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[1980-10-11-WWF-Philadelphia, PA] Bob Backlund vs Larry Zbyszko


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  • 2 years later...

WWF Heavyweight Champion Bob Backlund vs Larry Zbyszko - WWF Philly 10/11/80

 

We have seen Backlund out-wrestle, out-brawl and out-power his opponents, but he will be able to do the impossible and out-stall Larry Z. The answer is of course no. Larry Z was tremendous in this as the trash talking, belly-aching scumbag heel. Backlund was all revved up but had no place to go because Larry Z wanted nothing to do with the champ. Larry was complaining of a bad knee and as Backlund was showing him up with a fireman's carry and monkey flips. He undid the turnbuckle pad. Backlund began to attack the bullseye on Larry's leg and Larry was able to bash Backlund's head into the exposed steel. This allowed him to apply a sleeper. When Backlund got frisky, it was back into the steel, but on a third time Backlund smashed Larry into the unforgiving steel. Backlund ferociously goes after Larry's bad knee. I love it! He is really good at it. So Larry does what any desperate coward bitch would do, he punches him in the balls. Awesome! Backlund sells it like a million bucks. Of course Backlund makes his comeback and it is back to the leg so Larry Z has a foreign object and takes it to the Backlund's midsection. This is great. When it comes time to make his comeback; Backlund does not fuck around delayed vertical suplex and a MONSTER PILEDRIVER! Backlund is spent from all the illegal moves from the Living Legend. Larry Z gets his feet on the ropes. Airplane spin wipes out the ref and Larry Z hits him with the foreign object sending him out of the ring for countout loss.

Simple, elegant story: Backlund goes after the leg so Larry Z takes a cheapshot (turnbuckle, ballshot, foreign object) that stymies Backlund shortly before he goes back after the leg. The finish run was great with two big Backlund moves before the final cheapshot that gives Larry Z the win. It was the consummate babyface vs consummate heel match. Very entertaining. ****1/4

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  • GSR changed the title to [1980-10-11-WWF-Philadelphia, PA] Bob Backlund vs Larry Zbyszko
  • 4 years later...

1980-10-11
WWF
Bob Backlund (c) vs. Larry Zbyszko
WWF Heavyweight Title Match
Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
★★★★
Card

This was a Zbyszko match through and through and boy did he deliver a tour de force performance here. Backlund was fine to good, and he played his part as required, but Larry was the driving force narratively and was totally on from bell to bell.
The stalling tactics were there from the beginning, and I’m sure we had 3-4 minutes of time elapsed before we even got the initial lockup. Zbyszko does such a good job of mixing it up and ensuring that something that could get tiresome really quickly is still thoroughly engaging.
Usually you’ve got guys telling the referee to check the hair or check the tights, but in this case Larry was set on the referee making sure Backlund didn’t attack his bandaged knee! As ridiculous as the concept was, it was genius for Larry to be shouting “Watch the leg, watch the leg” as Backlund got him up for the knee breaker. Larry sold the hell out of the leg and bailed to the outside as he was prone to doing. But something was afoot and I had a sense this was building to something. While Larry could never gain the upper hand when he tried to go toe to toe with Backlund, he was biding his time and sure enough we saw him untie the ropes to the turnbuckle pad. When the time came this was his equaliser. Zbyszko dropped his selling of the knee, indicating it was all a ruse - playing possum to throw Backlund off, the pad came off and Backlund went headfirst into the steel. 
They did such an excellent job of building towards Backlund’s comeback and the payoff of him returning the favour and sending Larry headfirst into the turnbuckle. And if Larry’s leg wasn’t really injured before it certainly would be after the continued work Backlund put on it down the finishing stretch.
Just as it looked lights out for Zbyszko he had a final ace up his sleeve. An airplane spin from Backlund took out the referee and in the confusion Backlund took a foreign object strike to the face. After plummeting to the outside and with the referee having shaked the cobwebs off, he was counted out and Zbyszko was the victor. He wouldn’t take the title, but he had defeated the champion, at least in his mind.

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1980-10-11
WWF
Bob Backlund (c) vs. Larry Zbyszko
WWF Heavyweight Title Match
Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
★★★★
Card

This was a Zbyszko match through and through and boy did he deliver a tour de force performance here. Backlund was fine to good, and he played his part as required, but Larry was the driving force narratively and was totally on from bell to bell.
The stalling tactics were there from the beginning, and I’m sure we had 3-4 minutes of time elapsed before we even got the initial lockup. Zbyszko does such a good job of mixing it up and ensuring that something that could get tiresome really quickly is still thoroughly engaging.
Usually you’ve got guys telling the referee to check the hair or check the tights, but in this case Larry was set on the referee making sure Backlund didn’t attack his bandaged knee! As ridiculous as the concept was, it was genius for Larry to be shouting “Watch the leg, watch the leg” as Backlund got him up for the knee breaker. Larry sold the hell out of the leg and bailed to the outside as he was prone to doing. But something was afoot and I had a sense this was building to something. While Larry could never gain the upper hand when he tried to go toe to toe with Backlund, he was biding his time and sure enough we saw him untie the ropes to the turnbuckle pad. When the time came this was his equaliser. Zbyszko dropped his selling of the knee, indicating it was all a ruse - playing possum to throw Backlund off, the pad came off and Backlund went headfirst into the steel. 
They did such an excellent job of building towards Backlund’s comeback and the payoff of him returning the favour and sending Larry headfirst into the turnbuckle. And if Larry’s leg wasn’t really injured before it certainly would be after the continued work Backlund put on it down the finishing stretch.
Just as it looked lights out for Zbyszko he had a final ace up his sleeve. An airplane spin from Backlund took out the referee and in the confusion Backlund took a foreign object strike to the face. After plummeting to the outside and with the referee having shaked the cobwebs off, he was counted out and Zbyszko was the victor. He wouldn’t take the title, but he had defeated the champion, at least in his mind.

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