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Chewin' The Fat: Chubby Dudley Talks About Barry Windham

Posted: Nov 27th 2011 By: CMBurnham

Hello Everyone..............

Haven't written a blog in the past few weeks, there really has been much going on to tie things in with wrestling worth writing about. This past weekend we had another screw up by one of the Hardy's, but I think we have already discussed that enough, and discussed the two of them enough.

One thing that did happen, actually a couple weeks ago was that a wrestler had a stroke & heart attack. The person with 1 match was a deciding factor in my life, for me to make the decision to become a professional wrestler. That person is Barry Windham.

One of my favorite parts of running the Completely Damaged site is to find people to write blogs & reviews, and the one I truly look forward to each week is, "Paying Respect" by James Gore, because he has seen & knows a lot about the business, going way back. I also love his memories & his "respect" he shows to the person of the week, well this week I am going to do my own version of that with Barry Windham.

My earliest memories of Barry was when him & Rotunda hit the WWF tag scene in 84, and I thought instantly this is a great team, that could actually wrestle. Not just kick, punch, stomp.....like some of the other teams at that time. I also felt was that he was being ??? after a young Hulk Hogan. While here they went on to beat another one of my biggest influences for getting into wrestling..........Adrian Adonis & Dick Murdoch. Once they lost the belts, to seemed to lose their luster and the team was gone a year later.

Barry then popped up in the NWA as a singles wrestler, where I think he shined and made his mark on the business. Barry worked singles & tag matches while in the NWA, teaming with Ronnie Garvin, & Lex Luger, but as a babyface his singles matches with Ric Flair were what did it for me. There was a 60 min match that aired on TV, which went to a time limit draw, which I remember by the end of that match, was sitting on the edge of my bed, jumping up in celebration mode with every near fall Windham had on Flair.

After that match was over, I was so excited & pumped up, I had the same feeling I did after watching Rocky II, and Rocky becoming champ. I wanted to be able to give that feeling to other people and I never pictured myself a boxer like Rocky, and honestly this was 1986, my career choice was playing in hair bands wanting to be the next Motley Crue.........but you never saw fat rock stars...........so as the 80's went on, the reality of things were, that Wrestling was looking more n more likely to become my path.

Barry went on to join the elite ............by becoming a Horseman ..........which also in my opinion was part of the last great version of this group w/ Flair, Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard.

After Barry reached the pinnacle of being part of the Horsemen, his career slowly went down hill.............He turned face, went on to team with Dustin Rhodes where you saw him really bring Dustin into his own, and I always felt the reason they were teamed, was for him to mentor Dustin.

Then he went onto turn heel again, and do some teaming with the late Brian Pillman.

Then he bounced back n forth between WWF & WCW in the late 90's, until he finally just hit the indy scene for a lil while but pretty much has been retired for the better part of the last 10 years.

The last update given, was by Barry's father, Blackjack Mullligan who said Barry was looking at a long term rehab & probably Knee & Leg surgery, which he damaged from when he fell from the stroke / heart attack.

Something also the Mulligan also noted, is that the WWE is helping fund his healthcare..........could it be, that Vince maybe feels a lil guilty about all the boys, that destoryed their bodies & lives for him & have nothing to really show for it.

Let's hope Barry has a full & speedy recovery.

Until next time...........This has been "Chewin the Fat"

Cya everyone Dec 3rd at K & S Wrestlefest at the Philly Aiprort Ramada, where I will be part of the Completely Damaged Table.