How sad was Backlunds comeback before the heel turn?

[willyjakes]

He originally came back in late 1992 I believe, only 9 years after holding the WWF championship, but so much had taken place in between and the fan base had already turned over. Basically very few people knew who he was. He was this early 40's, opie looking character. Very bland, no ring music, little personality. The WWF had to constantly shill and remind us that this guy was a WWF champion, and the 11 year olds in the audience were like...huh?

Everything about him was just odd. You never even knew when his matches would begin because you wouldn't hear any music, this guy would just pop out from the curtain with a towel wrapped around his neck, jog to the ring...and nobody would even know to look towards the entranceway until Fink started talking. He literally got no reaction from the crowd. Zero.

I remember his comeback promo when they reference him winning the title in 1978. The promo took place in 1992 and HE'S STILL WEARING THE 70'S HUGE POINTY DISCO COLLAR

[DjZonk]

Yes it was very sad. He was like a relic from a forgotten era who accidentally stumbled into a new generation. He didn't even have theme music. How do you get over as a babyface without theme music in the early 90's?

[Manute Bol]

What exactly was he doing until his heel turn in the summer of 1994?

I know he was in the 93 and 94 Rumble matches, and he lost to Razor at WM IX, but did he do anything else even remotely noteworthy? Was there any actual storyline leading in to his Mania match with Razor?

I remember watching at the time and not even knowing if he was actually on the roster or not because his appearances were so sporadic.

[Ben Wyatt]

He wrestled HBK for the IC title at some house shows. Saw them fight at the Boston Garden. Pretty damn solid match from what I recall.

[Milkman Norm]

Sad? It was awesome. He came back to zero heat and beat jobbers with the O'Conner roll. What wasn't to love?

[________ has left the building]

It was all by design. It was the WWF's version of Falling Down. WWF reintroduced and treated him like a throwback from the past. A nearly forgotten WWF world champion who was bland and dull when compared to the rest of the roster. Bob lost to younger talent like Razor Ramon but still remained upbeat. He finally got a chance to wrestle for the WWF world title again due to Bret Hart's fighting champion run. WWF hyped it up as Backlund's last chance to compete for the WWF title. So when he lost to Bret clean in said match, he lost it and chickenwinged him. After doing that, Bob acted shocked by his actions. Soon he was chickenwinging the hell out of his opponents and innocent people alike. He completely snapped and turned into Mr Bob Backlund.

[Tiger Millionaire]

I just can't believe it was just 9 years. You place someone in from the Attitude Era in today, it doesn't seem as out of place as Backlund.

[Manute Bol]

Feb 17, 2015 15:48:31 GMT -5 ________ has left the building said:

It was all by design. It was the WWF's version of Falling Down. WWF reintroduced and treated him like a throwback from the past. A nearly forgotten WWF world champion who was bland and dull when compared to the rest of the roster. Bob lost to younger talent like Razor Ramon but still remained upbeat. He finally got a chance to wrestle for the WWF world title again due to Bret Hart's fighting champion run. WWF hyped it up as Backlund's last chance to compete for the WWF title. So when he lost to Bret clean in said match, he lost it and chickenwinged him. After doing that, Bob acted shocked by his actions. Soon he was chickenwinging the hell out of his opponents and innocent people alike. He completely snapped and turned into Mr Bob Backlund.

I'm pretty positive they were not planning on turning him heel and giving him a Championship run well over a year in advance. Sure they booked things way ahead of time back then, but I think you're giving them far too much credit here.

[Racksman]

Feb 17, 2015 15:55:12 GMT -5 Tiger Millionaire said:

I just can't believe it was just 9 years. You place someone in from the Attitude Era in today, it doesn't seem as out of place as Backlund.

Being fair, Backlund was out of place in his era as well. Far cry from Superstar Graham and Bruno charisma wise, as much as that pains me to say. Fantastic wrestler, probably in the top 20 of all-time when it comes to in-ring skill. But if it wasn't for his AMAZING '94-'95 character run, I really don't think Backlund would be remembered that well.

