Speaking on the latest edition of “The ARN Show,” WWE Hall of Famer Arn Anderson reflected on Barry Windham beating The Great Muta for the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship at WCW SuperBrawl III.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On Barry Windham’s NWA World Heavyweight Championship victory: “Well deserved, and a good match. Muta [was] a great performer as well. Good-looking babyface, all the things fall into a line. What a teaser there at the end.”
On what Barry Windham brought to the table as World Champion: “Well, universally, everybody in every corner of the world knew what a classic talent Barry Windham was. He was well-known everywhere. I would suggest no corner of the Earth, if there had wrestling anything — shows on the air production, local territory, whatever it may be. They knew Barry Windham and what he brought to the table.”
On why Windham did not become NWA World Heavyweight Champion during the Crokett era; Ronnie Garvin and his role: “Well, he could have become World Champion during the Crockett era. There was room for that, for sure. I wouldn’t say Ronnie Garvin was a bad move at all because the fact is, Ronnie Garvin got red hot through his work. And he wasn’t the biggest guy. He was on a crew full of big, jacked-up guys, tremendous talents, and tremendous workers and big personalities. And through all that, Ronnie Garvin started to shine, because he would just beat the crap out of you. And that was what he hung his hat on. He was just his physical, if not the most physical, guy on the crew to work with. And he got red hot. And if you would’ve ignored him at that time, that would’ve been a real injustice…”
On Barry’s moment being long overdue; jealousy with Ric Flair: “Well, long overdue for Barry. Barry could have very easily been a World Champion for a period time during the Crockett years. We know that. That was, you know, he was just that good. And I think the frustration he felt when he figured out that Flair was snapping him up, he was again stealing part of his spotlight. And that was the frustration that you saw on Barry’s face like, ‘Hey, this is my night. At least let me have my victory. Let me have my night becoming the champion. We don’t need Ric in the shot at all.’ And I’m sure that was very, very real.”
On how Barry Windham is presently doing: “He’s doing fine. He actually stayed [at one of the conventions] — you know, I want to say he signed for probably six hours. And I talked to him for just a minute. We were really, really busy that — I mean, our fans came out and supported us. It was incredible. I barely had time to take a bathroom break. But I looked down there, Barry had a lot of people there. Glad to see him, and he was there for quite a while.”
