Texas Tough




Barry Windham vs Larry Stevens, 27 June 1987 (NWA Pro)

This week My Wrestling Obsession dropped a YouTube video of Barry Windham at his peak in this squash job targeting Larry Stevens. This is television pro wrestling before complicated plotlines squeezed wrestling into the margins.

Barry tosses, punches, and chokes the stuffings out of Larry, the innate drama of animal fury being oh so much hotter than sixteen cash-filled briefcases dangling over a ladder (my opinion--I'm entitled).

And Windham sells the hell out of Stevens' hope spots, peppered throughout the short match--which raises the question Have I mislabeled this event as a squash job? I see it as a squash because, as tough as Larry may or may not be, Barry is the force of nature in the ring--and Larry, the tornado-prone trailer park.

Sure, it might be hotter if fitness models in tighty tights were doing this, but how many fitness models brawl like this? And how many posedowns and harangues and behind-the-scenes dramas must I sit through waiting for moments anywhere near as intense as one of these. TV wrestling was always a tease to fill seats at live shows, but before 1998 viewers got more meat and less packaging.






Comments

  1. Thanks for sharing. I always was highly attracted to Barry Windham. He had a charm and grip on me that exceeded his looks.

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  2. I'm with Mikey. There's just something about Barry Windham that I've always found to be very sexy. Fitness models might be "better looking", but for me, I don't think they'd be sexier.

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  3. Very nice article -- I love when you do classic pro rassling. And I was just gonna mention, I'll take Barry Windham in his little black trunks and tall cowboy boots over a fitness model any day, but I see Alex Miller already beat me to that comment. This match makes me want to write about Barry and his dominance on my blog -- I think I will soon.

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  4. I'm delighted to hear from fellow fans of Windham -- and of roughhouse rasslin'. And a Wrestling Arsenal post on Windham? I'm already wetting myself.

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