cjh
Hank Scorpio
Posts: 6,581
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Post by cjh on May 16, 2022 13:26:05 GMT -5
I believe this is the kayfabe reason why Inoki's reign is not recognized, according to wikipedia... "In 1979, the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) became the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). On November 30, 1979, NWF Heavyweight champion Antonio Inoki defeated Backlund in Tokushima, Japan to win the WWF title. Backlund then won a rematch on December 6. However, WWF president Hisashi Shinma declared the re-match a no contest due to interference from Tiger Jeet Singh, and Inoki remained champion. Inoki refused the title on the same day, and it was declared vacant. Backlund later defeated Bobby Duncum in a Texas death match to regain the title on December 17. Inoki's reign is not recognized by WWE in its WWF/WWE title history." As for Greg Valentine.... "Backlund's WWF Heavyweight Championship was held up after a match in New York City against Greg "the Hammer" Valentine on October 19, 1981, after a dazed referee "accidentally" gave the championship belt to Valentine as part of the storyline,[15] it constituted an interruption of Backlund's title reign. However, Backlund was billed as the WWF Heavyweight champion in other cities in the days following the controversy.[16] In the early part of the 1980s, when no promotion held nationally televised events, it was not uncommon practice to "hold up" the title in one area (to build interest in a rematch the "former" champion would win) while ignoring the situation in other parts of the territory. On November 23, Backlund pinned Valentine for the "vacant in New York only" WWF Heavyweight Championship.[17] A rematch for the title, held inside a steel cage at the Philadelphia Spectrum in January 1982, also saw Backlund emerge the winner, securing the victory when he hit a piledriver on Valentine onto the mat." Personally, I think it's easier to count it as one interrupted reign given the screwy finishes. I just wish they did that with Jeff Jarrett's and Goldust's first two IC title runs. Fabulous Moolah OTOH legitimately lost her Women's championship several times between the course of 1956 and 1984, though during that time, she went a combined amount of 41 days without the belt, and it wasn't an officially a WWF championship(it was owned by the NWA) until May 19, 1984, when Moolah sold the rights to the championship to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) and the title was renamed to WWF Women's Championship, so I can see how it's easier (and more impressive) to say she held the belt for 28 years. Thanks! So they were essentially phantom switches that weren't acknowledged on TV (like Rockers' Tag title victory). I do wonder why they included them in their WWE.com title history, but I guess that was the early days of trying to develop more content on the site and some poor junior staffer probably just cribbed the title history from a fan site or something! The company first acknowledged the Inoki switches in Raw Magazine around 1997 or so. Eventually, though, they went back to not counting them.
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Dang!
Dennis Stamp
Posts: 4,276
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Post by Dang! on May 16, 2022 15:08:45 GMT -5
Bruno didn't want the belt anymore and Vince Sr. felt the Puerto Rican fans that Pedro Morales attracted were poorly behaved, so he wanted someone with a wholesome, American (read: white) appeal, plus Bob was an absolute beast if he wanted to be. Short of the most elite of elite wrestlers, maybe, no one was going to shoot on Bob and not get absolutely humiliated in the ring trying it. He's, uhh, a lot stronger than he looked. He did the move to Hogan before, too. Well, he looks freakishly ripped in that GIF. Never thought that he ever was that huge.
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Post by hyperstorm on May 17, 2022 21:22:18 GMT -5
From what I read in one of Tim Horners books at this point in time Vince Sr was, at least publicly, toying with the idea of rejoining the NWA as a full member. So they may have wanted a champ that was more the NWA style in the hope that their guy could be champ. You might be thinking of the part in Capitol Revolution where Hornbaker talks about how McMahon Sr and Sam Muchnick had preliminary discussions for the WWWF to re-join the NWA in 1965 with a title unification match between Bruno and Thesz where one of them would win, become the unified champion and then a few months later the loser of the first match would win a rematch and the championship, it fell apart because 1) Thesz hated Toots Mondt, didn't trust McMahon Sr and demanded over $100,000 to do the matches and 2) Bruno didn't want the massive travel increase that would happen if he had to fulfill all the dates the NWA champion did. Vince Sr. had already re-joined the NWA 7 years before Backlund became champion and didn't leave again until 1983.
