Barry Windham

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (January 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Barry Windham
Statistics
Ring name(s)	Blackjack Mulligan, Jr.[1][2] Barry Windham[1][2] Dirty Yellow Dog[1][2] The Widowmaker[1][2] The Stalker[1][2] Blackjack Windham[1][2]
Billed height	6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)[1][2]
Billed weight	275 lb (125 kg/19.6 st)[1][2]
Born	July 4, 1960 (1960-07-04) (age 47)[1][2] Sweetwater, Texas, U.S.[1][2]
Resides	Homerville, Georgia[1][2]
Trained by	Blackjack Mulligan[1] Harley Race[2]
Debut	January 7, 1980[1][2]

Barry Windham (born July 4, 1960) is a professional wrestler and the son of wrestler Blackjack Mulligan. He is best known for his appearances with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW). He is now currently employed by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as a producer. WWE was previously known as World Wrestling Federation (WWF).

In NWA/WCW, he was a 1 time NWA World Heavyweight Champion,^[3] a 1 time United States Heavyweight Champion,^[4] a 1 time Television Champion,^[5] a 1 time Western States Heritage Champion,^[6] a 1 time NWA World Tag Team Champion (Mid-Atlantic version) with Lex Luger,^[7] a 3 time World Tag Team Champion^[8] and a 1 time United States Tag Team Champion with Ron Garvin.^[9] In WWF, he was a 2 time Tag Team Champion with Mike Rotunda.^[10]

Contents 1 Career 1.1 Championship from Florida (First run, 1980-1984) 1.2 World Wrestling Federation (First run, 1984-1985) 1.3 Championship Wrestling from Florida (Second run, 1985-1986) 1.4 National Wrestling Alliance (1986-1989) 1.5 World Wrestling Federation (Second run, 1989) 1.6 World Championship Wrestling (1990-1994) 1.7 World Wrestling Federation (Third run, 1996-1998) 1.8 Return to World Championship Wrestling (1998-2000) 1.9 TCW and Semi-Retirement 2 Wrestling facts 3 Championships and accomplishments 4 References

Career

Championship from Florida (First run, 1980-1984)

Barry Windham was trained by his father Blackjack Mulligan and popular world champion Harley Race. He debuted on January 7, 1980 when he was 19 years old. Much of his early career was in the NWA's Championship Wrestling from Florida territory where Gordon Solie was the head announcer. He was a fan favorite for most of the early and middle periods of his career, having great success in singles and tag action. With his brother-in-law Mike Rotunda, Windham formed a tag team in 1984. The duo captured the NWA Florida United States Tag Team Championship three times between March and May 1984.^[11]

World Wrestling Federation (First run, 1984-1985)

Main article: U.S. Express

Rotunda and Windham were signed by World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in October 1984. They debuted in WWF as babyfaces on November 17, 1984 edition of Maple Leaf Wrestling defeating Mohammed Saad and Bobby Bass.^[12] Their tag team was named U.S. Express.^[13] They quickly made impact in WWF's tag team division as they beat North South Connection (Dick Murdoch and Adrian Adonis) for their first WWF Tag Team Championship on January 21, 1985.^[14][15] At the first-ever WrestleMania, US Express dropped the titles to Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff.^[16] On July 13 edition of Championship Wrestling, they beat Sheik and Volkoff for their second and final WWF Tag Team Championship,^[17][18] which they lost to Dream Team (Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake) at a television taping on August 24.^[19]

Championship Wrestling from Florida (Second run, 1985-1986)

After leaving the WWF in 1985, he was outspoken in his criticism of the WWF's "Rock and Wrestling" style, which deemphasized traditional wrestling. He joined the NWA and enjoyed success there as one of the top draws (off-and-on) for the next decade. After departing from the WWF, Windham worked an extended stint in Florida, where most notably he wrestled in the main event of Battle of the Belts II for the NWA Title versus Ric Flair, and feuded over the Florida Heavyweight Title with Ron Bass. At this time, Windham also formed an alliance with Lex Luger, who would turn his back on Windham when they were both in the NWA shortly afterward when Luger had aspirations of joining The Four Horsemen.

