17 Wrestlers Who Took Forever To Get To WrestleMania (and Why)

Backlund debuted in the WWWF in 1977, soon winning its top title and holding it for six years. The vanilla All-American boy Backlund was phased out in 1984, however, in favor of Hulk Hogan and a whole new cast of colorful characters from around the country. Refusing to turn heel and draw negative attention to his family, Backlund left the company well before the first Wrestlemania in 1985.

Backund wrestled sporadically before finally returning to the Federation in 1992. Due to the recent steroid scandal, most of the juiced-up muscle freaks of the 80s had left the WWF, but boring Bob was now a fish out of water in a sea of wacky gimmicks, if you’ll excuse the mixed metaphor. Backlund at last wrestled on wrestling’s biggest show at Wrestlemania 9. Unfortunately, his match was an entirely forgettable bout against Razor Ramon that saw him unceremoniously pinned for the first time in his Federation career, a fact no one in the company cared enough about to mention.