RIPPA Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 I realized that I can kill two birds with one story with today. Consider this a tease.... "To bring it back to a wrestling context, the longest running unsecured spot in my Wrestling Excitement Pantheon is,,, of course... 80's Barry Windham." - Dean Rasmussen (Of course - you don't have to twist my fucking arm to talk about Barry Windham) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 http://youtu.be/a5HRRPmJGWc Filthy Luchre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimLivingston Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 One of the best turns ever. My jaw dropped the first time I saw this. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramsey Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 It looks as if Dean, Rippa, and I have similar tastes in our fake fighting favorites. Barry Windham circa 86-89 is another of my top five picks. He was a big strong kid who, while tall and gangly, could still do just about everything right. An absolute natural in the ring. I always loved his "lariat" finisher, the rebounding flying clotheline with the mid-air roll thing on impact. Also, for my money, his vertical suplex with the float over pin is one of the best executed wrestling moves ever. Barry, like Steamboat, was one of those elite level guys that Flair could really stretch out and tell stories with as opposed to "Ric by the numbers" when he was forced to do a carry job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 This is what my workday has come to. I don't have time for Barry windham. what the hell? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyAkc97rRAA And I don't have time to find the best TV Windham match none of you have ever seen, which i buried in the WCW C-shows note, as part of a WCW Pro Chicago show from 91 vs Arn right after the face turn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DEAN Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 So much to love.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7VnBoL-3j8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistah Na1m4rk Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 I grew up in the Florida territory and saw lots of Windham, for my money he's the greatest all-around wrestler to have never held a world title. He did so many things well against such a wide variety of opponents, brawling, technical wrestling, gimmick matches, he always gave an excellent effort. If he comes up short anywhere it's cutting promos but once hte bell rang he was as good as anyone I ever saw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.T. Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 Windham squashes Rick Sullivan. Barry was a good lookin' kid in the 80's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 There's a Windham vs Muraco match from FL that was on youtube maybe 9 months ago and it was an extended squash/beatdown to set up Brisco making the save but it was one of my favorite Muraco things I'd ever seen and a lot of that was rookie Windham being his punching bag. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BurningBeard Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 The more I think about the more he's probably turned into my favourite wrestler of all time. 88-93 he is faultless IMO. I've always wondered about the story about Flair planning to drop the title to him in 91 though. It's a sore point with Barry but I've never understood how it was ever planned - Windham was in the Horsemen and there was never any disension teased so how were they ever going to go into a programme for him to drop the title? He raises an interesting point in his RF shoot though - they ask him who he thinks is the most overrated person in the biz is and he answers with himself. He took a lot of breaks and time off over the years, saw his chance come and go and never got motivated after that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Web Conn Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxYoAmWVX-U http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2MvG4qR020 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTJJaSyyeaA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cool arrow Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPMWc_axUCk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rev Ray Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 I grew up in the Florida territory and saw lots of Windham, for my money he's the greatest all-around wrestler to have never held a world title. He did so many things well against such a wide variety of opponents, brawling, technical wrestling, gimmick matches, he always gave an excellent effort. If he comes up short anywhere it's cutting promos but once hte bell rang he was as good as anyone I ever saw. Except he did win the NWA TItle over Muta at SuperBrawl III. I'm trying to think, for a minute there, they were going to do a Pillman/Windham/Austin heel team, weren't they? Before Brian and Steve became the Hollywood Blonds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cool arrow Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 Well, there was a Windham/Pillman vs. Steamboat/Douglas match at Starrcade '92. