10 Great Babyface Wrestlers Who Became SHOCKINGLY Good Heels
8. Bob Backlund
In the late 1970s, WWE were looking to replicate the success of Bruno Sammartino as a long-running babyface champion.
Their choice was Bob Backland; a young, literally baby-faced grappler who embodied the 'boy next door' archetype to a tee. He reigned for 2,135 days before dropping the belt to The Iron Sheik and practically falling off the map entirely. Then came one of the strangest career resurgences in wrestling history.
When he returned to the promotion he had helped build in the 1990s, he deliberately started acting out of step with modern times. He decried the so-called 'New Generation' and claimed that he was still the true world champion.
Backlund's brilliantly delusional character was a stroke of genius. His squawking, screeching promos are like that 'Old Man Yells at Cloud' meme in human form and was unlike anything else on WWE TV at the time. Remarkably, Backlund managed to get one more world title match out of this unique character. He beat Bret Hart at Survivor Series 1994 to win the WWE Championship... only to lose it to Diesel just three days later.
Easy come, easy go.