Ric Flair & The 4 Horsemen [2007]
Brandon Sears
RATED: ??
RUNNING TIME: 200 mins
DATE SEEN: May 02nd
DIRECTOR: Kevin Dunn
Four of the most dominant athletes of the 1980's formed what was arguably the most important faction in wrestling history. In 1985, Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson and Ole Anderson became the Four Horsemen and quickly rose to the top of the food chain in the world of professional wrestling. They destroyed anyone that stood in their way, won countless championships, spent money like it was going out of style and and had more woman at their disposal than most movie stars.
The group was led by the most charismatic showman in the 80's and early 90's, Ric Flair. Flair gave some of the most spirited promos, some of the greatest matches and was world champion more times and longer than anyone else of that era. Throughout his tenure as the "leader" of the Four Horsemen, Flair was engaged in more exciting feuds than anyone else in NWA/WCW & WWE, battling Ricky Steamboat, Magnum TA, Ricky Morton and Dusty Rhodes.
One man, does a group not make. Flair had 3 of the greatest wrestlers of that day backing him up. Reigning Tag Team champions, Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson (as well as Ole Anderson and Arn Anderson) ran over all comers, in fact, one of the greatest tag team matches I've ever seen is contained on this disc. More about that later.
The DVD itself is a no holds barred, uncensored history of the group through inception to the brief reunion in 1998 on Monday Night Nitro. Flair holds nothing back, taking shots at brief members Lex Luger and Sid Vicious (his remarks about Sid are very candid and very funny). You'll also hear from various superstars from the current WWE roster as well as a few legends from back in the day. It has been said on countless occasions that without the Four Horsemen there would be no nWo, D-Generation-X or Evolution and I couldn't agree more.
Overall, I can't really complain about the disc. This is how WWE should be producing documentaries. Not the other way they use in which they tell a story and show a complete match, then return to the story. I enjoyed this DVD a bit more than Flair's stand alone 3 disc collection. After watching this DVD, it became apparent to me that during this era of professional wrestling, NWA/WCW was leaps and bounds ahead of Vince in terms of in-ring story telling, storylines and wrestling quality. I think WWE is the better company to have won in the end as WCW went towards the edge of insanity in its later days but I think that if NWA could have matched WWE's production department in the 80's..I doubt wrestling would be what it is today.
VIDEO & AUDIO QUALITY
Most DVDs that I review, this really doesn't factor in. However with most wrestling DVDs that has a lot of footage from the 80's and early 90's, this is a big deal. This was the first DVD I watched on my new HD TV, and it was filmed for full screen television, so it was a bit weird having the sides cut off. However, I did stretch it out and it was alright. Some of the extra matches, the quality was decent but not the greatest. I've heard stories about how WWE is unable to use some of WCW/NWA's older tapes as they're badly damaged and were not cared for properly by the administration in charge of WCW's library back when the company existed. In fact, one of the extra matches, the video disappears entirely for a matter of seconds, then returns as if you were watching an old VHS tape.
PACKAGING & BONUS MATERIAL
Packaging is pretty standard. It comes in your average 2 disc DVD case. There really isn't much to speak about here. It has a paper insert with chapter menus and bonus content, but nothing to get excited about. One thing I really like about WWE is that it puts a lot into superstar bio DVD's, however, they did nothing for this. Anyone who is a collector will understand the frustration but to most people, its not going to matter.
BONUS MATERIAL
There are a great deal of promos on this disc, I'm not going to go into detail and list them all, I will however, talk about the bonus matches:
ARN ANDERSON, TULL BLANCHARD & RIC FLAIR V PEZ WHATLEY, THE ITALIAN STALLION & ROCKY KING (NWA 6.22.85) I believe this was one of the first pairings of Blanchard, Flair and Anderson. This took place before they were called "The Four Horsemen". It was excellent, I've never seen anyone from the other team but they were very fast and very entertaining.
STEEL CAGE MATCH FOR THE NWA CHAMPIONSHIP - RIC FLAIR V RICKY MORTON (The Great American Bash 7.5.86) - This match took place outside, in a baseball stadium. I love outdoor wrestling events, I think its a very different atmosphere and something new to enjoy. Flair actually enters this match via a helicopter and the ring crew unfolds a long red carpet so that Flair doesn't actually have to touch the grass! It was fantastic. Steel cage matches have really dwindled in glory over the past 20 years, they've been reduced nowadays to RAW/Smackdown/ECW TV show main events and rarely ever appear on PPV. This match was over the top and full of intensity. Both men left a lot of blood on the mat that night.
FIRST BLOOD MATCH - DUSTY RHODES V TULLY BLANCHARD (Starrcade 11.27.86) I don't know if this is one of the very first "First Blood" matches ever televised, it was great nonetheless. I felt it was weird that they used weapons only when the ref was out cold. Was it illegal to use weapons in a first blood match in the early days? Seemed odd. It was also one of the first match I saw anyone use a roll of quarters to get the win.
WAR GAMES - THE FOUR HORSEMEN V DUSTY RHODES, "DR. DEATH" STEVE WILLIAMS, LEX LUGER, NIKITA KOLOFF & PAUL ELLERING (The Great American Bash 7.16.88) - This was far and away the best match on the set. I think WWE needs to bring back an annual War Games event, I think it would be stellar. If anyone doesn't know how this match works, you take two teams of 5, a member of each team starts. Four minutes later, a coin toss takes place to decide the next entrant from one of the two teams. After that person enters..each team takes turns letting a member in on the action until all members have entered..then a fall can be decided. Oh, and I forgot, it takes place within TWO rings..surrounded by one long cage. This match was awesome, I haven't seen a full War Games match so it was a different thing to watch. It was enjoyable nonetheless.
NWA TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP - STING & NIKITA KOLOFF V ARN ANDERSON AND TULLY BLANCHARD - What a match. I think this was near the end of Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard's first tenure in WCW/NWA as they had recently accepted a contract from Vince and the WWE. This match was set at a 20 minute time limit and went to a draw. It was fast paced at times but mostly mat wrestling. Flair said earlier on the disc that Sting was their version of The Ultimate Warrior.."except ten times better". Looking back, despite the fact I was a huge Warrior fan when I first started watching wrestling (at age 6), I can agree with Flair. Its probably a good reason as to why you still see Sting wrestling now and not Warrior.
ARN ANDERSON V RIC FLAIR - This match is not really liked by Flair or Anderson. The story surrounding it involves Anderson leaving Flair because Flair didn't respect him and Anderson wanted him to realize how terrible his career would be without the constant backup. Flair had said it was done in an awful fashion and wasn't necessary. I believe this was one of Anderson's last matches.
Overall
Overall, the 2-disc set was exceptional. It took you through a great history of the group, without the feeling of holding back information. RECOMMENDED
Brandon Sears is an insurance salesman by day and a superhero by night (not really). He has been writing for Modern Distraction since 2004. He lives in Sydney Mines with his wife, Ashley and his dog Toby.