10 Totally Underrated WWE Championship Reigns

2. Bob Backlund €“ WWWF Heavyweight Champion (20/02/78 - 26/12/83)

Bob Backlund is arguably the most underrated and misunderstood wrestler in WWE history. A genuinely superb technical wrestler in his heyday, I tend to think of Backlund as the €˜last of the great old-school Champions€™. He was a man who (through absolutely no fault of his own) found himself surplus to requirements, as pro wrestling shifted gears in the mid-late 1980€™s and subsequently changed forever... The 1978-model Backlund was a far cry from the hypermanic nut job character of €˜Mr. Backlund€™ - as he is generally known by today€™s WWE fanbase. In fact, in the early part of his career, Backlund didn€™t really play a character; he was just a dedicated, serious athlete who lent believability and credibility to his ring work and promos. He didn€™t use catchphrases or anything like that; he just got in the ring and wowed the fans with his poise, skill and professionalism. He was the very definition of a €˜wrestler€™s wrestler€™. By the time he signed up to Vince Sr€™s WWWF promotion in 1977, Backlund had already tangled with greats such as Terry Funk, Harley Race and Jack Brisco in the NWA and was being groomed for even greater things. In fact, had the NWA continued to be the most recognized force in pro wrestling, then its safe to say that Bob Backlund would have eventually held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship before too long. In the WWWF, he was fast-tracked to the top and embarked on the second-longest title reign in WWE history, holding the Big Belt for around 5 years. He very briefly dropped the belt to Antonio Inoki €“ before quickly winning it back again- on a tour of Japan during this time, but WWE doesn€™t count that as official. If they did, Backlund would be considered a Three-time WWE Champion when all is said and done. Bob Backlund eventually dropped the belt at the very end of 1983. In a moment of beautiful, dramatic tension, Backlund€™s manager, Arnold Skaaland was forced to throw in the towel for his friend and client, who refused to submit to a gruelling Camel Clutch, being applied by The Iron Sheik. It was a sad, but fitting, end for both a character and an era. Less than one month later, Hulk Hogan roundly trounced The Iron Sheik and became the biggest star, first in wrestling, and then the world. In the era that ensued, Vince Jr€™s vision of a mainstream, family-friendly and entertainment-orientated wrestling product was brilliantly realized and Bob Backlund, with his amateur wrestling gear, serious demeanour and impressive array of complicated mat techniques, was suddenly obsolete. Backlund would return many times to the WWF/WWE over the years. In the 1990€™s, he inexplicably returned as a madcap heel to defeat Bret Hart for the belt and then pass it to Diesel (Kevin Nash) in a squash match soon after. Backlund€™s professionalism saw him sell Dielsel€™s powerbomb as if he€™d been skydiving without a chute and he literally crawled all the way out of the ring and up the ramp. Later, he had some memorable on-screen moments with Mick Foley and an up-and-coming Kurt Angle, which helped increase his profile with younger fans. The really interesting thing about his first title run is that, at the time, few could foresee the sweeping changes that were already on their way. Bob Backlund€™s first WWWF title reign would prove to be the last gasp of old school wrestling, before something bigger, bolder and more colourful took its place.