National Wrestling Alliance (1986-1989)

In the mid-1980s, he had many memorable matches with "Nature Boy" Ric Flair. These included matches going to 60 minute time limit draws and even some extending beyond an hour of action. In 1987, Barry Windham shifted back to tag team action and won the NWA's United States Tag Team Championship with Ronnie Garvin. Their biggest feud as a team was with The Midnight Express, managed by Jim Cornette. The Midnight Express were never able to beat Windham and Garvin for the titles. Windham and Garvin eventually lost these titles to Ivan Koloff and Dick Murdoch in the spring of 1987, shortly before the annual Jim Crockett Memorial Tag Team Tournament (also known as the Crockett Cup). Rather than enter the tournament as a team, the NWA split up Windham and Garvin. Ronnie Garvin instead teamed up with his stepson Jimmy Garvin (in the storyline of the NWA, they were called the Garvin brothers, but Ronnie was actually Jimmy's stepfather). Windham instead of partnering up with someone in the tournament, was booked to face Ric Flair for the NWA World Championship in what would be another classic match between the two. Flair defeated Windham with a controversial pinfall after a little over 25 minutes of action. From there, Windham continued the rest of 1987 primarily as a singles competitor. Eventually, Barry won the short-lived Western States Heritage Championship that year when a tournament was held for it. He defended this title during the rest of 1987, but it was considered the weakest championship out of the NWA's different titles. At Starrcade in November, Windham challenged Universal Wrestling Federation champion Steve "Dr. Death" Williams but was pinned in defeat.

In 1988, Windham began rising up in the NWA ranks again and was a year of big twists for him. He started off in January 1988 losing the Western States Heritage Championship to Larry Zbyszko. In March, he teamed up with Lex Luger to win the NWA World Tag Team Championship from Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson. A few weeks later, a swerve took place where Windham turned on Luger causing the team to lose the titles back to Blanchard and Anderson [1]. Windham than joined the Four Horsemen (made up of other members Flair, Blanchard, and Anderson) and the turn as a bad guy was considered shocking at the time. In addition, he began using a black glove as well as the Iron Claw as his finisher, which was a signature move of his father Blackjack Mulligan. He went back to singles competition and quickly won the NWA United States Championship defeating Nikita Koloff in a tournament for the title when the NWA suspended then-champion Dusty Rhodes. Windham became a dominant NWA United States Champion and met Dusty Rhodes in a big match for the title at the Great American Bash in Baltimore on July 10. Old friend Ronnie Garvin interfered in the match on Windham's behalf causing Windham to get the victory and retain the title. Windham continued to be challenged by top opponents for the US title and held the belt until February 1989, losing it in Chicago to Lex Luger. He left the NWA shortly thereafter, when they couldn't negotiate a contract with Windham, due to a budgeting glitch.

World Wrestling Federation (Second run, 1989)

Windham returned to the WWF in 1989 as the Widowmaker. Despite the nickname, Windham did not change his image much, portraying a heel cowboy type character. The Widowmaker was to have been on Randy Savage's Survivor Series team, but he left the company due to undisclosed personal reasons; he was replaced by Earthquake in the match. On March 16, 1990, he attempted to challenge AJPW Triple Crown champion Jumbo Tsuruta, but was defeated.

World Championship Wrestling (1990-1994)

In May 1990, Barry Windham returned to WCW and rejoined the Four Horsemen which at that point consisted of Flair, Arn Anderson, Sid Vicious, and Ole Anderson. He spent most of the time that year in tag team matches with the other Horsemen as partners. At Halloween Havoc, Windham dressed up as Sting and was involved in a controversial match between Sid Vicious and then NWA World Champion Sting. Sid appeared to pin Sting and win the championship, but it was actually Windham who was dressed like Sting. Once the hoax was noticed, the match was restarted and Sting defeated Sid Vicious. Windham spent the rest of the year teaming with Arn Anderson in the continuation of a feud between the Four Horsemen and then NWA World Tag Team Champions, Doom. At Starrcade, Windham and Anderson wrestled Doom to a no contest when a member of each team was pinned.

