10 Things Fans Should Know About Arn Anderson

A regular presence as a manager in All Elite Wrestling, Arn Anderson made waves recently when he took his protege Cody Rhodes to task in a wild promo where he talked about how he, unlike Cody, would shoot a carjacker. The reason for this, Anderson explained, is that “Because I’m Arn Anderson.”

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Fans less familiar with the vast and long history of pro wrestling may be wondering just WHO Arn Anderson is, as he’s been retired longer than many current wrestling fans have been alive. Let’s take a look at his career and everything you need to know about one of the greatest.

11 Not Originally An Anderson

It may come as a surprise to find out that Arn Anderson is NOT the wrestler’s real name considering what a fairly common name it is. Marty Lunde debuted in early 1982, mostly performing under his real name for Mid-South Wrestling. He’d then move on to Georgia Championship Wrestling, where promoter and 1970s tag team specialist Ole Anderson noticed that they shared not only a resemblance but a similar straightforward style. From there, Lunde became Ole’s kayfabe relative, performing as Arn Anderson. In the years since, several other wrestlers have gotten similar treatment, taking the Anderson name, including ECW’s C.W. Anderson and Bullet Club founder Karl Anderson.

10 A Tag Team Specialist

Like his kayfabe brother, Arn Anderson would prove to be an expert tag team specialist, first forming a tag team called Destruction Inc. with Matt Borne (a.k.a. the original Doink) in GCW. In Alabama’s Southeastern Championship Wrestling, Anderson would find tag team success with “Mr. Olympia” Jerry Stubbs, enjoying four runs with the NWA Southeastern Tag Team Championship throughout 1984, three with Stubbs and one with future late 1980s/early 1990s WCW jobber Pat Rose.

9 The Minnesota Wrecking Crew

Despite being established fairly early on as an Anderson, Arn wouldn’t regularly team with Ole until 1985 in WCW, kicking off a new version of the Minnesota Wrecking Crew, Ole’s old 1970s tag team with kayfabe brothers Lars Anderson and Gene Anderson. Together the new Anderson brothers would only have one title reign as the NWA National Tag Team Champions. They would team together until 1987, but they would reform and last from 1989 until the following year when Ole retired from in-ring competition.

8 The Four Horsemen

Arn Anderson’s biggest claim to fame was not only being a founder of the dominant and influential Four Horsemen stable alongside Ole, kayfabe cousin Ric Flair, and Tully Blanchard. Arn also inadvertently named the group in one famous promo.

RELATED: 10 Backstage Stories About The Four Horsemen We Can't Believe

Together, the Horsemen feuded with all the top babyfaces in the National Wrestling Alliance in the mid-to-late 1980s, including Dusty Rhodes, Sting, and Magnum T.A. Eventually, Ole would be phased out of the Horsemen and Arn would end up teaming with Blanchard, winning the NWA World Tag belts twice and also capturing his first singles title via a 248-day run with the TV Championship.

7 The Brain Busters

In 1988, Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard would jump ship to WWE where they’d be a bright spot in the tag team division as The Brain Busters. Managed by Bobby “The Brain” Heenan (hence the team name), Anderson and Blanchard would dethrone Demolition on a July 1989 episode of Saturday Night’s Main Event in a 2/3 falls match, holding the belts for 76 days before dropping them back to Demolition and leaving the company in November of that year.

6 The Enforcers

Upon returning to WCW in 1989, Arn Anderson also returned to The Four Horsemen, which would undergo several personnel changes and would break up by 1991 as half the group (including Ric Flair) went over to WWE. After a couple more TV title runs, Anderson would return to his tag team roots and team with Larry Zbyszko as The Enforcers, enjoying a 75 day run as WCW World Tag Team Champions. More tag reigns would follow, including one alongside Bobby Eaton and two with Paul Roma as part of the weird three-man configuration of the Horsemen.

5 Feuded With Ric Flair

After the aforementioned Three Horsemen petered out, Arn Anderson and Ric Flair remained partners -- that is, until Arn had enough of doing the heavy lifting in their partnership following a feud with Vader, turning on Flair in the process. The 1995 Anderson/Flair feud incorporated Brian Pillman as Anderson’s partner while Flair convinced a reluctant Sting to help him battle the duo. Of course, this was all an elaborate ruse, as Flair betrayed Sting, resulting in Flair and Anderson re-forming The Four Horsemen, alongside Pillman and Chris Benoit.

4 His Retirement

By the mid-1990s, injuries to his neck and back forced Arn Anderson to spend less and less time competing in the ring. He would wrestle his last match as an active competitor on the 1/27/1997 episode of Nitro in a winning effort alongside Steve “Mongo” McMichael against The Amazing French Canadians.

RELATED: 10 Things Most Fans Forget About The Four Horsemen

Later that August, Anderson would give an emotional retirement speech that would be infamously lampooned by the New World Order faction. He would, however, return to the ring for two matches in May of 2000, though those bouts would be very brief.

3 WWE Road Agent

Once WCW was purchased by WWE, Arn Anderson would become a backstage road agent for the company in 2002, occasionally making on-screen appearances as a character, often as part of Ric Flair storylines or for nostalgic “Legends Night” style episodes of Raw and/or SmackDown. Typically, however, Anderson could be seen in the usual onscreen road agent capacity of being a warm body to help break up fights. This run with WWE would last nearly two decades, with Anderson being fired from the company in 2019.

2 Joining AEW

Just as Anderson was fired, the promotion All Elite Wrestling was starting up, and by the end of the year -- following an appearance at August 2019’s All Out PPV -- Anderson was signed to the company. No longer just a backstage guy, Anderson was a regular presence on AEW television, accompanying Cody Rhodes to the ring as the coach of his Nightmare Family stable. Anderson would occasionally get physical but would more often give Rhodes advice during matches, covering up his mouth with a laminated “playbook” to ensure that only Cody could tell what he was saying.

1 His Son Is a Wrestler, Too

In 2021, Arn Anderson introduced a new generation of Anderson in the form of his son, Brock Anderson. In his early to mid-20s and already looking like his dad, young Brock was instantly part of The Nightmare Family, often teaming with Cody Rhodes and Lee Johnson in matches, often in winning efforts. In August of 2021, however, Brock Anderson had his biggest match yet, a brief singles match against Malakai Black where the young Anderson suffered a decisive loss.