WWE Hall of Fame Oddsmakers: Arn Anderson

Anderson (r) with his Horseman/Brainbusters tag partner Tully Blanchard
Photo Credit: WWE.com

Oddsmakers is a segment on the popular sports opinion show Pardon the Interruption. The co-hosts discuss a particular event and the probability of it happening. It sounded like a good enough topic to transplant onto TWB, so I got my good friend, aspiring author and old-school wrestling fan Peter Speer to play along with me re: WWE Hall of Fame inductees. With the nominations coming out now, we'll take a look at several candidates over the coming weeks and let you know what we think of them getting in. This week's subject: Arn Anderson.

TH: Arn Anderson has never won a World Championship. He was never the centerpiece of a major fed or carried his own feud without the specter of the Horsemen or the Stud Stable behind him. Yet, even without the credentials, Anderson is a first-ballot Hall of Famer, or at least he should have been.

Why? Well, Anderson is the most iconic of all sidekicks. It says something to be the best at something whether it's as a supporting player or a comedic wrestler or a high-flyer or whatever. Anderson wasn't an enforcer, he was The Enforcer. The Enforcer. If Ric Flair needed someone to stand behind him to project menace, toughness, he chose Anderson. It didn't matter that he wasn't a giant. He looked like a legit scrapper, he was booked to be a rough and tumble asskicker, and it all worked because he played his role supremely well. He was also one of the best promo men ever. He could walk the walk and talk the talk.

The WWE knows this, and whenever WCW is featured, Anderson is at the forefront. He's employed by WWE, and whether he goes in with a Horseman contingent or by himself, I think it's a lock that he goes in at some point, and that point may be this year. It's a WCW year, and Anderson could be punching his ticket in this 2011 class. Anderson will get in and he deserves to get in.

Hall of Fame Odds: 3 to 1

PS: Of all the wrestlers I watched growing up, none had a more profound effect than Arn Anderson. Here, within the ranks of raging meatheads and high-flying pipsqueaks was a guy who looked like I was probably going to grow up to look. He didn't give the weird, screaming, ranting promos that were popular in his day, though he did raise his voice, about to where a father would, just a tick below he went nuclear.

And everything he did looked -- and was sold -- like it hurt like hell. His Spinebuster has been replicated to the point of exhaustion, duplicated by maybe Triple H, if that.

So, does Double A, The Original Enforcer, Arn Anderson become a Hall of Famer?

Sadly, I don't think so. To sum it up as best as I can, I've always thought of Arn as only as good as those ahead of him. You don't talk about just Arn Anderson, you talk about the Four Horsemen, you talk about Ric Flair, Sting, Lex Luger. I think as a friend of the three powerhouses of the WCW/NWA territories, often times, people were a bit more willing to sell for Arn, and make him look good than they were for some of the other folks. I don't think I could ever see someone putting Mongo McMichael over like they did Arn, and Mongo held a bigger singles title than Arn ever did.

Arn Anderson is much more of a set-up reliever than he is a starter or closer -- he's there to keep it close, keep the action going, make a hot tag to the guy who'll end up closing out the match. He's the sixth man, the backup running back, the first off the bench in a soccer game, whatever. Maybe he hits .282 over his career as decent slap hitter if he's a baseball player. Maybe he runs for 480 yards a season, backing up someone like Warrick Dunn, if he plays football. Because in wrestling, all he really did was back up Ric Flair, win a few tag titles and hold on to a title that no one really cared much about, thanks to the WCW/NWA over-saturation of the title picture. (6-man tag team champions, anyone? C'mon. I think there was a World Television Champion and a US Television Champion at the same time, too.)

It's always been Arn AND or AND Arn. Never Arn. It was never about Arn. And I think he kinda liked it that way. The Brain Busters were great tag team, despite the short shelf life, and I think the same about Ole and Arn.

How's Arn get in? It's tricky. His tag teams were good, but, they never lasted a real long time. And I doubt we're ever going to see a Four Horsemen induction, considering that if you induct Tully, Ole, Arn, Flair, you're also inducting Sting. You're also inducting Lex Luger who killed one of WWF's national treasures (allegedly). You're also inducting Steve McMichael who barely deserves induction into the McMichael family, and, well you know who.

Sorry, Arn. Maybe someday.

Odds in 2011: 1000 to 1.
Odds of eventual induction: 50 to 1.

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!