Bob Backlund's 1994 WWE Championship Reign Should Have Gone To Owen Hart
One of the most confusing title changes in WWE history featured Bob Backlund defeating Bret Hart for the WWE Championship at Survivor Series 1994. Backlund was decades past his prime and felt out of place even being on WWE television during the New Generation Era. Owen Hart used his mother’s pain of Bret suffering to convince her to throw in the towel to end his title reign.WWE primarily did this to have a heel drop the title to Diesel a few days later. However, it was a strange move for Backlund to hold such an important prize at all. Owen going to all that trouble could have been better served to benefit himself. WWE not going with Owen as the heel to dethrone Bret was a mistake in retrospect.
Bret Losing To Backlund Was A Horrible Title Change
The biggest reason why Owen Hart should have won the WWE Championship from Bret Hart is that Bob Backlund was the wrong choice. Fans of the New Generation Era did not take Backlund seriously since he lacked everything that was captivating at the time. Backlund had slow boring matches with minimal exciting exchanges since his style was based in the 70s and early 80s.
RELATED: Owen Hart's 10 Best Matches, According To Cagematch.net
The moment of Backlund winning the top prize that late into his career also hurt the WWE Championship reign of Bret. An argument can be made that Hart had his best title reign in 1994 since it helped stabilize WWE after the loss of Hulk Hogan and rebranding with a new roster. WWE having a non-credible wrestler end his title reign was a slap in the face.
Bret did eventually get his win back over Backlund at WrestleMania 11, but that was even a huge waste of his time. The match was considered a boring disappointment and few people even remember it from the card. Bret deserved better than having a pointless WrestleMania match in his prime and losing his title to someone that no one bought.
Owen Winning The Title Would've Been More Impactful
Owen Hart winning the WWE Championship from Bret Hart would have been a far bigger moment. The heel character of Owen was more over and viewed as the best heel in the company at the time right there with Shawn Michaels. Owen finding a cheap way to win the title from his brother would have made perfect sense in the storyline.
1994 was arguably Owen’s best year from the classic WrestleMania 10 match against Bret to the five-star cage match rematch. Their two big PPV matches saw them exchanging wins, which could have set up the tiebreaker at Survivor Series when Bret faced Bob Backlund. The interest was there in the all-time great brother rivalry to warrant another match in the series.
WWE didn’t have the Bret vs Owen feud extend to another PPV match, even though Owen was the reason Bret even lost the WWE Championship to Backlund. The impact of Owen beating Bret could have had that storyline reach its full potential of going even longer since fans weren’t sick of it. A bigger WrestleMania 11 match for Bret to win the feud would have saved him from the awful Backlund rematch as well.
Owen Winning Would've Produced The Same Story With Better Results
The story of Owen Hart conning his mother into costing Bret Hart the WWE Championship was the main takeaway from Bob Backlund's win. One positive from that match was Bret’s selling was spectacular to make the story work. The heartbreak would have been felt even more by the audience if Owen was in the ring talking his mother into doing it to stop one of her sons from trying to severely injure the other.
Diesel beating Backlund a few days later at Madison Square Garden was the bigger end game for Backlund’s title reign. An argument can be made that Owen winning the top prize just to drop it to Diesel in his first defense would have been a waste, but his character was perfect for it. Owen was outstanding as a coward and weasel heel that he could have overcome such a loss.
WWE would have also had more mileage out of Owen getting a rematch against Diesel on PPV. The biggest negative for Diesel’s title reign was that he could only have strong matches with elite workers like Shawn Michaels or Bret. Owen was right on that level with them and could have given Diesel some strong matches to enhance his reign. The difference in Owen winning the title from Bret instead of Backlund would have benefitted Owen, Bret, Diesel, and the credibility of the WWE Championship.
