JJ Dillon On If He Agrees With The Horsemen Group Being Inducted, Tully & Arn Signing With WWE
Paul Ciullo of PAC's Sports and Entertainment Forum recently conducted an interview with J.J. Dillon of the Four Horsemen, here are some highlights:
If the Horsemen would have continued their run if Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson didn't sign with WWE in 1988: "I don't know, no matter how good something is and how successful it is, everything comes to its end. Certainty when Tully and Arn, and not to say there was internal friction because there wasn't but there is politics in the business, always was and always will be. Tully and Arn had a chance to go to the WWE, it's where everybody wanted to be at that time and to have an opportunity to go there as a team and be managed by Bobby Heenan, and I fully understood what their logic was in going. In reality when they left if there were any questions about when the aura of the Horsemen was going to end, that ended it. They came back later (to WCW) and it was reformed to some degree, but it was never the same. The way I look at it when they left in 1988 that was really the end of the story as I think of it."
If he has a relationship with the Horsemen today: "Absolutely. You know Flair is still doing his thing, and when I talk to Ric a couple times a year it's like we are back on the road laughing. I talk to Tully with regularity, he's in Charlotte working, and Arn's still a road agent with the WWE and we tend to talk around the holidays and on special occasions. I've known Ole Anderson since we broke into the business, when I was in the Carolinas he had been there prior to me. I worked with him a lot, traveled with him, and really got to know him. He's still the same guy today as he was back then, and he rubbed a lot of people the wrong way because he always said what he thought and was very outspoken. But I understood him, again because I was a little older too. I respected the business and for that reason I was able to get respect from people like Ole Anderson."
If he agrees with the Horsemen group being inducted: "Over the years when I have done interviews I have always been asked 'what's your favorite grouping?', and it's kind of a two part answer. I always feel that the original group with Ole will always be special because if it hadn't been Ole with that group who knows if it would have ever even gotten off the ground. Ole on the other hand was the one guy who didn't fit the 'Ric Flair' image of the limousine driving, jet flying, kiss stealing, son of a gun. It was late in his career, he was grumpy, and it was a legitimate situation with his son wrestling in his senior year and he wanted days off to go watch his son. So it was a natural storyline to get on Ole because we were more important than anything in the world and that's how we eased him out and it gave us the benefit of a fresh opponent on the other side of the ring because Ole drew money everywhere he ever went because his style was always the same.
"We had an opportunity with Luger coming in because he had left Florida which was his first territory shortly, had a run in with Bruiser Brody, so he was the first guy (in our group) that didn't actually have the experience and we kind of camouflaged it and helped bring him along. I don't remember whose idea it was but Barry Windham was there at the time, and I recently read where somebody said that that was one of the best switches they can ever remember that played out on television when Barry joined and Luger was out. Barry became the other Horsemen and that's the second part of my answer; I think Barry Windham because of his youth, his athleticism, his size, his good looks, I mean there was nothing he couldn't do in the ring. So in terms of what we were capable of doing bell to bell I think that was the best group from that perspective."
You can check out the full interview by clicking here.