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Post by "Playboy" Don Douglas on May 17, 2022 22:01:01 GMT -5
I saw video from a few years ago of Backlund at a convention. He took an escalator down by putting his hands on the rails, kicking his feet out in front of him, and holding them there the whole way.
He’s a freak of nature.
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Post by cornettesracket on Jun 5, 2022 16:32:48 GMT -5
As others have said it was the way it was done in those days. I know that superstar billy graham was not happy that he was dropping the belt to backlund even though he knew when he was dropping it when he won it. And if you want to get a sense of how rabid fans of Pedro morales were just read about what they did to blackjack mulligan in Boston which is probably why they wanted someone like backlund who’s fans weren’t going to riot.
Eddie Graham had a big part in backlund being champion as he was one the guys he recommended to Vince Sr to be champion. The wwf champions schedule was nothing compared to the NWA champion which just reading on paper is tiring.
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Post by sdoyle7798 on Jun 8, 2022 11:41:33 GMT -5
Thanks! So they were essentially phantom switches that weren't acknowledged on TV (like Rockers' Tag title victory). I do wonder why they included them in their WWE.com title history, but I guess that was the early days of trying to develop more content on the site and some poor junior staffer probably just cribbed the title history from a fan site or something! IIRC the NWA had some of those too — like Flair or Harley would go to Australia or New Zealand and drop the strap in their first match and chase the guy who beat them throughout the tour and win it back on the last night … but the NWA never acknowledged it. In Flair’s book he talks about some match in some country where the local guy was super over and everybody thought it was all real and the arena is packed and there are armed soldiers around the ring. He was about to pin the guy cheating (as planned) and some of the soldiers took their rifles off their shoulders and he rolled the guy on top of him and took the pin and let him take the belt out of the ring because he thought best-case there would be a riot and worst-case he might not make it out alive, haha. (Also unrecognized title change.) I believe the country was Puerto Rico. No clue who the wrestler was though. Was not Carlos Colone or an Invader. I remember that much.
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Mozenrath
FANatic
Foppery and Whim
Speedy Speed Boy
Posts: 121,068
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Post by Mozenrath on Jun 8, 2022 12:35:09 GMT -5
Not related to why he was champion, but a few quick "Bob is an unusual, but nice, man" stories from Foley is Good.
Firstly, he told Foley that part of the reason for his odd vocabulary was that Bob had been passed through school due to his athletics and had been functionally illiterate on graduating, and he was determined to change this, reading whenever he could and trying to learn new words and make use of them.
Secondly, Mick once met him and got a picture taken with him back when he was a main eventer and Mick was just a fan. Mick then asked for an autograph, and Bob misunderstood and thought he meant signing the photo, so he gave Mick his address to mail it to when the photo was developed. Mick did sent him it, and sure enough, Bob signed the back of the photo and mailed it back to him. This would have been when he was WWF champion, I believe, and probably exceedingly busy, but he was a man of his word.
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Post by "Playboy" Don Douglas on Jun 8, 2022 13:03:16 GMT -5
IIRC the NWA had some of those too — like Flair or Harley would go to Australia or New Zealand and drop the strap in their first match and chase the guy who beat them throughout the tour and win it back on the last night … but the NWA never acknowledged it. In Flair’s book he talks about some match in some country where the local guy was super over and everybody thought it was all real and the arena is packed and there are armed soldiers around the ring. He was about to pin the guy cheating (as planned) and some of the soldiers took their rifles off their shoulders and he rolled the guy on top of him and took the pin and let him take the belt out of the ring because he thought best-case there would be a riot and worst-case he might not make it out alive, haha. (Also unrecognized title change.) I believe the country was Puerto Rico. No clue who the wrestler was though. Was not Carlos Colone or an Invader. I remember that much. Jack Veneno. I can’t remember where the matches were, but Veneno was Dominican. It seems like Flair had the match as part of his Florida tour, so it may have even taken place in the Bahamas.
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