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A
gifted technician in the ring and a master behind the
microphone, Arn Anderson is one of the most underrated
wrestlers in wrestling history. Think that's a stretch?
Arn Anderson was the first wrestler in North America to get a
pin or submission out of both Hulk
Hogan and Ric "Nature Boy"
Flair. As Arn himself would say, "I don't want to
toot my own horn but 'toot, toot'".
Marty Lunde grew
up in Rome, GA where he was raised by his grandparents.
He loved watching wrestling from an early age and he wrestled
for his high school in the 167 pound division. Arn began
wrestling in 1982 as a preliminary wrestler. He worked
in Georgia Championship Wrestling before going to Southeast
Championship Wrestling and making a name for himself as a
member of Robert Fuller's Stud Stable. After leaving the
Southeast area, Anderson returned to Georgia in 1985
where he teamed with his cousin Ole Anderson (actually
there was no relation between Arn and Ole but there was an
uncanny resemblance between the two which led to
their family tie being manufactured) as the
Minnesota Wrecking Crew.
Arn shot to stardom
when he teamed with Ole Anderson, Ric
Flair, and Tully Blanchard to form the Four Horsemen, one of the
greatest heel stables of all time. After saving Ric
Flair from a 2 on 1 beating by the Koloffs, Dusty Rhodes found
himself locked in a steel cage with Flair and the Minnesota
Wrecking Crew. The three wrestlers proceeded to destroy
Rhodes, breaking his ankle in the process. This incident
led to the formation of the Horsemen and Arn's role as "The
Enforcer".
Dusty's
broken ankle kept him from defending his World Television
Title within the 30 day mandated period. As a result,
the TV belt was put up in a tournament. On January 4,
1986, Arn Anderson defeated Wahoo McDaniel in the finals to
win the TV title, a belt which he held for over eight months.
Anderson fought off many challenges to the title before
dropping it to Dusty Rhodes.
Arn
continued to work in tag team matches, working with Ole
Anderson. However the Minnesota Wrecking Crew was
unsuccessful in beating the Rock-n-Roll Express for
the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) World Tag
Team Championship. After Ole was kicked out of the
Horsemen, Arn teamed with Tully Blanchard where they
found tremendous success together. "The Enforcer"
continued to be an important member of the Horsemen as they
feuded with the Road
Warriors and the Super Powers (Dusty Rhodes and Nikita
Koloff) during the summer of 1987. Anderson and
Blanchard won the NWA World Tag Team Championship on two
occasions, first from the Rock and Roll Express and second
from Barry Windham and Lex Lugar (after Windham turned on his
partner Lugar).
In 1989 Arn and
Tully entered the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as a
team known as the Brainbusters. Managed by Bobby "The
Brain" Heenan, Arn and Tully soon found themselves duplicating
their tag team success in the WWF. They scored victories
over top WWF teams like Strike Force, the Hart Foundation, and
Demolition before getting a title shot at the WWF Tag Team
Champions Demolition. The Brainbusters met Demolition on
Saturday Night's Main Event and won a 2 out of 3 falls match
to win the WWF Tag Team Championship on July 18, 1989.
The Brainbusters fought off the challenges of teams such as
the Hart Foundation but on October 27, 1989 they dropped the
belts back to Demolition. After Tully Blanchard was
fired at the 1989 Survivor Series for failing a drug test, Arn
left the company as well.
Not long after that, Anderson
returned to WCW where he helped his friend Ric Flair fight
with the J Tex Corporation. Soon, the Four Horsemen were
reformed with Anderson returning to his role as the group's
enforcer. On January 2, 1990, Anderson won the WCW
Television Title for the second time when he defeated the
Great Muta. Anderson would hold the belt until the end
of the year when he dropped the title to Tom Zenk on December
4, 1990. Anderson regained the belt from Zenk on January
14, 1991 and held it for four months before dropping it to
Bobby Eaton on May 19, 1991.
In the fall of 1991, Arn became
involved with another famous heel faction in wrestling- the
Dangerous Alliance. Led by Paul E. Dangerously, the
Alliance consisted of Anderson, Rick Rude, Bobby Eaton,
Madusa, Steve Austin, and Larry Zbyszko. The Dangerous
Alliance feuded with WCW's top babyfaces and Anderson
contributed to its success by winning the WCW World Tag Team
Titles with Larry Zbyszko at one time and Bobby Eaton on
another. Anderson also found continued singles success
with yet another World Television Title.
