[1991-02-02-WCW-Saturday Night] Barry Windham & Arn Anderson vs Brad Armstrong & Tim Horner

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

This was fantastic tag team wrestling. Barry Windham didn't do much in 1990, but he is really finding himself again here. He looks great in this and the previous match. I really like him and Arn as a team. This is also an excellent FIP performance from Brad Armstrong. The sunset flip from Brad on Arn is the best sunset flip I have ever seen. Arn is selling frustration that he can't keep his balance despite his best attempts. Doom end up running in for the DQ in another shitty finish. I remember lots of non-finishes when Dusty got the book around this time. It's a shame because this match really deserved one, even though the big difference between this and Morton/Rich is that it was more fleshed out before the Doom run-in.

[jdw]

I always thought it was stupid that they went Doom --> Freebirds --> Steiners so quickly in this period. I thought taking the TV title off Arn (to Zenk) meant they were going to flip the tag titles to Arn & Barry, which made great sense. The Steiners had the US Tag Titles... they didn't need the World Tag Titles again. A match like this showed the value of the Horsemen having the tag titles: they could work against a variety of face teams.

[shoe]

This was a great t.v tag . Armstrong's FIP work was really good. I loved how Windham kept punching Brad in the temple. All four guys worked really hard. Just 4 pros having a great match .

[PeteF3]

Yes, it's absurd that the Freebirds got a title reign--negative or otherwise--when there were so many other great teams still in the division. It applied in 1989, as Parv mentioned on the last WTBBP and it applies here.

 

Anyway, the Armstrong FIP here is pretty amazing in its length and brutality for a TV match involving a JTTS team. There are about four or five moments when it looks like Armstrong is going to get the hot tag only for the Horsemen to cut him off again. Agreed on the sunset flip--Armstrong hanging on even as Arn is laying punches in is a pretty fucking awesome image. Horner looked really good throwing dropkicks early on but his hot-tag, house-afire work is pretty weak in the face of the beating Brad took. It's only a minor detriment, though, because we get a much bigger one moments later when Doom runs in to fuck everything up. Reed accidentally hits Simmons and the tension angle is officially on. Somehow this is ruled a double-DQ--I hope Nick Patrick underwent a serious official review and reprimand for that one.

[Kevin Ridge]

The fans love Anderson’s spinebuster. He’s real cocky though and waits his time before going for the pinfall. Just felt that Horner/Armstrong had no business going this long with Anderson/Windham. They put up a lot of fight but didn't like the ending. We don’t even get a clean finish with Doom interfering. Reed and Simmons don’t seem to happy with each other.

[soup23]

Great tag work. This may be the best I have ever seen Brad Armstrong look as he took a great beating and made a subdued crowd really into by the end. Arn/Windham make a great team and are able to mix up schtick with viciousness well. Ending was lame and doesn't really build to Wargames well. I kind of wish they would have just had a huge blowoff between Doom and the Horseman at the January Clash and then moved on.

[garretta]

A great match gone to hell in an eyelash. If there was going to be a Doom run-in, this match should have been a two or three-minute quickie, with no chance to turn into anything memorable. After all, the start of Doom's breakup is what you want the fans to remember if you're Dusty, not the tag match that was spoiled before it. Doom should have hit the ring a couple of minutes in, annihilated Armstrong and Horner like they were nothing, then gone to it with Arn and Barry. Either that or it should have been a total jobber team in there with the Horsemen. Ruining a match that could have meant something and wasting a tremendous FIP performance by Armstrong was inexcusable. For that matter, Arn and Barry's best performance as a team to date went by the boards too.

 

Where was Teddy? You'd think he'd have been leading the charge out of the locker room.

 

Simmons and Reed didn't look all that unhappy with each other specifically, more like chagrined that their plan didn't work. I'm wondering if this match became the origin of Doom's breakup after the fact (as in, the breakup angle was conceived after this match was taped and JR was told to retcon it on commentary later.) That would also explain Teddy's absence.

 

If I didn't know better, I'd swear Dusty was going to give the Lightning Express at least a midcard push based on their performance here. You don't hang with the number one contenders to the World tag team titles for close to twenty minutes otherwise.

 

I think it's more than somewhat possible based on what we see in this week's Horsemen matches that they were ticketed for the negative title reign the Freebirds got and refused it, which would explain why the Birds were suddenly elevated to top contender status and why their win was so fluky. I'm not sure when Dusty would have switched the belts, since the Horsemen were busy with WarGames at WrestleWar, but there would have been a way if there had been the will.

 

The correct verdict should have been Arn and Barry by DQ, since Doom attacked them but didn't touch Armstrong and Horner.

[JKWebb]

This is really good stuff. Arn and Barry worked great together, and I thought Arn was a real MVP here. A better finish could have lifted this to a classic level. I think it was one of the better tags I've seen where one team (Arn and Barry) dominated so much of the match. Horner's fire after the long-awaited hot tag could have been a little hotter. Still, I loved this one.

[dawho5]

Love the Horsemen team here. Horner was (again) weak on the hot tag, but Armstrong put in a great match and it's only because 1991 is so strong (and the finish) that this isn't one of the top matches of the year so far.