Ugh.
One of Vince's biggest mistakes, among many in late 1994, that led to the nadir of the WWF in 1995.
They spent much of the year creating one of the greatest heel turns, and resurrection of a career, in all of wrestling history. They turned the mostly forgotten, all-American good guy into one of the most amazing, crazy, lunatic heels.
And not just any heel, but an all-time great insane whack-job heel with the goods to back it up. Crazy Bob was incredible. Backlund cannot get enough praise for playing the part so well.
They then expertly move him into an amazing family feud angle with the Harts, turning Owen into a star in his own right, in the process.
The Backlund/Hart title match is an all-time classic in the art of technical wrestling and in-ring drama as well as consummate writing and acting on the behalf of Stu and Helen Hart.
When Bob won the title after that 8-minute long Cross-face Chickenwing, as Owen rejoiced running into the tunnel, he gave one of the best, craziest speeches of all time ending with "I feel like God!"
At this point,
Bob was way, waaay over. He was THE heel. He was hated. Crazy, volatile, with the best submission hold in the business. With Hart "injured," Vince could have spent months lining up all his up-and-coming faces to take him on, with one after the other, falling prey to the Chickenwing, culminating in a final grudge match at Wrestlemania XI, six months hence, between either a returned Hart, or anointing Vince's New Generation champion to pair with Bret Hart as the face of the company.
But no. Vince instead throws away all the good booking and months of lead-up to put the strap on a completely not ready Kevin Nash, and it was not even done on a PPV, or even on Raw. It was impulsive and stupid.
From there Backlund was never the heel he could be, just a curious nut-job running for President, and Diesel went on to be the worst WWF Champion ever, both in terms of popularity, and as far as the art goes. He was a bust. A zero. His year-long reign nearly killed the company and deprived us all of potentially great matches centered on both Harts, Shawn Michaels and other new faces with actual talent. Bret Hart thought it was an amazingly poor choice, as did Ric Flair. As did Nash.
Oh well.
