Wednesday, January 10, 2007

A Front Face Lock Followed By A DDT

Ah, professional wrestling. The "sport" of kings. During my impressionable youth years (just ended about 2 weeks ago) I watched pro wrestling on TV and even attended an event or two. As usual, when someone of my advancing age reminisces, the past always seems so much better than the present. I remember the wrestling I used to watch to be so much better than the soap opera, steroid riddled performances I see today.

This posting marks the beginning of a recurring topic I call Wrestling Rap. This is where I kick back and talk about some of the greats and near greats that helped convince me to try and slap a figure four leg lock on a friend.

Tonight, I will look back at probably one of the most notorious, rough housing, brutal, ever changing teams in wrestling history. Of course, I am talking about ......

The Four Horsemen

Beginning way back when in the mid 80's, on TBS, a the Four Horsemen was formed. It consisted of
  • Nature Boy Ric Flair
  • Arn Anderson
  • Ole Anderson
  • Tully Blanchard
  • JJ Dillon (Manager)

From the get-go, these guys ran roughshot over the NWA, breaking noses and legs....and mixing it up with other greats like The American Dream Dusty Rhodes, The Rock-N-Roll Express, Magnum TA, and The Road Warriors.

Even when these guys wrestled individually, the others would always interfere....amazingly never being seen by the referee. Many a time Ric Flair or Tully Blanchad wrestled Magnum TA for the title, only to have The Andersons pull Magnum off just as he had Flair pinned. Oh the humanity.

Later on, the members of the group changed. I remember Sid Vicious, Lex Lugar, Sting, and even Steve "Mongo" McMichael being a Horseman at one time or another.

To my amazement, Ric Flair continues to wrestle today.....Wooooooo! The man must be in his late 60's. Still has the glittery robes, still has the reverse knife edges, still ends up getting tossed into the corner flipping and stumbles out only to fall face first on the floor, still has that dreaded "low blow" between the legs of the oponent, and still has that Woooooo.

No other team in wrestling, not NWO, not the Spirit Squad, not the Outsiders, and not Dudes With Attitudes will ever match the raw talent and entertaining value of the original Four Horsemen.

1 comment:

Chris said...

Never really kept up with the "sport" after I graduated high school. But I have fond memories of Sunday lunches spent gathered around the 13 b/w kitchen TV watching these boys in action!

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