Barry Windham

[BigBadMick]

Just a real comfort food wrestler to me. I became a fan in 1991, and loved his work in '92.

Sometimes I think I'm overrating him based on too little top tier work, but he did finish in the top 20 in 2016..

[Makai Club #1]

I've been watching some of the weekly WCW 1993 shows and Windham is constantly delivering on those shows. I have no doubt that he was an excellent wrestler and was for way longer than people realise but I probably need to rewatch a lot of his career to put him into perspective because I'm going to rank him but I have no clue where. Not even a ball park. 

[Boss Rock]

Elliot touched upon this a little in the Gordy thread, but Windham to me seems like a guy who should be better than what he was. I like Barry, he was very good and had excellent execution. But apart from the Flair and War Games matches (and I've honestly never been crazy about the Crockett Cup match), there aren't a ton of Barry matches I'd consider really great. Even the Scorpio match is "just" good. 

[elliott]

Barry is more input than output as a candidate I would say. Other than the Flair matches the only MOTYC singles matches I can think of are the match against Dick Murdoch 7/11/87 and the match against Terry Funk from 9/86. There's other stuff I like really like but isn't on that level. The Pillman feud is awesome with some really terrific matches. The Scorpio match isn't a MOTYC but is an awesome match. The SuperBrawl 92 tag and Starrcade 92 tag. But Barry's strength is the input and versatility. He's an excellent performer either as a heel or a babyface. Singles or tags. He can do those long title matches with Flair or he can have an awesome 7 minute double juice brawl with Pillman. YOu can point to execution and smoothness if thats your thing. He's a great bumper and seller for a guy his size. I think he's just a little bit better at basically everything than Gordy was so I'd feel better about ranking Windham higher. I think they're closer to each other than the 2016 voting would suggest (Windham 25, Gordy 79th)

 

[Childs]

To me, he's only more input than output if you define output by classics. I can spend a week watching nothing but Barry Windham matches from 1986 to 1993 and have myself a damn good time. 

[elliott]

I would actually agree with that. Barry rules. 

[elliott]

I ranked Barry Windham 31st in 2016 and I feel like that's too high. We've talked a little about Barry recently so I won't go too in depth here. Kind of a similar case to Eaton where I fucking love Barry. He has all the tools I could ever want and works in a time and place I love just about as much as any other time and place in wrestling history. I don't anticipate him in my top 50, but its more of a case of OMG there are so many great wrestlers! than anything wrong with Barry. If someone wants to put him (or Eaton for that matter) in their top 20 I'll listen to the argument and be glad to see it. 

[Boss Rock]

I've been watching a shit ton of Barry matches since I last posted in this thread and he seems like a lock at this point. Even if his classics are just the Flair and War Games matches, most everything else I've seen him in ranges from at least "pretty good" to "great". Still a great offensive wrestler and I've really started to appreciate how versatile he could be. I prefer him as a tough as nails "never back down" face, but he could be a good big shot heel as well.

[KB8]

I had Windham at 33 in 2016 and I think he'll probably be about there again in 2026, if maybe a little lower. I could see the argument that he doesn't have the longevity to crack the top 30, but he has a ton of good-to-great stuff in a relatively short (by top 30 all time standards) period, and there are smatterings long after his peak where he's still really fun. One of the all-time great US tag wrestlers, either as a heel or a babyface, and has the top drawer singles matches, both as peak athletic 'next man up' who looked like the heir to the throne, as well as grizzled vet with the beer gut and dodgy goatee. He's got the awesome long matches and the awesome short matches, the technical matches and the brawls. Barry ruled. 

 

BARRY WINDHAM YOU SHOULD WATCH:

v Terry Funk (Puerto Rico, 9/19/86)

v Ric Flair (JCP WorldWide, 1/20/87)

v Dick Murdoch (Mid-South, 7/11/87)

w/Brian Pillman v Ricky Steamboat & Shane Douglas (WCW Starrcade, 12/28/92)

v Too Cold Scorpio (WCW Clash of the Champions XXIII, 6/16/93)

[BigBadMick]

I've been watching a massive amount of 1992 WCW and even in a year packed to the brim with strong workers Windham is a standout. Great work in numerous tags with Dustin, capping off the year with a great heel turn. What's the general narrative on his 1992?

[elliott]

10 hours ago, BigBadMick said:

I've been watching a massive amount of 1992 WCW and even in a year packed to the brim with strong workers Windham is a standout. Great work in numerous tags with Dustin, capping off the year with a great heel turn. What's the general narrative on his 1992?

I think 1992 has always been viewed generally very positively for Windham. 

[BigBadMick]

His best since ‘88, I’d say. 

[elliott]

I think that's a fair assessment. 1992 WCW was so fucking loaded with great wrestlers having great years that Barry might get a little lost in the shuffle but when I think about it, Barry's got some real highlights that year. 

[CurtainJerker]

I know people say he underachieved or didn't reach his potential, but he had a nice 13 year run (80-92) which is nothing to sneeze at! He gave us a bunch of excellent matches, and showed great range as a babyface, heel, singles, or tag. One of the best wrestler ever, for sure.

[CheapPop1999]

Windham is another personal favorite of mine and he's got one of the best cohesive narratives for a career from his original win over Harley Race to his Crockett Cup challenge against Flair. That run alone gives him a spot on my list but he's got a lot of fun stuff from 88-93 as well, like the Bam Bam Bigelow match at Starrcade, the Scorpio defense, and the ever-revolving door of tags and six-mans from 1992 WCW. In an alternate universe, he's probably the one taking down Hollywood Hogan at Starrcade 1997 instead of Sting, based on his connection to the crowd in the late 80s. A real five-tool player for wrestling; great offense, great selling, great storytelling, great matches, and great character work. The cliff he goes off after 1993 is really sad but it will probably give him placement somewhere around 60-70 for me.

Also:

On 2/15/2016 at 2:29 PM, funkdoc said:

the yao ming of wrestling, always judged on what he was supposed to be

This is quite literally the greatest comparison that sounds like nonsense I have ever seen on this website. Bravo sir.

[NotJayTabb]

Pretty sure I had Barry top 30 last time, and that was almost entirely due to his late 80s/early 90s peak, but last night I watched a West Texas Rednecks vs Rey/Eddie/Kidman match from a random Thunder, and Barry still looked great in that. He offense all looked great (all six men had great offence, made me want to do a WTR deep dive), but he also made his opponents look great too. Him bumping from a Rey hurracanrana looked really good, not awkward like you sometimes get from a big man having to sell for a much smaller opponent. Going to have to check out some late period Windham, see if this was an anomaly.

[conker8]

Eric from SC does currently a deep dive on Barry's run in 1998 WWF.

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/search/label/Barry Windham

[JerryvonKramer]

For what it's worth just watched this match from Superbrawl 9 and thought Windham was shockingly bad in places.

[EnviousStupid]

For what it's worth, I just watched this match against Steve Corino in 2001 and while Windham was well past his prime, the dude still had some snap behind his strikes and could work a match with all the marks of an old school JCP bout. Maybe the last great match Barry ever had.

[CheapPop1999]

On 1/6/2023 at 7:29 AM, EnviousStupid said:

For what it's worth, I just watched this match against Steve Corino in 2001 and while Windham was well past his prime, the dude still had some snap behind his strikes and could work a match with all the marks of an old school JCP bout. Maybe the last great match Barry ever had.

Really enjoyed this. Kind of felt like a nice companion piece to the Funk match from Puerto Rico. Corino certainly isn't Funk, but there's something to be said about Barry as the super cool babyface who just gets to react to the big heel shtick.