In this video, We’ll look at Bob Backlund’s career in wrestling in the 2000’s, we’ll look at how and why he came to be at an ECW show, and we’ll look at a couple of other places that Bob turned up. We’ll get to ECW in a little bit, including fan filmed footage of what didn’t air on TV, but there’s a bit of context to get to first.
Having not been seen on a regular basis in WWE since his mid-90’s run where he won the WWE title and attempted to run for President, Bob would make a brief return at the start of the next decade. He would wrestle two matches in his odd 2000 run, first entering the Royal Rumble match where he would last two minutes. We tend not to think of Bob Backlund when we think of the greatest Royal Rumble entrants, but in 1993 Bob lasted sixty one minutes in the match, beating Ric Flair’s record in the previous year for the longest entry ever. Bob would keep the record for a decade, until being surpassed by Chris Benoit in 2004, and Rey Mysterio two years after that. Today he still has among the longest entries ever all these years later.
Bob would also take part in a tag team match on the March 16th 2000 episode of Smackdown, where he would lose by DQ to Tazz and Chris Jericho when Chris Benoit would interfere. Bob would team with the man that he was managing at the time, Kurt Angle. In the match, Bob would take one punch from Tazz, then leave through the crowd wanting no more. Bob would actually end up being the person responsible for Kurt losing his first two championships on the same night at Wrestlemania 2000, as he would defend as he called it the Eurocontinental title against Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit. On the episode of Sunday Night Heat prior to Wrestlemania, Backlund would reveal that Kurt defending both titles was his idea, and so Kurt would apply Bob’s famous move to him, the crossface chicken wing. On screen, this would be the last we would see of Backlund in this run. There seems to have been no bust up or release made public, so it may well just be that the storyline with Angle had run its course, or it may have been felt that Bob was holding Kurt back on what would become an incredible rookie year. When asked about this in his shoot interview with RF Video in 2008, his comments were interesting.
During his appearance in the Royal Rumble, Jim Ross noted Bob’s congress run on commentary which we’re absolutely getting to another time by the way. Post his elimination Bob would exit through the crowd, perhaps attempting to campaign on his way out. On March 16th, Bob’s campaign manager noted publicly that they were opening up an office for his operations in East Hartford New York, about a hundred and sixty miles from East Hartford Connecticut, where he was actually running for Congress, but more importantly, about a hundred and thirty miles from Poughkeepsie New York where the ECW event we’re going to talk about took place. That might be the most convoluted way to change the subject that I’ve ever done on this channel.
On July 7th 2000, ECW held a TV taping at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in front of around nineteen hundred fans. On this night, “They did a strange deal with Bob Backlund that everyone was swearing wasn’t an angle. Backlund was invited to the show, although the word was given that he came on his own.” On this night Kid Kash would face CW Anderson, a match mainly notable for what Bob Backlund was doing during it. According to the July 17th 2000 Wrestling Observer, “During the Kash vs. Anderson match, he started jawing with fans, doing his gimmick, right in the middle of the match and it took heat away from the match. He was thrown out of the building by security. I don’t believe this was taped for TV, but I guess if it airs, then it’s an angle.” While the match itself did air on the July 15th episode of Hardcore TV, the Backlund situation wasn’t given any attention, leading to a very awkward moment where you can absolutely tell something is happening that we can’t see.
In the next week’s newsletter, Dave Meltzer elaborates a bit on what happened, with a little bit of what Heyman had told him. “Paul Heyman said that he never invited Backlund to the Poughkeepsie show. He said if Backlund was invited, it wasn’t by himself, Steve Karel or Dreamer.” Steve Karel, not that one, was the General Manager for ECW, who would go on to found the incredibly niche Urban Wrestling Federation in 2011, and would be an investor in Combat Zone Wrestling as well.
Paul Heyman then offered his side of what actually happened. “He said Backlund arrived and came in the back and wanted to shoot an angle. Heyman said he’d consider it after the tapings were over.” Heyman made a final point of noting that the incident was “never mentioned on the ECW web site or pushed on television, although on the hardcore TV show during that match, you can tell when it was all happening. He said Backlund wanted to apologize about it afterwards. Those close to Backlund said that security apologized to Backlund afterwards”
While the incident might not have aired on television, fan filmed footage of Backlund in the crowd while the match was taking place exists. In this short clip that I found on YouTube channel Lou Gregory, you can clearly see the match going on, then the camera pans to show Backlund getting into an altercation with a fan, who Heyman told the Observer was “a plant brought by Backlund”. At the end of the footage, we can see that one recognisable bloke from Atlas security talking to Bob before he was led out of the building.
When I was looking for more information on Backlund’s appearance, I found that Tommy Dreamer talked about it on a 2014 episode of Steve Austin’s podcast. Tommy refers to the incident as a quote ”shoot run in”, and tells us this when Austin asks for clarification.
