JJ Dillon On Why The Brain Busters Lacked Major Success In WWF, Why They Signed, How He Got WWF Job
Recently on The Ross Report, 'Good Ol' J.R.' Jim Ross welcomed professional wrestling legend JJ Dillon to the program. During the interview, Dillon talked about Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard forming The Brain Busters on WWE programming, following the pair to WWE, and why The Brain Busters' WWE run was not as successful as they hoped it would be.
On the subject of Anderson and Blanchard's arrival in WWE in 1988, Dillon said that the decision to move was made because the duo thought The Four Horsemen stint had run its course.
"Eventually, Tully and Arn felt that the run had run its course. They had a chance to go to be with Bobby Heenan as The Brain Busters and they thought The Horsemen thing had run its course, and so, they gave notice." Dillon added, "and once Tully and Arn left, for me, the reign of The Horsemen, and of course, promoters could continue to use the name with different combinations, for all practical purposes, it was over."
Also, the manager of the original Four Horsemen acknowledged that 'Double A' and Blanchard moving to WWE resulted in him getting a job with WWE as well.
"Actually, a couple months went by. I got a call from Tully and said that Vince [McMahon] and Pat [Patterson] were running three tours a night, and Superstars, and [Wrestling] Challenge, and doing the TV, I think there were only five major pay-per-views at that time, they said they need help and some people said some good things about me, which is how I ended up there."
According to Dillon, McMahon had a tendency of not having as much enthusiasm for ideas that were not his own creation and The Brain Busters left WWE underwhelmed with their run, as they were not formed in the mind of WWE's Chairman.
"Tully and Arn, I don't know the exact story, why it didn't [work out as well as hoped]," Dillon continued, "Vince had kind of a philosophy that if it was something he did not create himself, he never had the same enthusiasm for what it was. In other words, another example would be The Road Warriors. He would create Demolition, which was really the WWE/WWF version of The Road Warriors. And maybe with Tully and Arn, they did win the tag titles up there, [but] I don't think it was maybe the same thing they thought it was going to be."
Check out the podcast here. If you use any of the quotes that appear in this article, please credit The Ross Report with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: The Ross Report