When Arn Won’t Break Kayfabe

While the quality of matches are solid and the WWE’s “Ric Flair and the Four Horsemen” ultimately does its job of cementing the stable’s legacy to both hardcore newbie fans of professional wrestling, this DVD is almost laughable in the end.

What? How can any compilation based on one of the most dominant stables in pro wrasslin’ history earn a snicker? Well, considering Martin Lunde, AKA Arn Anderson, fails to break kayfabe (He acts like his wrestling character, rather than himself.) throughout the entire thing, it’s easy to say that this is one of the most unrealistic and robotic sets the WWE has ever produced.

It’s sad too, considering how candid Tully Blanchard and Flair get at times, which, by itself, makes the program entirely worth a purchase and entertaining.

It’s all ruined though, every time Anderson opens his yammer, a wrestling cliché finds its way through, which induces more scoffs than anything else. A shame, considering Anderson is often referred to as a fatherly influence by a plethora of young talent in the WWE. His words of wisdom alone could have made this one of the best WWE DVDs to ever hit shelves.

Luckily, the rest of the program is a solid chronological tale of the stable’s history, with nearly every stone overturned. From their origin, to many revivals, no DVD has ever discussed the stable at this length before. However, the segment where Paul Roma discusses his tenure in the group is easily the most entertaining of the DVD. Other moments, where Barry Windham discusses Lex Luger’s role in the group and the exploits of the stable, are also enjoyable. While these segments do a great job of providing laughs and insight in between the history lesson, it would have been even better had Anderson himself discussed his encounter with Sid Vicious or Flair gotten a little more in-depth concerning his issues with former WCW head Eric Bischoff.

Because of this, for the most part, aside from the matches, the documentary on this set doesn’t provide much more of an education than a few wikipedia articles on the group do. While it’s great to hear stories from particularly Flair and Blanchard, the best part of the set is seeing these guys work in the ring. Make no mistake, from their promos to their in-ring exploits, this was the premiere stable in wrestling in the mid to late-’80s. Without them, it’s doubtful if there would ever be an nWo or a DX.

For that reason alone, this set is a must watch for any young fan who wishes to be educated on the rich history of the sport. Older fans will grumble at Anderson’s comments and the lack of secondary sources, but with a few hours of matches and extras, it’s hard to not find something to enjoy on this set.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14268 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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