Updated: Saturday November 7th, 2009 06:09:30 PM PST
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Tully Blanchard looks at his time in WWF PDF Print E-mail

TULLY BLANCHARD DISCUSSES ARGUING WITH NBC DURING SATURDAY NIGHT'S MAIN EVENT, THE WORST TEAM THE BRAINBUSTERS FEUDED WITH, WWF CONFISCATING HORSEMEN SIGNS, AND MORE
By WorldWrestlingInsanity.com
 
In a business full of Vinces, Ricks, and Randys, there's only been one…Tully.  Now the legendary member of the Four Horsemen, Tully Blanchard, has come to ClubWWI.com for an uncut 34 minute shoot to discuss it all.
 
One of the industry's most memorable bad guys in history, Blanchard built a reputation of hard work and style.  Now, after his career in the ring, Tully has changed his perspective to helping others through his work with his prison ministry.  During his ClubWWI shoot, he talks about making transitions in his ministry as well as a ton of topics including: Turning Down The Original Brainbusters Logo, His Chemistry With Arn Anderson, Paul Roma Replacing Him In The Four Horsemen, The Brainbusters Reuniting In Today's WWE, Being a Promoter's Son, How Failing a WWF Drug Test Changed His Life, Why Some In Wrestling Didn't Like Him, Training With Lou Thesz, His Prison Ministry, Ric Flair, Demolition, Barry Windham, The Rockers, Bobby Heenan, Bret Hart, Dusty Rhodes, and More.  The full list of topics is available both on ClubWWI.com and WorldWrestlingInsanity.com
 
One thing that many legends discuss on ClubWWI is the changing face of wrestling's on-air product.  Today things more scripted than they were during Tully's day.  The opportunities to create your own persona seem to be dwindling.  Blanchard saw this change coming decades ago and mentions one to James Guttman.  
 
"I can remember back in 1989 when Arn and I were doing Saturday Night's Main Event….I used to get into arguments with the NBC people doing promos for it because they were trying to write stuff I wouldn't say.  I said you don't know who Tully Blanchard is.  You don't know who my character is.  How can you tell me what I'm going to say?  That wasn't exactly a great career move (laughs).  Besides that I couldn't memorize and regurgitate anyway. "
 
Tully goes in depth about creating a heel character and making it stick.  He also discusses the unique situation he was in as the heel son of a promoter…in an industry where most fathers make their sons play the hero.  He explains why that was and how it worked to his benefit.
 
During the interview, James tells Blanchard that he always considered The Brainbusters (Tully and Arn Anderson) to be the greatest tag team of all time.  Their chemistry seemed to be perfect and Tully agrees.  But to be a great team doesn't just mean having great matches with great performers.  Sometimes you have to stretch a bit.  In a moment that leads to massive laughter, Blanchard tells ClubWWI.com listeners about how tough things could be.
 
"Our first run up there was with Shawn (Michaels) and Marty (Jannetty).   We had great matches and then our next three months were spent with The Bushwhackers which, uh, you know, I guess if we were the greatest tag team of all time, we had to have good matches with the Bushwhackers…"
 
From there, Tully breaks into massive hysterics and takes a little while to catch his breath.  James says that there were many other teams like that in WWF at the time.  That's why he was surprised that Brainbusters were brought in with the wrestler gimmick.  It almost seemed like the Busters injected a sense of wrestling back into the division at the time.
 
"Yeah.  We just did what we did and we tried to do it better.  There was a lot of crossover fans, television-wise, whether they came to the buildings or not.  There were a lot of people when we first got there that used to hold up Four Horsemen signs.  (WWE) used to have to try to take them down at the tapings and stuff."
 

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