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PWINSIDER Q&A: WHY ARE LONDON & KENDRICK ON RAW?, RIC FLAIR VS. HIS SON, TITLE CHANGES AND MORE

Answered: 1/24

When Bob Backlund lost the WWF World Heavyweight Title to the Iron Sheik, I heard the reason that he did that was because, originally, he was supposed to lose the title to Hulk Hogan and refused to do it saying that he would only lose the belt to a wrestler of his caliber. Moving to when he won the belt back from Bret "The Hitman" Hart, He lost the title 3 days later to Diesel (Kevin Nash) who I believe is not even as good as a wrestler as Hulk Hogan was. Two questions. Number1... Why didn't Backlund held the WWF World Heavyweight Title longer and again refuse to lose to another wrestler that was less of a wrestler than Hogan? Number 2....I know that Bret Hart had a lot of problems with the clique. Especially Shawn Michaels. Is it possible that there was heat between Hart and Nash and Hart refused to lose the title to him  and decided to lose the belt to Backlund for the same reason that Backlund lost the belt to the Iron Sheik? Because Backlund was the better wrestler? What is your opinion on this?

Wow, that's a pretty wild set of stories.  For starters, Bob Backlund did not refuse to drop the title to Hogan.  In fact, Backlund did a promo with Hogan when he returned to WWF as a face, endorsing him and proclaiming "He's good now!"  The whole reason for the switch from Backlund to Sheik to Hogan was because WWF wanted Hogan to beat a hated heel to start his title run, and they shied away from babyface vs. babyface matches.   As for the Hart-Backlund-Diesel switch, it was a case of Vince McMahon wanting to put the title on a "big guy" while at the same time keeping Hart a babyface, so they structured the Survivor Series-MSG setup to turn Diesel face and have Hart drop the title to Backlund, then have Backlund drop the title to the new big babyface.

WWE keeps talking about innovating their product. Why not have wrestlers go from heel to face and vice versa when visiting the other brand. True in some cases that would be difficult but still it could be an interesting change for the wrestlers.

If WWE had kept a "hard split" between the brands, I think that could have been done with a few wrestlers, especially if it was done with the idea that wrestlers felt a connection to their brand and wanted to "fight for their brand" so to speak.  However, WWE flips wrestlers back and forth between brands so casually now, I just don't see it working.

What do you think the odds are that somewhere down the chain of “career on the line” matches for Ric Flair, that they put him against his son Reid?

I guess it is possible, since Reid is new apparently serious about becoming a pro wrestling.  However, I think it is highly unlikely, and quite honestly, I hope they don't do it.  It certainly wouldn't help Reid's career to have his first high profile match be wrestling his legendary father.  It would probably just turn fans permanently against him.

Is there a reason why the WWE decided to move London and Kendrick to Raw but not put them in a program with the Hardys?  Giving L&K a few wins over one of the most dominant tag teams of the past 15 years would have done a lot to establish their credibility.  Plus, it could have led to some amazing matches, especially if ladders were involved.

I have absolutely no clue why WWE moved London & Kendrick to Raw, and I don't think WWE has one either.  Other than a three-day tag title reign in South Africa, that most people don't even know happened, the company has done nothing with them on Raw.  They were over on Smackdown and had very good matches, and they could do the same on Raw, but they just aren't given the chance.  On the rare occasions they get TV or PPV time, they have good bouts, but many fans don't care, because they hardly see them on TV, so the assumption is that they aren't important. 

This is not really a question, but my friend reads this same site and he gets mad when in your "this day in history" you don't put events in from our Toledo, Ohio  wrestling we had here 20 yrs or more ago with Bobo Brazil, Flying Fred Curry and others.  Can you please tell him its impossible to put every cities history in there or you would have 50 pages of history?

I won't tell him that at all.  What I will say is that if knows of a good, reliable, source for results from that territory, pass it along to Ryan Martinez and myself, and we'll work them into the column! 

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