In 1991, Windham continued teaming with Arn Anderson and also wrestling singles matches. As the middle of the year approached, controversy erupted in the WCW (which the NWA became fully known as from then on) when WCW World Champion Ric Flair was fired by the company causing the title to be vacant. Windham was then elevated to the number 2 contender spot and faced Lex Luger in a cage match to declare the new champion. Windham lost the match to Luger in a double turn as Luger became the top bad guy of WCW and Windham becoming one of the most popular. This got Windham over in terms of popularity with the fans again despite still not winning the world championship.

Windham formed a tag team with Dustin Rhodes and feuded with Arn Anderson and Larry Zbyszko, who were the WCW World Tag Team Champions. At Halloween Havoc, Anderson and Zbyszko slammed a car door on Windham's hand, breaking it, and putting him out of action for a while (including that night's Chamber of Horrors match, where he was replaced by El Gigante). That also led to Ricky Steamboat stepping in as the mystery partner for Rhodes at the Clash of the Champions that November. Steamboat and Rhodes won the titles. Windham, meanwhile, would come back a couple of months later to feud with Anderson, Zbyszko, and the rest of what was now the Dangerous Alliance. Windham would feud with "Stunning" Steve Austin in the spring of 1992, and they traded the World Television Title over the course of a month.

In the fall of 1992, Windham teamed with Dustin Rhodes to defeat Steve Williams and Terry Gordy for the unified WCW and NWA World Tag Team Titles. They held the belts for about two months before losing them to Steamboat and Shane Douglas in a memorable match at Clash of the Champions. Windham turned on Rhodes after the match when Rhodes refused to pin Steamboat after an accidental low blow. At the end of the year, Windham teamed with Brian Pillman to pursue the titles he and Rhodes lost, but ended up losing to Steamboat and Douglas at Starrcade.

Windham became a full time singles wrestler in January 1993 and pursued the NWA World Heavyweight Championship held by The Great Muta. He beat Muta for the belt at SuperBrawl III on February 21. Ric Flair, who returned to WCW that night, tried to present Windham with the belt, but when Windham saw it was Flair trying to put the belt around his waist, he took the belt and walked away. Flair and Anderson tried to recruit Windham to join the Horsemen again, but Windham declined and became the "Lone Wolf," feuding with Flair and Anderson. Windham dropped the NWA belt to Flair at Beach Blast, then disappeared from wrestling for almost a year, where he took on Flair again at Slamboree for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Flair won again and Windham dropped out of sight for over two years.

World Wrestling Federation (Third run, 1996-1998)

Windham would again return to the WWF in 1996, this time as The Stalker, wearing camouflage face paint. For a short time, he renewed his feud with Dustin Rhodes (Goldust), only this time, Windham was the face and Rhodes was the heel. In Windham's only pay-per-view appearance with this gimmick, he was eliminated from a Survivor Series match by his rival.

He later formed The New Blackjacks with Justin Hawk Bradshaw in 1997. That team didn't last long, as Barry turned on Bradshaw to join Jim Cornette's "NWA faction" in 1998 (at the time, the NWA had become just a group of smaller independent promotions, and they cooperated with the WWF for this storyline). The angle was scrapped months later, and Windham left for WCW again.

Return to World Championship Wrestling (1998-2000)

In his last WCW run, Barry Windham was originally brought back to WCW by Eric Bischoff who had him turn on Ric Flair. Barry was then loosely associated with Bischoff's nWo Hollywood for a while before forming a tag team with Curt Hennig. Windham, along with Hennig, would capture the WCW World Tag Team Titles from Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko in early 1999.

