J.J. Dillon spoke about his arrival in the WWF, why The Brain Busters (Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard) weren’t as successful in the WWF as they were in NWA and more during a recent appearance on The Ross Report. Here are highlights:
On why they left NWA in 1988: “Eventually, Tully and Arn felt that the run had run its course. They had a chance to go to be with Bobby Heenan as The Brain Busters and they thought The Horsemen thing had run its course, and so, they gave notice.” Dillon added, “and once Tully and Arn left, for me, the reign of The Horsemen, and of course, promoters could continue to use the name with different combinations, for all practical purposes, it was over.”
On how he got a job with WWE: “Actually, a couple months went by. I got a call from Tully and said that Vince [McMahon] and Pat [Patterson] were running three tours a night, and Superstars, and [Wrestling] Challenge, and doing the TV, I think there were only five major pay-per-views at that time, they said they need help and some people said some good things about me, which is how I ended up there.”
On why The Brain Busters didn’t have as much success in WWE: “Tully and Arn, I don’t know the exact story, why it didn’t [work out as well as hoped],” Dillon continued, “Vince had kind of a philosophy that if it was something he did not create himself, he never had the same enthusiasm for what it was. In other words, another example would be The Road Warriors. He would create Demolition, which was really the WWE/WWF version of The Road Warriors. And maybe with Tully and Arn, they did win the tag titles up there, [but] I don’t think it was maybe the same thing they thought it was going to be.”
