The Sixer: Barry Windham, NWA Champion
The NWA world title really died when Ric Flair left for the WWF. It continued on after, of course, and it still exists today for middle aged schoolteachers and Brodus Clay to run around with, but it’s the little period post-Flair leaving in ‘91, pre-Flair return to WCW in ‘93 that I find kind of interesting, with the belt was flailing for relevance and struggling to attain any.
Masahiro Chono was the first post-Flair champ, then Great Muta, and then Barry Windham finally got the belt years after it would have really meant something or caught him at the peak of his viability for the role. I don’t know that Barry ever really would have made sense as the NWA champ — the timing was never quite right, even as great as he was — but the best time certainly wasn’t 1993 in any respect.
That’s when it happened, though, and we’re going to talk about his reign, which kicked off by beating Muta at SuperBrawl III in February ‘93. Six defenses for The Sixer!
In this set:
vs Brad Armstrong (Saturday Night, 2-27-1993)
vs Johnny Gunn (Saturday Night, 3-13-1993)
vs Steve Regal (Worldwide, 4-17-1993)
vs Johnny B. Badd (Worldwide, 5-22-1993)
vs Arn Anderson (Slamboree, 5-23-1993)
vs 2 Cold Scorpio (Clash of the Champions, 6-17-1993)
Barry Windham vs Brad Armstrong
WCW Saturday Night
February 27, 1993 - Atlanta, GA
These two had a little history, going back to their meeting in a match for Windham’s U.S. title at the second Clash of the Champions in June ‘88. Style-wise, they matched up pretty nicely, but when Windham was on he matched up with anyone nicely, same with Brad, a pair of second-generation guys who just had the obvious and instinctive feel for what to do in the ring.
Windham’s just a smidge heavy at this point but can still move plenty, he’s just getting older, although he’s still only 32.1 Armstrong wrestling well early, lands a dropkick, works on the arm, Windham just staying calm and trying to figure his way free, which he does with a nice back suplex.
Ventura points out Windham’s size and strength advantages, which was the general idea for him to work with Armstrong. Technique-wise, Brad is plenty good enough to hang with or even out-do Barry, but he’s not so much better that he can dominate that way, and then Barry has the deeper well.