Barry reinjured his knee during this period but would return as part of The West Texas Rednecks in mid 1999. They were supposed to be a heel group to feud with rapper Master P's "No Limit Soldiers" but the southern fans of WCW cheered the Rednecks, going against what WCW management and booking had hoped for, and the angle was eventually dropped. The group consisted of his brother Kendall Windham, Curt Hennig, and Bobby Duncum, Jr.; Duncum was replaced by Curly Bill after he was injured and shortly before the group was disbanded and the Rednecks storyline was dropped.

TCW and Semi-Retirement

By 2001, photos of a rejuvenated Windham began to surface on the internet of the now defunct Dusty Rhodes' Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling Website. A group of fanatical internet wrestling fans known as "The Barry Windham Revolution" rallied behind Windham and his seemingly miraculous physical comeback. While other competitors might have simply retired, Barry had worked very hard and gotten back down to 236 lb (107 kg) as he had been for much of his early career.

During this time, on the American independent scene in the Florida-based TCW, Barry won their heavyweight championship and held it for the better part of a year. He also became part of the Xtreme Horsemen in stable with Steve Corino and C.W. Anderson. They feuded with Dusty & Dustin Rhodes.

Barry's last appearances were at MLW's War Games, a one time U.S. Express Reunion with Mike Rotunda at WrestleReunion I, and on the "WrestleMania Rewind" episode of WWE Raw in a rematch from the first WrestleMania.

Barry now resides in community of Fargo in the city of Homerville, Georgia and competes infrequently.

Currently, Windham works as a producer for WWE. In 2007, he appeared on the Ric Flair & the Four Horsemen DVD. Barry was also seen during the 2007 WWE Hall of Fame broadcast, sitting next to former partner John "Bradshaw" Layfield. In June 2007, Barry did the introduction of SuperBrawl III for WWE 24/7.

Wrestling facts

• Finishing and signature moves
  • Clawhold
  • Lariat
  • Superplex
  • Vertical suplex
  • Figure four leglock
  • Implant DDT
  • Elbow drop

Championships and accomplishments

• Championship Wrestling from Florida
  • NWA Florida Global Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Ron Bass^[20]
  • NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship (6 times)^[21]
  • NWA Florida Southern Heavyweight Championship (2 times)^[22]
  • NWA Florida Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Mike Graham (1) and Scott McGhee (1)^[23]
  • NWA Florida Television Championship (3 times)^[24]
  • NWA Florida United States Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Mike Rotunda^[11]
  • NWA North American Tag Team Championship (Florida version) (1 time) – with Mike Graham^[25]

• Jim Crockett Promotions | World Championship Wrestling
  • NWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)^[3]
  • NWA United States Heavyweight Championship (1 time)^[4]
  • WCW World Television Championship (1 time)^[5]
  • NWA Western States Heritage Championship (1 time)^[6] (First)
  • WCW World Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Dustin Rhodes (1), Curt Hennig (1), and Kendall Windham (1)^[8]
  • NWA World Tag Team Championship (Mid-Atlantic version) (1 time) - with Lex Luger^[7]
  • NWA United States Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Ron Garvin^[9]

• Music City Wrestling
  • NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (1 time)^[26]

• NWA All-Star Wrestling (North Carolina)
  • NWA World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Tully Blanchard^1[27]

• NWA New England
  • NWA New England Heavyweight Championship (1 time)^[28]

• NWA Southern Championship Wrestling
  • NWA Southern Heavyweight Championship (Tennessee version) (2 times)^[29]

• Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling
  • BTCW Heavyweight Championship (2 times)

• World Wrestling Council
  • WWC World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Kendall Windham^[30]

• World Wrestling Federation
  • WWF Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Mike Rotunda^[10]

¹The title was won by Windham and Blanchard in a small North Carolina NWA affiliated promotion. However, it should not be confused with the more prominent NWA All-Star Wrestling promotion that operated out of Vancouver, British Columbia from the early 60s to the late 80s.

References