“Vince McMahon hates my guts, and I don’t like him."

[Evenflow DDT]

When asked about being snubbed for the WWE "Hall Of Fame" Ole Anderson had this to say.

“Vince McMahon hates my guts, and I don’t like him. So that’s all there is to it. To be a part of that, anyone with a brain knows who the first Four Horsemen were. It was me and Arn and Ric and Tully Blanchard, and J.J. Dillon was the manager. So if they don’t know that, they don’t know anything about wrestling anyway. So what’s the difference?”

“Vince McMahon is never going to call me. I hate his guts just like he hates mine. It’s no big deal.”

“I can’t go anywhere anyway. I’m so screwed up from the multiple sclerosis. I’m in a wheelchair right now, and that thing kills me after a little while and then I have to lay down. That’s my routine. How would I get there? By car? I couldn’t do that. By airplane? I just couldn’t get there.”

“I told Vince McMahon to go (expletive deleted), and I wouldn’t change my mind now.”

Now this isn't a post about whether or not Ole should be inducted (even though I think he should), I just want to know what is the heat that he has with Vince and is it reciprocated?

 

[punchline]

I don't know the full details, and maybe someone else can elaborate on this for me, But there's been heat between Ole Anderson and Vince McMahon ever since a court battle in the mid 80's over Georgia Championship Wrestling. Again, i don't know what the case was about exactly, only that it involved GCW and that Vince and Ole haven't been on good terms since.

 

[justinept]

The heat more than likely goes back to Black Saturday when McMahon bought out Georgia Championship Wrestling's time slot on TBS. Ole was in charge of the territory at the time, and there was a lot of resentment between the two over the move.

Ole was also the head booker for WCW in the early 1990's. Vince has a history of holding grudges with former WCW bookers. Remember, he "embarrassed" Dustry Rhodes (yellow polka dots) and Eric Bischoff (throwing him in a garbage truck to end his tenure as Raw GM) once they joined the WWF. Vince probably shared a similar dislike for Ole, and Ole - being the old school, hard ass that he is - probably said something that pissed off VKM even more.

To your question - should Ole be inducted? Probably. But it isn't necessary. There were a dozen or more incarnations of the 4 Horsemen. It would be a cluster if EVERY person involved with the Horsemen was inducted at once - or even on stage at once. The WWE did the right thing to just pare it down to ONE incarnation of the group, making sure that there were only FOUR Horsemen involved when the FOUR Horsemen were inducted.

People can argue til they're blue in the face about which incarnation should have been included. A lot of people think that the one with Wyndham, Blachard, Arn and Flair was the best. Others think the original was the best. Cases can be made for both.

However - one thing that no one is mentioning in terms of the decision to go with Wyndham over Ole is that Ole has serious heat with Ric Flair. Remember when Flair "retired" four years ago, Ole wasn't a part of the send-off celebration ... and then, when asked why he wasn't a part of it, he responded by criticizing Flair, saying that "Flair could've been one of the all-time greats, but he chose to just wrestle the same match every night." I'm sure Flair is glad Ole isn't a part of the Hall of Fame.

 

[waylonmercy]

I don't know the details behind VKM and Ole's beef but I am sure you guys hit it on the nose with regards to Black Saturday and Ole being the booker. Ole has always been a difficult person to deal with and it seems he has many grudges and few friends in the business.

As for him being inducted he SHOULD be since that incarnation of the Horsemen were by far the best. Lex Luger was a good 2nd but the evolution of 4 Horsemen and the steam they gained revolved around the group including Ole. Ole was the connection that added Arn. I doubt if Luger was around they would have chosen LUger over Ole. But Ole seems to be his worst enemy. Its too bad he won't get recognized for his contribution. I sure as hell hope that Flair or Arn or Tully mentions Ole's contribution. especially Flair since Vince can't do a damn thing about it and Flair's legacy is sealed in WWE.

 

[justinept]

I don't know the full details, and maybe someone else can elaborate on this for me, But there's been heat between Ole Anderson and Vince McMahon ever since a court battle in the mid 80's over Georgia Championship Wrestling.

To expound on this - In the early 80's, only two promotions had national TV time slots: The WWF had a Saturday morning slot on USA Network and Georgia Championship Wrestling had a Saturday night slot on TBS.

McMahon felt that he could further monopolize the industry by purchasing GCW and then using the Saturday night time slot on TBS to promote his product. Vince's first appearance on the GCW time slot in 1984 came to be known as Black Saturday.

The move didn't sit well with Southern wrestling fans. In fact, they HATED Vince's product and refused to watch. With the ratings struggling, Ted Turner decided to give an additional time slot to both Ole Anderson's newly minuted Championship Wrestling promotion AND Bill Watts's Mid-South Wrestling promotion.

The move pissed off McMahon because he thought buying the time slot would give him an exclusive deal on TBS. Turner countered that Vince breached their contract because he wasn't providing original content to the Saturday Night show.

 

[The Brain]

I belive when Vince was taking his father's regional promotion national in the mid 80s he casually approached Ole about coming to work for him. Like many others in the business Ole hated the idea of Vince going national and going into all the territories. He told Vince to go fuck himself and had some disparaging remarks about Linda too. Naturally Vince did not take kindly to this especially since he knew he was giving Ole a great opportunity even if Ole didn't have the vision to realize it. He's probably too stubborn to admit it but I bet Ole wishes he had accepted Vince's offer.

