Bob Backlund recently appeared on Ring Rust Radio to promote his new book BACKLUND: From All-American Boy to Professional Wrestling’s World Champion. During the interview, he spoke about why he never turned heel well as the late Roddy Piper. Here are the highlights.
On why he never turned heel:
“This is explained pretty well in the book, but I had a daughter that was six years old about to start school. I went around the country talking about amateur wrestlers, hosting Bob Backlund kids wrestling tournaments, and I always talked to them about things I wouldn’t do. I wouldn’t turn because I made a lot of promises to a lot of kids and with my daughter starting school I didn’t want her to have problems in school.”
On the late Roddy Piper:
“I met Mr. Piper when he was a young person getting in the business in the Olympic theater in Los Angeles. He was just starting and I had the championship for a while. I was over in Japan and they had asked me to go over and have a match with Roddy for 59 minutes and 30 seconds. He says some great things about the match and my goal was to put him over and make him look like a champion. It was a pleasure to wrestle with him and he was very advanced for how little time he had in the business. He credits me for helping him launch his career in the business and I was really proud of him to say that. He left a message on my phone about three weeks ago saying it was ok to use him as the forward for the book. I listened to the message, the next day I deleted it, and the next day he passed. I liked him alot and had a lot of respect for him. I thought he would never leave this earth.”
You can listen to the entire interview here:
