THE BRAIN BUSTERS
Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard
1986-1989
NWA World Tag Team Champions
WWF World Tag Team Champions
WWE Hall of Fame
Written by ZAH
The Brain Busters were a throwback tag team during an era when “throwback” wasn’t even a term being used.
Arn Anderson made his in-ring debut in 1982. Tully Blanchard made his in-ring debut in 1975. By the year 1985, each was known as ¼ of the new wrestling stable known as the Four Horsemen (alongside NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair & Ole Anderson). At the time, Arn was tagging with his “cousin” Ole as the Minnesota Wrecking Crew and Tully was working as a singles competitor.
After each finding singles success within the group (Arn was NWA World Television Champion while Tully was NWA National Heavyweight Champion), the two began to tag together on a regular basis in 1987.
They found immediate success by doing things the old-fashioned way: just wrestling. They broke the rules behind the referee’s back, they double-teamed whenever possible, they didn’t rely on power moves like The Road Warriors and they didn’t do high-flying moves like The Rock & Roll Express.
After feuding with formidable teams like The Warriors, R-n-R’s, Barry Windham & Lex Luger, and The Midnight Express… Anderson & Blanchard had been two-time NWA World Tag Team Champions before moving on to WWE in October 1988.
The duo were paired-up with manager Bobby “The Brain” Heenan and dubbed “The Brain Busters”.
In an era where most of the tag teams in the company were either jakked-up power houses (ex: Demolition) or high-flying fan favourites (ex: Strike Force, the Rockers), The Brain Busters stood out from the rest through their incredibly fluid (and grounded) wrestling skills and tag team expertise. This helped them end Demolition’s then-record 478-day title reign, thus becoming the first team to ever win the NWA and WWE World Tag Team Championships.
When you see a team today like The Revival, immediate comparisons are made to the team of Anderson & Blanchard because they do all of the little things that make tag team wrestling great. Though inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame as members of the Four Horsemen, the Brain Busters will always be Hall of Fame worthy in my book as a tag team.