Thanks to his long career and decades of television exposure, fans are all too familiar with “The Enforcer” Arn Anderson, who co-founded the Four Horsemen in WCW, worked behind the scenes and appeared frequently on screen in WWE, and managed Cody Rhodes in AEW. Less well known, however, he is Arn’s teammate and kayfabe brother, sometimes billed as his uncle, Ole Anderson, who was also part of the original Horsemen.
Ole Anderson retired in 1990, so fans aren’t as familiar with him as they are with Arn. Let’s try to rectify that by looking at Ole Anderson’s career and what fans need to know about the underrated legend, including his dislike for his own faction.
10 Member of the Minnesota Wrecking Crew
Training under Dick the Bruiser and Midwestern wrestling legend Verne Gagne, Ole Anderson, whose real name is Al Rogowski, made his in-ring debut in 1967, wrestling under names like Rock Rogowski. In 1969, Rogowski got his big break when he was chosen to join the already established Minnesota Wrecking Crew tag team: Gene Anderson and Lars Anderson.
Replacing Lars, Rogowski gained the name Ole Anderson, and the Minnesota Wrecking Crew captured countless titles in NWA territories throughout the 1970s, disbanding in the early 1980s when Gene Anderson retired to become a manager.
9 part of a kayfabe family
With his rechristening, the now Ole Anderson became part of what would become an almost completely kayfabe family. Of the original Minnesota Wrecking Crew, only Gene Anderson had the Anderson name in real life, with Ole and Lars being his kayfabe brothers.
Over the years, that family has grown, most notably encompassing future Four Horsemen partners Ric Flair and Arn Anderson. Over the years, there have been several additions whose relationship to the family has largely been forgotten, including Karl Anderson of New Japan, WWE, and Impact Wrestling.
8 Reformed the Minnesota Wrecking Crew with Arn Anderson
The Minnesota Wrecking Crew name would only lie dormant for a few years before it was revived by Ole Anderson. With Gene retired, Ole found a new partner in Marty Lunde, who he realized looked a bit like him. Y he fought a similar style. As a result, Lunde became Arn Anderson and a new Minnesota Wrecking Crew was born.
Together, Ole and Arn Anderson captured only one tag team title together, the NWA National Tag Team Championship, and split in 1987 with Ole’s expulsion from the Four Horsemen (see below).
7 Decorated Tag Team Specialist
While he did capture a few singles titles in his career, including the American Wrestling Association Midwest Heavyweight Championship and the NWA Florida Television Championship, Ole Anderson was more often a tag team specialist.
When it comes to the tag team division, Anderson managed to win over 40 tag team championships, and not just with various members of his family. In addition to Lars, Gene, and Arn, Anderson’s other notable associates include Ox Baker, Ronnie Garvin, Ernie Ladd, and Stan Hansen.
6 Founding member of the Four Horsemen
The year 1985 saw an important moment in professional wrestling history with the formation of the Four Horsemen. Led by JJ Dillon, the Horsemen were comprised of four talented and formidable heels who worked the National Wrestling Alliance’s Jim Crockett Promotions territory: Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson and Ole Anderson.
Together, the Horsemen were a dominant force against babyfaces like Dusty Rhodes and the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express, and ended up being the blueprint for just about every badass faction in the decades that followed.
5 His son also became a wrestler
During Ole Anderson’s early career with the Horsemen, he regularly took time off to watch his son Bryant compete in high school amateur wrestling. This became a kayfabe concern for the rest of the crew, resulting in Anderson being kicked out of the Four Horsemen after only a year or so.
Bryant would attempt to follow in his father’s footsteps, training at the WCW Power Plant and debuting in 1993 under the ring name Bryant Anderson. The young Anderson failed to gain much traction in WCW before being released and wound up in Smoky Mountain Wrestling before retiring in 1995.
4 Involved in several Minnesota Wrecking Crew revivals
In late 1989, Arn and Ole Anderson decided to reform the Minnesota Wrecking Crew, and Ole rejoined the Four Horsemen, now baby-faced, when the group, along with his old enemy Sting, fell out with the J-Tex stable. Gary Hart Corporation. As a duo, the Andersons feuded with the Steiner Brothers for the World Tag Team Championships, but were unable to capture them and eventually parted ways in the spring of 1990 when Ole Anderson opted to retire.
That same year, Arn Anderson suffered an injury and Ole introduced a new version of the team, the Minnesota Wrecking Crew 2, made up of former AWA champions Mike Enos and Wayne Bloom. Wearing masks and identified only as Minnesota Wrecking Crew #1 and Minnesota Wrecking Crew #2, this new version of the group challenged for the United States tag belts and at one point faced the Steiners in a stretcher match.
3 He became the head of bookings for WCW.
In addition to tag team wrestling, when he retired, Ole Anderson also had years of experience as a backstage figure, notably signing Georgia Championship Wrestling in the early 1980s.
In the early 1990s, he became head booker for WCW, where he had a reputation for pushing all the old school wrestlers loyal to him, turning all the youngsters into workers, and criticizing Ric Flair for lose his last match in WWE. . On screen, he was involved in infamous blunders like coming up with Black Scorpion’s backstory and providing the voice of the Shockmaster in his first appearance.
two I didn’t like being in the four horsemen
Ole Anderson not only disliked Ric Flair, he also hated being a part of the Four Horsemen. While he admitted that the group was financially successful, he also felt limited in the group and bitter that most fans only think of the Andersons in relation to the Four Horsemen, and not as part of the Minnesota Wrecking Crew.
To the other Riders, Ole was the odd man out, whose personality didn’t mesh with the flamboyant and flashy tendencies of Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, and Tully Blanchard.
1 He wrote a story about the changing business of wrestling
Given his reputation for being curmudgeonly and outspoken, it should come as no surprise that Ole Anderson finally wrote a book about his time in pro wrestling. Published in 2003, Inside Out: How Corporate America Destroyed Pro Wrestling was co-written with Scott Teal and follows Anderson’s entire career, from his early days to his career in the ring and his work behind the scenes.
As the title suggests, Anderson puts a special focus on his behind-the-scenes clashes with the higher-ups and even Vince McMahon while working for Georgia Championship Wrestling and later WCW.