 1998, Ric Flair returned to WCW and Dean Malenko and Chris Benoit went to Arn to reform the Horsemen. However, Arn kept on avoiding it until J.J. Dillon persuaded him. Mongo, Flair, and Arn were in the group and they feuded with nWo.
Ultimately, Benoit and Malenko ditched him in May in protest over Flair’s covetousness and joined Shane Douglas and Perry Saturn to form the Revolution, thereby effectively concluding the Four Horsemen.
They also had a referee biased toward them, Charles Robinson, whom members of the Horsemen even referred to as “Little Nature Boy” due to his similarity to Flair. Flair’s private nurse, Double D (aka Asya), acted as an enforcer for the group. Ric’s son David Flair, wrestled with them and wore Horsemen shirts though he was never an official member. Ric Flair was the onscreen President of WCW at this time. He had awarded his son with the U.S. Title and had the Horsemen help David to keep it.
WWE Hall of Famer Dusty Rhodes introduced The Four Horsemen into the Hall of Fame in 2012. Ric Flair became the first wrestler to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame twice. Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Barry Windham, and J.J. Dillon were inducted.
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