10 Wrestlers Who Made Drastic Late Career Changes

6. Bob Backlund

During his prime wrestling years in the 1970s and early 80s, Bob Backlund was that clean-cut happy-chappy the WWF wanted as their Heavyweight Champion. More likely to help old ladies across the street than disparage anyone in a fiery promo, Bob was a sweetheart.

By 1994, he was a deranged weirdo who wanted to run for US President and babbled incoherently about how the "youth of today" didn't understand tradition or good manners. It was awesome, and the gimmick replaced Backlund's previous stint as a law-abiding athlete who felt like he'd strolled from a time capsule and badly needed a tan.

Bob's journey from top babyface to deranged Mr. Backlund was a genius idea.

It led to an unlikely run as WWF Champ in 1994 too. Sure, he was used as a buffer between Bret Hart and Diesel in the title hot seat, but that would never have even happened had Bob not embraced his new crazed old man character.