Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard are former WWF Tag Team Champions as the Brain Busters in WWE. They didn’t last long in the promotion, however. Anderson recently discussed what led to his departure from WWE in 1989 on an episode of “the Arn Show” with Conrad Thompson.
“(Vince McMahon) said ‘Guys, I don’t have guaranteed contracts but my word is good and I guarantee you guys will make more than you made with Crockett,” Anderson said of his meetings with Vince before signing with the company in 1988.
“We got to wrestle all the top teams and everything was going good until we checked the figures and in the fiscal year we were about 50 grand behind at about the 8-month mark,” he continued.
Anderson continued to say they asked for a meeting with Vince to discuss their finances. At the meeting, they asked Vince to cut them a cheque to bring them even with what they would have been making with Crockett over those 8 months.
“We said if you can’t do that, we’d like to put our notice in,” Anderson said.
Vince said he wouldn’t cut them a cheque but gave them his word he would make it up to them. Anderson and Blanchard instead gave him 3-months notice.
Blanchard would be suspended for a failed drug test shortly after. Anderson also discussed Blanchard’s 1989 departure from WWE on an episode of his podcast recently.
Anderson would then continue to say that during Blanchard’s suspension, his money almost doubled and he did end up making the kind of money Vince originally promised. He would continue to say he believes this was Vince McMahon’s way of sending a message to him that he should trust him.
Anderson’s comments can be heard in the player mode:
