At an earlier meeting, I think at Madison Square Garden, Iron Sheik attacked Backlund with his famous clubs after a demonstration, injuring Backlund’s shoulder.  Backlund, I believe then had to face the Masked Superstar either the same night or shortly after.  Superstar’s favorite maneuver was the neckbreaker, and although Backlund escaped with the title, Superstar further injured Backlund’s neck, along with his shoulder.  Shortly after that, Backlund was scheduled to meet the Sheik at the next Garden card and Backlund wrestled heavily favoring his shoulder and neck, while the Sheik spent the whole match working on that area of his body.  I have this match on tape, and it is great, but slow.  It really tells a story like all great old school matches used to do.  Finally, Backlund executes a move on Sheik, but really hurts his injuries doing so.  The Sheik poised, readied, and finally slapped on the camel clutch, but Backlund would never submit.  Seeing that his man was risking his career, Arnold Skaaland threw in the towel for his man, and we have a new WWF Champion. 

Back on TV, shortly after the Sheik wrestled, they announced Backlund was hot on his tail and was starting his comeback in a tag team match the following week with a mystery partner against the Samoans.  Then, when the following week came, they announced that Capt. Lou Albano, being the crafty manager of the Samoans that he was, had up and refused the tag match because he could not train his men for an unknown opponent. Instead, Backlund had to face one of the Samoans himself.  I believe it was Samoan 3, Samula, he faced, but it could have been Sika, # 2.  Afa, I believe, was injured at the time.  During the match (of course) all three Samoans and Albano ran in for the DQ to lay out Backlund, when who should come out to help but the “Incredible” Hulk Hogan!  He laid out all 3 Samoans and Albano in one fell swoop, while Backlund continued to roll around on the canvas. 

Now I just want to take a second right here and point out that this is why, even at the age of ten, I knew there was something wrong here, and why I didn’t fall for all this Hulkamania stuff.  The Samoans were pushed as the toughest wrestlers in the WWF at the time, and Hogan wiped out, not one, not two, but all three of them and their double tough manager Capt. Lou in one tirade.  To even a boy of ten this was the dumbest, most unbelievable thing I had ever seen in my entire life.  I knew wrestling was pre-determined, but they had always done everything in every match to build around the premise that this at least COULD happen.  With Hogan, that was all gone.  That’s why today I refer to Hogan as simply the anti-Christ of professional wrestling. 

Back to the show, Backlund and Hogan then did an interview and set up their battle next week against another one of the top tag teams at the time, Mr. Fuji and Tiger Chung Lee (Mr. Saito had already left the promotion and Lee, a Korean, looked similar to Saito, so he was Fuji’s new partner).  The following week, it was more of the same.  Every time Backlund was in the ring they worked his injured shoulder and neck, and every time Hogan was in he cleaned house, eventually landing the big leg drop and pinning Lee for victory. 

I think there was another week in between, but then the show started with a new beginning and new music.  The entire beginning was centered around a recent MSG match where Hogan defeated the Sheik for the World Title.  They talked about the match at the beginning and said Backlund was too injured to receive his rematch against the Sheik and that Hogan took his place and won the title.  They then announced that next week they would show the match in it’s entirety.  The match had Hogan doing everything Backlund couldn’t do in his encounter with the Sheik.  Hogan powered out of the Boston crab, and then did the unthinkable, he broke the seemingly unbreakable camel clutch with sheer power. 

The new direction of the promotion was obvious, not only were they selling Backlund down the river for their new star, they were also selling wrestling down the river for power and showmanship.  Backlund’s motto was “to every hold there is a counter, and to every counter there was a counter.”  He could wrestle hold for hold anyone in the business, and out do most, if not all.  Hogan broke holds with sheer power and brute strength, and showed little if any wrestling ability.  Everything changed after that.  Every show became more and more polished, every match more and more “entertainment,” and less “sport.” 

That’s why, while almost every other writer on this website starts off their column by saying how lucky they were to have grown up seeing their respective promotion’s matches, I didn’t.  While I certainly consider myself lucky to have the opportunity to write for this great site, I’m one of the unlucky ones who was force-fed Vinnieland wrestling from an early age because my local TV and arena carried no other alternative.  To all you other writers, I consider you the lucky ones.

NEXT MONTH:

I’ll look at a far more cheerful point of 1984, when “Rowdy” Roddy Piper entered the promotion.