Dutch Mantell recently shared his rankings of the original Four Horsemen as in-ring performers, placing Tully Blanchard at the top of the list and explaining why he believes the legendary wrestler stood above his stablemates between the ropes.
Speaking on Story Time, Mantell was asked to rank Ric Flair, Ole Anderson, Arn Anderson, and Tully Blanchard strictly on their in-ring work.
“Best, the usability, do a lot with him? Yeah. I say Tully.”
Mantell credited Blanchard’s upbringing in the wrestling business for helping shape his skills.
“Because he broke in right under his father. Broke in under some guys who were great workers.”
From there, Mantell ranked the remaining Horsemen.
“The next one I would say is Arn… Then I would go with Ole. Then I would go with Flair as far as just the ring stuff.”
He clarified that his rankings changed when discussing overall drawing power rather than wrestling ability.
“Drawing money, you’ve got to go with Flair because he had all the TV time. They did all the angles with him.”
However, when isolating in-ring performance, Mantell’s opinion remained unchanged.
“But as far as the actual in-ring work, I gotta go with Tully… then Arn… then Flair. That’s the way I would go there.”
Mantell also argued that Flair often relied on familiar sequences throughout his matches.
“If you watch Flair, Flair did the same thing. He did the same thing in a lot of matches over and over and over and over.”
He even recalled fans anticipating some of Flair’s signature spots.
“How many times you see the top over the turnbuckle in the corner, walk down, get hit, boom? Or up on a rope, slammed off. He did a lot of stuff just… and I’ve seen fans that didn’t know anything about the business say, ‘Oh, he’s going to do that move again.’”
Asked what separated Blanchard from the rest of the group, Mantell offered a simple explanation.
“He knew what he was doing.”
He elaborated further by pointing to Blanchard’s wrestling lineage and instincts.
“Tully grew up in a wrestling family. Joe Blanchard, his father… Tully knew what he was doing.”
Mantell also praised the chemistry between Blanchard and Arn Anderson as a tag team.
“Even in the tag matches with him and Arn, they were a great team.”
When discussing Ole Anderson, Mantell highlighted one trait above all others.
“Ole was believable. Very believable.”
Despite ranking the members individually, Mantell had nothing but praise for the Four Horsemen as a unit.
“That whole group was actually put together very well. So whatever they intended for that group to do, they did it. They did it well and they got over.”
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