The Brain Busters showed up in WWE in 1988 and fans up north got to enjoy watching what was one of the best tag teams in the world of that era. However, what resulted was a disappointing stint, and the two never teamed up again.

In the 1980s, there wasn't a better stable than The Four Horsemen in Crockett Promotions. With Nature Boy Ric Flair as the world champion, Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard as tag team specialists, and Barry Windham as the mid-card champion, they dominated the promotion. However, when Anderson and Blanchard left the Four Horsemen for WWE and became The Brain Busters, they failed to find the same success as they did in Crockett Promotions.

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The Brain Busters Before They Entered WWE

When The Four Horsemen first joined forces, Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard were not a tag team. Instead, Arn teamed with his cousin Ole Anderson while Tully was a singles star. Both men won singles titles, with Tully winning the NWA TV and United States Championships and Arn winning the NWA TV title. However, once Lex Luger joined the Four Horsemen and became the new U.S. title contender, Arn and Tully joined forces and became one of the best tag teams in WCW.

Tully and Arn won the NWA World Tag Team Championship two times, first from the Rock 'n' Roll Express and the second time from Lex Luger and Barry Windham when Windham turned on Luger. Despite only having two title reigns, their 323 days as champions ranked as the sixth longest in NWA history. This also is more impressive since The Minnesota Wrecking Crew of Arn and Ole held the titles for 992 days, giving the Four Horsemen over 1,300 days as tag team champions. When the tag team left for WWE, it opened up new possibilities for them, but things never worked out for them there.

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Why The Brain Busters Failed In WWE

WWE did the same thing with The Brain Busters that they did with Nature Boy Ric Flair a few years later. WWE hooked them up with Bobby "The Brain" Heenan as their manager. This was good and bad. First, it gave them a great heel manager that immediately made fans hate them. However, it also hurt because Heenan mostly managed contenders, and rarely worked with champions. Sometimes it worked, such as when he was with Rick Rude or Ric Flair. However, in the case of The Brain Busters, things didn't go as smoothly. One problem was that they were technical tag team wrestlers, and WWE had faster teams like the Killer Bees and Strike Force, or more colorful teams like the Hart Foundation and British Bulldogs. The Brain Busters were great, but they were a bit vanilla by WWE standards.

The Brain Busters wrestled The Rockers in what was one of the best tag team matches in WWE history in 1989. However, they only had one WrestleMania match and won when Rick Martel walked out on Tito Santana. After this, The Brain Busters won the WWE Tag Team Championship, ending Demolition's record-setting 478-day title reign. Their title reign lasted just three months.

On his podcast, Arn Anderson said he felt The Brain Busters worked in WWE, despite what people might have thought. Anderson said that the only reason they lost the tag titles back to Demolition when they did was because they had put in their notice to leave. Arn said that they left over money issues, but he felt that if the money had been right and people had been more upfront and honest, they might have held the titles until WrestleMania and had a big match there with Demolition. "It's a shame it didn't work out," Arn said. "It certainly wasn't on our end."

On Something to Wrestle, Bruce Prichard said that The Brain Busters never worked in WWE because its style was not what Arn and Tully were good at. "There were times their philosophy clashed with what they liked and what they were comfortable with," Prichard explained. "I think they were more comfortable in the Carolinas and being with Jim Crockett." The Brain Busters were out of WWE just one month after putting in their notice, and then Tully Blanchard failed a drug test. This destroyed The Brain Busters, as the team planned to return to WCW and rejoin The Four Horsemen. When WCW learned of the failed drug test, the company rescinded Tully's offer. Arn returned alone, and the team died.