Like many groups composed of
superstars, the Dangerous Alliance found itself on the path to
self-destruction. After the group's demise, Arn Anderson
wrestled in Smokey Mountain Wrestling briefly before returning
to WCW. In the summer of 1993, Anderson welcomed Ric
Flair back to WCW (after he lost a loser-leaves-town match in
the WWF) and the Horsemen were reformed. Anderson teamed
with new Horsemen "Pretty" Paul Roma and defeated "Stunning"
Steve Austin and Lord Steven Regal for the WCW World Tag Team
Titles.
Anderson and Roma held the belts
until September 1993 when they fell to the team of the Nasty
Boys. Things got even worse for Anderson when he was
involved in an out of the ring fight with Sid Vicious and
Vicious stabbed him with a pair of scissors. Anderson
was reprimanded by WCW (while Vicious was fired) and spent
several months off of television while he recuperated from his
injuries.
Anderson returned to action in
early 1994 and helped Colonel Robert Parker reform the Stud
Stable. This incarnation of the Stud Stable saw Anderson
team with Terry Funk and Bunkhouse Buck. As a member of
the Stud Stabe, Anderson battled with Dustin Rhodes, the Nasty
Boys, and Johnny B. Badd. Anderson campaigned against
Badd's Television Title, eventually winning the belt on
January 8, 1995. Anderson fought off Badd's challenge to
regain the belt and was involved in an unsanctioned boxing
match against Badd at 1995's Uncensored pay-per-view.
Anderson lost the boxing match but retained the Television
Title since the match was unsanctioned. In June 1995
Anderson was upset by the newcomer known as the Renegade for
his Television Title.
By the summer of 1995, Arn Anderson
and Ric Flair found themselves at odds with one another.
For years, Anderson had wrestled in the shadow of Ric Flair
and it seemed as if Anderson had had enough of being Flair's
errand boy. The two began feuding and Anderson defeated
Flair at the Fall Brawl pay-per-view with help from his new
partner Brian Pillman. Double A followed up with a win
over Flair in a steel cage match on Monday Night Nitro in
early October 1995. The feud escalated with Anderson
teaming with Pillman against Flair and Sting. After
weeks of pleading with Sting, Flair had convinced his
arch-rival that he could trust him. The four men met at
Halloween Havoc where Sting learned the folly of trusting
Flair. The Four Horsemen were reborn as Pillman, Flair,
and Anderson teamed up to destroy Sting.
As a member of the Horsemen,
Anderson fought against WCW's top babyfaces including Hulk
Hogan, Randy Savage, and Sting. Anderson scored an
impressive pinfall victory over Hogan on the February 12, 1996
edition of Monday Night Nitro. By now, the Horsemen had
teamed up with Kevin Sullivan's Dungeon of Doom to form "The
Alliance to End Hulkamania". The Alliance battled with
Hogan and Savage in a Doomsday Cage Match at the Uncensored
pay-per-view but they were unable to defeat Hulkamania.
Anderson kept busy when he teamed
with Ric Flair to take on ex-Chicago Bear Steve "Mongo"
McMichael and Carolina Panther Kevin Greene at the 1996 Great
American Bash. A large sum of cash concinced McMichael
to turn on his partner and Mongo became the next member of the
Four Horsemen. Anderson joined his fellow Horsemen in a
feud with the Dungeon of Doom through the next few
months.
When the New World Order (NWO)
challenged WCW for control of the company, Anderson was one of
their targets! Anderson battled the NWO as well as WCW
stars for the next several months, unaware that his career was
going to be cut early. In April 1997, Anderson underwent
neck surgery and things did not go well. As a result,
Anderson was no longer able to wrestle and in August 1997, he
announced his retirement from the ring. Anderson offered
his spot in the Horsemen to Curt Hennig and Hennig accepted
(only to betray the Horsemen to the NWO a month later).
Although Anderson was unable to
wrestle, he could often be found at the side of his longtime
friend Ric Flair. After WCW was bought out by the WWF,
Anderson went to work for the WWF and he now works as a road
agent for World Wrestling Entertainment.
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