Profile of Barry Windham on Famous Like Me

Barry Windham is a professional wrestler and the son of the infamous heel wrestler Blackjack Mulligan. He is best known for his appearances with the National Wrestling Alliance and, later, World Championship Wrestling.

Profile

• Height: 6'6" (195.6 cm)
• Weight: 274lbs (124.7 kg)
• Birthday: July 4, 1960
• Hometown: Sweetwater, Texas
• Trained By: Blackjack Mulligan, Harley Race, Manny Fernandez, Dusty Rhodes, Dick Murdoch, Don Muraco, Eddie Graham
• Professional Debut: February 14, 1980
• Previous Identities: The (original) Lone Wolf, Blackjack Mulligan Jr., "The man who said no to the WWF", Blackjack Windham, The Dirty Yellow Dog, The Stable Stud, Texas Turncoat, The Stalker, The Widow Maker
• Finishing/Signature Move(s): Lariat, Superplex, Running Bulldog
• Managers: James J. Dillon, Ole Anderson, Hiro Matsuda, Col. Rob Parker, Jim Cornette, Lou Albano

Career

Barry Windham is far and wide considered one of the best workers of his or any time, by most true wrestling experts. He was a fan favorite for most of his early and mid career having great success in singles and tag action. He held tag team championships with Mike Rotundo in both the WWF and NWA. After leaving the WWF in 1985, he was outspoken in his criticism of the "Rock and Wrestling" promotion the WWF was employing at the time, which may or may not have hurt his commercial career depending on your point of view. He had memorable matches with Nature Boy Ric Flair, which were arguably some of the best matches of all time. He was part of Flair's group The Four Horsemen on two different occasions (1988 & 1990 to 1991). His biggest feuds were against Flair, Lex Luger, Sting and Dusty Rhodes.

Between his runs as a Horseman, Windham returned to the WWF in 1989 as the Widowmaker, which some consider a precursor to the Undertaker persona, but due to outside legal problems involving not Barry, but his father and brother, but otherwise a forgettable time in his career. He left the company to return to WCW a few months later.

Much of Barry's early career was in the Florida region of the NWA where Gordon Solie (the Walter Cronkite of pro wrestling) was the head announcer.

During one of Barry's WCW runs, he feuded with "Stunning" Steve Austin over the Television title which he did win the title. He also feuded with Austin's fellow Dangerous Alliance members Arn Anderson and Larry Zbysko who "broke" his hand by slamming it in a car door. He formed a very successful tag team with Dustin Rhodes around this time too. When Ric Flair returned to WCW in 1993, Flair and Arn Anderson tried to recruit Barry for another Horsemen run, but Barry became "The Lone Wolf" and won the NWA World Title, feuding with Flair and Arn.

Windham would again return to the WWF in 1996, this time as The Stalker. He wore camouflage face paint. For a short time, he renewed his feud with Dustin (he had turned on him in 1992 in WCW), now known as Goldust, only this time, Windham was the face and Rhodes was the heel.

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" (at the time, the NWA had become just a group of indy promotions, and they cooperated with the WWF with this storyline) in 1998. The angle was scrapped months later, and Windham left for WCW again.

In his last WCW run, Barry was part of The West Texas Rednecks. 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 instead so the angle ended early. The group consisted of his brother Kendall Windham, Curt Hennig and Bobby Duncum, Jr. He was originally brought back to WCW by Eric Bischoff who had him turn on Ric Flair. He was loosely associated with Bischoff's nWo Hollywood for awhile before forming a tag team with Hennig.

By 2001, Barry had truly taken on cult status, citing a group of fanatical internet wrestling fans known as "The Barry Windham Revolution" by making a miraculous physical comeback that would retired most competitors. Barry had worked very hard and gotten back down to 236 lbs. as he was much in his early career.

During this time, on the American independent scene in Dusty Rhodes' now defunct TCW, Barry won their heavyweight championship the better part of a year and became part of the Xtreme Horsemen in Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling with Steve Corino and C.W. Anderson. They feuded with Dusty & Dustin Rhodes.

Barry's last appearances were at the MLW War Games as well as a one time U.S. Express Reunion with Mike Rotundo at Wrestlereunion I.

Barry now resides in Florida and no formal retirement from him has been announced to his fans.

This leaves the most hardcore of his fans to wonder about a TNA appearance and a last run, but the clock of time does tick on. But if not, and we have seen the last of the Lone Wolf in a wrestling ring....this much is true: The legacy and commercial sacrifice of Barry Windham as a true rebel and all time great for the often misunderstood artform of professional wrestling will never be forgotten.

It will live on to serve as inspiriation to us all.

Titles and accomplishments

National Wrestling Alliance

• 1-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion
• 1-time WWE United States Heavyweight Champion
• 1-time WCW World Television Championship
• 4-time NWA World Tag Team Champion (1-time with Lex Luger (1-time with Tully Blanchard]] Unified NWA/WCW titles with Dustin Rhodes)
• 2-time WWF World Tag Team Championship (with Mike Rotundo)

• 2-time NWA United States Tag Team Champion (with Dustin Rhodes)
• 1-time NWA North American Heavyweight Champion

• 6-time NWA Florida Heavyweight Champion
• 1-time NWA New England Heavyweight Champion
• 1-time NWA Western States Heritage Champion
• 2-time NWA Southern Heavyweight Champion (Tennessee version)

World Championship Wrestling

• 1-time WCW World Television Champion
• 2-time WCW World Tag Team Championship (with Curt Hennig) (with Kendall Windham)

World Wrestling Federation

• 2-time WWF World Tag Team Champion (with Mike Rotundo)

Florida Championship Wrestling

• 6-time NWA Florida Heavyweight Champion
• 2-time NWA Florida Southern Heavyweight Champion
• 2-time NWA Florida Tag Team Champion (1-time with Mike Graham, 1-time with Scott McGhee)
• 3-time NWA Florida Television Champion
• 3-Time NWA Florida United States Tag Team Champion (with Mike Rotunda)
• 1-time NWA Florida Global Tag Team Champion (with Ron Bass)

Other Titles

• 2-time TCW Heavyweight Champion
• 1-time WWC Tag Team Champion (with Kendall Windham)

Pro Wrestling Illustrated

• PWI ranked him # 35 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003. He was also ranked in three of the best tag teams of the "PWI Years". He was ranked # 48 with Mike Rotunda, # 87 with Dustin Rhodes and # 90 with Lex Luger.
• Barry won the PWI Most Improved Wrestler of the Year Award in 1982.

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Barry Windham