Better Wrestler #34

[Destor]

DarKCentaur chooses this bout for us today. Knowing how little the lot of you know about old school wrestling this should be a disater:

http://www.midatlanticgateway.com/Resource_Center/potpourri/piper_greeting/Piper_Gateway_greeting.jpg

VS

http://www.wrestlingmuseum.com/images/models/bobbacklund.jpg

<SELECT><OPTION selected>Better Wrestler History<OPTION>RVD vs CM Punk (34-19)</OPTION><OPTION>RVD vs Santino Marella (36-4)</OPTION><OPTION>RVD vs Mr. Perfect (15-23)</OPTION><OPTION>Mr. Perfect vs Tully Blanchard (30-5)</OPTION><OPTION>Mr. Perfect vs Chris Jericho (15-23)</OPTION><OPTION>Chris Jericho vs Brock Lesnar (34-10)</OPTION><OPTION>Chris Jericho vs William Regal (38-14)</OPTION><OPTION>Chris Jericho vs Eddie Guerrero (21-23)</OPTION><OPTION>Eddie Guerrero vs Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat (26-7)</OPTION><OPTION>Eddie Geurrero vs "Macho Man" Randy Savage (26-19)</OPTION><OPTION>Eddie Guerrero vs Diamond Dallas Page (39-8)</OPTION><OPTION>Eddie Guerrero vs "Stone Cold" Steve Austin(19-28)</OPTION><OPTION>"Stone Cold" Steve Austin vs Chris Benoit (32-13)</OPTION><OPTION>"Stone Cold" Steve Austin vs Jake "The Snake" Roberts (29-10)</OPTION><OPTION>"Stone Cold" Steve Austin vs Sting (36-16)</OPTION><OPTION>"Stone Cold" Steve Austin vs Bret "The Hitman" Hart (32-31)</OPTION><OPTION>Hulk Hogan vs John Cena (15-24)<OPTION>John Cena vs Lex Luger (32-6-2)<OPTION>John Cena vs Ultimate Warrior (29-18)</OPTION><OPTION>John Cena vs Dean Malenko (9-40)</OPTION><OPTION>Dean Malenko vs Billy Kidman (31-7)</OPTION><OPTION>Dean Malenko vs Ultimo Dragon (22-15)</OPTION><OPTION>Dean Malenko vs Taz (15-17)</OPTION><OPTION>Taz vs Sabu (38-2)</OPTION><OPTION>Taz vs Jeff Hardy (25-16)</OPTION><OPTION>Taz vs Bam Bam Bigelow (26-12)</OPTION><OPTION>Taz vs Triple H (24-22)</OPTION>><OPTION>Edge vs Christian Cage (22-23)<OPTION>Christian Cage vs Raven (23-22)</OPTION><OPTION>Christian vs Matt Hardy (22-19)</OPTION><OPTION>Christian vs Ted Dibiase (24-25)</OPTION><OPTION>Ted Dibiase vs "Rowdy" Roddy Piper (16-19)</OPTION><OPTION> "Rowdy" Roddy Piper vs "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith (25-19)</OPTION></SELECT>


<SELECT><OPTION selected>Better Wrestler Hall of Fame</OPTION><OPTION>"Stone Cold" Steve Austin</OPTION><OPTION>Taz</OPTION></SELECT>

[Destor]

I always REALLY enjoyed Backlund. Most of you will only rmeebr him from his 90's run and his entry into the Royal Rumble (whatever year that was.) But the way I remeber him he was built to be the second coming of Bruno Samartino. He was a world class wrestler who had loads of charisma and is one of those guys you wish knew when not to come back. He really tarnished his legacy and that keeps him from being rememberd the way he should be, but I STILL REMEMBER. And because of that I vote Backlund. I gotta give the guy his due. And probably his only vote.

[Ruien]

Soo umm, not to be annoying or whatever. But Bob who? I went with Rowdy just because I have no idea who this other guy is.

[Ruien]

And yes Destor, this will be a disater.

[311]

You have to remember that we're old now and the first game some people ever played is now Halo. :-\

And to be honest, I'm a little too young to really remember Backlund. So I'll have to go with Roddy too....as I was ALWAYS entertained by him.

Shock proof ftw.

[Destor]

Soo umm, not to be annoying or whatever. But Bob who? I went with Rowdy just because I have no idea who this other guy is.
Personally I wouldn't have used him. But from the guys I was given Bam Bam was used and Bossman doens't seem like a round 3 opponent to me. Though now that I think about on TPWW Bossman has a better chance than Backlund. :(

[Destor]

You have to remember that we're old now and the first game some people ever played is now Halo. :-\

And to be honest, I'm a little too young to really remember Backlund. So I'll have to go with Roddy too....as I was ALWAYS entertained by him.

Shock proof ftw.Yeah, this is what Backlund is most remebrd for by this generation:

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:(

[Destor]

And I honestly beleive I wil be the only guy to vote Backlund.

[Skippord]

I love Roddy Piper even though I didn't see him much when he wrestled

so Roddy Piper

[Rammsteinmad]

That video of Kevin Nash is one of my earliest wrestling memories.

That said I didn't know too much about Bob Backlund. I have seen a few videos with him but that's about it. So yeah, I went with Piper.

[Destor]

If you all want, suggestions for Piper's 4th round would be cool. Like to stick with the old school motif though.

[311]

Plus Piper snorted Backlund's weight in coke.

I was born in '83...I think that's when the whole Sheik/Backlund fued was going on...I've watched videos, but that's about it. For some reason I seem to remember Patera/Backlund.

Also, lots of not so classic matches with Doink, and Papa Shango....and some decent ones with Bret Hart. Good lord, WWE was awful during that period.
(This was obviously very late in his career after being gone for ages.)

[311]

What about Piper / Steamboat? Piper / Martel? Piper / Perfect?

While waiting, who doesn't love a random battle royal?

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Might be surprised with the winner.

[Destor]

Perfect and Steamboat are the only round for level guys and they've both already had a turn. Feel free to post more though.

[311]

Roddy Piper/Kerry Von Erich? Roddy Piper, ehh...Harley Race? Although that's a squash in my opinion.

JYD?

GRAB THEM CAKES!

[Destor]

Harley would be mauled, but he has the credibility to challenge at that level IMO. Kerry would be squashed as well. Still two I will keep in mind.

[Destor]

When did these stop getting stickied? :(

[Londoner]

Piper all the way for me. Can't really give many reasons other than i've seen more of his work and he's usually entertaining.

[Dave Youell]

At the request of Destor:

YESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!

BOB FUCKING BACKLUND!!!!

Words cannot describe how awesome this man is.

In the 80’s during his run, from what I know, he was a pure wrestler and at the time the last of a dying breed. As once he lost his title to Sheik the OTT characters started to take over.

But it’s not his 1980’s run I want to talk about, it’s his mid 90’s return, which at first seemed pointless, I remember watching Vignettes at the time, and even as a mark I was thinking this would be crap, they really over did his return to wrestling and frankly, he looked old, too old for me to want to cheer for him, but then came his glorious heel turn and the introduction of the chicken wing. I swear, his heel antics around that time were stunning, I remember his feud with Bret far more than most feuds, Bob really came into his own around that time, and was part of, what was at the time the quickest title match in WWF history, when he jobbed to Diesel in 7 seconds.

Things were not over for crazy old Mr Backlund though, he tried to become President, and eventually ended up on TNA, where he’d prefer to walk 5 miles, then take a 10 minute car ride.

My favourite Backlund story is actually from Jericho’s book, where he told a story on how they were working the gimmick table and doing autographs and Mr Backlund would ask ever Japanese fan that approached him the same question: ‘Name all 50 US states’ when the fan couldn’t do what was asked, he told them to get out of his sight, until one fan did manage to actually name all the states required, Backlund then signed his name twice for him.

Mr Backlund will forever go down as a wrestler who I never thought stood another chance at the top and proved me (and everyone else) wrong

[Destor]

:D

[Destor]

I'm maxed out on rep starting with Youell. (this is a reminder for me.)

[MCEazy]

Yeah, this is what Backlund is most remebrd for by this generation:

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:(

This ^ and his match against bret hart are the only memories I have of backlund. From what I saw though piper FTW w/ the mic skills and heel skills if you will.

[thedamndest]

Is this Bob Backlund Authorized?

[The One]

Backlund was AWESOME, however having said that, come on folks, it's Roddy Piper! I went with Rowdy just because I love the man. But take nothing away from Bob, he was probably one of the best mat workers of the era, not to mention he could carry the entertainment portion of pro wrestling with flying colors. It's sad so many will only remember him for his later comedic runs, but alas, the same could be said for about 99% of the guys who came back too late.

[What Would Kevin Do?]

I have to go with Bob.. Why?

Owen Hart: GET HIM BOB GET HIM!! *Bob locks on the cross face.*

Owen: NO BOB NO!!! *Bob signs the contract instead*

*Bob walks off with a goofy grin/strut*

[Lock Jaw]

Going with Mr. Backlund.

His match with Bret is for some reason one of my favorite memories.

[thedamndest]

Bob Backlund may never have run for President, but he did run for a Congressional seat in the 1st District of Connecticut. I remember I went to a Raw and he was signing shirts and photos to raise money for his campaign. You could get your picture taken with him too, either in "Professional Bob shakes your hand" mode or "Mr. Backlund puts you in the Cross-face" mode. I got a shirt.

[Mooияakeя™]

We should do a wrestler of the year / match of the year. How PWI does their shit, we do our shit. by INET fans, for erm... INET fans?!?! lol.

I'm not voting here as I can't make an assumption on Backlund as we only really got WWF here around the mid-late 80's and what we got was not much Backlund TV time if any tbh.

[thedamndest]

Coming up next on "As The Blow-Out Turns"... Nikita Koloff!

[CSL]

Piper. Because it's Piper. Gotta love Backlund though.

Also, next round maybe Orndorff, Snuka, Dynamite, Jake, Greg Valentine?

[Mercury Bullet]

Love Piper but I went with Backlund. Some of the best mat work ever.

[thedamndest]

Mercury Bullet does 1,000 squat thrusts a day.

[PapaGeorgio]

Like Backlund but was never huge on him for some reason. But he seemed like one of those guys who just has had a blast during his entire career even if he tarnished his name he loved every minute of it.

But the VOTE goes to piper.

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[Destor]

Backlund is doing better than expected.

[Juan]

Backlund is before my time, so I've only seen a few of his matches on tape.

[Fabien Barthez]

With his legacy behind him as a world class worker, you have to remember that he was absolutely woeful when he returned. I remember, I think Mania 9 he had a match with Scott Hall, and it was aweful. Luckily for him, Luger/Hennig was on the card and Lex was so dreadful, not even one of the greatest workers of all time could compensate for how little Luger gave to that match, at Wrestlemania no less. I think Luger being so shit, overshadowed how poor Bob/Scott were, but that is probably just my opinion... I mean, Taker/Gonzales was another match from that night.....

ANYWAY.... Then he turned heel, and his Psycho Bob gimmick was so brilliantly played that it got over so quickly, he was world champion and working a programme with Bret Hart within 6 months of the turn. His push all based on how well he worked the character, and got it over. He was so good with that character, and must have been jumping for joy when he was booked against Bret. If you are a top notch mat wrestler, and you are by and large past it, who better to make you look like you did 20 years previously than Bret? It is the reason why Flair chose HBK for his final match. Because he knew he could carry him, and still make him look better than he has for the better part of 10/15 years.

So Bobby got some good fortune for his damn fine work. He deserved a programme with Bret, and a title run based on his work, with a difficult gimmick for alot to pull off.... And this is all regardless of his truely illustrious past.

Piper I think is a shitty worker, I hate how he wears a Kilt and comes to the ring to Bagpipe music and other than that in every other aspect he is as Scottish as Reggae. He just bores me. Talks alot about being a bad ass, but never really acted like one. The worse thing with Piper, is that he makes a shitty little comeback every couple of years... and you know he is getting paid dog shit to look like dog shit every time. Backlund makes one comeback. Dominates for a year... and back to the old folks home.


So, Bob for me. and as for an apponent..... Dynamite Kid. Still the best worker I have ever seen.

[Fabien Barthez]

Ok, Bob lost by miles, and I was too late to vote because I went and made breakfast in the middle of the last post.

My vote should still be counted in the history though, Dest. And Dynamite should be chosen to kick the Not Scot out of the way of entering the HoF.