Jump to content
Pro Wrestling Only

Brad Armstrong


Grimmas

Recommended Posts

I give him very very little to no chance. Sort of guy who seems to be somewhat overrated by "smart" communities and I've never seen why, whether it's GCW, WCW, or UWF.

 

I fully suspect someone is going to say "oh, but he was great in SMW and USWA".

 

I'll give Brad THREE matches. If people can point to three matches worth watching that demonstrate that he was something more than the bland midcarder I've seen dozens of times before, then I might change my mind.

 

Seems to me everyone shits on Mike Rotunda, but Brad gets an easy ride despite being more bland, and more boring, if anything. At least Rotunda has some memorable skits and promos to his name and at least three ****+ singles matches to his name that I can think of (vs. Somers in 86 AWA, vs. Rick Steiner in 89 WCW, vs. Sting in 89 WCW -- I also think he puts in an MVP performance at Clash 7 against The Steiners). What's Brad putting up against those three? [and Rotunda isn't close to my top 100 either]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Armstrong/Windham Clash match for the TV title is better than any Rotunda singles match I can think of, and I'm not even sure if that's the best Armstrong match i've seen (it's just the first one that popped into my head that I don't think Rotunda can match).

 

Armstrong is a guy that won't fill the page with super high level stuff because he wasn't ever pushed hard enough to be put in a position to have classic matches. But if you are talking about guys who delivered good matches in whatever role he was asked to fill in a given time, he's right up there on the list with anybody, from Regal to Owen Hart to whoever else you want to talk about. People talk about great "TV" workers, well I can't think of many better than Armstrong. He'd have a real chance at my list. Love his work.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have zero memory of that match Joe. Sometimes it's a pain when one's old reviews are in audio form, so let me go back and see what I said ...

 

This is from Clash II, WTBBP #26:

 

Parv: So the next match here is Brad Armstrong vs. Barry Windham ... Obviously, Brad Armstrong rest in piece, he died recently. Armstrong was booed I noticed, when he came out. Was that just me? He didn't seem to get a very good reaction from the crowd.

 

Chad: Yeah, I think some of that might be how established Windham was in Florida. I think this type of crowd might see Windham as a home-town-type person. But there did seem to be a lot of heel fans too, as we went along. A lot of the Horsemen seem to get cheered. And this was the first show, when the Horsemen seemed to be teetering on the cool heel side, a little bit. Where there were a lot of masculine guys in the crowd they show holding the Horsemen signs and stuff like that.

 

Parv: Yeah, I did notice that Windham got booed too though, it's not like he got a babyface pop or anything ...

 

Chad: Yeah, I mean it's not even like a mixed reaction like John Cena gets today, it wasn't that severe. But compared to mostly the Greensboro crowd, which plays everything by the book, and mostly the Atalanta crowd does too, this was kind of a little bit of a different type of reaction.

 

Parv: Now, my notes for this match are a little bit sketchy because I had to fill in from memory after my laptop decided to reset itself, which is really irritating, when Windows does that ... y'know "Windows Updates" as if anyone cares ... All I can remember from the first half of this match apart from restholds and things, was a girl in the crowd with a "Traitor Traitor Traitor" sign, and another girl in the crowd eating popcorn ... ha ha. And so when my notes come back, Teddy Long is jawing Windham, and there's quite a lot of mention made by Bob Caudle that Windham has added the claw to his repertoire. And he's also wearing a black glove all the way through this match. We get a belly-to-back from Windham. A nice powerslam by him. Figure-four. Caudle mentions that Windham's got a lot of moves in his arsenal now that he's a Horseman, he's come on a lot in the past year or so. And he mentions that Dusty never lost the US title. Windham's the US champ by the way, and he won that title in a tournament in Houston -- which I found out from reading the Wrestling Observer from a few weeks ago. Windham's on top for the first few minutes, action goes outside where Windham plants Armstrong on the railings. Back in for a big bodyslam. He misses an elbow drop from the top rope which triggers Armstrong's comeback. We get a high dropkick. Gut punch. A knee lift. A bodyslam. Flying bodypress from the top. Windham gets a claw on Armstrong's cranium, which actually gets the three count. Now, I don't really like the claw as a finisher for Windham, what did you think Chad?

 

Chad: I think I'm more of a fan of it than you are. I did think the von Erichs were able to use the claw pretty effectively as a finishing move. Obviously, it's kinda goofy, but I can get behind the wrestling logic that you're squeezing somebody's head if it was applied as a shoot would be painful. And I did like the finish here, where Armstrong whad a nice crossbody but Windham was able to roll through and immediately go to the claw, which would make his claw move seem like a great equalizer in the grand scheme of things ...

 

I thought this was a pretty good match, but it took a while to get going though. The first few minutes were very rudimentary. Headlocks and a leg scissors with not a lot going on. And then Windham would go and regroup with Dillon and come back in. But once, I think, Windham went on offense ... the figure-four I think was some of the best heel work Windham had done, with cheating and collaboration from JJ Dillon. So I enjoyed that. He really did bust out a lot of offensive moves in that three-minute sequence ... a lot of power moves, coming off the top, just a lot of offense was displayed.

 

Parv: We've seen this a few times from Windham now, takes a while to get going in his matches. But I think you're right ... unlike the Steve Williams match which never really got going, at least he unloaded some offense towards the end. It was just passable to me this match.

 

-------

 

Hmmm, weirdly no star ratings from us there, we usually always give them, but from the sounds of it would have been **1/2 or *** from me. Maybe Chad a smidge higher. Match of the night went to Sting and Dusty Rhodes vs. Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard. Chad gave MVP to Al Perez, and me to Arn Anderson.

 

What do you like in particular about that match?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I nominated him, believe it or not, for his work as Badstreet. I mean, not really just that, but I thought that was a really good example of a guy being put with another act just to kinda carry the work load for them, and I think he did really well in that spot, and actually made the early 90s Freebirds watchable. That's impressive. He was put in the same spot with the No Limit Soldiers at the end of the decade too. I've not really seen him have a great match, but I don't recall seeing him have a bad one either, always seems very smooth in the ring, a bit on the bland side for sure. Just thought he warranted a closer look.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't get it with Brad. I wouldn't say he sucks and I might have him above Rotunda (big surprise there) but he is not someone I see as making my list as I have never came out of a Brad Armstrong match exhilarated and feeling super high on him. His Badstreet run was fine and his Cursed gimmick was sort of neat given the self deprecating culture of the late 90's, but I don't know if he has ever had a **** match and he was someone that did get a decent amount of chances.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The 6-minute one from GCW in 84 when he's Mr. R vs. Ted is about as good a 6-minute match as you might see. Feather in Ted's cap that he can get great matches out of jobbers like Brad.

Well we might need a turkey to hand out all the feathers to people who had good matches with Brad.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...