Breaking the Armstrong Curse Playlist
Growing up, one of my favorite things about watching wrestling was cheering for the underdog. In a world of squash matches, I always wanted to see the ‘wimpy dude’ catch a fall on the star. It rarely happened.
This is part of the reason I gravitated towards Brad Armstrong (along with his brothers) being one of my favorite wrestlers of the 1990’s. Obviously, he was a level up from the Tony Zanes and George Souths of the world, but it felt like he could never get over that hump of defeating a top tier wrestler.
I was not thumbing through Dave Meltzer’s Observers at the time, but it was obvious how talented Brad was and it felt like he had a lot more to offer WCW than what was being allowed. Plus, I must admit, I absolutely loved his Rock Garden theme song that he and his brothers used from 1992 – 1999. It was also an indication that I can settle in for a good match regardless of the result.
All of the above served as inspiration to create a Breaking the Armstrong Curse playlist. In the mid 1990s, color commentator Larry Zbyszko never missed an opportunity to express that the Armstrong patriarch Bullet Bob passed down a curse that caused his sons to be unable to win a match in WCW. The attached playlist presents evidence to the contrary as it contains 50 matches featuring an Armstrong scoring a win on UWF, JCP, or WCW television spanning from 1986 – 1999. (Remember, these are matches not currently featured on the WWE Network.)
Without breaking down every video, here are some highlights to look for . . .
– A rare television teaming of Bullet Bob and his son Brad.
– Candyman Brad Armstrong takes on future two-sport superstar Bob Holly in 1990.
– Master Blaster Kevin Nash makes a cameo in a six-man tag team match opposing Brad in 1991.
– With the emergence of Brian, Scott, and Steve, Brad teams up with each brother for victories in 1994 – 1996.
– A few weeks later, Armstrong gets a fall on Jushin Thunder Liger on WCW Worldwide.
– We see some short haired heel Armstrong wins in late 1997 – early 1998.
A Gorilla Monsoon mark who has a YouTube channel that ironically features more WCW matches than WWF ones. @Monsoon_Classic
Brad Armstrong was criminally underrated. He should have been at least in the upper mid-card. His gimmick was that of a regular southern everyman but he was spectacular in the ring.
Big fan of the whole arena doing the OH YOU DIDN’T KNOW?! line during his Buzzkill ripoff theme whenever I saw BA live in Houston.
I recently watch a 1997 Nitro match against Dean Malenko and was surprised at how good he still was, and how much stuff he did against Dean that he’d never done before.
Don’t know if this is on the WWE network but here’s another win Brad picked up in ’99.
https://youtu.be/uleRSO8E0Pc
That’s included on the playlist 🙂
I always thought he great and so misused.
As a fan of The Armstrongs and Disorderly Conduct, Saturday Nights were tough. The only time I got to see either team get a win was when they faced each other! (and if Sid Vicious was lurking, not even then)