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Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard were recently guests on Talk is Jericho (h/t 411 Mania) where they talked with Chris Jericho about various different aspects of the wrestling industry, including their time in WWE.
Talking about their time in WWE, Arn Anderson mentioned how they got the name Brainbusters, and what WWE would do to suppress any mention of the Four Horsemen signs in the crowd as at that time it was still a very much NWA thing. Similar things were seen in WWE as well recently, where they removed people with signs and t-shirts supporting All Elite Wrestling back when the company was still new.
Arn Anderson on WWE removing Four Horsemen signs
When Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard came to WWE they were not given cartoonish gimmicks and were allowed to be themselves, but at the same time, WWE did not want any mention of the Four Horsemen either.
“We lucked out, I think. They ask us for new names. Obviously, they were pretty clear that, ‘We don’t want to see the Four Horseman bulls**t,’ which you couldn’t avoid for a short period of time.”
Tully Blanchard went on to talk about how WWE suppressed the Four Horsemen signs in the audience.
“When the fans would put it up, they sent guys out in the audience to pull them all down.”
Arn Anderson added how their first creative meeting with Vince McMahon went and how they got the name of The Brainbusters, something that Bobby Heenan came up with.
“Well he asked for, you know, ‘Can you come up [with ideas], and we couldn’t come up with anything. [Tully] and I tried to, and we were just — just us. They said, ‘We’re gonna put you with Bobby Heenan.’ And I think Bobby said, ‘Well hell, let’s call them the Brain Busters,’ which gave us immediate credibility. Immediate credibility. And Chris, he — our costuming was just normal, just red and white boots, red tights, whatever the deal. It was nothing special, and he didn’t mess with that. He just let us … and he said about six months into it, one day. We were just talking to him, and he just went, ‘You know, you guys give credibility to my company, to my business. I think he said, ‘You led credibility to my business.’ And I think that looking back on it, that’s why he didn’t dress us up and try to change [us]..”
