Backlund vs hogan in 1984
By Scott Keith on October 17, 2013
| Hey Scott, I've recently been watching the weekly WWF shows from 1984 starting from hogans title win. One of the more interesting things from the shows I've noticed is Vince's constant hyping of backlund. I'd always sort of assumed he kind of instantly disappeared after hogan got the belt. However on the TV's Vince keeps hyping backlund like he used with HBK. In addition to praising backlunds greatness, Vince called him the undisputed #1 contender and they aired a huge video package (unheard of at the time) showing backlund wrestling as an amateur and training. It seems like a lot of hype for a guy they were gonna flush right away. My question is did backlund work any dates in WWF post January 1984 and did they ever consider running a backlund vs hogan program? I've heard the old story that Vince wanted backlund to turn into some kind of punk rocker heel, but that seems crazy. Do you think a face vs face hogan/backlund program would have drawn or did enough old time fans love Bob too much necessitating a heel turn for backlund? Lastly have you ever considered doing a book covering pre 1984 topics in depth? I didn't even start watching any kind of wrestling outside of Stampede until 86, so I'd be useless writing a book about pre-Hogan. As for Backlund, he didn't take the title loss very well, to say the least, and basically disappeared for quite a while. There was no consideration to a Backlund-Hogan program that I know of, as the intention with the Hogan win was to basically erase Bob Backlund and the old guard. Much like what happened to Hogan in 93 with Yokozuna. And no, I don't think that feud dynamic would have worked anyway, as Backlund was viewed as the white bread babyface and Hogan was like a rock star. Fans wanted something different and by god it was gonna be Hogan. |
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