What's your favorite era of wrestling?
What is your favorite era, when your love was purest and the most extreme?
It is an easy choice for me, for while I can say the NWO invasion was probably the best storyline (how it started not the mess it became) I ever saw in wrestling it was wrestling mags, What if? come to life. My favorite era coincides with my favorite faction, the Four Horsemen. I always preferred the heels and for some reason Tully Blanchard is my favorite wrestler of all time. The Horsemen were the greatest stable ever imo loved most iterations from the originals all the way to the Chris Benoit Dean Malenko versions. However when my love for pro wrestling and Horsemen was at it's zenith was right after the Horsemen had jumped Dusty for the umpteenth time. The Horsemen were down one, only Flair, Tully and Arn so they had to prove they were still the top dogs. In fact everyone was curious about who would be the 4th? They repeatedly asked Ric who famously eventually told Shiavone, we are thinking maybe Barry Windham. Get out of here Ric and tell us the truth Tony replied. Barry had always been a babyface and thorn in the Horseman's side. I like most dismissed Ric's notion as crap. Back to the storyline they jumped Dusty, but Dusty came back as the Midnight Rider. You saw Dusty in a mask proclaiming to be the Midnight Rider sitting by a campfire. Everyone knew who he was, Dusty had a distinctive voice. The Horsemen were mad because Dusty had lost a loser leave or something or other and this was his way around it. Storyline has been done a few times but this one was different.
Kevin Sullivan who always on camera acted like he knew more about Dusty than the audience did. He called him by his real name (Virgil Riley Runnels) on multiple occasions. He came on TV and declared how the Midnight Rider wasn't just Dusty in a mask but some dark hidden demon in Dusty's soul that once released would basically burn the whole place down. I was worried, the Horsemen were not. They went on to go after the Midnight Rider like they would Dusty but that proved to be a mistake. The Midnight Rider was cruel, fast and unfeeling and unstoppable in a way that Dusty never was. (Maybe this a partial inspiration for the Crow Sting initially who was way more formidable and in a way cruel than day-glo Sting ever was). This Horsemen/Rider thing went on for a while with a false Midnight Rider being unmasked I think it was the Italian Stallion.
Finally however the Horsemen added the 4th member when Barry Windham turned on tag team partner and ex Horsemen Lex Luger, giving the Tag Titles to Tully and Arn and joining the faction. The new (and probably greatest version of the ) Four Horsemen are celebrating in the locker room when the Midnight Rider demands an explanation from Barry. Dusty was like an uncle to Barry. I remember the look on Flair and Tully's face at the audacity of Dusty to come into their locker room alone of course they jump him. Then I remember Barry Windham getting into a limo, raising up the 4 fingers through the eye holes of the Midnight riders mask as the show when off the air. That was wrestling at it's best for me as a youth.