WCW Monday Nitro. September 14, 1998.
J.J. Dillon: "I would like to ask the Enforcer, Arn Anderson to come to the ring!"
::AA makes his way to the ring::
Dillon: "I had a private conversation with you since you and I last appeared publicly in a ring such as this, and I feel that I owe it - I owe it to you, I owe it to all these great fans, and I owe it to myself to share with them publicly what I said to you privately, and that is the fact that I owe you an apology for the things that I said to you, though my intentions were good, I meant well, quite frankly a friend doesn't say to another friend the things that I said to you, or put you in the position that I put you into, and for that I owe you an apology and hope that you will accept my forgiveness."
Arn Anderson: "Can you smell it, JJ? Take a breath - can you smell it? When fifteen thousand people blow the roof off a place, that's what a pop smells like. Take a bow. What you said to me is what all those people have been saying to me for a year and a half, and only a true friend would say that. They said 'Arn Anderson, stand up and be a man, like you've always been!' And I couldn't hear those words, 'cause something was in the way and I'm gonna start at the beginning, because you have to start at the beginning because tonight IS a new beginning, for the four Horsemen. Now when I was a kid, like all kids, people ask you 'what do you wanna be when you grow up?' There was no grey area for me, I always knew I wanted to be a wrestler. And when that finally happened for me, it was the proudest day of me life, and in 1986 I started coming to these towns, just like Greenville, South Carolina, as a Horseman. And my life changed forever, and the doors it opened for me I had never dreamed of, and wrestling the greatest wrestlers in the world in a town like this and all across this country showed me who I was, and every day that I woke up since them I tried to uphold the standards that we, you and I and the rest of us set for ourselves. And about a year and a half ago, I laid down on an operating table and when I woke up, Arn Anderson the wrestler was dead, and I thought to myself how could I be a Horseman if I couldn't be a wrestler. Well, the fact is I couldn't in my mind..."
::"We want Flair" chant::
Anderson: "Trust me, everybody's gonna get what they want tonight, Bischoff. Eric Bischoff. So when I thought I could no longer be a Horsemen, Chris Benoit came to me first and said Tthis can all happen' and with that prelude, I would like to bring the other three Horsemen out right now. Steve 'Mongo' McMichael, come on down."
::Mongo heads to the ring::
Anderson: "Chris Benoit, come on down!"
::Benoit hits the ring::
Anderson: "Dean Malenko, come on down!"
::Malenko hits the ring, and we get a group embrace::
Anderson: "Now, before we go any further. Chris Benoit, you got this thing rolling, and I'm gonna go on record as saying, if there's a finer wrestler in all the land than you I don't know who it is. Your intensity, the first time I saw you wrestle, made you something special. You are something special in my eyes, you knew what it meant to be a Horsemen. You will carry that tradition way past the year 2000. Mongo McMichael, you're a hard-headed, lotta times you're hard to be around, but the fact is in my eyes, you're all man, you're certainly All-Pro, and when this is all said and done, if I've got anything to say about it, you will mean to this sport what you've meant to the sport of pro football. Now Dean Malenko, I've been out hear yakking for the last ten years about what it meant to be a Horseman: work ethic, respect for the business, respect for each other, respect for the people that came before us, and while I was yakking the last year, and the last couple of months, you were out there fighting the fights for the Horsmen. You exemplify what a Horseman has always meant: overachievement. Being the very best you could be, each and every day of your life whether you were sick, or hurt, or whatever the case may be, and it makes me proud, now I'm gonna say one more time, I've said that you didn't get it; well, I didn't get it, because if there was ever a Horseman it makes me a little misty-eyed and real proud to call on this day the finest thing you can be in this sport of professional wrestling, that's a Horseman. Ladies and gentlemen, through the year 2000, we're gonna do exactly what all of you across this nation have asked: 'Arn Anderson, bring back the Horsemen!' But I feel it fair to tell ya, I'm not gonna be responsible for what happens next. 'Cause we don't wear white hats, we're not nice guys, and I can tell you this: heads are gonna roll! So, I've said it: Be careful what you wish for, because now you have it!"
::The crowd pops, and Arn starts to leave the ring, but he stops himself::
Anderson: "Ah, whatagoof! Whatagoof! You know, I get accused of gettin' racked in the head a few times and having a little touch of Alzheimer's...my God! I almost forgot the fourth Horseman, Ric Flair! Get on down here!"
::Cue the music, as a cry erupts in the crowd - and gets louder - and louder - and it is the Man - RIC FLAIR is in the building. Flair hugs each person in the ring - first Dillon, then McMichael, Benoit, Malenko. When he hugs Arn the cheers continue and there can't be a dry eye in the house::
Anderson: "Greenville, I give you the Champ."
::The long ovation continues::
FLair: "My God...thank you...thank you very much...I'm almost embarrassed by the response, but when I see this, I know that the 25 years that I've spent trying to make you happy every night of your life was worth every damn minute of it. Now, somebody told me that the Horsemen were having a party tonight in Greenville! Could that be true that the most elite group that Eric Bischoff said was dead is alive and well? Bischoff, this might be my only shot, and I gotta tell ya, I'm gonna make it my best. Is this what you call a great moment in TV? It's wrong, because this is REAL! This is not bought and paid for! It's a REAL - LIFE - SITUATION! Just like the night in Columbia, South Carolina, when you looked at me - tears in my eyes - and said 'God, that's good TV' - it was real! Arn Anderson passed the torch - it was real, dammit! You think Sting was crying in the dressing room like I was on TV if it wasn't real? This guy, my best friend, is one of the greatest performers who ever lived, and YOU - you squashed him, in one night. Then you get on the phone and tell me, 'disband the Horsemen, they're dead.' Disband the Horsemen, me. You know what, I looked at myself in the mirror the next day and I saw a pathetic figure that gave up and quit! And for that, I owe you, the wrestling fans, I owe these guys an apology. Because it won't happen again!"
::Eric Bischoff comes out around this point::
Flair: "Bischoff, whatever you think...no, you're an overbearing asshole! That's right! You're an obnoxious, you're an obnoxious, overbearing ass! Abuse of power! You! Abuse of power! Cut me off! Come on! It's called abuse of power! You suck! You, I hate your guts. I hate your guts. You are a liar, you're a cheat, you're a scam, you are a no good son of a bitch! Fire me! I'm already fired! Fire me! I'm already fired!"
::Flair takes his coat off as Bischoff heads to the back. Cut to black.::
