The following are interview highlights with WWE Hall Of Famer Arn Anderson:
On his WWE Hall Of Fame induction: "It’s phenomenal! My god! Especially with that group of guys, every one of them is a Hall of Fame-er. It’s just a question of timing, I guess. Getting to share the stage with those guys—man—it just blows me away. I’m still, to this day, in awe of every one of them."
"John Laurinaitis pulled me aside some few months back and let me know, and I almost fell out! People around you that are very kind always say This has gotta be your year, well, no, it doesn’t have to be your year. There’s never have to be a year. So when you hear it for yourself, it’s mind-blowing. It really is. …My initial thought was Marty Lunde going in the Hall of Fame—psh!—c’mon. Arn Anderson going in the Hall of Fame, I don’t think so. But the Four Horsemen going in the Hall of Fame? Absolutely."
On the Four Horsemen: "I don’t know if there’s ever been anybody (and it’s argumentative) better than Barry Windham in the history of the business. I know for a fact he’s in the top five, it’s just a question of who the top five are. [Ricky] Steamboat’s in there, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Ric Flair, you make your top five, whoever they are, but Billy Windham’s in there; He’s on everybody’s top five list. Tully Blanchard was the best partner I ever had in the ring, period. We were in such sync after all those years together, that he could just give me a look and I know what he wanted and I could do the same to him. We never had to say a word in the ring to each other, period."
"Ric Flair is Ric Flair. If anybody was gonna be inducted twice, he certainly earned those stripes. The one guy that doesn’t get a lot of air-time or a lot talked about is J. J. Dillon. He was the brains and the thought process, the stabilizing force; he was actually our manager, our legitimate manager. Travel, I mean everything, he did all of it. And the thing is, the guy was a world-class talker, carried himself like a gentleman, dressed well, and was just smart, very smart about the business. So to be able to share the stage with those guys is just staggering when I try to assess it."
On WrestleMania: "Oh my god. Well, just go back to the fact that we started promoting Wrestlemania last year before Wrestlemania, this year’s! That ought to tell ya everything you need to know about the size of the event. I was in Wrestlemania 5, Tully and I. It was a Grand Fair. But it was also in Atlantic City and the Trump Castle—Plaza, one of those. It wasn’t eighty thousand seats, let me just tell you that. It has morphed into something else entirely. When you’ve got eighty thousand people out under the stars, if you go back to the one in Orlando…it was breath-taking: the magnificence, the color, the pageantry, everything that is Wrestlemania. It is the Superbowl times two, if you ask me. For the entertainment, dollar, and you cut four hours out of your life, if you wanna spend them somewhere, that’s where you wanna spend them. It’s absolutely just numbing, what an event it is."
On Undertaker's WrestleMania streak: "Well, he is a phenom. I knew the Undertaker from day one when he was with WCW, ‘til he moved to the WWF. I used to sit there with my chin on the ground when a guy that size would walk that top rope. It was unbelievable stuff that the guy can do. And to this day, he is no spring chicken, but the guy is so masterful, it’s unbelievable. And as far as me spine-busting the Undertaker, my fifteen-year-old, I think that was the greatest day of his life! Even though the Undertaker kicked out and knocked my eyes shut shortly thereafter (the part he doesn’t want to remember!), but what a thrill it was! It really was. Those few seconds in the ring with that guy, that’s the one that got away. People ask me all the time, Who would you like to bid in the ring with (that you missed)? That’s the guy."
On Bobby "The Brain" Heenan: "Oh my god. Well, Bobby’s gonna go down as the greatest manager of all time. And I don’t think J.J. [Dillon] would feel slighted about that. Bobby Heenan is the single funniest man that God ever put on this earth. If you ever talk to him, I could look at Bobby and just say, “Hey Bobby, that tree’s falling towards the house.” Bobby would have something to come back with right then. It wouldn’t be “O god, let’s get outta the way!” Bobby would have a clever quick comeback. He’s just so sharp. His skills around that ring were—oh—Bobby took better bumps than ninety percent of the guys in the business. Bobby was phenomenal. The tragedies that befell him will take your breath. It’s a horrible, horrible deal, but Bobby has still got, even though he cannot speak, his sense of humor! Those of us that know him can still pull out of him, and I think that’s an awesome thing."
The Anderson interview was conducted by Doug Mortman and Dave LaGreca, who host the Busted Open radio show on SIRIUS channel 94 and XM channel 208 every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 2-4 ET.
