TheEvilDoink1987
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Joined on: Feb 22, 2010 21:37:52 GMT -5
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Post by TheEvilDoink1987 on Jul 16, 2019 21:17:01 GMT -5
1994 was the year I first started watching the WWF religiously. Bret Hart was and still is my favorite wrestler and he had a banner year.
We all know the story. Bret loses his title to Backlund at Survivor Series only for him to drop it to Diesel a few days later.
My question is: Do you think this was planned out WAY in advance?
It doesn't make much sense. Bret was having a great run and out of nowhere they decide to give a forgotten relic in Backlund a maniacal makeover. It was a very intriguing story arc and I enjoyed the character. When he beat Bret it broke my damn heart. I just wonder if this was all done to simply build a bridge from Bret to Diesel?
As good as 1994 was to Bret, Owen and Razor, I believe Diesel was the MVP. He made his mark at the Royal Rumble which was followed by him winning all three major belts by the end of the year. Vince loves his big men and perhaps created the Backlund angle as a way to transition the belt away from Bret. When Diesel destroyed him in eight seconds it proved that the company had no long-term plans for Bob so it makes me wonder how early on in 1994 Vince made the decision that he was going with Diesel.
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Post by The Brain on Jul 16, 2019 21:27:09 GMT -5
I gotta think with the reaction Diesel got at the Rumble that year that was when Vince went yeah he's our next ''guy''. It makes sense with him winning all the belts that year.
As much as I liked crazy Backlund, he was just a transitional champ to get the belt off Bret so he can lose to Diesel.With them building up the new generation during that time no way in hell was Backlund going to have a long reign. Like I said I think the wheels got set in motion with his performance at the Rumble.
Loved the 4 PPV matches Bret/Diesel had. SSeries 95 being my favorite.
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Post by MKSavage on Jul 16, 2019 22:19:05 GMT -5
It seemed like dropping the belt to Backlund was planned they were building this feud for a while before Survivor Series 1994. In his book, Bret talked about wanting to take a month or two off in December and January, so they probably put the belt on Backlund to have a champion defending the title at house shows during those months and he was probably going to drop the belt back to Bret at RR95 - when Bret returned. But then Diesel became pretty popular and Vince always liked bigger guys so he probably made a last minute decision to put it on Diesel to see what he could do with it.
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Post by K5 on Jul 17, 2019 9:21:17 GMT -5
honestly, I always felt like it was weird how Bret always had these feuds with midcarders. a match on Raw letting them show their talent is one thing - but the patriot, backlund, jerry lawler, doink, Isaac yankem...yeesh
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Post by JokerFC on Jul 17, 2019 9:23:03 GMT -5
I gotta think with the reaction Diesel got at the Rumble that year that was when Vince went yeah he's our next ''guy''. It makes sense with him winning all the belts that year. As much as I liked crazy Backlund, he was just a transitional champ to get the belt off Bret so he can lose to Diesel.With them building up the new generation during that time no way in hell was Backlund going to have a long reign. Like I said I think the wheels got set in motion with his performance at the Rumble. Loved the 4 PPV matches Bret/Diesel had. SSeries 95 being my favorite. SSeries 95 was an absolute gem. Nash & Bret had great chemistry. |
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jason1980s
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Joined on: Sept 30, 2009 14:58:56 GMT -5
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Post by jason1980s on Jul 17, 2019 9:40:13 GMT -5
I think at the time Bret also wanted to do some acting. He did some work on Lonesome Dove and I believe he wanted the acting to be more of a full time thing so they used the Backlund injury to give him two months off, at least from TV. It's too bad he didn't do more acting because he was believable but his heart was probably more into wrestling and there was probably more of a future for him at the top of the company.
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Post by hbkbigdaddycool on Jul 17, 2019 10:03:07 GMT -5
It was planned from late 1993 actually.
There is a story where Luger and Vince are in MSG watching a six man tag match happening and Diesel is in the match. Vince kept saying, "Look how big he is!! He's so big!!" over and over.
Diesel came into the back after the match, and Lex walked up to him, shook his hand and said, "congratulations, they are gonna run with you." And Diesel looked at Lex apparently confused as to what that meant.
A few months later, Diesel dominates the Rumble, then after that, he wins all 3 titles within one year.
So yes, it was planned to have Diesel win it in that year. They just had Bret be the place holder again. Which is funny, since each time Bret was champion it felt right compared to others.
