[1994-09-19-WWF-Raw] Interview: Bob Backlund

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Everything Bob Backlund says in his interview is true. My favorite kind of heel! They weren't playing up the comedy at this point as much as they would later. Backlund wants to put the chicken wing on Vince to demonstrate that no one can get out of it and he's not having it, so one of the WWF magazine writers volunteers. You can guess how that ended up.

[Gregor]

I really liked how, after Savage jumped up from the booth to help pull Backlund off the writer, there was no commentary, just a frenzied scene centered on the innocuous looking middle-aged man. They even had the cameraman drop his camera and go to help, so we got a shot from the camera that made it clear that no one was holding it. It struck me as a good way to present one man as capable of causing a huge amount of chaos.

[Kevin Ridge]

They are getting over the Cross Faced Chickenwing move. Backlund demonstrates it on a WWF Magazine writer who refers to him as Bob. Not smart. Both McMahon and Savage physically get involved to get Backlund to break the move.

[Exposer]

This was a great segment. Backlund says if anyone can get out of the Crossface Chicken Wing then he will retire from wrestling forever. A WWF magazine writer accepts the challenge of Backlund demonstrating the hold and trying to get out of it. Backlund instead locks it in real good and just slings the guy all over the place. All hell breaks loose. This was a lot of fun and Backlund is great in this role.

[soup23]

WWF doesn't do the panicked out of control scenes much but it works really well here and builds up Backlund really well.

[Zenjo]

Backlund is goofier than the proverbial Pet Coon. Why did they keep Bob away so long? The guy is fantastic on the mic here, grab your dictionaries people. You have to go along with how mind-blowingly stupid the volunteer is, but it's worth it to see Backlund go nuts.

[PeteF3]

Bob Backlund, who just celebrated his 16th anniversary as rightful WWF Champion, rants to the crowd about his high standards and our society's failure to live up to them. "I USED TO LOVE YOU...and you changed." Backlund didn't want to use the chickenwing upon his initial comeback, but locked it on Bret Hart to represent his locking it on modern society. He then vows to retire if anyone can escape the hold, and a "demonstration" on a WWF Magazine writer ends with Vince, a multitude of officials, and Randy Savage trying to pry him off. THAT'S WHAT DISCIPLINE IS ALL ABOUT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.

 

Vince sort of Lance Russells Backlund along through the interview, and their interplay is pretty great. As obnoxious as McMahon has gotten as a play-by-play man he still knows how to get an angle over, and I think this is one of those storylines he really, personally enjoyed, which may explain the level of push Backlund got. Also note that Backlund, despite being shaky at points, takes care not to refer to Bret as "the champion," simply "the man who has the belt."

[flyonthewall2983]

It's a pity they never had a Backlund/Savage match to follow this. When was the last time he even wrestled for them? It seemed like he did some stuff after WrestleMania and was mostly an announcer until he left.

[PeteF3]

I definitely remember from watching at the time that they were building a Backlund-Savage feud.

 

Without bothering to check I think Savage's last match in the WWF was in a tag bout with Bret on a European tour.

[Dooley]

Was Backlund-Savage on the books before Savage left? It seems like an interesting "Legends match" they could have ran at WM11 instead of going back to Bret-Backlund.

[flyonthewall2983]

One scenario I can imagine is that if Randy stuck around, him and Bob (after winning the belt from Bret) would have gone around the horn in house shows before Nash getting the belt at the Royal Rumble as I can't imagine the original plan being Diesel winning the belt at a house show, even if it was MSG.