[1991-05-19-WCW-Superbrawl I] Barry Windham vs Brian Pillman (Taped Fist)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

The camerawork during Barry's entrance is so bad that it would have Vince firing someone if it happened in the WWF. They had about 7 minutes to put together a match, and they did about as well as they could within that time. I've always liked this match.

[shoe]

Another good bout between the 2. The violence come across here with the stiff strikes, and blood . Though these guys deserved way more time to steal the show. The superplex was anti-climatic as a finish.

[PeteF3]

This was mesmerizing while it lasted--just a total barrage of stiffness, violence, blood, and hate. Double the length of this sucker and you could have a MOTYC. As it is, it's just a fantastic brawl that's the best of their series.

[Childs]

Where the 12/7/90 match between the Horsemen and Doom felt like a full match at less than 10 minutes, this really could have used more time. The intensity and stiffness were great. But for a match that was built to mean something in perhaps the promotion's best feud, it just kind of ended. I'm not sure it's better than their 4/6 TV match, which surprised me.

[Kevin Ridge]

Thought Windham did much better using the tape fists especially with the shots to the ribs of Pillman. They get bloody early and it has the feeling like they aren’t going to get enough time. Just too short in the end.

[soup23]

I am always impressed with how big Windham is put over by the announcers as a heel. I am always a big fan of wrestlers maximizing their time and they did that here with using the blood and pace to escalate the issue and make the match seem a lot more dramatic than the time would indicate. Really fun feud that should have had more time to develop.

[PhilTLL]

Yeah, I ache for the other half of this match that could have replaced the Johnny B. Badd introduction, or the Diamond Studd introduction, or the Oz introduction, or the Oz match. As it is, a marvel of time use as everyone has said, though I can't say I liked it more than their 4/6 match. The head collision spot is just brutal.

[garretta]

This is one bout that shouldn't have had such a clean ending. The crotch shot was legal, so you can't say that it's cheating, although Barry did a good job shielding Nick Patrick from it anyway.

 

The superplex and clean-as-a-sheet pin put the issue to rest, and the fact that the match only lasted seven minutes bell to bell kind of makes this into a glorified squash, regardless of the backstage reasons behind it. If they'd really wanted to showcase these guys, they'd have cut out one of the earlier matches and given this one more time, and if Dusty was only going to give these two seven minutes no matter what, he should have booked this as a double disqualification or double countout and had them settle things when they had more time at another event. As it is, how does he expect interest in the feud to continue, even after Windham's post-match attack? From what I've read, we get some kind of pull-apart during the TV title match, but all that does is make Pillman look like a sore loser and a punk. After all, Windham beat him cleanly within the rules as constituted, and it wasn't like what happened afterward was a major beatdown.

 

This is why all of JR's football talk and hype gets made fun of at times. All the stuff about the courage award Pillman got from the Bengals, what a great collegiate career he had, and what a tough kid he is, and he goes out and gets pretty much steamrollered by the veteran Windham. To paraphrase what Dusty himself said later in the card concerning Pillman, you can have all the courage in the world and it doesn't do you one bit of good if someone's better than you, and Windham proved that he's decisively better than Pillman here. Yes, Pillman busts him open and hits a few nice moves, but TBS jobbers hit nice moves on guys like Windham occasionally too, and it means nothing in the end. Pillman took a drastic fall from potential star back to upper midcarder as a result of this in my eyes, and it'll be interesting to see how Dusty rehabilitates him, or if he even tries.

[JKWebb]

This is a really good stiff and quick match. They worked it smart using the serious head wounds as a way sell the shortness of the match. With everyone else, I would love to have gotten more.

[dawho5]

Good for how long it lasted. Could have used more taped fist shots to get the stip across.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Barry Windham vs Brian Pillman - SuperBrawl I Taped Fist Match

1991 WCW where beautiful hair went to die. Windham looks like he got the standard mom haircut of the early 90s.  

I have seen this before, but never wrote a review, which is odd. Pillman was in a major feud with Windham and the Horsemen after they injured his shoulder right before Wargames. Windham and him started Wargames in what I think is the best 5 minute opening of Wargames history. They opted for a slower more measured style here than the frenetic pace in Wargames. The slowed down tempo increased the dread and doom of the violence. Windham is so good at using his size. He establishes he is bigger than Pillman early to give Pillman that mountain to climb. Pillman had to some great shots of course, but was a little too reliant on the chop given that he had a taped fist. I know the chop has better sound effect logic says use the fist. I thought Windham ruled in this match. Huge bump off the top rope to floor on a Pillman dropkick and then feeding Pillman the top rope to the floor forearm. Windham stymies Pillman by pulling the trunks and Pillman gashes himself on the post. We have double juice now. Windham drives Pillman's head from the ramp to the railing and then a big right hand from Barry. Then they are just in a groove. Pillman with fiery comebacks and Windham quashing them with shortcuts. As Pillman is going for Air Pillman, Windham hits a low blow which even in a No DQ match is a pretty cheap way to win and then hits a superplex for the win. Great violent slugfest that was only hampered by the time, way too short. ****