On the latest episode of Something to Wrestle, guest host JBL discussed the 1996 In Your House: Buried Alive event. At that show, JBL competed in an opening dark match against Barry Windham, who was then performing as “The Stalker.”
JBL praised Windham and recalled what the match meant to him. “It was a huge thrill to me,” JBL said. “I was a huge fan of Barry Windham, obviously”. However, JBL had very different feelings about the gimmick Windham was using at the time.
The “Stalker” character was part of the WWE’s “occupational gimmick” era , based on Windham being an avid hunter. “I thought the Stalker was horrible. I thought it was terrible. Barry hated it, too,” JBL stated.
JBL also shared an anecdote about agent Jake “The Snake” Roberts trying to give Windham direction for the character, which only frustrated the veteran performer. “I know when he came in, Jake Roberts was an agent, and he came around, he was talking to Barry, he was trying to help Barry. And he goes, and what would a stalker do? And Barry, you could tell, was just frustrated with that,” JBL recalled.
“He just kind of blew him off, you know, because he didn’t, he didn’t like the gimmick. You could tell Barry did not like the stalker gimmick. It was something that Barry didn’t understand. He didn’t really like it. I think he came in hoping he would do something and get out of it pretty quick and do something else,” he said.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit Something to Wrestle with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription. Fans can listen to the full episode on podcast platforms.
