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Tully Blanchard interview

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Show: The Interactive Interview (Courtesy of ProWrestling.com)

Guest: Tully Blanchard & Chris Yandek

Date: 3rd November 2003

Your Hosts: Daniel Edler & James Walsh

Recap by: Daniel Edler & James Walsh

 

[NOTE: You need the Real One Player to hear the show, at which you can download it by Clicking Here]

 

The Interactive Interview is pleased to announce yet another professional wrestling legend to the program. This time around, we welcome a member of the original 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.

 

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.

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-- 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.

I thought he'd said in past interviews that Gino's death was a mob hit and the OD story was a cover

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