Tony Schiavone On What Held Barry Windham Back From Becoming a Top Star

On the latest episode of What Happened When with Tony Schiavone, the AEW broadcaster discussed the career of Barry Windham while watching a 1987 match between Windham and Lex Luger.

Windham had successful runs in various NWA territories, including Jim Crockett Promotions and held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship at one time. However, he never reached the height of stars like Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, or Sting. Schiavone offered his thoughts on what kept Windham from reaching main event status.  You can check out some highlights below:

On Windham’s in-ring skills:

“Yeah, one of the best complete pro wrestlers ever.”

On what he lacked compared to Ric Flair:

“If he could have talked like Ric Flair, he’d have been the big star like Ric Flair. I’d say — God, it’s an old tune we hit on on this show. That’s how you become a big star is to be able to talk. With the exception of — well, Jon Moxley, MJF. Who else goes out and does long promos? Chris Jericho. You don’t have many people to be able to go out and do five, six-minute, seven-minute promos anymore.

“And again, back in the old days, they would, and this was a creative part of Dusty and the people who were in front of the camera at that time. You just went out, you did your promo. And you did it until == you didn’t have a set time back then. You know, now we do our pre-tapes. And the first thing when we start to do a pre-tape backstage, first thing one of the talent will say is, ‘How long do I have?’ And normally they have like a minute, minute and a half to do it. Which in itself, by the way… yeah, it is a long promo. And if you can get it done in a minute, a minute and a half, that’s being pretty creative to get it done in a set time. But back then, we didn’t have set times.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit What Happened When with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.