On a recent episode of “Grilling JR”, Ross discussed Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard leaving NWA for WWE in 1988 and how concerned he was about trying to fill the void. Here are the highlights:
On Being Concerned That They Left:
Hell, yeah. You lose two talents as good as, arguably the best tag team in the business at that time … and I just thought they were phenomenal. And yeah, losing star players like that is like Patriots losing Brady or something. It don’t look good. They were phenomenal, and yeah it hurt. They were great in the locker room, they were good leaders. Arn has a great sense of humor, and Tully was Tully. Both of them had a lot of street smarts, and wrestling savvy. They could help others if the others would come to them and ask.
On Trying To Fill The Void:
So yeah, it hurt. It was not good, it was very upsetting. And it made you think, ‘Oh, my god, could this be the beginning of the end! We’re losing two of our stars. We’re losing the middle of our lineup! And what are we gonna do about it?’ Well, you gotta make new stars, but here’s the thing folks. That’s easy to say. You just can’t replicate personality, charisma, reliability and athleticism by waving your magic wand. And we never replaced Arn and Tully in that world, down there in that time.
You can listen to the podcast below:
Credit: Grilling JR. H/T 411Mania.