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Greensboro Carpet Cleaning

Horsemen!

It was a magic night in Greensboro. For the first time there would be an army of fans sitting together cheering for the heels. I had no idea just what was beginning; this group consisted of about 12 obsessed fans that all wanted to have a great time.

There was Billy Pritchett, his brother Jimmy, Bud Grondy, Steve Stamper, Obin Johnson, Big Eddie, and yours truly walking across the arena floor when Billy came running up to me with white tape on his nose! It was a jab at Ricky Morton and the famous broken nose angle.

This would gain a lot of attention from the other fans and made us marked men very quickly. Soon, everyone in our group was wearing tape; we were all Rock and Roll haters. We all took our seats about eight rows up in the orange seats.

These seats put us in the middle of the action with walkways in front and behind us.

Now remember, this was early-1986 and marks ruled the earth. No one ever cheered the heels in such a manner. It is hard to imagine wrestling before ECW, but this was a lot more dangerous in practice than I ever thought possible.

The fans came in droves wanting a piece of us.

The first fan who approached us was a grubby woman, who said, "Is that tape for the Rock and Roll or against them?"

We all went on the offensive. Remember, never show fear. Never.

"We are cheering for the Horsemen, real men. Not a bunch of gay boys like Hoot and Punky! We are like Arn and Flair and Tully! We are only interested in the big girls in the sweaters! Not the little girls in the t-shirts and the training bras! Ole would kick you out of bed!"

The shit hit the fan!

People during the intermission swarmed over to us to give us hell. And they never knew what hit them. We continued to talk all the trash we had heard on TV. We used all the great lines from the heels interviews of the past. And when I ran out of gas, Bud or Obin would jump right in

Folks thought that I could talk shit - well, Billy PS Pritchett was my equal and then some! And Billy never ran out of gas. That guy was a freak of nature and had a voice that was stunning. He sounded like a very loud ice pick dragged across a black board."Rock and Roll? That's not Rock and Roll! Steffenwolf! That is real Rock and Roll!"

Suddenly this heavy chick showed up and pulled up her sweater and showed us her breasts!" Are these big enough?"

"If that's a hope chest, keep on hoping! If those are pancakes you better flip them." This other weird chick came by to read us a poem on why we were wrong and should be forgiven for our sins.

Then it got real strange.

They had another intermission. I have never seen this before but there was so much noise that the wrestlers were coming out to see what was happening. I saw Ole and Barry Windom come out and take a look and just start laughing.

I was yelling at some fan or group of fans and this guy Tarron Coalson runs down and tells me if I need any help to let him know and he will help me fight my way out. I did not know just what he was talking about and then Dan Grondy shows up and says he will help us get out too.

"What do you mean Dan? We can handle a bunch of dumb ass fans!"

Dan looked me right in my face to really get my attention and said,
"Look around you and see what you are causing!"

So I let Billy take over and look around and see that there are at least 400 fans surrounding our group. And they ain't happy. It was unbelievable. People were yelling and throwing popcorn and drinks at us. I got hit with three drinks and Stamper got hit with a spit cup. It was a madhouse!

Then I realized that the main event was Rock and Roll verses Flair and Tully Blanchard for the World Tag Team Belts. Flair was the World champ and Tully was the US Champ so there was no way that Flair and Tully would win the straps. We were dead men!

Well, if you are going to die,go down fighting!

It was time for the main event and Flair, Tully and JJ Dillon came out to the ring. It was nuts! Once they all got in the ring, we held-up our only signs of the night.

They said in three-foot letters, HORSEMEN!

JJ went nuts and pointed out the signs to our champions and both stood and clapped for us. I never thought that we would be noticed but this was a first and no one had signs but us.
Then on the count of three, we flipped our signs and they spelled out,

ROMPEROOM.

Once again JJ saw it first and ran back in the ring to show the guys. Tully Blanchard laughed so hard that he sat on the second turnbuckle and pointed! Flair turned around to did his famous WHOOOO! while pointing and clapping for us. Ric Flair, our hero, clapping for us? What a moment.

Then the music started for the Rock and Roll express.Drummmma, Dummma druma druma, druma druma!

We turned the signs around to the Horsemen side as Ricky and Robert ran into the ring to a thunderous ovation. As they hit the ring Flair and Tully hands on their hips smiled and pointed to our signs. Horsemen.

Then we turned them to ROMPEROOM.

I swear they looked like a couple of puppies hit with a newspaper.

We then started to chant," Broken Nose! Broken Nose!" and we pointed to our taped noses. I think we all took a Pepsi bath on that one. The heat was brutal.

We began to plan our escape.

But a miracle happened. As the match neared the finish, Tully grabbed a chair and wedged it between the top and middle ropes. Then Flair grabbed Little Rickey by the hair and his seat of his tights and rammed him head first into the chair .

And then he pinned him! ONE, TWO, THREE!

We celebrated like six year olds at Christmas! It was then announced by Doctor Tom Miller that it was a non-title match. They changed the match to save us! Or was it just luck? The fans just faded away into the night.

After the matches, Jim Crockett Jr. went to the dressing room to ask, what was this Horsemen stuff? Tully stated in an interview years later that he had referred to the four guys as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. "I guess those guys picked up on it."

Crockett said,"I think we should run with this Horsemen thing."

And the rest is history.

Billy Pritchett responds:

I am honored! But there is no way on God's green earth that I am more annoying, arrogant, obnoxious or louder than the great John Hitchcock.  As I recall that night over and over again (after reading John's representation of events) the one thing I really remember was that he was definitely getting the heat.  I was there, and I was running my mouth, but damn, did they hate John.

What a great memory.

-Billy PS Pritchett

Dan Grondy responds:

Great web site! I enjoy John Hitchcock's columns on the front row of the historic Greensboro Coliseum. I've heard comments that a lot of people are crying bullshit on the night of the Horseman. Since I was there, sitting in the back, I thought I would offer my opinion. 

It was a big crowd, and the heat was tremendous. John and the and had a lot to do with it. The crowd was just as loud between matches as during matches, because that's when Front Row, Section D, would do their work. We were all concerned that the front row may be going too far, there were rows and rows of fans behind them yelling and screaming. When the main event was about to begin, John and his cronies held up the ROMPER ROOM signs. Magnum, Rock N Roll, and Dusty were not happy and let John know it. Then the Heels came out. ROMPERROOM was flipped to HORSEMAN. Ole,Arn,Tully, and the Nature Boy turned their heads and covered their mouths, the universal wrestling sign for trying not to
break character. It was an awesome night.

Should he take credit for the HORSEMAN? Maybe. Tully did give the Greensboro Crowd credit on a local radio  show sometime in the nineties (Hey, I'm almost as old as John,give me a break.)

Is Billy "PS" Pritchett as annoying, arrogant, obnoxious or louder than John. Yes, Billy is John's equal in that regard.

-Dan Grondy
Jamestown, NC

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