41 Most Disgusting Promotional Tactics In Wrestling History RANKED
40. 1982 - Bob Backlund As WWE Champion
In the 1990s, WCW and the WWF employed paedophile Grizzly Smith as a road agent.
In the same decade, the WWF - amid allegations of overlooking a paedophile ring - hired paedophile Buck Zumhofe as an enhancement talent on an infrequent basis.
Bob Backlund’s crime? His heinous, disgusting crime?
He was boring.
Bob Backlund is an interesting historical case. He was a very popular attraction, drawing 41 Madison Square Garden sell-outs in 67 attempts. That is hugely impressive; he’s second only to Bruno Sammartino in that particular record. Backlund got over initially because he was a credentialed, legit-feeling amateur. He wasn’t some technical maestro. You’d think he’d have to be, given that he wasn’t enormously charismatic, and resembled a gee-whizz boy scout in a bland man’s body - but the fans apparently loved his sprinting atomic drop spot, It took a very impressive level of strength and power to set up.
He was also very boring.
As you became a hardcore fan wise to the art of promotion, and discovered that there’s a good reason why Steve Austin is the champion, and not Essa Rios, learning about Bob Backlund’s near-six year (!) WWWF title reign was inexplicable. When you first venture into hardcore fandom, you learn a few lessons. This Dean Malenko guy has workrate - he should get World title shots, not the Big Show!
And then, as you delve deeper, you start to grasp the financial element - why promoters actually push the big lads, and not the mat-based midcarders. This makes Bob Backlund: mega-draw such an inexplicable concept. This guy? Really? In, of all places, New York, where wrestlers are meant to be massive and cartoonish and entertaining?
His title history and box office record makes so little sense that it seems impossible - but it happened.
In any event, the early adopters of the Observer hated the guy, evidently. To them, he was the antithesis of Ric Flair, who was the critical darling of the era.