TNA Region, Shanghai Subregion, First Round: (13) Barry Windham vs. (20) Hawk

[klunderbunker]

This is a first round match in the TNA Region, Shanghai Subregion. It is a standard one on one match held under TNA Rules. It will be held at the Shanghai Indoor Stadium in Shanghai, China.

#13. Barry Windham

Vs.

#20. Hawk

​

Polls will be open for four days following a one day period for discussion. Voting will be based on who you feel is the greater of the two competitors. Post your reasons for why your pick should win below. Remember that this is non-spam and the most votes in the poll win. Any ties will be broken by the amount of posts of support for each candidate, with one vote per poster.

Also remember that this is a non-spam forum. If you post a response without giving a reason for your selection, it will be penalized for spam and deleted.

 

[It's...Baylariat!]

Barry Windham takes this one.

Criminally underrated as a wrestler. Holds wins over the likes of Austin, Dusty Rhodes, and Sting, and held the NWA's TV title, US Title, and World Heavyweight title, one of the few wrestlers to do so.

Hawk is a career tag wrestler who didn't do much as a singles competitor at all. I would even debate putting Hawk and Animal in this tourney, alas it's done.

Windham takes this with a lariat.

 

[Papa Pillman]

Hawk was a GREAT tag team wrestler. One half of the tag team that was rated number one by Pro Wrestling Illustrated in the 100 best tag teams of the PWI Years. He also did nothing of note as a singles wrestler.

Windham on the other hand was one of the most gifted singles wrestlers ever, and he won every title that Jim Crockett could imagine in his head to put on him. Including the NWA World title. Hell, he won the world title almost everywhere he went.

Oh, By the way, Windham was also a pretty great tag wrestler who won 8 world tag titles with 6 different partners, including 2 WWE reigns with Mike Rotunda, and 4 NWA/WCW reigns, all with different partners. And he himself was part of three separate tag teams that also made that aforementioned top 100 PWI list; with Rotunda, Dustin Rhodes, and Lex Luger.

Windham goes on.

 

[Bernkastel]

I'm tempted to vote Hawk just based on his underrated promo skills....

[youtube]ng6kpHpcfdY[/youtube]

I know little about Barry Windham because he wasn't a big name in comparison from others from his time period. He was a 4 Horseman and that's about all I can recall. The Road Warriors were one of the greatest tag teams of all time. Easily in the top ten. But this isn't a tag team tournament. I have to give the nod to Windham.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Gotta go with consensus here and go with Windham. Hawk was a big, strong brawler who comprised one half of, arguably, the greatest tag team in pro wrestling history. He & Animal dominated every promotion they wrestled for as a tag team. The problem is that this isn't a tag team match and Hawk has pretty much zero credibility as a singles wrestler.

Barry Windham was, in many ways, one of the most underrated guys of his time. He was a big guy, though not overly muscular, who could brawl and was a really good technical wrestler. He and Ric Flair had some genuine classics for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship back in the mid to late 80s. Windham had a lot of success as both a singles and tag team wrestler. He dominated the Florida territory before coming to Mid-Atlantic, he held the NWA World, US & WCW TV titles once each, was a 4time Tag Team Champion and 1 time US Tag Team Champion. In the WWF, he & Mike Rotunda held the tag titles twice.

I've little doubt that Hawk would give Windham all he could handle for a while before Barry wound up rolling him up in a schoolboy while grabbing the tights, holding onto the ropes for extra leverage, maybe even both. Windham moves on here.

 

[Tastycles]

Two solid, if unspectacular, wrestlers here. For me, Windham is the one who had solid singles success, so I think he's got to be the one to win here.

 

[The Brain]

Barry Windham is one of the best wrestlers that never gets talked about. His matches with Flair are forgotten gems. I know Hawk has some experience in singles matches but obviously he's most known as a tag wrestler. I'm giving it to the more experienced singles wrestler. Windham for the win.

 

[HBsam31]

I agree that Windham is underrated. Not sure if he ever had a bad match. Hawk was a great tag wrestler, but in a singles match vs Windham, Windham moves to the second round.

 

[Mr. Artistic guy]

If Windham is one of the most underrated ring wrestlers of all time, Hawk is certainly one of the most underrated talker of all time in a category equally as important as going 30 minutes in the ring. Legion of Doom didn't need to do that, wasn't their thing. They were there to dominate and hit hard and did it spectacularly for a good while.

I can't find the clip but I've heard a couple of times that at their peak, which was the mid-late 80s I believe, they were the top booked talent in their company. ie, they were booked higher on the card than the majority of singles guys. If you were a singles guy and wanted to work at the top, it'd often be a tag team match with or against them. You can't take anything away from that amazing complement, nor can you claim it to be the case about any other tag team.

Because of that and because Hawk is probably always going to be overlooked simply because he was in a tag team, I'm putting him over.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Windham wasn't underrated. He simply didn't fulffil his potential. Well respected by his peers because they knew what he could've been.

Hawk was a tag team wrestler. But his dominance as part of the Road Warriors outweighs anything Windham did as a singles competitor. I'm also sure one of the early War Games matches would prove that Hawk would get the better of Windham during their exchanges. Y'know, with prime Hawk being impervious to pain and all that. It goes without saying that I can't be bothered to fine specific evidence of this. But I assure you, it exists.