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goodear Posted April 18, 2014 Share Posted April 18, 2014 Windham and Pillman teamed a couple of times right after one of them turned heel and it was sure going to be awesome, but Barry got moved into singles as "The Lone Wolf". Considering their previous feud, I thought the team had some pretty good chemistry but Steve ending up getting slid into the role of tag team guy. I don't think all three of them ever had much of a relationship as a steady trio. It was a really strange time where they broke up Barry & Dustin but never really resolved the feud to my satisfaction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LooseCannon Posted April 18, 2014 Share Posted April 18, 2014 Are there any current tall-ish guys who have obviously patterned themselves after Windham a bit? He seems like the template guys should go for if they are tall but not suited to pulling off a more power-oriented offense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted April 18, 2014 Share Posted April 18, 2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted April 18, 2014 Share Posted April 18, 2014 ...and since we were talking about Windham/Muta: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-7v4xAEKJU EDIT: Well, probably shouldn't have posted that. Maybe historically important but it'll put you in a coma. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cool arrow Posted April 18, 2014 Share Posted April 18, 2014 Are there any current tall-ish guys who have obviously patterned themselves after Windham a bit? He seems like the template guys should go for if they are tall but not suited to pulling off a more power-oriented offense. Not really all that current, but Steve Corino has always reminded me of BW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil Otto Posted April 18, 2014 Share Posted April 18, 2014 Are there any current tall-ish guys who have obviously patterned themselves after Windham a bit? He seems like the template guys should go for if they are tall but not suited to pulling off a more power-oriented offense. Well, Bo Dallas is his nephew, so that appears to me to be the most obvious choice. He started really young just like Windham did, he seems pretty tall to me, and he doesn't rely so much on signature moves. His physique is strikingly like Barry's as well. Now, I am no way implying that Bo Dallas is in Barry's league, but then again, hardly anyone is. I would be inclined to think he also got some coaching from Barry along the line, so that's promising. I guess we'll just have to see what happens. He might not turn out to be a breakout star like brother Bray, but he seems to have the physical tools to make it, at least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted April 18, 2014 Share Posted April 18, 2014 Our old friend JDW once called Barry "God of Work" and god damn was he ever right. Oh, and here are the Hollywood Blondes and The Lone Wolf together: And this really isn't about Barry, but he's in it, and it's great, and the template for a few years later when a similar event that was even greater happened: This I've never seen, but lord do I hope it's a good as I'm expecting it to be: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyAkc97rRAA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted April 18, 2014 Share Posted April 18, 2014 Oh shit, one of my favorite matches! http://dai.ly/xz8hcc Hope I did that right, never posted a daily motion vid here before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sky Blue Sam Posted April 18, 2014 Share Posted April 18, 2014 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxYoAmWVX-U Was just about to post this. This match is THE match that got me into pro wrestling. The WWF was all the rage in the UK, but as I didn't have Sky TV, the only wrestling I could watch was WCW Worldwide on ITV. The first week I watched headlined with Johnny B Badd vs Scotty Flamingo, but it was this match one week later that absolutely sealed the deal. I couldn't pick who I liked more, both guys just seemed so good, and these two were my absolute favourites for my first year of fan hood. I even recall lobbying (successfully) for Windham to be positioned 2nd in our school magazine "favourite wrestler" list, even though I was the only WCW fan I knew. Hey, also just spotted this match is dated on my 10th birthday, so I'm now going to consider my love of wrestling as a 10th birthday present from WCW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted April 18, 2014 Author Share Posted April 18, 2014 Oh shit, one of my favorite matches! http://dai.ly/xz8hcc Hope I did that right, never posted a daily motion vid here before. You need to put the full dailymotion link in the media tags - not the share link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistah Na1m4rk Posted April 18, 2014 Share Posted April 18, 2014 I grew up in the Florida territory and saw lots of Windham, for my money he's the greatest all-around wrestler to have never held a world title. He did so many things well against such a wide variety of opponents, brawling, technical wrestling, gimmick matches, he always gave an excellent effort. If he comes up short anywhere it's cutting promos but once hte bell rang he was as good as anyone I ever saw. Except he did win the NWA TItle over Muta at SuperBrawl III. I stand corrected, but this was at the tail end of the NWA's relevance and at that screwy time when WCW recognized both titles, so I forgot about it, I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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