ShareThisThe original members of the illustrious Four Horsemen will gather next week for a reunion of pro-wrestling legends.
That includes the star who rode away.
Tully Blanchard was once one of grappling's biggest names. In the mid-1980s, Blanchard teamed with three other villains (Ric Flair and Ole and Arn Anderson) to form the Horsemen with manager J.J. Dillon. Despite their heel standing, the charismatic group built a national following working for Jim Crockett Promotions. Blanchard and Arn Anderson later jumped from Crockett to World Wrestling Entertainment as The Brain Busters and became the company's tag-team champions.
But while Blanchard was flourishing in the ring, his life away from it began falling apart. He failed a WWE drug test for cocaine. Blanchard was on the outs with WWE and had a contract offer to rejoin the Horsemen yanked by World Championship Wrestling, which had purchased Crockett's company.
Having hit rock bottom, Blanchard said his life changed forever early in the morning of Nov. 13, 1989.
"I was unemployed lying on my bed from 1 to 4 a.m. wondering what I was going to do," Blanchard said last week in a telephone interview. "Out of sheer emotional desperation, I said, 'Jesus, take over my life,' and he did. It was the first time I said the name 'Jesus' when I wasn't cussing somebody."
Shortly thereafter, a born-again Blanchard began drifting toward a higher calling. He started working in prison ministry and became an evangelist, wrestling only on rare occasions for independent promotions.
"I told guys in prison there was a way to get relief from emotional pain without having to be high," said Blanchard, who is now involved with the nonprofit Hope Plus outreach program based in San Antonio. "That's what the power of God does to somebody's heart. That's really been my message for the last 15 years."
Had he not found religion, Blanchard says he would still be trying to actively wrestle like the 60-year-old Flair in WWE. But Blanchard has no regrets about following a path that led him away from the fame and fortune wrestling brought him.
Blanchard said that decision was reaffirmed in 2006 when he had a test run for a behind-the-scenes position with WWE. Blanchard decided the gig wasn't for him after just two days following a conversation with the late Chris Benoit and a backstage confrontation with John Bradshaw Layfield.
"Chris asked me if I missed the wrestling business," said Blanchard, who was reared in the industry as the son of former wrestler and promoter Joe Blanchard. "I told him I didn't but the money certainly kept piquing my interest. JBL then hollered at me backstage to tell me how rude I treated him when he was a nobody just starting off.
"To be perfectly honest, I don't remember ever meeting him. All I could say was I hope he could forgive me because it was very possible I treated him like crap since I treated a lot of people like that in those days. But one thing he said turned on a light in my mind. He said, 'You don't belong here.' God used him to say those words and the door shut right there."
Blanchard is looking forward to the Horsemen reunion, which headlines the star-studded NWA Wrestling Legends Fanfest from next Thursday to Sunday in Charlotte, N.C. Barry Windham, who replaced Ole Anderson in the Horsemen in 1988, also is attending.
The Horsemen are so endearing that WWE released a top-selling DVD of their exploits in 2007 even though every member except Flair had long since faded from the spotlight. Blanchard attributes the long-lasting success to a variety of factors, including the fact that fans were the ones who helped popularize the Horsemen nickname. Arn Anderson had used the moniker as part of a throwaway line in an interview promoting eight-man tag-team matches. The name stuck as fans began holding signs supporting the Horsemen at live events.
"We all had our own (individual story lines)," said Blanchard, who was involved in memorable feuds against "Magnum T.A." Terry Allen and Dusty Rhodes during the Horsemen era. "But we hung together in and out of the ring and had all the titles, including Ric giving us credibility as the world champion."
Blanchard said all those ingredients help explain why WCW failed when trying to launch different incarnations of the Horsemen throughout the 1990s.
"(WCW) even took it so far as calling it Ric Flair and the Four Horsemen, but it didn't have the same chemistry and camaraderie," said Blanchard, who has started writing his autobiography. "It's like if you take the garlic out of spaghetti sauce. It's missing something."
For more information on the Horsemen reunion, visit www.nwalegends.com. For additional information on Blanchard, visit www.tullyblanchard.net.
(Alex Marvez writes a syndicated pro-wrestling column for Scripps Howard News Service. Contact him at alex1marv(at)aol.com or follow him via Twitter at http://twitter.com/alexmarvez.)