There are a couple of holes in Tommy’s recollection, like where he mentions a “vote for Bob sign, but there's every chance we just didn’t see that. Then there’s the part where he claims that he was watching from the crowd, and somehow was also in the gorilla position to tell Paul what was happening. Despite these, the timeline of what Tommy says matches what else we have seen.
I kept digging a bit, and managed to find Bob talking about the incident himself, in an interview he did with Camel Clutch Blog in 2015. I’ll let you hear Bob’s explanation in his own words. *CLIP* So Backlund claims that he was told then would be a good time to collect his friends who were on the front row, only to discover that a post match angle was taking place. In the fan footage we can see the match taking place, and by the end of it we also see the run-in is happening, so his timing is accurate, but the motive remains a bit unclear. A fan account found on a forum from a couple of days after the event also mentions that Bob was raising money for his political campaign, which I suspect but can’t prove, might have been the real reason.
Following his congress run which concluded in November 2000, time Bob kept his toe in wrestling, or should that be his wing. He would continue to be involved with wrestling in the years after, turning up in some surprising places. In 2001 he completed a short tour with New Japan Pro Wrestling, where he would wrestle four matches, all involving Tatsumi Fujinami. The two would have a seven minute exhibition match, before teaming together on the next two events, and would be opponents again on the last. While on the surface these matches might seem unusual, Backlund and Fujinami had first met in the ring in 1978, and they would meet for the final time in Bob’s last matches in Tokyo and Osaka forty years later, when Bob was at the age of sixty eight years old. In post match comments he made on August 10th, where he and Tatsumi had teamed up against Terry and Dory Funk Jr, Bob noted that the Funks recommended that he go to Japan in the early 70’s, and so he seemed to have personal connections with most of the wrestlers he interacted with on this tour, including Steve Keirn, perhaps better known as Skinner, who he was in a tag tea with in the mid-70’s.
Making this video made me wonder though, what if Paul had allowed Bob Backlund to shoot an angle that night? What if the financial problems ECW was struggling with, and an ever declining relationship with TNN had driven him over the edge enough to bring Bob back for a program the way he had with Dusty Rhodes and Terry Funk?
Unfortunately Taz had left by that point, so we couldn’t see them clash, but what about Bob versus the likes of Steve Corino, who at this time was becoming a more serious heel character having just feuded with Dusty. Or even Paul’s next project, his last world champion Rhino? One of Paul’s biggest stars at the time was Raven, but he was on his way out of ECW again, this time heading for WWE. Can you imagine if they had interacted, the squeaky clean Bob versus the counter culture of Raven? Do you think Bob even knows what a Pearl Jam is? All of these questions will remain unknown, probably where they should be.
Sources:
WON Feb 15th 99 Bob announces Congress run https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/february-15-1999-wrestling-observer-newsletter-reaction-death-giant/
Hartford Courant article: https://www.courant.com/2016/02/23/all-american-boy-with-bob-backlund/
WON Nov 13th 2000 Political commercial and result https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/november-13-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wwf-not-buying-wcw-ecw/
WON Mar 27th 2000 East Hartford CT https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/march-27-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-more-wwf-leaving-usa/
Fan Footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKvGMMfVtSA
WON July 17th 2000 Show report https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/july-17-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wcw-bash-beach-big-angle/
WON July 24th 2000 Heyman’s side https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/july-24-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-ecw-heatwave-review/
WON July 31st 2000 - 21st TNN TV report https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/july-31-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wcw-does-big-business/
Forum post from 2000, quoted in 2014 http://wrestlingclassics.com/cgi-bin/.ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=next_topic;f=1;t=144294;go=older#google_vignette
Camel Clutch Blog Shoot Interview, November 5th 2015 1:04:41 https://youtu.be/J9HDS3QpYhE?si=nEWRDozqSE-2MGzv&t=3881
On July 7th 2000, ECW held a TV taping at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in front of around nineteen hundred fans. On this night, “They did a strange deal with Bob Backlund that everyone was swearing wasn’t an angle. Backlund was invited to the show, although the word was given that he came on his own.” On this night Kid Kash would face CW Anderson, a match mainly notable for what Bob Backlund was doing during it. According to the July 17th 2000 Wrestling Observer, “During the Kash vs. Anderson match, he started jawing with fans, doing his gimmick, right in the middle of the match and it took heat away from the match. He was thrown out of the building by security. I don’t believe this was taped for TV, but I guess if it airs, then it’s an angle.” While the match itself did air on the July 15th episode of Hardcore TV, the Backlund situation wasn’t given any attention, leading to a very awkward moment where you can absolutely tell something is happening that we can’t see.
In the next week’s newsletter, Dave Meltzer elaborates a bit on what happened, with a little bit of what Heyman had told him. “Paul Heyman said that he never invited Backlund to the Poughkeepsie show. He said if Backlund was invited, it wasn’t by himself, Steve Karel or Dreamer.” Steve Karel, not that one, was the General Manager for ECW, who would go on to found the incredibly niche Urban Wrestling Federation in 2011, and would be an investor in Combat Zone Wrestling as well.
