He couldn’t be a babyface champion because he beat the very popular real babyface champion by putting his feet on the ropes to pin the previous champion. His matches were popular because he taunted the television audience. People wanted Sammartino back as champion or somebody else to beat Billy. I know because I was there at the Philadelphia Spectrum for one of the return matches where they had a 17,000 Spectrum record breaking sellout, and turned away 5,000 as Bruno kicked Graham through the cage door in another failed attempt to get his belt back. We fans knew Bruno was done, but just couldn’t believe it.
Backlund was a subpar baby-face interview. That was part of the reason they attached him to the golden boy. Buy you cant deny that the east coast crowd really popped for Backlund. Backlund knew how to sell and make himself vulnerable. So that made his comebacks even more exciting.
Bruno has stated before that he never wanted to win the Strap off of Stan Stasiak for his second Run with The Belt. He was tired of the drudgery of the wrestling schedule. He gave in after Vince Sr. gave in to a few of his demands. Junior had some power in the back by now and was very high on The Superstar and was always accompanying him on radio and TV spots in and around The New York area. The one request by Bruno was to lose the Belt in Baltimore and not at MSG. I have to say that The McMahons were able to keep a lot of the heat with Bruno hidden. If todays technology existed back then, this subject would be way more combustible. Mahalo and Aloha From COW-lumbus, Ohio MOO 👋
Graham is ridiculously overrated by fans these days, most of them weren't even around when Graham was champ. He was trash in the ring, was not a legit tough guy (which was needed back then) and he only stood out because he was one of the few steroid guys back then. If Superstar was anywhere near as good as people insist he was, why didn't he do anything of note after losing the belt? He had the embarrassing karate man return in WWF, he did a short run working with Sullivan in Florida, worked for a while as Jimmy Valiant's personal job boy in Crockett and that's pretty much it. By the time he ended up back in the WWF, his body had broken down. Not exactly a hall of fame resume after dropping the belt to Backlund.
Goat? Never mind the stupid "goat" term, but Graham was far from a good person, and he wasn't even the best of the steroid addicts. And his interviews that he always gets praised for were word-for-word rip-offs of Muhammad Ali interviews.
But wasn't Graham a babyface in other territories? I think in Crockett's territory he was a babyface but I don't remember it being a huge deal. Maybe it would be different in the WWWF.
The problem was Graham beat the biggest babyface of all time putting his feet on the top rope to pin Bruno Sammartino. The fans hated him for doing that. His life was literally in danger as that had to sneak him in and out of arenas.
Billy was not a guy you trusted to become a shot caller and thats all it came down to . Old Man Vince had titanic struggles with Bruno . Bruno was difficult in that his integrity as a man was unshakable . Billy could have been even bigger a star and his integrity ….???? Ehhhhhh….. he was a scorpion with a huge but fragile ego and self destructive tendencies . Vince was right .
It wasn't dumb at all...and he told Graham in advance when he would win and lose the title...He needed time to build Backlund up...Bob was a GREAT champion.
He couldn’t be a babyface champion because he beat the very popular real babyface champion by putting his feet on the ropes to pin the previous champion. His matches were popular because he taunted the television audience. People wanted Sammartino back as champion or somebody else to beat Billy. I know because I was there at the Philadelphia Spectrum for one of the return matches where they had a 17,000 Spectrum record breaking sellout, and turned away 5,000 as Bruno kicked Graham through the cage door in another failed attempt to get his belt back. We fans knew Bruno was done, but just couldn’t believe it.
Backlund was a subpar baby-face interview. That was part of the reason they attached him to the golden boy. Buy you cant deny that the east coast crowd really popped for Backlund. Backlund knew how to sell and make himself vulnerable. So that made his comebacks even more exciting.
Bruno has stated before that he never wanted to win the Strap off of Stan Stasiak for his second Run with The Belt. He was tired of the drudgery of the wrestling schedule. He gave in after Vince Sr. gave in to a few of his demands. Junior had some power in the back by now and was very high on The Superstar and was always accompanying him on radio and TV spots in and around The New York area. The one request by Bruno was to lose the Belt in Baltimore and not at MSG. I have to say that The McMahons were able to keep a lot of the heat with Bruno hidden. If todays technology existed back then, this subject would be way more combustible. Mahalo and Aloha From COW-lumbus, Ohio MOO 👋
Graham is ridiculously overrated by fans these days, most of them weren't even around when Graham was champ.
He was trash in the ring, was not a legit tough guy (which was needed back then) and he only stood out because he was one of the few steroid guys back then.
If Superstar was anywhere near as good as people insist he was, why didn't he do anything of note after losing the belt? He had the embarrassing karate man return in WWF, he did a short run working with Sullivan in Florida, worked for a while as Jimmy Valiant's personal job boy in Crockett and that's pretty much it. By the time he ended up back in the WWF, his body had broken down.
Not exactly a hall of fame resume after dropping the belt to Backlund.
yep . in the day , Billy was the goat . good guy as well . got started with Luke Graham .
Goat? Never mind the stupid "goat" term, but Graham was far from a good person, and he wasn't even the best of the steroid addicts.
And his interviews that he always gets praised for were word-for-word rip-offs of Muhammad Ali interviews.
You mean Jerry Graham, right?
@JasonL77 corrected .
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Superstar Billy Graham is the father of modern day wrestling
I liked Don and he was a heel
But wasn't Graham a babyface in other territories? I think in Crockett's territory he was a babyface but I don't remember it being a huge deal. Maybe it would be different in the WWWF.
The problem was Graham beat the biggest babyface of all time putting his feet on the top rope to pin Bruno Sammartino. The fans hated him for doing that. His life was literally in danger as that had to sneak him in and out of arenas.
Billy was not a guy you trusted to become a shot caller and thats all it came down to . Old Man Vince had titanic struggles with Bruno . Bruno was difficult in that his integrity as a man was unshakable . Billy could have been even bigger a star and his integrity ….???? Ehhhhhh….. he was a scorpion with a huge but fragile ego and self destructive tendencies . Vince was right .
The reason Billy lost the title was because Senior made the DUMBEST decision to strap vanilla Backlund instead for no reason.
Some of the biggest reactions in the Garden were for Backlund winning. Did you even watch the matches?
Backlund also was a massive draw in the company. Your ignorance will never be able to change hard facts.
I saw Backland defend his title live once in 82. He was a very popular champion
@@brownmut5518 You could see it for most of his matches, he'd win and the people would go nuts.
It wasn't dumb at all...and he told Graham in advance when he would win and lose the title...He needed time to build Backlund up...Bob was a GREAT champion.
How would they keep the belt on a guy like Graham, who was a massive drug addict? As Muraco said, it would have been a huge gamble.