10 WWE Champions Who Deserved Longer Runs
4. Bob Backlund
For clarity, we’re not talking about Backlund’s time with the championship in the late ‘70s going into the early ‘80s. The Hall of Famer was well served by the-then WWWF, and continued to hold the belt for an incredibly long stretch going into the nascent WWF days.
Times change, though, and with the dawning of Hulkamania, the straight laced Backlund wasn’t so much of a draw as he once was. He left the company in 1984, and it seemed the curtains were closed on an incredible career.
There was life in the old dog yet, though, and Bob returned in 1992 for a feud with Bret Hart. It had mixed results, but at its best, Backlund was sensational. He reinvented himself as a crazed heel, an old man incensed by the newfangled ways of Hart and Michaels’ generation. It was a wild shift, but at the same time a natural one.
He held the top belt for two days as WWE transitioned it from Hart to Diesel. Really it was better fortune than he could have expected - and yet, Backlund was so fun that a lengthier reign might not have been such a bad idea.