Martin Anthony Lunde (born September 20, 1958) is a retired American professional wrestler from Rome, Georgia best known as Arn Anderson. He debuted under his own name in 1982 and wrestled for various independents around the Southeast before arriving in Southeastern Championship Wrestling in Alabama in 1983. He had a small run as the masked Super Olympia. He was given the name of Arn Anderson name because of his physical resemblance to Ole Anderson (Al Rogowski). He is best known for his work in the mid-1980s and 1990s as a member of The Four Horsemen. He stayed with Jim Crockett's National Wrestling Alliance territory until Crockett sold it to Ted Turner in late 1988, leading to Anderson, Tully Blanchard and manager James J Dillon jumping to WWE. (Dillon would be part of the office until he returned to WCW in 1997 because he couldn't keep up with Vince McMahon's work ethic.) Anderson and Blanchard ("The Brain Busters", with manager Bobby "The Brain" Heenan) would hold the WWE World Tag Team Titles
before losing them back to Demolition in 1989. Anderson returned to WCW in 1990 and competed until neck and back injuries forced him to retire in 1997. He would work backstage as an agent until the bitter end in 2001, a role he continued in WWE until 2019. He now works for All Elite Wrestling.
Among his in-ring achievements, he is a 4x former NWA/WCW World Television Champion, a 3x NWA World Tag Team Champion, a 3x WCW World Tag Team Champion and a 1x WWE World Tag Team Champion. He is often considered one of the best wrestlers never to hold a major singles title.
"You're gonna get a dose of Anderson and tropes — Horsemen Style!":
- Alliterative Name: Arn Anderson. One of his Red Barons is "Double A".
- Arch-Enemy:
- Dusty Rhodes. He feuded with Dusty many times, with Dusty even ending Arn's first title run as NWA Television Champion.
- The Road Warriors.
- Biography: His autobiography, Arn Anderson 4 Ever.
- Badass Normal: He wasn't physically impressive by any stretch of the imagination, but he was a very good technical wrestler. And wasn't afraid to tell you about both halves of it.
- Bash Brothers: With Ric Flair, Ole, Tully, Larry Zbyszko, Bobby Eaton.
- The Dragon: Served as an enforcer to Ric Flair (hence his Red Baron "The Enforcer") and sometimes fought his opponents for him.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: When Arn Anderson made his debut, he would wear a pimp-style fedora and do outlandish, cocky promos. A far cry from the no-nonsense enforcer of the Horsemen he would later become.
- Finishing Move: The "Double A" Spinebuster. Even to this day, The "Double A" Spinebuster is considered the standard by which all other spinebusters are to be measured against. According to most wrestling fans, none have done (or will do) it better.
- Game-Breaking Injury: The neck and back injuries that forced him into retirement.
- Heel: He was almost always a heel for the entirety of his career.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: He and Ric Flair were together for a long time. It really says something that he and Flair were the only two constant members of the Four Horsemen's career span of around 14 years.
- Large Ham: Well, at least as much as one could be when he's standing next to RIC FLAIR.
- Legacy Character: His tag team with Ole Anderson, the Minnesota Wrecking Crew, got two, in fact:
- In WWE's developmental promotion OVW, Brock Lesnar and Shelton Benjamin were known as the Minnesota Stretching Crew.
- Lacey and Rain teamed in Ring of Honor, SHIMMER and elsewhere as the Minnesota Home-Wrecking Crew.
- Minnesota Nice: Generally averted due to being a Heel for practically his entire career.
- Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught: The Horsemen were naturals at this. In fact, it's how he beat Hulk Hogan on the February 12, 1996 Nitro. Hulk had him in the Figure-Four. Woman threw powder in Hulk's eyes and Arn hit Hulk with Woman's boot and got the pinfall.
- Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Used his native Georgia drawl as an "Anderson" from Minnesota.
- Only Sane Man: In the Horsemen he was this a lot, both in promos and in real life.
- Power Stable:
- (in his Alabama days): The Stud Stable (also the WCW version in 1994), Sonny King's Army and the Spears Family
- (in Georgia): The Legion of Doom
- (in NWA -> WCW):
- The Four Horsemen, of course.
- Paul Heyman's The Dangerous Alliance
- The Alliance to End Hulkamania, a Villain Team-Up consisting of Flair and Arn teaming with six members of the Dungeon of Doom.
- On the January 10, 2000 episode of WCW Monday Nitro, Arn, Terry Funk, Larry Zbyszko and "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff came together as the Old Age Outlaws, though it barely lasted a week.
- (in WWE): Bobby Heenan's The Heenan Family with Tully Blanchard as "The Brain Busters".
- Formerly Cody's coach in the Nightmare Family, which consisted of Cody, Dustin, and Brandi Rhodes, along with QT Marshall and Allie.
- Red Baron: "The Enforcer," "Double A"
- Shout-Out: On the August 5, 1996 episode of Nitro, he cut a promo on the nWo which ended with him saying, "They send one of yours to the hospital, you send two of theirs to the morgue."
- Still Got It: A very much downplayed version, but in his later years he still managed to deliver his signature textbook perfect Double-A spinebuster on occasions.
- Tag Team:
- The Minnesota Wrecking Crew, with Ole.
- The Brainbusters, with Tully in WWE.
- The Enforcers, with Larry Zbyszko.
- Underwear of Power: As seen in the image, he dressed like this.
- Unrelated Brothers: He is a member of the Kayfabe Anderson Wrestling Family. He was Ole's cousin, nephew and/or brother depending on the week.
- The Worf Effect:
- Well, WCW tried. They fed him to Erik Watts and the Renegade, even dropping the WCW Television Championship to the latter, but neither guy really had the talent needed to justify their pushes.
- Played straight during the Undertaker and Stone Cold Steve Austin's feuds with Ric Flair. Stone Cold in particular beat the hell out of Arn offscreen, and the whole thing ended with poor Double A being pissed on by an angered Stone Cold.
- Wrestling Family: His son, Brock Anderson, is a wrestler in training who makes the occasional appearance in AEW as a rookie.
- Younger Than He Looks: During the Horsemen heyday of the mid to late 80s, he was paunchy and bearded with a receding hairline. He was in his late 20's during that time (and would say that if he was older, the (legit) Horseman lifestyle would've killed him!). When WCW hit national weekly TV with Nitro, Arn was wrestling with a combover and cutting promos in giant tinted reading glasses; he was only 37! The fact that he is now in his 60's yet doesn't look far removed from how he was in his prime is the subject of Memetic Mutation.
- Meanwhile, Brock Anderson is a dead ringer for his father, and seems to have inherited his ability to look a decade older than he actually is.