They always say the best gimmicks are when you are yourself with the volume turned up. Backlund is and always has been legitimately insane. It was perfect.

[Confused Mark Wahlberg]

"I have never, EVER eaten marijuana!"

[________ has left the building]

Feb 17, 2015 15:59:29 GMT -5 Manute Bol said:

Feb 17, 2015 15:48:31 GMT -5 ________ has left the building said:

It was all by design. It was the WWF's version of Falling Down. WWF reintroduced and treated him like a throwback from the past. A nearly forgotten WWF world champion who was bland and dull when compared to the rest of the roster. Bob lost to younger talent like Razor Ramon but still remained upbeat. He finally got a chance to wrestle for the WWF world title again due to Bret Hart's fighting champion run. WWF hyped it up as Backlund's last chance to compete for the WWF title. So when he lost to Bret clean in said match, he lost it and chickenwinged him. After doing that, Bob acted shocked by his actions. Soon he was chickenwinging the hell out of his opponents and innocent people alike. He completely snapped and turned into Mr Bob Backlund.

I'm pretty positive they were not planning on turning him heel and giving him a Championship run well over a year in advance. Sure they booked things way ahead of time back then, but I think you're giving them far too much credit here.

No, I give them credit with it. I watched his WWF return firsthand and they presented him as "Hey remember this guy?". Bob came out wearing the same outfit that was passe when he first debuted the jacket. On commentary, he was treated as not bad for an old guy. The plan was to make Backlund seem like an unfrozen caveman stuck in modern times who finally lashes out over time passing him by. Because this was during the time when Tito Santana, Ricky Steamboat, and Tony Atlas got remade into El Matador, The Dragon. and Simba Samba. Bob would got repackaged if the plan wasn't to make him as boring and outdated as possible.

[Racksman]

Feb 17, 2015 16:02:29 GMT -5 Confused Mark Wahlberg said:

"I have never, EVER eaten marijuana!"

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}{Spoiler}


"I NEVER LOST THE CHAMPIONSHIP TO BEGIN WITH. AND I PROMISE TO PASTEURIZE, HOMOGENIZE AND SYNCHRONIZE THE AUDIENCE OF THIS SOCIETY BACK INTO MORALITY. I'LL FIGHT ANYONE FROM THE NEW GENERATION TO PUT MORALITY BACK INTO THE WORLD WRESTLING FEDERATION, AND I WILL BE THE ROLE MODEL THESE PLEBEIANS NEED. I FEEL LIKE GOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!"

[chazraps]

The Promo from the Raw or Mania before Wrestlemania IX is really unsettling to me. Backlund, while discussing a heel Razor, goes on about "He doesn't love you people. I love you people," pleading for the audience to love him back the way that he loves them.

Given this was 1993, we just missed out on Bob Backlund having a Lisa Loeb gimmick.

[Raskovnik]

Mr. Backlund used to give me nightmares as a little kid.

[jason1980s]

Feb 17, 2015 15:01:40 GMT -5 Manute Bol said:

What exactly was he doing until his heel turn in the summer of 1994?

I know he was in the 93 and 94 Rumble matches, and he lost to Razor at WM IX, but did he do anything else even remotely noteworthy? Was there any actual storyline leading in to his Mania match with Razor?

I remember watching at the time and not even knowing if he was actually on the roster or not because his appearances were so sporadic.

Good point. He was only one three PPVs until the heel turn and two were Rumbles were more participants were needed. Other than the win for Razor, I guess he wasn't needed on anything else.
There were a few guys like that around the time period, who were under contract but you saw them only once in a while and generally on a Series or Rumble PPV making up the numbers. I'm guessing he did some house shows with Tito or Virgil teaming or maybe a few opening matches against the likes of Adam Bomb or Bastion Booger.
He was quickly featured signing an autograph during the WrestleMania X fan fest recap and I don't recall seeing him until summer with the Bret match.

