I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to say that Arn Anderson was a heck of a wrestler and one of the great promos in wresting history, but it’s actually kind of shocking how short his career ended up being, and how young he was forced into retirement.
Granted, he appeared to be 40 years old at the time of his debut as “Marty Lunde” in Mid-South circa 1982, but he was actually only 40 when he retired. That came in 1997, after years of neck injuries had withered his arm and his in-ring time grew shorter with every match.
Unfortunately, he never got the chance to have the proper send-off, because no one really knew for sure that he was done. He worked one last match on “WCW Monday Nitro” in February of '97, took some time off to heal injuries, and then never returned.
Meanwhile, Curt Hennig signed with WCW after years of rumors, and seemed like a perfect fit to join the Four Horsemen; Hennig was associated with Ric Flair in the WWF years before. So began a game of cat and mouse, with the Horsemen pursuing him and Hennig turning them down repeatedly — but deep down we all knew he was a Horsemen-type guy.
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In September, we got the “perfect” (pardon the pun) convergence of circumstances, with Arn Anderson able to finally get the send-off he deserved, and Curt Hennig ready to take his place at Flair’s side in a role he was born to play. Arn Anderson made one last pitch to Hennig, offering him his spot in the Four Horsemen, and it was magnificent television.
But because it’s WCW, we can’t ever have nice things.
The next week, Kevin Nash led the nWo in their own version of the interview, and it was divisive among fans, to say the least. Kevin Nash played “Arn Anderson," a fat, balding drunk babbling about “my dog spot, my liver spot…” while Sean Waltman played “Ric Flair” and mocked Flair’s real tears from his best friend’s very real retirement speech. It was certainly memorable, but many people, myself included, found it completely without class.
But hey, that’s wrestling, right? The bad guys do something bad, and the good guys go out and kick their butt — except in this case. What made this all the more terrible was that the Horsemen never got a chance to get their rebuttal.
Flair was never told in advance that this was happening, and the “revenge” that the Horsemen were supposed to get was during the WarGames match at Fall Brawl '97. Flair, Hennig, Steve MacMichael and Chris Benoit took on the parody crew of Nash, Waltman, Konnan and Buff Bagwell. Did the Horsemen get their revenge for the nWo mocking their friend while Hennig proved himself as a guy worthy of that spot?
Yeah, right.
Instead, Curt Hennig turned on his team, slamming the cage door on the head of Ric Flair and joining the nWo in the process, sending the fans home miserable.
The Four Horsemen were essentially dead and buried for more than a year, but hey, Ric Flair had a singles feud with Curt Hennig, and he probably got his revenge there, right?
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If you guessed anything other than “Yeah, right”, you’re not paying attention. Hennig screwed Flair out of two victories, at Halloween Havoc and World War III, before finally losing his U.S. title at Starrcade — but not to Flair. Flair was injured by then and never got his payback. No, Hennig lost the title to Diamond Dallas Page on the big blowoff show of the year, and then tumbled down to the midcard and was never really a major player again.
So in the end, the whole thing accomplished nothing and got no one over.
But Kevin Nash made sure that he did OK for himself, though. So there’s that.
