The legendary Tully Blanchard needed a month to recover from taking the Tail Whip Kick from Luchasaurus during his in-ring return on AEW Dynamite a few months back.
Blanchard recently took fan questions on AdFreeShows.com and talked about appearing in the ring for AEW. The March 3 Dynamite show saw the WWE Hall of Famer, with former Horsemen manager JJ Dillon accompanying him, team with FTR to defeat Luchasaurus, Marko Stunt and Jungle Boy. This was the first match for the 67 year old since 2005. During the match, Blanchard took Stunt out with a slingshot suplex, then squared up with Luchasaurus. This ended with Luchasaurus dropping Blanchard with his Tail Whip Kick.
Blanchard said the match was a thrill, but he needed a month to get over the kick to the head from Luchasaurus.
“It was a thrill to be there with JJ [Dillon]. I felt, in the ring, my old brain kick back into my early 30’s,” Tully recalled. “The only thing, my body couldn’t keep up with it, but it was a thrill. The thing was when Luchasaurus kicked me in the side of the head, it took me a month to get over that. That was an amazing thing, because we have physical therapists and stuff in the back. You have a training room like a football team. They worked on me.
“I went home and had my own chiropractor and massage therapist work on me. I’m glad I didn’t experience any more damage than I did, but the 67-year-old can’t do anything that the 35-year-old could.”
Tully also revealed that up & coming AEW talents usually don’t lean on him for his experience. He was asked if the younger wrestlers do ask him for advice.
“Most of the time, younger guys don’t come and ask me for my advice,” he said. “When they do, I answer them as honest as I can. The things that I did, I think you would have to say most of the stuff was successful.”
That same March six-man match is when Shawn Spears was revealed as Tully’s latest client. The finish saw a camera man attack Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus, which allowed Tully and FTR to hit a spike piledriver, to set Tully up to get the pin. The camera man was then revealed to be Spears. Tully was asked what he thinks Spears is missing and about how he doesn’t get booked in big matches.
“He and I have had that discussion a number of times,” Tully revealed. “It is a lot of me not having the answer because I was out of the business for 30 years, and now I’m starting to get back in the flow of things. The things that make people heels and babyfaces, or in between, really doesn’t change that much, because people’s emotions, and the things that you go after.
“Athletically, Shawn is phenomenal. He is big. He is tall. He is quick. I told him a couple months ago, ‘Dude, I couldn’t jump over the top rope. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t do that. You need to show your abilities that you can do that stuff, and then if the situation arises like back in my career, people knew I could wrestle, but I chose to be a bad guy. That usually ticked off people even more. If people can grab a hold of you in that vein, I think it will push you up the ladder some.’”
Tully continued and praised The Pinnacle’s FTR and MJF, “I think that The Pinnacle is rising, and doing well. I think that’s helping Shawn. I know FTR is a fabulous tag team. There’s something in me that I can’t just say they’re the best, but they’re real close to the best. I do say that with my tongue in my cheek. MJF is one of the more promising young guys that’s going to be a top talent for a long, long time. These guys are all very fortunate that AEW started.”
(H/T to WrestlingNews for the quotes)
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