Things the Four Horsemen never achieved in wrestling

“To be the man, you have to beat the man.” This has long been the slogan of Ric Flairwhose unprecedented career catapulted him to new heights in the wrestling industry. “The Nature Boy” didn’t always go into battle alone, however, as the 16-time world champion was a star act in a number of legendary stables. The first of these? The Four Horsemen.

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Formed in 1985 along with Arn and Ole Anderson and Tully Blanchard, The Four Horsemen laid the foundation for a successful wrestling stable. Without them, there would be no D-Generation X, no nWo, and no Bullet Club. Despite their great success, there are still a handful of accolades and achievements that The Four Horsemen failed to achieve during their entire tenure.

The four horsemen did not keep their name forever

The hiring of a new manager brought with it a new name

• The name “Four Horsemen” is one of the most famous in wrestling.
• They didn’t keep their team name forever.
• The hiring of a new manager in the late 1980s briefly brought with it a new name.

The majority of successful wrestling stables will retain their original branding for the duration of their existence, in some cases even after splitting into different subgroups However, this was not the case with the “Four Horsemen”.

Having always been popularly known as The Horsemen, and dubbed The Three Horsemen when Ric Flair, Arn Anderson and Paul Roma fronted the group, their most drastic name change came in 1987. When Hiro Matsuda was hired to replace JJ Dillon, the band became the Yamazaki Corporation, a name change that is now largely forgotten.

They have never won a game in World War III

WCW’s three-ring rule was observed four times

Held annually between 1995 and 1998, the World War 3 match was WCW’s answer to the WWF’s popular Royal Rumble, albeit with a few changes. There were 60 fighters instead of 30, spread out across three rings with no time intervals; instead, it was a free-for-all match, with the final 30 competitors confined to one ring.

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No member of the Four Horsemen has ever won the competition. Randy Savage, The Giant, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash have won every year. Future Horseman Lex Luger finished second in 1996 and 1998.

The Four Horsemen have never won a WarGames match

They participated in most WCW WarGames matches

• The Four Horsemen regularly participated in “The Match Beyond”.
• They were constantly defeated by various WCW babyfaces.
• A victory from 1991 is often contested because an unofficial rider was involved.

The WarGames match, created by Dusty Rhodes in July 1987, quickly became a staple of WCW and the signature match of the Four Horsemen. A group of Horsemen participated in 16 of the 31 WCW WarGames spectacles – but they never won.

It is nothing new that professional wrestlers achieve terrible results in their most important fights but this record is on a whole other level. The closest the Four Horsemen came to winning within the two-ring structure was at WrestleWar 1991, but it was the inclusion of Larry Zybszko, who was never an official Horseman, that prevented the win from being recognized in the Four Horsemen’s WarGames history.

They have never held trio championships

The Four Horsemen won several titles, but never trios

• During the existence of WCW, there were two sets of Trios Championships.
• The “Four Horsemen” did not win any of the sets.
• They fought for the championship throughout 1987.

World Championship Wrestling had a penchant for introducing new championships, and from the plethora of titles introduced, there were two sets of trio titles. The NWA and WCW World Six-Man Tag Team Championships were contested in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but many of these have been lost due to the largely forgotten booking of the championships.

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One group that never held either title was The Four Horsemen. The trio of Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard and later newcomer Lex Luger came closest to holding the title when they unsuccessfully challenged Dusty Rhodes and The Road Warriors three times in 1987.

The Four Horsemen have never joined forces in the WWE

They were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2012

• No version of the “Four Horsemen” has ever made it to the WWE.
• The band Evolution, founded in 2003, was the second generation of the group.
• They were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2012.

Although all of the individual members made it to WWE, except Ole Anderson, the Four Horsemen never called the sports entertainment empire their home. The closest the WWE came to the Horsemen’s roof was when Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard left the ship during the Golden Era and became The Brainbusters.

Despite not having a WWE career behind them, the group was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2012. The quintet consisted of Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Barry Windham and JJ Dillon, making it the first time Flair has been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame twice.

They never made it to AEW either

Three Horsemen have already been signed to AEW

• The four horsemen never joined forces in the AEW.
• Ric Flair, Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard have all signed a contract with the company.
• Anderson acquired the group’s trademark rights in 2022.

All Elite Wrestling can join WWE in never having a group of the “Four Horsemen” on their roster, despite having a handful of members of the group on their payroll. Ric Flair, Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard have all made it into the Tony Khan-led promotion although their paths practically never crossed.

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The Pinnacle, a stable formed by MJF and managed by Tully Blanchard, was AEW’s answer to the Four Horsemen and dominated the company’s storylines opposite The Inner Circle for much of 2021.

They never wrestled with FTR

The tag team showdown was discussed in detail

• A match between The Brainbusters and FTR has been a hot topic for a long time.
• They never collided at AEW.
• Tully Blanchard led FTR for a while.

Due to FTR’s adoration for tag team wrestling, Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood are regularly compared to legends of the art form. However, it was Ric Flair himself who compared the decorated tandem to the Four Horsemen after they lost to CM Punk and Jon Moxley in February 2022.

Unfortunately, FTR was never able to face any incarnation of the Horsemen, which was certainly due to Arn Anderson never envisioning a return to the ring after his retirement. The closest FTR came to doing so was in March 2021, when they defeated the Jurassic Express trio while teaming with Tully Blanchard.

They were never inducted into the WON Hall of Fame

Ric Flair remains the only inducted member

• The Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame was founded in 1996.
• Professional wrestlers, promoters, sports reporters and trainers were included.
• Ric Flair is the only original Horseman to receive this honor.

The Wrestling Observer is often considered the be-all and end-all for judging world-class professional wrestling. be it a five-star rated match or the award for Wrestler of the Year Since 1996, the media group led by Dave Meltzer has also inducted select individuals into its Hall of Fame, using a complicated voting system to determine who receives the nomination.

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While it is not uncommon for tag teams or stables to be inducted (among them The Road Warriors and The Rock’n’Roll Express), The Four Horsemen have never been inducted. Ric Flair is the only founding member to has and was admitted to the first class in 1996.

The four horsemen never owned all the gold

Their championship success was widespread

• The quartet won championship gold as representatives of the “Four Horsemen”.
• Ric Flair was a regular WCW/NWA World Heavyweight Champion.
• They were never all champions at the same time.

A popular cliche that wrestling bookers like to impose on a stable is the idea that everyone owns championship gold at the same time. Evolution is probably the most famous example of this. and concluded Armageddon 2003 with Flair and Batista as World Tag Team Champions, Triple H as World Heavyweight Champion, and Randy Orton as Intercontinental Champion.

However, that never happened for the Four Horsemen. All four players in the group’s starting lineup did successful while part of the stable, but the reigns never crossed over. There were many occasions when at least three members held gold, but the lack of title success from Ole Anderson prevented an all-horsemen lineup of titleholders.

The Four Horsemen were never the headliners at WrestleMania

No Horsemen member has ever gotten a spot in the Main Event

Although three of the original Four Horsemen lineup made it to WWE, they never received the coveted WrestleMania headlining spot. Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard only competed in one “Showcase of the Immortals,” defeating Strike Force in 1989. As for Ric Flair, his “Mania” record is 2-4, starting with a WWF Championship loss to Randy Savage in 1992 and ending with his euphoric loss to Shawn Michaels some sixteen years later at WrestleMania XXIV.