I should mention that I don't know for sure if this is fact but I remember reading about it a long time ago.

 

[MrMojoRisin]

I belive when Vince was taking his father's regional promotion national in the mid 80s he casually approached Ole about coming to work for him. Like many others in the business Ole hated the idea of Vince going national and going into all the territories. He told Vince to go fuck himself and had some disparaging remarks about Linda too. Naturally Vince did not take kindly to this especially since he knew he was giving Ole a great opportunity even if Ole didn't have the vision to realize it. He's probably too stubborn to admit it but I bet Ole wishes he had accepted Vince's offer.

I should mention that I don't know for sure if this is fact but I remember reading about it a long time ago.

I've heard the same thing, only that Vince was more than casual about wanting Ole to come work for him. Ole wanted nothing to do with it though, and in typical Ole fashion, made that crystal clear to Vince.

 

[Grizzly0u812]

I think Vince has pissed off many people, did he not buy the airing time for ECW when Paul Heymen owned it and that put it out of business and went around buying up other promotions because he does not like competition, does he not realise competition is healthy.

I could see why Ole would hate him if he also did the same to the promotion he was in, some say Ole was an asshole to be around and stuff others have said Rick Flair was down right rude to women when he travelled on planes and stuff, you get half a dozen one way and another dozen the other way.

What I have notice is WWE has been showing a lot of Rick Flair footage which is odd cause usually WWE does not show anyone who is in rival promotion.

Wondering if they will even mention any of the other members of the Four Horsemen.

 

[J.J.]

You all need to read Ole's book. He told why he disliked Vince. He disliked Vince because the territories would help out Vince Sr's territory whenever he needed. Specifically with talent, back then there were territories that had chance of going national but didn't. Kind of like an unofficial tradition in the territories. Well Vince Jr. takes over and that changes. He started buying out those same territories that helped his father's territory survive and went national. I know for a fact growing up that Mid-Atlantic could've went national but didn't out of respect. Vince buying out Georgia territory was just the icing on the cake.

 

[SinCityBlitz]

Ole hates everybody. He can't stand the business. He has the same type of attitude Dynamite Kid has.

It's a shame because he should be known but he really wants nothing to do with any of it. So IMO they shouldn't mention him since that is the way he wants it.

 

[Dr. Mantis Toboggan, M.D.]

I've been wondering this myself ever since I read that. I didn't know there was bad blood between the two. I'm going with what The Brain has to say because he's always right. Ole should be inducted tho, he's a bad ass in every sense.

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

This is sad. I mean I just read what he said and it makes me sad. Vince has been known to hold a grudge AND forgive people and move on and stuff, but in the condition Ole is in, I think he should just call Vince apologize if he made offensive remarks towards Linda, and accept the HOF via satellite or something.

 

[Xumer]

Someone can correct me if I am wrong here but didn't Vince offer Ole something like $300 to appear in the 4 horseman DVD set a few years ago? I think I remember reading back then that the reason Vince sent that lowball offer to Ole was because he knew that it would offend him and didn't really want him for the project anyway.

 

[sTyLnK]

If Ole wants to go through life holding grudges that's his personal choice. But the reality is even though he says it's "not a big deal", it is and he knows it is. He wants to make his voice heard, but because he can't he's trying to just "play it cool and act like nothing is bothering him". A lot of things are eating him up inside. At least that's what it looks like to me. I hope the poor guy realizes this before it's too late.

 

[FlairFan2003]

Vince has shown in the past that he wil put aside personal grudges for the good of his product. He definately put aside grudges with JJ Dilion not only to get him to particiapte in the Horsemen DVD Retrospective to appear on the RAW tribute to Flair after WM 24.

He has certainly put aside grudges and hard feelings to work with Bischoff, Hogan, Nash, and Hart through the years. If there is money to be made Vince will cave.

That said, Im not sure why such vitrol exists between them. Ole has had a reputation for rubbing people the wrong way, even close associates like Arn & Flair and Dusty Rhodes supposedly. Heck if Dusty & Vince could make peace and Bischoff & Hogan could make peace with Vince I cant possibly see why he and Ole cant unless Ole just finds it completely unneccessary. Its actually a slap in the face to induct the group without Ole. Of course, the HOF should have Randy Savage & Bruno Sammartino in it as well, although in the past what kept them out was their unwillingness to participate.

All that said, realistically about 7 names should go into the HOF as part of The Horsemen Induction: The original unit (Flair, Arn, Ole, Blanchard), Lex Luger (the group had great success with Luger as a member, this may have been the height of the popularity of The Horsemen vs Dusty Rhodes fued), Barry Whyndam and manager JJ Dillion.

The various incarnations post 1990 that involved Sting, Sid Viscious/Justice, Paul Roma (man that was bad), Benoit, Malenko, McMichaels, etc all had varying levels of success but not at the height of the Group's 1985-88 run. Kind of like the NWO was never the same in any incanation after eary 1999, too many changes and re vamps, it never clicked on the same level. The constants were always Flair & Arn, but the group as a whole became a force when Ole was involved and grew to greater heights with Luger and then Whyndam. Nothing that the other names added ever compared.