He surely would've gotten a HOF nod without the crazy character, maybe featured in a few throwback 1970s/80s dvds or features but probably not the attention he received with the heel character.

[Crappler El 0 M]

I thought it was pretty cool actually. Yeah, he was bland, but he was always bland.

[Manute Bol]

Feb 17, 2015 16:08:09 GMT -5 ________ has left the building said:

Feb 17, 2015 15:59:29 GMT -5 Manute Bol said:

I'm pretty positive they were not planning on turning him heel and giving him a Championship run well over a year in advance. Sure they booked things way ahead of time back then, but I think you're giving them far too much credit here.

No, I give them credit with it. I watched his WWF return firsthand and they presented him as "Hey remember this guy?". Bob came out wearing the same outfit that was passe when he first debuted the jacket. On commentary, he was treated as not bad for an old guy. The plan was to make Backlund seem like an unfrozen caveman stuck in modern times who finally lashes out over time passing him by. Because this was during the time when Tito Santana, Ricky Steamboat, and Tony Atlas got remade into El Matador, The Dragon. and Simba Samba. Bob would got repackaged if the plan wasn't to make him as boring and outdated as possible.

I also watched his return firsthand, but I guess we can agree to disagree.

However, Bret Hart's book sure makes it seem like the heel turn and Championship run were spur of the moment decisions in 1994.

Also, El Matador and The Dragon were both in 1991 and Saba Simba was in 1990, so your argument is off by a few years.

For every guy who was repackaged in the early 90s, there are just as many who were not (Virgil, Koko B. Ware, etc).

[________ has left the building]

Feb 17, 2015 16:28:17 GMT -5 Manute Bol said:

Feb 17, 2015 16:08:09 GMT -5 ________ has left the building said:

No, I give them credit with it. I watched his WWF return firsthand and they presented him as "Hey remember this guy?". Bob came out wearing the same outfit that was passe when he first debuted the jacket. On commentary, he was treated as not bad for an old guy. The plan was to make Backlund seem like an unfrozen caveman stuck in modern times who finally lashes out over time passing him by. Because this was during the time when Tito Santana, Ricky Steamboat, and Tony Atlas got remade into El Matador, The Dragon. and Simba Samba. Bob would got repackaged if the plan wasn't to make him as boring and outdated as possible.

I also watched his return firsthand, but I guess we can agree to disagree.

Bret Hart's book sure makes it seem like the heel turn and Championship run were spur of the moment decisions in 1994.

Also, El Matador and The Dragon were both in 1991 and Saba Simba was in 1990, so you're argument is off by a few years.

I'm talking about WWF bringing back a number of veterans and repackaging them as "new wrestlers". The Barbarian became a Samoan named Sionne. Someone who Vince didn't believe in as the face of WWF when he took the company nationwide would got the re-makeover treatment. Now Backlund's main event run was probably spur of the moment. Especially with Diesel beating him in quick and dominating fashion. But they planted the seeds of a heel turn.

[molson5]

The early 90s was kind of an interesting time for older athletes generally - guys like Nolan Ryan and George Foreman were the last baby boomer professional athletes. And you can kind of follow the ebs and flows of American pop culture through the eyes of the baby boomers. So Ryan and Foreman were worshiped in the media. I always thought that the WWE tried to create a George Foreman-like story with Bob Backlund. Backlund actually said he was 43 years old in his WWF return promo, when prior to that, wrestlers, especially older wrestlers, would never say their legit age on TV. But in the early 90s, because the baby boomers were reaching that age, there wasn't the same kind of stigma attached that there previously would have been. Of course, the WWF was largely marketed towards children, so all of this was irrelevant to most of their audience.

[willyjakes]

Feb 17, 2015 16:02:29 GMT -5 Confused Mark Wahlberg said:

"I have never, EVER eaten marijuana!"

Is there an actual clip of him saying that?