Arn Anderson - post 1997

[HatchetMan84]

For some reason i got to thinking about Arn Anderson. I watched WCW reguarly in 1997 - back when you could watch the first hour of Nitro - then switch over to WWF. Arn's retirement speech i remember vividly...

So what was the deal with him post 1997 - I noticed Arn wrestled in a few more matches in 97 & 98, and then had what I believe was his last match ever, against David Flair in 2000.

Was WCW taking a wait and see approach with him in terms of if he would ever be able to wrestle again? Or did Arn himself feel that he had been through so many injuries, that his final one was no different?

I always figured he'd get one more match in WWE but that never happened....

 

[Really?]

He messed up his neck and back from regular wear and tear of wrestling. The couple of tag matches, he barely got in and didn't take a bump. Interestingly, the plan was to do an angle where it would turn out that Benoit was the attacker and start a long hard hitting feud, but when Arn realized he couldn't go,,they dropped the "who attacked Arn?" story.

 

[HatchetMan84]

That makes sense to me.

Arn wrestled David Flair in 2000 - from what i hear (i have seen no video) - Arn actually looked decent and moved well - but only he knew his body, and maybe he knew he was done....

 

[rmp0012002]

Arn had a bunch of injuries but his neck was in such bad shape that it was starting to give him paralysis in his arm. I think he wanted to come back after fusion surgery but decided to call it a career. Maybe seeing Orndorff losing function in his arm spooked him.

 

[Vader]

Realistically though, the NWO promo squashed Arn Anderson. I'm not debating the merits of it, because I do believe it had no tact and was distasteful, but they did bury Arn in that promo. Anderson was right along in the main event scene against the NWO the year before, and wrestling against Sting/Savage/Luger shortly before that.

I always thought it was interesting that Benoit was the only one not to get parodied in that promo.

 

[It's...Baylariat!]

For some reason i got to thinking about Arn Anderson. I watched WCW reguarly in 1997 - back when you could watch the first hour of Nitro - then switch over to WWF. Arn's retirement speech i remember vividly...

So what was the deal with him post 1997 - I noticed Arn wrestled in a few more matches in 97 & 98, and then had what I believe was his last match ever, against David Flair in 2000.

Was WCW taking a wait and see approach with him in terms of if he would ever be able to wrestle again? Or did Arn himself feel that he had been through so many injuries, that his final one was no different?

I always figured he'd get one more match in WWE but that never happened....

He was done as a full-time active wrestler and member of the Four Horsemen. He wrestled sparingly when his body could take it, but basically, he was done as a full-time competitor.

WCW knew he wasn't long for a daily role as a wrestler way before AA's speech...and the speech was basically Eric Bischoff wanting to give him a proper send off.

Then they go and do the NWO/Horsemen thing with Nash and the rest of those assholes and ruined it.

 

[FlairFan2003]

Arn was injured in a match vs Lex Luger shortly after Fall Brawl 97. He never fully recovered and that was why he never wrestled a full match after that. On the rare occasions he did anything going forward it involved VERY little bumping on his part.

Arn was one of the first WCW people hired by WWE after the buyout....Vince apparently thought highly of him and even though he couldn't wrestled wanted him on the team, where he has worked backstage, mostly as a road agent, for many years. He made a handful of appearances onscreen in WWE afterwards, including his involvement in the Flair-Undertaker fued in 2002 but has worked back stage full time for many years.

 

[FlairFan2003]

He was done as a full-time active wrestler and member of the Four Horsemen. He wrestled sparingly when his body could take it, but basically, he was done as a full-time competitor.

WCW knew he wasn't long for a daily role as a wrestler way before AA's speech...and the speech was basically Eric Bischoff wanting to give him a proper send off.

Then they go and do the NWO/Horsemen thing with Nash and the rest of those assholes and ruined it.

I think Arn's retirement speech was to set up Henning's joining and then back stabbing the Horsemen as a way to have a full fledged Flair-Henning feud, another way for Bischoff to capitalize on a prior WWE storyline (Flair-Hogan, Flair Savage, Flair-Hart, Hogan-Savage, Hogan-Ultimate Warrior). The NWO parody was written by Terry Taylor, who supposedly always had a good relationship with Arn, as a way of elevating the NWO's heel status in advance of Henning's betrayl at Fall Brawl 97 PPV.

According to Flair's biography, Arn was legit pissed at the sketch, especially the fact The H-Men were given no opportunity to respond in any way, and blamed Kevin Nash, legit challenging Nash after the show. Nash declined to fight him and explained it wasn't his idea, which checked out, and Nash later apologized again to Arn after the fact after word got out how upset he was (which Flair gave Nash credit for, basically saying he went out of his to make it clear he didn't mean to dis Arn and he didn't have to do that, it didn't benefit him in any way so he felt it was legit).