The Four Horsemen - NWA and WCW

You know I had forgotten just how many people had been in the Four Horsemen and how many incarnations there were.

The original group was Ric Flair, Arn and Ole Anderson and Tully Blanchard with James J. Dillon as their manager way back in 1986.
They broke Dusty Rhodes' ankle and hand, broke Ricky Morton's nose, injured Nikita Koloff's neck and held most of the titles in the NWA at one time or another.

Over the years, the group changed with only Ric Flair and Arn Anderson being the two constants.
Lex Luger, Barry Windham, Sting, Sid Vicious, Paul Roma, Brian Pillman, Chris Benoit, Steve "Mongo" McMichael, Curt Hennig, Jeff Jarrett (maybe) and Dean Malenko were all members at one time or another.
Arn said that Jarrett never was "really" a Horseman.

In 2014, Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Barry Windham, and J.J. Dillon were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Ric Flair Back in the Day

As Ric Flair, Richard Morgan Fliehr has been kicking butt and taking names since 1972.
Yes...it has been that long.

Ric had a lot of coincidences that led him to wrestling.
When he was young, he met the legendary Vachon brothers.
He went to the University of Minnesota where he played football alongside Greg Gagne, the son of Verne Gagne.

Then he met Olympic weightlifter Ken Patera, who talked him into going to Verne Gagne's wrestling school.
There, Ric trained beside Greg Gagne, Jim Brunzell, the Iron Sheik, and Patera.

Starting out, Ric wrestled in the American Wrestling Association, where he got ring time with wrestling greats like Dusty Rhodes, André the Giant, Larry Hennig, and Wahoo McDaniel.
Not a bad start huh?

Jimmy "Jam" Garvin

James Williams was born on September 25, 1952 in Tampa, Florida.
He is a retired pro wrestler better known under his ring name Jimmy "Jam" Garvin as a member of the legendary Fabulous Freebirds.

Jimmy debuted in 1968 as Beau James, but he soon took the name "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin.
He had two "brothers", Terry and Ron Garvin (actually Jimmy was Ron's stepson in real life) who he managed for awhile.

When Jimmy went to World Class Championship Wrestling, he brought along his real life cousin Valerie French, better known as Sunshine.
After awhile, Jimmy brought in his real life wife Patti Williams as Precious.

Jimmy left WCCW with Precious and went to American Wrestling Association (AWA).

Then he went to the Jim Crockett Promotions/World Championship Wrestling, and feuded with Wahoo McDaniel, Brad Armstrong and Magnum T.A., Ric Flair, Kevin Sullivan and others.

In 1989 he joined the Fabulous Freebirds.
Actually Jimmy had wrestled with Micheal Hayes, Buddy Roberts and Terry Gordy back in WCCW and was always considered "The fourth Freebird".

In 1993, Jimmy left WCW and went to Global Wrestling Federation.

Jimmy did go back to the WCW one more time though in 1994 at Superbrawl IV when he replaced the "injured" Michael Hayes.

He is retired now, and is an accomplished pilot and flight instructor.

David Flair

David Flair was born David Richard Fliehr on March 6, 1979 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
He is the son of the legendary Ric Flair.

David first showed up in the WCW at the age of 14, in a backstage segment with his family and his father a Starrcade 1993.
He appeared again in 1998 sitting in the front row of WCW events, getting into it with Eric Bischoff and the nWo.
David made his in ring pro wrestling debut at WCW/nWo Souled Out on January 17, 1999, teaming up with his father.

David stayed with WCW from 1999 to 2000.
He then left and worked for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and the World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (WWF, WWE) from 2001 to 2002.
David went to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in December 2002 and left in early 2003.

After TNA David worked for several Independent promotions including the IWA.

David is married now and lives in Shelby North Carolina.

During his career, David held the IWA Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship, the NWA Wildside Tag Team Championship with Romeo Bliss, the NWA World Tag Team Championship with Dan Factor, won the NWA Tojo Yamamoto Memorial Cup in 2002, the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship, the WCW World Tag Team Championship with Crowbar and the NWA World Tag Team Championship with Dan Factor.
He also held the AFE Heavyweight Championship.

James J. Dillon / JJ Dillon

Most people probably remember James J. Dillon as a manager.
But before that he was a wrestler.
But did you know he took the ring name James J. Dillon because he couldn't wrestle under his real name?
Dillon was born Jim Morrison on June 26, 1942 and he started his wrestling career in 1971, the same year that Jim Morrison, the lead singer of the Doors, died.
JJ started out wrestling in the Mid-Atlantic, Texas and Florida areas and became a headliner when he went to the Canadian Maritimes in 1973.
Before he became known as a manager, he held titles in Central States Wrestling, Championship Wrestling from Florida, the Eastern Sports Association and NWA Western States Sports. He held the Heavyweight Wrestling Championship in all four promotions at one time.

