[1991-09-21-WCW-Saturday Night] Barry Windham vs Mr Hughes / Barry Windham and Lex Luger

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Hughes loses his sunglasses quickly, so his brag in Jericho's book that they never fell off during a match was a lie. The announcers sell the point that Hughes isn't out to pin Windham, he's out to take him out so he's not a challenge to Luger. This was way better than I thought it would be, and it's not all just Windham carrying things. Race interferes liberally, which in this case helps the match. Hughes looks surprisingly athletic here, and Windham even bleeds, which surprises me for a TV match. I love Hughes putting on a figure four and it being put over as this hitman-like attempt to break Barry's leg. Hughes takes some wild bumps for a guy his size. Windham is about to rub Race's face in the concrete when Luger runs out from behind to attack him with a chair for the DQ. Hottest match on WCW TV in a long time thanks to the action in the ring, Harley Race at ringside, and great announcing by Jim Ross and Paul E.

 

Later in the show, Windham is out bandaged up and wants Luger in the ring right now. Hughes come backs out and they brawl while Luger stands back and casually looks on. Great stuff.

[WingedEagle]

Love the Mr. Hughes! Super underrated, he really bumped and moved well and carried himself strongly enough that the gimmick didn't feel like a joke.

[goodhelmet]

Another match that nearly got bumped but I actually watched the match while converting and we kept it on because the crowd was so hot.

[PeteF3]

Dangerously compares Hughes to Lord Byron in what has to be a first in the history of wrestling commentary. Hughes is full of surprises--he takes some fine bumps and unleashes a dropkick, a sleeper, and a figure four(!!) which is worked really well thanks to Race. This should be his career match, at least in singles. Windham bleeds(!!!) but comes back with a big lariat off the turnbuckle to send Hughes to the floor, and then he goes after Race. Windham is about to put Race's face into the concrete when Luger clobbers him with a chair and Windham is triple-teamed and left laying--Ron Simmons is speaking at another Boys & Girls club and is unable to help. This is the hottest segment of the Luger title run yet. Hughes actually looks like a star in the making here, it just wasn't to be.

[Kevin Ridge]

Monsoon would have a conniption with Mr. Hughes wrestling gear. Check out Harley’s jacket. Nice stripes. Good effort from Mr. Hughes and one of his better matches. Hughes with the figure four was a nice spot. He was just after trying to cripple Windham at this point.

[soup23]

I was really impressed with this match. hughes works it so well that I really felt they could have built up to a cool triple main event at Havoc with Windham/Hughes, Cactus/Sting, and Simmons/Luger and it would have worked. The dropkick and figure four was especially impressive. Barry has really had a solid 1991 with the Pillman feud and now this. Heated match with juice coming out.

[garretta]

You can tell by this match that Windham's star isn't in the ascendant as far as the title goes; if it was, Hughes would have been squashed like a grape in under two minutes, and Harley would have been knocked for a loop at the very least. As it is, Barry's used as a model to show off Hughes' skill set, which is much greater than most people in his position. Someone in another thread commented that Dusty perhaps saw Hughes as the next Ray Traylor/Big Bubba Rogers, in that he had enough skill to transition from bodyguard to wrestler. This match is a great argument for that position, as Hughes dominates it for the most part, showing off great athletic ability, tremendous ring smarts, and a willingness to pull out every possible stop to win.

 

Harley's great here too, looking like he could still wrestle at least occasionally. I loved the diving headbutt spot on the floor, and was actually waiting for the famous Race kneedrop to go with it. Is it too much physical action for a manager? Yes, if you hold Harley to the same standard as most ringside managers. But seven-time World champions who can still go a little get special dispensation in my book, as long as they can still make their spots look good and are willing to take their beating when the time comes. Harley fits both of those criteria. It almost makes me wonder what guys like Heenan, Fuji, and J.J. Dillon, who were all pretty fair wrestlers, could have done in terms of real ringside damage if Vince or whoever the promoter they were working for at a given time was would have let them. Fuji in particular could still go some in the mid-eighties when he was managing Muraco.

 

I liked how JR and Heyman put over Hughes as almost a paid bounty hunter employed by Luger to eliminate Barry from the title picture, but they or whoever was feeding them material made a real mistake when it came to explaining Simmons' absence. Speaking at a Boys' Club? Is that the best they could do? Why not wrestling somewhere else, or just enjoying a night off? Actually, since this was a TV taping, I'll bet he was there and they just didn't want him to come out so Luger and company could get some uninterrupted heat by bashing Barry's head in, which is actually pretty smart thinking.

 

I think this is the last time we'll hear JR and Heyman together calling a match; they don't call any matches together in October that I remember, and after Havoc Heyman's out as a commentator and comes back as the manager of the debuting Rick Rude on the 11/16 WCWSN, with the Dangerous Alliance formed in full the following week.

 

After the closing brawl between Windham and Hughes, I'm not sure why they didn't sign a rematch between them for Havoc; it would have been a much more effective way to keep Hughes from causing trouble than simply banning him from ringside. Luger just standing there watching Hughes literally doing his fighting for him was a great visual, as was Harley trying to get Hughes out of Dodge at the end before Barry snapped for good and all and rained down a heaping helping of Texas whoop-ass on all three of them, Luger included.

 

As usual, I agree with Pete; this was the best segment of the entire Luger title run so far. Lex is finally established as a heel champion in the Flair mold, complete with entourage and his own special brand of arrogance to make the package total (pun intended). We'll see if he can sustain this level of character excellence throughout the rest of his title reign.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Barry Windham vs Mr. Hughes - WCW Saturday Night 9/21/91

 

Paul E says Mr. Hughes is "mad, bad and dangerous to know"!

 

This a part of the ongoing Windham/Luger feud that stemmed from their double turn at GAB '91 with Hughes being the bodyguard for the champ & his manager, Harley Race. Really fun power TV match. Mr. Hughes really throws his massive body into everything. He looked like an out of control runaway locomotive. At the beginning he looks like he is going to topple Windham when he tries to take a hiptoss, but Windham stabilizes himself and hurls the big man over. Really great shine with Hughes bumping around and showing a lot of energy. He catches Windham with a power slam and the heat segment was good. Combination of strong power moves, Harley interference and great hope spots (loved Windham missing the dropkick and flying over the top rope to the floor on a missed cross body). The finish was a Mr. Hughes Figure-4, which I didn't care for because Windham promptly no sold it on comeback. Windham had a nice fiery comeback climaxing with a flying lariat. He gets distracted by Harley and wants to rub his face in concrete so Luger comes out and waylays him with a chair. I would have liked to seen Windham get another crack at Luger, but hand crushing angle is a great one. Fun TV match between two hosses, which is my favorite type of match. ***1/4

[dawho5]

Hughes was way better than expected. He holds his end of the match up really well for a bodyguard. That dropkick was really really unexpected. I was surprised the crowd was as into this as they were, maybe WCW should have noticed and ran with it.

[WingedEagle]

Revisited this as I'm on a 1991 kick and it was just terrific. Hughes bumping and throwing dropkicks, Windham bleeding and even Race getting into the mix with a dropping headbutt. I might've even gone **** on this with a better finish but it was great as is. This kind of angle would have you think Havoc is building to Luger/Windham, or perhaps Starrcade, but no. Not much would've moved the needle for 1991 WCW but this actually felt like a hot feud for a minute.