Tully Blanchard

Tully Blanchard
Born	January 22, 1954 San Antonio, Texas
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Tully Blanchard The Outlaw The Midnight Stallion
Billed height	5 ft 10 in (178 cm)
Billed weight	222 lb (101 kg)
Trained by	Joe Blanchard Jose Lothario
Debut	1975

Tully Blanchard (born January 22, 1954) is a second generation American professional wrestler, best known as one of the Four Horsemen.

Early career

As the son of wrestling promoter and former American Wrestling Association star Joe Blanchard, Tully Blanchard was involved in professional wrestling at a very young age. He began selling programmes and refreshments at the arenas at the age of ten, and worked as a referee when he was older. Blanchard attended West Texas State University, where he played American football, first as a quarterback and then as a defensive end, alongside fellow future wrestlers Tito Santana and Ted DiBiase. After graduating, he trained as a wrestler and eventually wrestled for Southwest Championship Wrestling (SCW), where he also held a number of backstage production and creative positions. Blanchard was very successful in SCW, starting out as a face and teaming with his father in a feud with Dory Jr. and Terry Funk, then later teaming regularly with Gino Hernandez in one of the better heel tag teams as "The Dynamic Duo", and holding both the World and Tag Team titles. Eventually Hernandez left for World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) and formed a second version of The Dynamic Duo with Chris Adams, while Blanchard began wrestling with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) Mid-Atlantic promotion. Hernandez died in 1986; Adams died in 2001. Blanchard is the only surviving member of The Dynamic Duo.

With his manager, Baby Doll, by his side, Blanchard engaged in epic feuds with Wahoo McDaniel, Magnum T.A., and Dusty Rhodes. It was the latter feud that led to his forming an alliance with Ric Flair, Ole Anderson, and Arn Anderson, the soon-to-be Four Horsemen. The group would dominate the promotion over the next few years, holding numerous titles and brutalizing their enemies. Blanchard himself would become the NWA World Television Champion (twice), NWA United States Heavyweight Champion, NWA National Heavyweight Champion, and NWA World Tag Team Champion (twice) during that time.

Career Changes

After differences with promoter Jim Crockett and booker Dusty Rhodes about him and his tag-team partner Arn Anderson's pay, Blanchard and Anderson left JCP for the World Wrestling Federation on September 10, 1988, losing in an 11th hour title change to Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane following a brief feud (fellow Horseman Barry Windham and manager J.J. Dillon would leave later for similar reasons; Flair, meanwhile, considered leaving and was even booked to win the WWF championship at the inaugural SummerSlam, but decided to stay when JCP signed his old friend Ricky Steamboat and put them in a program together). In the WWF, they were dubbed "The Brain Busters" and paired with heel manager Bobby Heenan. The team defeated Demolition for the WWF Tag Team Titles in May 1989, but lost them back to Demolition several months later. Blanchard and Anderson were planning a return to the NWA so the WWF pushed a break up angle between Heenan and the Brain Busters on an episode of Saturday Night's Main Event that aired on October 31, 1989. Around that time, Blanchard failed a drug test causing his premature departure from the WWF. Bobby Heenan himself replaced Blanchard as part of the Heenan Family team at the annual Survivor Series a month later.

Blanchard and Anderson were supposed to return to the NWA to reform the Four Horsemen with Ric Flair and Ole Anderson. However, when the NWA learned of Blanchard's infraction, they declined to offer him a contract.

Without a contract and troubled by his increasing alcohol and drug abuse, Blanchard became a born-again Christian on November 13, 1989. He would again negotiate with the NWA to rejoin the Horsemen in early 1990, but ultimately declined what he considered to be a very low offer (reportedly half of a previous verbal agreement). Blanchard would go on to make a few appearances in the AWA in the Spring of 1990 and headline independent cards throughout the country, but would soon retire from full time wrestling to become a preacher. He wrestled infrequently throughout the 1990s, with his most notable matches being a bout with Terry Funk at WCW Slamboree 1994 that ended in a double-disqualification, and a time-limit draw with then-Extreme Championship Wrestling World Heavyweight Champion Shane Douglas in 1995. On January 29, 2005 at "WrestleReunion", Blanchard lost to Jeff Jarrett in a match in which he was said to look well-conditioned. He currently has a prison ministry where he preaches the Christian gospel to inmates.

It was reported on October 23, 2006 that Blanchard was working for World Wrestling Entertainment as a Road Agent/Producer. On November 3, Dave Meltzer reported that Blanchard had a confrontation with JBL that caused him to quit. JBL claimed that Blanchard had treated him like crap when he first got into wrestling and referred to Blanchard in a public setting in front of lots of people as a drug addict, cheater, liar, and a hypocrite who used God to make money. On November 6, Mike Johnson from PWInsider.com reported that Blanchard has resigned his position, citing numerous reasons for his wanting to leave, with the incident with JBL cited as one of the reasons. On November 8, Blanchard claimed (via the Between The Ropes wrestling radio show), he simply wasn't as passionate about the business as he once was and could not deliver the commitment World Wrestling Entertainment would surely expect of him. He came to this conclusion upon pondering Chris Benoit's backstage question: "Do you miss it?" Blanchard believes his prison ministry is now his true passion, despite having an existing "Legend" contract still in place with World Wrestling Entertainment. He appeared prominently in the 2007 DVD "Ric Flair and the Four Horsemen."

In wrestling

Previous managers

• Baby Doll
• Dark Journey
• J.J. Dillon
• Bobby Heenan
• Paul Jones

Factions

• The Dynamic Duo (with Gino Hernandez)
• Brain Busters
• Four Horsemen
• The Heenan Family

Finishing and signature moves

• Slingshot suplex
• Brainbuster
• Diving elbow drop
• Top Rope sunset flip
• Multiple elbow drops
• Piledriver
• Spike Piledriver (with Arn Anderson)
• Figure Four Leglock

Championships and accomplishments

• National Wrestling Alliance
• World

• NWA World Tag Team Champions (1 time) - with Arn Anderson

• National

• NWA National Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
• NWA United States Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

• Regional

• NWA Central States Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
• NWA Television Championship (1 time)
• NWA World Tag Team Championship (Mid-Atlantic version) (2 times) - with Arn Anderson
• NWA World Television Championship (1 time)

• New Dimension Wrestling

• NDW Heavyweight Championship (3 times)

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated

• PWI ranked him # 51 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the "PWI Years" in 2003.
• PWI ranked him # 15 of the best tag team of the "PWI Years" with Arn Anderson.
• PWI Feud of the Year award in 1987 with The Four Horsemen versus the Super Powers and the Road Warriors.
• PWI Tag Team of the Year award in 1989 with Arn Anderson.

• Southwest Championship Wrestling

• SWCW Southwest Heavyweight Championship (4 times)
• SWCW Southwest Tag Team Championship (5 times) - with Gino Hernandez
• SWCW Southwest Television Championship (3 times)
• SWCW World Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Gino Hernandez

• World Class Championship Wrestling

• WCCW Texas Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

• World Wrestling Federation

• WWF World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Arn Anderson

Books

• Christian Wrestlers: Wrestling With God, 2001, by Chad Bonham.