Arn Anderson On Dusty Rhodes Joining WWE In 1989, Working With Bobby Heenan, SummerSlam Match With Hart Foundation

In a recent edition of ARN, Arn Anderson discussed Dusty Rhodes joining WWE in 1989, working with Bobby Heenan, and much more. You can read his comments below.

Arn Anderson on Dusty Rhodes joining WWE in 1989: “It was different. I was the first one to go up and shake his hand and say, ‘I hope there’s no hard feelings.’ He agreed there was not. I’m a guy that will forever be indebted to Dusty Rhodes and the three years with Jim Crockett Promotions, and he was in charge of that. Pretty much set the foundation for the rest of my life as far as being financially successful and having a long run with the company and pretty much learning the business. I learned so much being in the company that was under his watch. It was cool. Now, I was sitting there gritting my teeth trying to figure out how they were gonna punish this guy who had openly said, ‘We’re gonna kick Vince’s ass.’

“Word gets out, and that’s a challenge. If you do, more power to you. If you don’t, somewhere down the road, the guy is gonna make a comeback. That’s what he does. When I saw the polka dots and all that stuff, I knew that the options were minimal. Dusty had a grand lifestyle and a big home and nice cars and nice things and provided nice things for his family. But he had a pretty good lifestyle pumped up, and that was the only place you would’ve been able to work and make the kind of money he was used to making. He was smart enough to just grin and go with the flow.”

On working with Bobby Heenan: “What a wonderful experience I had after I met him. We’ve talked about this – he’s the most quick-witted, funny, hilarious guy you will ever meet. It doesn’t matter. You could walk up to Bobby having not seen him for two weeks and just walk up, grab your belt buckle, turn it up and go, ‘Bobby, what do you think of this belt buckle?’ And before you could get buckle out of your mouth, he had a jab at you. Something funny. He was so quick. It amazed me at how quick the guy was. Brilliant, I would say.”

On the Brain Busters’ match with the Hart Foundation at SummerSlam 1989: “Those guys were great to work with. We had enough time. I would’ve liked to have done the spiked piledriver for the finish just because it was a strong way to beat Bret, to be honest with you. The finish – it was just so so, and it wasn’t as impactful. I would’ve loved to have done our finish. When you beat a guy with your best stuff, it’s better for him. Not a big fan of a school boy or roll-up or anything. If you’re gonna beat me, beat me with your best stuff. And that would’ve been our best stuff at the time. We had a fresh crowd, it was early, and nothing had been seen hardly yet. We got them at the right time, and I think the crowd reaction was pretty good.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit ARN with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.