Bob Backlund: Really?
By Scott Keith on 13 May 2015
Hey Scott,
Was listening to a Billy Graham interview where he kinda buries Backlund and I was wondering: How the hell did Backlund get the belt? I mean, I like BB as much as the next guy but, the dude was basically a cruiserweight with hardly any charisma. I mean, you had Snuka right there!
Plus, business couldn't have been as good as when Graham was champ. Was Vince really that enamored by his background?
Vince Sr. certainly was. And he had the whole thing planned super-far in advance, to the point where Billy Graham knew that he was getting the title from Bruno and then losing it a year later. Hindsight says that they should have kept the belt on him because he was still drawing big, but they had a plan. Backlund was still a good draw in MSG, so it's not like he was the WORST idea for champion or anything. Although if you really want to read some epic burials of Backlund as champion, you should read young snarky Meltzer's early Observers from that time.