Arn Anderson recently spoke about WrestleMania and more specifically his Hall of Fame induction as part of the Four Horsemen. Here are some highlights:
His induction into the WWE Hall of Fame: “It’s phenomenal! My god! Especially with that group of guys, every one of them is a Hall of Fame-er. It’s just a question of timing, I guess. Getting to share the stage with those guys—man—it just blows me away. I’m still, to this day, in awe of every one of them.
“John Laurinaitis pulled me aside some few months back and let me know, and I almost fell out! People around you that are very kind always say This has gotta be your year, well, no, it doesn’t have to be your year. There’s never have to be a year. So when you hear it for yourself, it’s mind-blowing. It really is. …My initial thought was Marty Lunde going in the Hall of Fame—psh!—c’mon. Arn Anderson going in the Hall of Fame, I don’t think so. But the Four Horsemen going in the Hall of Fame? Absolutely.”
The Four Horsemen: “I don’t know if there’s ever been anybody (and it’s argumentative) better than Barry Windham in the history of the business. I know for a fact he’s in the top five, it’s just a question of who the top five are. [Ricky] Steamboat’s in there, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Ric Flair, you make your top five, whoever they are, but Billy Windham’s in there; He’s on everybody’s top five list. Tully Blanchard was the best partner I ever had in the ring, period. We were in such sync after all those years together, that he could just give me a look and I know what he wanted and I could do the same to him. We never had to say a word in the ring to each other, period.
“Ric Flair is Ric Flair. If anybody was gonna be inducted twice, he certainly earned those stripes. The one guy that doesn’t get a lot of air-time or a lot talked about is J. J. Dillon. He was the brains and the thought process, the stabilizing force; he was actually our manager, our legitimate manager. Travel, I mean everything, he did all of it. And the thing is, the guy was a world-class talker, carried himself like a gentleman, dressed well, and was just smart, very smart about the business. So to be able to share the stage with those guys is just staggering when I try to assess it.”