Paul Heyman then offered his side of what actually happened. “He said Backlund arrived and came in the back and wanted to shoot an angle. Heyman said he’d consider it after the tapings were over.” Heyman made a final point of noting that the incident was “never mentioned on the ECW web site or pushed on television, although on the hardcore TV show during that match, you can tell when it was all happening. He said Backlund wanted to apologize about it afterwards. Those close to Backlund said that security apologized to Backlund afterwards”
While the incident might not have aired on television, fan filmed footage of Backlund in the crowd while the match was taking place exists. In this short clip that I found on YouTube channel Lou Gregory, you can clearly see the match going on, then the camera pans to show Backlund getting into an altercation with a fan, who Heyman told the Observer was “a plant brought by Backlund”. At the end of the footage, we can see that one recognisable bloke from Atlas security talking to Bob before he was led out of the building.
When I was looking for more information on Backlund’s appearance, I found that Tommy Dreamer talked about it on a 2014 episode of Steve Austin’s podcast. Tommy refers to the incident as a quote ”shoot run in”, and tells us this when Austin asks for clarification.
There are a couple of holes in Tommy’s recollection, like where he mentions a “vote for Bob sign, but there's every chance we just didn’t see that. Then there’s the part where he claims that he was watching from the crowd, and somehow was also in the gorilla position to tell Paul what was happening. Despite these, the timeline of what Tommy says matches what else we have seen.
I kept digging a bit, and managed to find Bob talking about the incident himself, in an interview he did with Camel Clutch Blog in 2015. I’ll let you hear Bob’s explanation in his own words. *CLIP* So Backlund claims that he was told then would be a good time to collect his friends who were on the front row, only to discover that a post match angle was taking place. In the fan footage we can see the match taking place, and by the end of it we also see the run-in is happening, so his timing is accurate, but the motive remains a bit unclear. A fan account found on a forum from a couple of days after the event also mentions that Bob was raising money for his political campaign, which I suspect but can’t prove, might have been the real reason.
Following his congress run which concluded in November 2000, time Bob kept his toe in wrestling, or should that be his wing. He would continue to be involved with wrestling in the years after, turning up in some surprising places. In 2001 he completed a short tour with New Japan Pro Wrestling, where he would wrestle four matches, all involving Tatsumi Fujinami. The two would have a seven minute exhibition match, before teaming together on the next two events, and would be opponents again on the last. While on the surface these matches might seem unusual, Backlund and Fujinami had first met in the ring in 1978, and they would meet for the final time in Bob’s last matches in Tokyo and Osaka forty years later, when Bob was at the age of sixty eight years old. In post match comments he made on August 10th, where he and Tatsumi had teamed up against Terry and Dory Funk Jr, Bob noted that the Funks recommended that he go to Japan in the early 70’s, and so he seemed to have personal connections with most of the wrestlers he interacted with on this tour, including Steve Keirn, perhaps better known as Skinner, who he was in a tag tea with in the mid-70’s.
Making this video made me wonder though, what if Paul had allowed Bob Backlund to shoot an angle that night? What if the financial problems ECW was struggling with, and an ever declining relationship with TNN had driven him over the edge enough to bring Bob back for a program the way he had with Dusty Rhodes and Terry Funk?
Unfortunately Taz had left by that point, so we couldn’t see them clash, but what about Bob versus the likes of Steve Corino, who at this time was becoming a more serious heel character having just feuded with Dusty. Or even Paul’s next project, his last world champion Rhino? One of Paul’s biggest stars at the time was Raven, but he was on his way out of ECW again, this time heading for WWE. Can you imagine if they had interacted, the squeaky clean Bob versus the counter culture of Raven? Do you think Bob even knows what a Pearl Jam is? All of these questions will remain unknown, probably where they should be.
Sources:
WON Feb 15th 99 Bob announces Congress run https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/february-15-1999-wrestling-observer-newsletter-reaction-death-giant/
Hartford Courant article: https://www.courant.com/2016/02/23/all-american-boy-with-bob-backlund/
WON Nov 13th 2000 Political commercial and result https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/november-13-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wwf-not-buying-wcw-ecw/
WON Mar 27th 2000 East Hartford CT https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/march-27-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-more-wwf-leaving-usa/
Fan Footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKvGMMfVtSA
WON July 17th 2000 Show report https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/july-17-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wcw-bash-beach-big-angle/
WON July 24th 2000 Heyman’s side https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/july-24-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-ecw-heatwave-review/
WON July 31st 2000 - 21st TNN TV report https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/july-31-2000-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wcw-does-big-business/
Forum post from 2000, quoted in 2014 http://wrestlingclassics.com/cgi-bin/.ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=next_topic;f=1;t=144294;go=older#google_vignette
Camel Clutch Blog Shoot Interview, November 5th 2015 1:04:41 https://youtu.be/J9HDS3QpYhE?si=nEWRDozqSE-2MGzv&t=3881
No comments:
Post a Comment