Prime Time With Sean Mooney
Date Released: October 3rd, 2018
Recap by: Joe Aguinaldo
DIRECT LINK TO LISTEN/DOWNLOAD
Running Time: 1 hour, 28 minutes
Overview: Sean’s guest on this podcast was one of the original members of the Four Horsemen, Tully Blanchard. They discussed Tully’s early days and being Joe Blanchard’s son, how he got into wrestling, who named the Four Horsemen, why he left the NWA, what happened after the WWE and what he is doing now. Here are some quick notes about the pod:
- Arm Anderson was the one who coined the name the 4 Horsemen
- Tully was the son of Joe Blanchard (CFL player and wrestling promoter for San Antonio. Joe had a reputation of paying wrestlers more than other promoters (he would pay of the gate to the talent 42% vs standard 29%). This however was not sustainable.
- Back in the day, TV was like an ‘infomercial’ which would drive fans to the live show which was the product. However cable TV has made the TV show the product. Promotions bought the time slot on TV.
- The first wrestling show on USA network was Joe Blanchard’s promotion South West Championship wrestling and at the time, they paid $7,000 per week to be on TV which was very expensive
- Tully is part of West Texas State wrestling alumni which included the Funks, Ted Dibiase, Tito Santana and Dusty Rhodes.
- Tully had a serious injury but in high school but despite that, he still started as QB for 3 years at West Texas.
- Tully had been in the business behind the scenes because of his dad’s promotion selling programs or popcorn however he didn’t know how to perform. He and Tito Santana went to Florida and learned how to wrestle under Eddie Graham. He then went to North Carolina with help from Wahoo McDaniels. At the end of 1979 he moved back to San Antonio and was ready for the next level. He turned heel in that promotion.
- Tully has always been better as a heel. Being a face is important but being a ring general is where you want to be.
- Talks about leaving WCW to WWF due to a really bad payoff. He didn’t know at the time that Arn Anderson was leaving too. In their last match with WCW, he remembers telling J.J. Dillon it was the end of an era.
- Wrestled in the WWE as part of the Brainbusters with Arn Anderson and Bobby Heenan. He and Arn were planning to come back to the WCW however Tully tested positive for cocaine. When the WCW found out, they offered to take back Arn for less money.
- Ric Flair called Tully to let him know that the WCW reneged on their deal. Tully would go on to say he found Jesus that night. Since turning his life over to Jesus, he has been doing speaking engagement in prisons.
- He talks briefly about Tessa Blanchard his daughter. He says would never discourage any of his kids from doing what they want to do however, he doesn’t think Tessa is advanced enough yet to understand the types of things he can teach her.
Rating: 8/10
As an older fan who group up in the late 70s and 80s, I’m really digging Sean Mooney’s podcast. Regarding this specific podcast, I grew up watching the Horsemen so this podcast was right up my alley. I had heard him on previous interviews and understand there was heat between him and Arn he tested positive for cocaine but Tully stayed away from the wrestling politics and kept it about him.
Also, with due respect to anyone who is religious (and certainly the son of God himself), I’ll admit, the story of how he found Jesus was interesting but I tuned out a little bit when Tully started talking about his ministry. No disrespect intended…just not something I was interested in. All in all, great podcast except for the last 10 minutes or so.
About Joe:
Joe is a long time wrestling fan from Toronto. One of his life goals is to be a guest host on one of Wade Keller’s post show podcasts but until that happens, he’ll keep writing for PW Podcasts. He doesn’t consider himself any sort of expert, mark, smark or IWC type. He just likes wrestling. Check him out on twitter and instagram @ja113.
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