"You don't join the Horsemen, you're chosen"

Dean Malenko: "Arn, I know you. You know better than anybody else what the word 'friendship' means. And it's no big secret that Chris Benoit is one of my closest and dearest friends and that I would do anything as far as being there for him through thick and thin, and as of late he's reached dilemma. He's been trying to contact you on numerous occasions, trying to open your heart, enlighten you and open your eyes. And, Arn, I wanna bring out something that happened a little over three years ago. At that time I was working for New Japan Pro Wrestling. You had come over in a three-week tour. And at that time, we had the opportunity to sit down, man to man, to get to know each other a little bit, to get to know each other about each others families, about our careers. And one conclusion I came up during these meetings was: we had one common denominator between both of us. And that was our work ethic, our pride, our desire, our determination that we took each and every time we stepped right here in this ring. ['We want Flair'-Chants werden laut]

Now, I know, at that time you asked me to, if I'll be interested coming to work for this company, WCW,--and I said yes--you said that you would come back and talk to the officials of WCW, try to get me an opportunity to wrestle for them. Well, Arn, that was three years ago and I never had the opportunity to thank you for what you did. And I also know you would've never done that if you didn't believe in what I was about and what I could do here in WCW. Now, Chris Benoit--unfortunately--isn't here this evening. And I think I can speak on behalf of Chris when I say that, my friend, he believes in you. And this man here, Steve 'Mongo' McMichael, I know he believes in you. Now, I'm not saying Chris Benoit or 'Mongo' McMichael need you, 'cause they'll have careers that are gonna go anywhere but up. But with your guidance, your outlook, your knowledge of this business--who knows where it could take them! Now, Arn, I believe you and I'm asking, as a friend of Chris Benoit and this man right here, to look into your heart, to ask yourself one thing: Arn, if you look deep enough, you'll find one purpose, that you, my friend, still believe in this!" [macht die Horsemen-Geste]

Arn Anderson: "Are you done? You finished? I guess my silence on this matter wasn't self-explanatory, but now I feel the need to put a little mace in it and lay it down for you. You see, Dean, you can join the Boys Club or the Country Club or the nWo, but you don't join the Horsemen--you're chosen! And it's the greatest honor that this sport has to offer. Hey hey hey, listen, listen! I listened to you, now listen to me! Now, you [deutet auf McMichael] know what it means to be a Horseman. You [deutet auf Malenko] may have some preconceived doubt there. Let me tell you what it means to me. It's a personal commitment to excellence and to each other. It means wrestling hurt, wrestling sick, wrestling when you just don't wanna wrestle anymore. That's what it means to me. It also means burying my grandmother in the morning, putting her in the ground and not even taking one day to grieve, going somewhere that night to wrestle because I made a commitment. It means, when my oldest son was two years old and took that hot iron of the ironing board and burn a hole in his foot so I could stick my thumb in, carrying him to the emergency room, watching them patch him up and handed him to his mother, rolling down that driveway when he's calling for his daddy, going on somewhere to wrestle. That's work ethic. That's what it means to me. So, don't presume you can stick four fingers in my face and get my attention, 'cause you ain't earned the right. You hadn't earned the right!

Because none of you get it! Nobody gets it! You don't think I got a passion for this!? You don't think I enjoyed being out here in front of all these people in the limelight? I lived it for ten years! The fact is, my passion burns brighter, the fire in my eyes--hold these, Tony [gibt Tony Shiavone seine Brille]--is brighter than it's ever been. But there's one fact that you don't get. Nobody gets it! Hold this! [gibt Shiavone das Mikrofon und zieht sein Shirt aus] This is who I was. [steht mit nacktem Oberkörper vor Malenko] And this is who I am now. [dreht sich um und zeigt auf seine Narbe am Nacken] Take a look at it! Nobody should understand it more than you. The fact is: I want it! I want it real bad! Cause I gotta stand in that back and every time one of you go through that curtain, I wanna be going with you. I got the heart, but I don't have the tooth. So, I'm telling you and Benoit, you're at home somewhere, I'm asking you. If you got any humanity left in your body, just let it be! Just let it be!"