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hammer
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Post by hammer on Jul 17, 2019 16:08:55 GMT -5
It was planned from late 1993 actually. There is a story where Luger and Vince are in MSG watching a six man tag match happening and Diesel is in the match. Vince kept saying, "Look how big he is!! He's so big!!" over and over. Diesel came into the back after the match, and Lex walked up to him, shook his hand and said, "congratulations, they are gonna run with you." And Diesel looked at Lex apparently confused as to what that meant. A few months later, Diesel dominates the Rumble, then after that, he wins all 3 titles within one year. So yes, it was planned to have Diesel win it in that year. They just had Bret be the place holder again. Which is funny, since each time Bret was champion it felt right compared to others. yep, i came in here to post something close to this. and this is straight from a nash shoot interview. we know he had a tendency to exaggerate a bit, but when it comes to pure timeline stuff, he seems to be on the ball and believable about most things. basically as it goes... with all the steroid stuff, vince as we know went to the smaller guys, and as he looked around the locker room and saw guys getting smaller because of the crackdown... heres kevin nash, whos still a near 7 footer staying above 300 pounds. and before he got to wcw, he actually was a really capable worker. im not gonna say great, but he was mobile enough and believable, and was a great in-ring partner for guys like shawn, bret and razor. as for the backlund part being planned... that i couldnt tell you one way or another. i kinda always got the feeling that backlund was in the right spot at the right time. it was a bit early for owen to get a title run, and consequently be a transitional champ. backlund worked out... heres one more quick run, as a thank you for your service to the company, and then we get the belt onto the next 'guy', without having to waste a potential money matchup in bret/diesel. |
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Deleted
Joined on: Nov 28, 2024 21:34:31 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2019 19:15:41 GMT -5
honestly, I always felt like it was weird how Bret always had these feuds with midcarders. a match on Raw letting them show their talent is one thing - but the patriot, backlund, jerry lawler, doink, Isaac yankem...yeesh dont forget the pirate. |
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Post by warriorlynx on Jul 19, 2019 11:49:54 GMT -5
It all depends on where you get the info from, Backlund claimed a 1 year run with the WWF title but that was probably just Vince bs'ing him. Preferably it would've been better if Shawn won the title at this time as a shock and turn him babyface. But if he was just a heel, well you could still have Diesel win at WM.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2019 13:12:54 GMT -5
Backlund should have had more than a 3 day title reign! They should have had Diesel beat him at royal rumble 95.
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jason1980s
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Joined on: Sept 30, 2009 14:58:56 GMT -5
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Post by jason1980s on Jul 19, 2019 14:59:15 GMT -5
I get the reasoning for them giving the title to Diesel so quickly. I'm sure Vince thought (and rightfully so) they had a mega star in Diesel and wanted to act quickly. Maybe Diesel wasn't a mega star like Hogan but he was definitely a bigger name and more popular than some of the other champion choices. Given the reaction he got at Royal Rumble 1994, they probably could've given him a title reign if they had good enough plans for him but that point he was still pretty green. The 8 months he spent with Shawn Michaels (after his original debut), he probably took everything he learned and like a sponge just soaked it all up to the point where he could become a mega star for the times.
Backlund was well past his prime by December 1994. The heel turned breathed life into him and thankfully gave him 25+ years of being able to play a character people could enjoy as opposed to the bland good guy. But there was really only so much they could do with him for the storylines. Physically he could have wrestled every day well into the 1990s (1996/1997 as a manager, specifically) but he was more suited to special appearances when needed.
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Post by Gorilla on Jul 23, 2019 11:52:53 GMT -5
It all depends on where you get the info from, Backlund claimed a 1 year run with the WWF title but that was probably just Vince bs'ing him. Preferably it would've been better if Shawn won the title at this time as a shock and turn him babyface. But if he was just a heel, well you could still have Diesel win at WM. If Backlund had a 1 year run in the 90s, he may have caused the industry to die |
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TheEvilDoink1987
Main Eventer
Joined on: Feb 22, 2010 21:37:52 GMT -5
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Post by TheEvilDoink1987 on Jul 23, 2019 12:25:53 GMT -5
It all depends on where you get the info from, Backlund claimed a 1 year run with the WWF title but that was probably just Vince bs'ing him. Preferably it would've been better if Shawn won the title at this time as a shock and turn him babyface. But if he was just a heel, well you could still have Diesel win at WM. If Backlund had a 1 year run in the 90s, he may have caused the industry to die I agree 110%. It was bad enough kickstarting the New Generation with a Piper/Lawler PPV main event. A one-year title run for Backlund would have been the nail in the coffin for the WWF. Not a knock on Backlund, as he is one of the most accomplished wrestlers of his time and did a great job playing the psycho heel character. It's just that at that pivotal time for the WWF when things were looking bleak, anything more than a brief transitional run with the belt didn't make sense. At all. |
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Post by warriorlynx on Jul 23, 2019 20:17:53 GMT -5
If Backlund had a 1 year run in the 90s, he may have caused the industry to die I agree 110%. It was bad enough kickstarting the New Generation with a Piper/Lawler PPV main event. A one-year title run for Backlund would have been the nail in the coffin for the WWF. Not a knock on Backlund, as he is one of the most accomplished wrestlers of his time and did a great job playing the psycho heel character. It's just that at that pivotal time for the WWF when things were looking bleak, anything more than a brief transitional run with the belt didn't make sense. At all. I never saw anything wrong with Piper being there (WM12 is an example of how he could still fit in that era imo), the problem was THAT MATCH should've never happened lol he could've faced anyone and anybody. |
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Post by Artie Kendall on Jul 23, 2019 21:39:28 GMT -5
Vince told Bret about the plan to go from him to Backlund to Diesel in August of that year. They didn't want Backlund to headline a PPV (probably out of fear of bankrupting the company) so they used MSG for the switch.
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