Tully Blanchard recalls Vince McMahon telling 2012 WWE HOF inductees “you won’t ever be back”

Four Horsemen members Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard had a reunion this week on the “ARN” podcast. They talked about their days in the NWA, their departure from the NWA, their move to the WWF as the Brain Busters, their split, Arn’s return to the NWA/WCW and much more.

Here are some highlights:

Tully Blanchard talked about he and Arn Anderson being told that Bobby Heenan would be their manager in the WWF: “That was the ingredient that was very promising. Bobby was a long time friend because my dad (Joe Blanchard) would bring Nick Bockwinkel down and Bobby was Nick Bockwinkel’s manager for all those years for the AWA. I got to know him a little bit, but it was a neat experience. The thing that would have been probably a greater experience for us is if he would have worked with us every night. He worked with us on TV and big shows, but he didn’t travel with us during the week which was fine. Arn and I could certainly function without a manager, but it might have had a lot more entertainment backstage for us if he would have been there all the time rather than just at TV.”

Tully talked about wrestling the Rockers and Hulk Hogan’s reaction to it: “I know when Arn and I wrestled the first time in the Garden (Madison Square Garden) against the Rockers, we had to go to a 20 minute time limit match. Probably the biggest major tactical error that I ever did is when I came back through the curtain, Hogan looked at me and said, ‘What am I supposed to do now?’ I said something smart aleck, and I don’t remember exactly what it was, but, we were never on before the main event ever again. We were never on another Hogan card ever again. But, they were running three towns a night so we became the main event guys in the third towns and the third town started making money instead of losing money. So, it wasn’t a bad thing, but we were making the same money we were making for Crockett, so it was a lateral move.”

Tully was asked how his conversation was with Vince when The Horseman were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame: “There really wasn’t any conversation with Vince. I know that we took a picture with him in his dressing room which I have on the wall, him holding up four fingers. That’s a pretty good one. Then you have HHH and Shawn Michaels holding up four fingers in another one. I have that picture up too. I can remember we were standing in the hallway. Vince was addressing I think all of us. He said some of you guys, absorb all of this that is going on because you won’t ever be back. I took it that he was talking to me because everybody else has gone back.”

If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit ARN (Arn Anderson’s podcast) with a h/t to PWrestling.com for the transcription