But everyone probably remembers him best as a manager.
When he first started managing, several of the wrestlers he managed went on to become wrestling legends.
Ron Bass, Black Bart, "Nature Boy" Buddy Landel, Jimmy Garvin and the One Man Gang to name a few.

Dillon's real fame began when he managed Tully Blanchard.
Tully and JJ began to hang out with Ric Flair and his "cousins," Ole and Arn Anderson and after they "broke" Dusty Rhodes' leg, they soon became known as the legendary wrestling stable, "The Four Horsemen.".
They feuded with Dusty Rhodes, Magnum TA, Barry Windham, The Rock 'N Roll Express, Nikita Koloff , and The Road Warriors. And they usually held most of the major belts as well.

Even with all this fame, Dillon was let go from WCW where he moved to the front office of the then WWF. This didn't last long as he moved back to the WCW and was the WCW Commissioner in 1996 when the nWo storyline started.
You can love him or hate him for this, but Dillon was responsible for bringing in Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara to the WCW.

JJ retired from the business, but returned briefly in 2002 as the commissioner of TNA.

JJ made his first (and so far only) appearance on WWE at Ric Flair's retirement party when he showed up with Tully Blanchard, Barry Windham and Arn Anderson.

He wrote a book "Wrestlers Are Like Seagulls-From McMahon To McMahon" about his career and his personal life.

WCW: El Dandy

Roberto Gutiérrez Frías is a Mexican professional wrestler born on October 2, 1962 in Tijuana, Baja California.
He is best known by his ring name, El Dandy.
El Dandy had wrestled with the Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) promotion in Mexico, but he is best known in the US because of his time spent in the WCW.
In WCW, El Dandy was basically a midcard wrestler, but he did have a few moments of glory.
He was a member of the Latino World Order led by Eddie Guerrero.
On March 22, 1999 on WCW Monday Nitro, he almost had a shot at the WCW Champion Ric Flair, when Flair drew his name in a random drawing. El Dandy had been injured earlier that night in an 8-man tag team bout so he turned his chance over to a fellow luchador, Rey Mysterio, Jr.
El Dandy briefly partnered with Silver King in 2000 to form Los Fabulosos. Stacy Keibler managed the team and lead them to their first major victories in WCW.
His place in wrestling was cemented in a interview between Bret Hart and Gene Okerlund when Gene doubted El Dandy being a worthy opponent for Bret. Bret responded with "Who are you to doubt El Dandy?" and a wrestling catch phrase was created.
You can see the interview here.

WCW: Ernest "The Cat" Miller

Ernest Clifford Miller was born January 14, 1964 in Atlanta, Georgia.
He is a former pro wrestler who worked in both the WCW and WWE. He was the karate instructor to R and B superstar Usher Raymond and TV star Emmanuel Lewis while they were younger, and has stated that, like his other students, both still refer to him as Mr. Miller as a sign of respect.

After a career as a karate tournament competitor, Miller was brought to the WCW by Eric Bischoff. Miller was teaching Bischoff's son Garrett, when Bischoff asked him to become a wrestler.

Starting out as Glacier's tag team partner in his feud with Mortis and Wrath, he soon left Glacier and became a heel with Sonny Onoo as his manager. It was during this time that Miller's popularity heightened.

As a heel, he often gloated that he could beat anybody within two minutes and managed to do so on several occasions using his signature move, The Feliner (Corkscrew roundhouse kick).
It was also around this time that Ernest Miller began wearing ruby slippers in the ring (?) and dancing in a James Brown-like fashion to celebrate his victories. This led to a PPV "dance-off" between Miller and James Brown, who had been brought in for this.
He also holds the distinction of being one of the only men to make the fiercely professional Gene Okerlund break character and visibly laugh during an interview (Okerlund told Miller that - due to Miller's unreliable nature - he would never buy a used car from him, at which point Miller retorted with "I'll sell my foot to your ass", causing Okerlund to visibly crack on screen). Miller even went as far promoting his own instructional, karate home video with a presumably pseudo infomercial.
During this time, Billy Blanks' Tae Bo exercise videos were quite popular, so Miller's infomercial was obviously a comedic parody that fit his gimmick. While Miller was most often a heel, he eventually turned face and became WCW Commissioner in 2000. He began the storyline as a heel but eventually turned face due to the high fan reaction he was getting whenever he entered an arena. He was feuding with Ric Flair's Magnificent Seven group when WCW was purchased by Vince McMahon.

He appeared at some World Wrestling All-Stars shows before going to the WWF where he had a somewhat brief career.