[1994-05-22-WCW-Slamboree] Ric Flair vs Barry Windham

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Barry Windham's career getting cut short because of the injury makes me so very sad. If Barry was fully healed and able to really go on this show, this would have been an even hotter PPV, as it was so well put together, cheap attempt to make people think Flair was going to face Hogan at the PPV aside. Even with Barry obviously not his old self, this wasn't terrible. It feels like a match with more thought put into the layout in advance than most Flair matches, as the finishing sequence is pretty intricate. However, the setting should have made this awesome and in a perfect world, Barry would have been able to come back and show that he was back to his old self before moving right into the Dustin/Funk/Buck feud.

 

Michael Buffer: "The referee in charge will be Randy Peterson". I couldn't stop laughing at this!

[El-P]

Didn't Barry blew his knee early in the match ? I remember he was really out of shape then.

[flyonthewall2983]

It was strange that they were teasing that it might be Hogan, which would have either meant he'd come in as a heel or Parker was turning babyface. No chance in hell of the first scenario happening (at the time) and the other would have just been very strange.

 

Would have been better to have the Flair/Steamboat rematch here instead of on Saturday Night. Philadelphia wouldn't have been the perfect spot to turn Flair heel, but it would have been a good start.

[Cox]

I have to admit, the idea of a babyface Robert Fuller managing Hulk Hogan in WCW is so strange, it would have had to have been awesome had it happened.

[jdw]

Didn't Barry blew his knee early in the match ? I remember he was really out of shape then.

I think that's the story: that he reinjured it.

 

John

[Kevin Ridge]

Last few minutes and it's a pretty good ending with Flair fighting of Col. Parker a couple times and winning with the flying body press off the top rope on to Windham. Flair looking like still the good guy for now.

[Exposer]

Barry just wasn't fully healed. This could have been so much better. The finish was set up well but it was so sloppy in execution that is came across as not very good. I thought this was pretty sad to watch.

[soup23]

I thought the finishing run was well done. The flying body press didn’t look great but neither did the Flair/Vader finish from Starrcade and that doesn’t hinder my enjoyment of that match. Barry looked like he could still go ok but you do wish he would have been in better shape and not had the knee problems.

[Matt D]

His knee DISINTEGRATED

[El-P]

From memories this wasn't very good at all, and go figure, I really enjoyed it this time around. Even fat and with only one knee, Windham moves around like a panther at times. Flair was in Tenryu mode, not doing too much but stiff chops, but Windham I thought was actually still really damn good. I can picture at which point he reinjured it though. Once again, and for the third time in a row, Flair wins a match with a shitty looking finish. Maybe that was why Flair was better as a bitch who would always cheat, because he sure doesn't look like he could actually get a clean pin that would look any good. Anyway, I enjoyed this way more than I thought I would. Too bad Barry re-fucked his knee here, I would have loved to see him make a full comeback.

[El-P]

Michael Buffer: "The referee in charge will be Randy Peterson". I couldn't stop laughing at this!

Oh yeah. Not as good as Bret Clarke, but pretty nice fuck up too. Seriously, how much money Bischoff pissed away for this guy ? I would have had him once a year for the main event at Starrcade, to make the thing special, but on every title match on every PPV's it was a huge waste of money.

[goodhelmet]

I watched the thing in its entirety and we were right in making it JIP. The previous matches had great transitions you could pinpoint where the tide turned. Here, we get the kick chop transitions between control segments and it was lame. The final stretch run was good but ruined with the horrid ending. Fuck, Barry should not be in the ring at this point. Sad.

[PeteF3]

Parker's 6' 7", 300 pound blond former World Champion is...an out of shape Barry Windham. At least they basically came out the day before and outright told us that it wasn't going to be Hogan. Barry has the awesome Arn Anderson heel theme, but not much else going for him at this point, which is too bad. The action isn't terrible but Windham simply doesn't have it anymore.

[DR Ackermann]

I wonder if maybe Flair purposely botched the body press because he was aware of Windham's knee and didn't want to hurt him even worse.

[Robert S]

Weird match in that Ric Flair goes to the top rope twice and both times actually hits a move (the first time a tomahawk chop) instead of getting slammed down.

Regarding the "Randy Peterson" thing: the worst is that nobody clued in Buffer about his error (it looked a bit like he had problems reading the name from a handwritten card) and he called im Peterson again in the main event.