I don't really agree. I agree that those matches are very good to great, but I don't agree that he's working a different style. He's working one style.
He carries the match with Hogan but he does it by forcing Hogan into his match. He works Patera the same way he worked Patterson, Valentine, and Inoki. He can be pushed into a bomb throwing contest (see Great Arab Hussein match), but even then he's doing it a very particular way.
Backlund works on top more than just about any guy I can think of. He's more dominant in his matches than Hansen or Vader (I truly believe that). He shows less vulnerability than basically any major babyface I've ever seen.
I said this on an upcoming show, but I want to say it here too: Backlund has too much struggle in him. I don't like Inoki for the same reason. It may be 20+ years' worth of being programmed to expect a certain unwritten rule of selling: if a guy is kicking another guy's ass, I expect the other guy to sell it.
Backlund doesn't sell it, ever, ever. He's always struggling. Always fighting. Always doing some shit to show he's ... not getting his ass kicked. This is why the the matches with Inoki fucking suck for me, because there's Inoki doing exactly the same thing.
"But Jerry, in an actual fight, that's what happens"
I don't see this as a limitation of Backlund. I feel this is a limitation of you as a fan . You're viewing wrestling as their is only this way to work. While if you opened your mind to it their are several ways on how to work. Parv and I argued this on Titans. We disagree a lot on Titans and we agree a lot. Here I think he's off base .