Tully Blanchard Recalls Backstage Confrontation With John Bradshaw Layfield At WWE Event
Tully Blanchard of The Four Horsemen joined Inside The Ropes on Thursday night. Highlights are as follows:
Lex Luger as a Horsemen: "At that time you had to look long and hard to find anyone who had a better physique than Luger. I forget why they ran Ole off, but he got fired and it was a perfect spot to stick Luger and immediately make him a top guy. Now you can put people in a situation where they become a top guy without having the physical ability to do the job, but Lex was able to do it. It was a situation where it was, from my opinion, it was great for Luger for a while. He was much better as a baby face than he ever was being part of the Horsemen. It was our job to get beat up. It was not entertaining watching a 6 foot 5, 270 pound guy getting beat up, it was much better for him to be beating up."
Why he left the NWA in 1988: "They were treating us properly. I was offended. Pat Patterson was there in Milwaukee one night and he sent word to us, so we called (WWF). They (NWA) were given a lot of people money and not giving Arn and I any money so we listened to what Vince had to say and bingo, we went.
What led to him leaving the WWF but not going back to WCW with Arn: "Arn and I had negotiated a deal to go back to WCW. they told us they'd give us a 3 year deal for three quarter of a million dollars each, we both agreed. we were leaving after Survivor Series. But I got cocky and flunked a drug test, I got suspended and I went back on November 2nd. I didn't think it was a big deal, since WCW didn't have a drug policy. Flair called me at 1am on Nov 13th and told me they were going to renege on the contract deal with me. I told Flair i'd call him the next day, I didn't know what to do. I lay in bed for 3 hours thinking how I could get out of this. At 4:03am I asked Jesus to take over my life. It changed the direction of my life. The wrestling business didn't come screaming for me to come back and I didn't go running to them. My bad decisions caused it. You hate to ever see things you do cause other people financial problems."
Incident with JBL during his trial period as WWE agent in 2006: "He cut a promo on me, the second night at TV. I never remembered meeting this guy. God confirmed this wasn't feeling right that I should've been there. He said one thing when he talked to me, he said "you don't belong here." He certainly didn't stop me from going to work for them. It just didn't feel right for me. But This year at Wrestlemania, John came up and apologised to me for his behaviour. I told him if I treated him poorly which it's entirely possible that I did, that I'm sorry. So I said sorry in 2006 and he apologised to me this year so all things worked out in the end."
Blanchard also discusses Baby Doll, the formation of the Horsemen, working Starrcade and WrestleMania, being managed by Bobby Heenan and more. The full interview is available at https://www.facebook.com/theinsidenetwork.