Arn Anderson reveals who legitimately punched him in front of the entire roster
Arn Anderson has revealed that former WCW Executive Vice President Bill Watts once punched him in a wrestlers’ meeting.
In 1992, Watts began to call the shots as the head of WCW’s creative direction. He told the entire roster in a meeting that he wanted wrestlers to legitimately kick and punch each other in their matches.
Speaking on his ARN podcast, Arn Anderson said Watts called him by the wrong name during the meeting. In an attempt to show wrestlers how to punch properly, he then called the Four Horsemen member over and punched him in the forehead.
“He looks over at me and he goes, ‘Lars? Come here, Lars. Lars, come here.’ I’m looking around like, ‘Lars, who the hell is he talking about?’ Apparently he’s talking about me. ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. You, Lars, get up.’
“So I get up, covered the distance to where he’s standing, and he just goes [‘WHOP’ sound]. Straight punch, right in the forehead, and it shocked me so much and it shocked the boys so much. There wasn’t a peep. I just looked at him like, ‘Is that it?’ He went, ‘Okay, Lars, go ahead, sit back down.’”
Arn Anderson said there was an “eerie” atmosphere after the “awkward” punch and he could not believe the other wrestlers did not laugh.
Arn Anderson’s WCW legacy
Arn Anderson is widely considered to be one of the greatest in-ring performers that WCW ever had. He worked for Jim Crockett Promotions/WCW from 1984-1988 and 1990-2000.
He also had an 18-year run in WWE as a producer between 2001 and 2019. Nowadays, the WWE Hall of Famer works for AEW as a producer and on-screen talent.
Please credit ARN and give a H/T to SK Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.