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TULLY BLANCHARD INTERVIEW ONLINE |
The Interactive Interview is pleased to welcome yet another
professional wrestling legend to the program. This time around, we welcome
a member of the original IV Horsemen and a legendary figure in the world
of sports and entertainment, Tully Blanchard!
In addition, in our after-interview segment we air part
of an interview with ‘The Texas Rattlesnake‘, Stone Cold Steve
Austin, in which he speaks about a possible match at WM20 and the night Owen
Hart tragically fell to his death.
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TULLY
BLANCHARD
--
At the age of ten, Tully was involved in wrestling. His father was a wrestler
and he was given jobs like setting up window cards, selling soda and peanuts,
and things of that sort. So, he was involved at that age.
--
He played football and didn't really like the business as much after the
age of selling peanuts. But, people that eventually influenced his career
were Ric Flair, Johnny Valentine, Wahoo McDaniel, and others.
--
Tully was the starting quarterback at Texas State (Now Texas A&M). He
played with some great wrestlers like Merced Soles (Tito Santana) and Ted
DiBiase. Merced went on to play in the NFL and CFL but Tully never advanced
past the college level.
--
His father helped train him, Jose Lathario did as well. But, in ring experience
helped train him even more. He feels that in addition to that, he spent a
while as a referee and feels he learned quite a bit from spending time in
the ring and studying the match than just training.
--
Tully was responsible for many changes in his father's company. He was the
booker, produced the TV shows, and helped get them on the USA network. The
only thing he didn't do was book the towns and venues.
--
Gino Hernandez was a great wrestler that he teamed with. Tully says he never
worked World Class, but did wrestle in tags in Houston and such. He feels
Gino's death was an overdose and that it is very sad.
--
Nobody knew the Four Horsemen would be as big as they became. It wasn't a
corporate generated story. They were booked in an eight man tag team and
Ric was advertised as Ole's cousin while Arn was advertised as Ole's nephew.
Tully fit in the group because he was feuding with Dusty Rhodes at the time.
Arn Anderson cut a promo basically saying that they were the Four Horsemen.
The name stuck and he feels the fans are what created that success. It was
so out of the norm for the fans to create a stable that it couldn't help
but be successful.
--
Wrestling Dusty Rhodes resulted in large pay checks and main events. Dusty
was a very talented guy. A lot of people said he wasn't but he feels he proved
he could wrestle long matches. Four years of working with Tully proved that.
He was a dynamic athlete and performer.
--
When asked to compare the NWO to the Horsemen, "imitation is the greatest
form of flattery." He feels that they were the best workers and could get
good matches out of people (Horsemen) while the NWO was more concept oriented.
He feels that the NWO in that gang mentality was using the elements that
the Horsemen created a decade prior.
--
He always liked wrestling the Rock 'n' Roll Express. The fans loved them
so much that it was easy to be a heel. Winning the NWA tag titles definitely
ranks high on his career highlights because you had some of the company on
your back. He again stresses that they were able to make guys look bigger
and better than they may have really been.
--
Tully says that it’s a great thing that Road Warrior Hawk “gave
his heart to the lord” a year and a half ago. He says when you’ve
spent so long sweatin’ and bleedin’ on a guy as he had with Hawk,
it’s such a sad thing.
--
He feels that when Lex Luger was against and with the Horsemen, it was good
for business.
--
Blanchard says he has a “lot of time and a lot of respect” for
all of the Fabulous Freebirds.
--
On the topic of Sting, and how he worked with Sting before his ‘big
break’ in the business, he felt that Sting always showed potential.
He recalls a story where he and Arn wrestled Sting and Nikita Koloff in a
20 minute match that he feels was one of the best matches ever. When Sting
put the Deathlock on him, the entire building erupted.
--
The biggest memories he’s got from WWF were that the president of NBC
at the time requested that he and Arn were on every show, and they were on
4 of the 5 big events in 1989.
--
When the topic of his former manager Bobby Heenan was brought up, and a comment
he’s made in a past interview with TII about having a chip on his shoulder,
Tully said that basic personality tests he’s had done recently say that
he is an introvert. Therefore, as an introvert, he feels that he enjoyed
work and went about his business.
--
Tully & Arn left the WWF in order to get one of the big juicy contracts
that WCW were handing out at the time, and be able to re-form the
Horsemen.
--
On November 13th of 1989 Tully says that the Lord Jesus Christ changed his
life. He feels God changed many aspects of his life (drugs, alcohol, chasing
women) and he now spends a majority of his time travelling and speaking to
people. And how did he find Jesus? Flunking a drug test and being fired from
two wrestling companies.
--
His exact memory of the Legends of Wrestling pay per view were “I’m
old, I’m fat, I’m out of shape and I STILL had the best match”.
James then tells a story of how the announcer seemed to “quite like”
Stan Lane, in more than a professional manner.
Another
quote from Tully about the event was; “when a marquee out the front
of the building says we have wrestling’s greats, Iron Sheik, Jake The
Snake, and many other stars, and you’re one of the many other stars,
you realise that the wrestling business has passed you
by”.
--
He watches very little wrestling nowadays, as he doesn’t have cable
anymore.
--
Out of everybody from the old days, he now speaks to nobody with the exception
Shawn Michaels.
--
Next we play word associations with names such as Arn & Ole Anderson,
Jose Lathario, Sid Vicious, Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan, Vince McMahon &
more.
--
Tully signs off with a message to all of his fans and those who took part
in the submitting of questions to him.
<li><I>After
that, we move onto a segment with respected 1Wrestling journalist Chris Yandek.
We air two questions from Chris’ interview with ‘Stone Cold’
Steve Austin. </I>
--
On the topic of WrestleMania 20, there’s always a chance he could be
back in the ring. The only thing he plans long term is his health and how
he’ll be physically in 5, 10, 15 years. Everything else he just takes
as it comes.
--
Austin then speaks about the night that Owen Hart passed away, and says how
hard it was to go out to the ring knowing that one of his buddies had just
fallen and passed away in that very ring. He mentions how whenever he goes
to the ring he gets an adrenaline rush, but that night he felt nothing -
he was completely numb.
--
Chris then comes on and discusses the other 129 interviews he’s done
in his 3 years (coming on 4) as a journalist and interviewer, and explains
how you can hear the rest of that interview with Austin and many others with
the likes of HBK, Freddie Blassie and more.
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