| Spoiler - February 07th, 2024 04:09 GMT |
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Everything VKM did in 1983 was to set the stage for the expansion.
Couple of reasons why Afa was Backlunds opponent. Afa was familiar to Houston fans having held many different Southeast tag championships.
Afa was a credible challenger, having wrestled Backlund in MSG.
VKM may not have trusted an opponent for Backlund who he was not familiar with.
Afa makes the WWF champion look good for the WWF invasion to com.
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| SHOOTER - February 10th, 2024 17:28 GMT |
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------ QUOTE from Spoiler, February 07th, 2024 04:09 GMT ------
Everything VKM did in 1983 was to set the stage for the expansion.
Couple of reasons why Afa was Backlunds opponent. Afa was familiar to Houston fans having held many different Southeast tag championships.
Afa was a credible challenger, having wrestled Backlund in MSG.
VKM may not have trusted an opponent for Backlund who he was not familiar with.
Afa makes the WWF champion look good for the WWF invasion to com.
------ QUOTE END ------
I can see some of those points like Afa being familiar to Houston fans and a credible challenger but I don't believe that Vince didn't trust an opponent for Backlund that he wasn't familiar with. Especially since he trusted people he wasn't familiar with to wrestle Backlund elsewhere.. As far as making the WWF champ look good for the invasion to come, only if Vince was planning to keep Backlund as champion when he eventually invaded but that isn't how it turned out but maybe he did originally think about it.
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| Spoiler - February 11th, 2024 02:29 GMT |
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The WWF champion had too look strong regardless of who was wearing the belt. Hogan was still 7 months away and maybe not even in the picture in May.
What was the point of sending Backlund to Houston other than gage fans reaction to a WWF championship match?
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| SHOOTER - February 11th, 2024 04:17 GMT |
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Edited by SHOOTER on February 11th, 2024 04:20 GMT
I agree the WWF champ had to look strong but to me it doesn't look like Vince had Backlund wrestle there in Houston to gage the fans reaction to a WWF championship match.. I say that because Vince didn't have Backlund go to Mid South, World Class, Portland, AWA, etc. to gage reactions and I'm sure he planned to invade those territories too.. I could be wrong but I thnk it was more of a favor to Paul Boesch than anything else.
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| Dan P-170 - February 12th, 2024 22:36 GMT |
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Vince went into Houston on his own before he and Paul began working together in 1987. Everything he did was calculated. He even fooled the other promoters into sending him footage from their territories to air on the early episodes of All American Wrestlinge, all the while plotting against them.
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| BattleRoyal - February 13th, 2024 00:32 GMT |
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Vince told Crockett, Von Erich, Graham, Watts, and others that he was going to showcase their stars on cable TV and they surrendered their tapes to him. He was showcasing talent that he planned to bring to WWF.
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| The Avenger - February 14th, 2024 22:42 GMT |
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------ QUOTE from SHOOTER, February 10th, 2024 17:28 GMT ------
------ QUOTE from Spoiler, February 07th, 2024 04:09 GMT ------
Everything VKM did in 1983 was to set the stage for the expansion.
Couple of reasons why Afa was Backlunds opponent. Afa was familiar to Houston fans having held many different Southeast tag championships.
Afa was a credible challenger, having wrestled Backlund in MSG.
VKM may not have trusted an opponent for Backlund who he was not familiar with.
Afa makes the WWF champion look good for the WWF invasion to com.
------ QUOTE END ------
I can see some of those points like Afa being familiar to Houston fans and a credible challenger but I don't believe that Vince didn't trust an opponent for Backlund that he wasn't familiar with. Especially since he trusted people he wasn't familiar with to wrestle Backlund elsewhere.. As far as making the WWF champ look good for the invasion to come, only if Vince was planning to keep Backlund as champion when he eventually invaded but that isn't how it turned out but maybe he did originally think about it.
------ QUOTE END ------
Yeah, I can see how this match would be perceived differently from the WWF to Houston. Not sure on the Vince trust issue.
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| Spoiler - February 14th, 2024 23:22 GMT |
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Backlund wrestling a WWF opponent in another territory is fine if the opponent was already wrestling in the territory.
But Backlund and Afa were both in the WWF at the time. Why bring his own opponent?
Did Backlund bring his own opponent in any other territory
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| bhayes67 - February 19th, 2024 01:50 GMT |
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------ QUOTE from Spoiler, February 14th, 2024 23:22 GMT ------
Backlund wrestling a WWF opponent in another territory is fine if the opponent was already wrestling in the territory.
But Backlund and Afa were both in the WWF at the time. Why bring his own opponent?
Did Backlund bring his own opponent in any other territory
------ QUOTE END ------
So that Boesch/Watts didn't have to "feed" Backlund one of their heels.
Why bring in Backlund? Remember this was around the time of Blanchard getting TV in Houston and running his "undisputed world championship" tournament at the Summit. So Paul brought in the WWF champion and the AWA champion (he was still on the outs with the NWA at this time).
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| BattleRoyal - February 19th, 2024 14:01 GMT |
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Good call, bhayes67. Did not think about that. Blanchard claimed in late 1982 that he had the undisputed world champion.
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| Spoiler - February 19th, 2024 16:51 GMT |
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Bringing in Backlund for a one and done doesn't pop the crowd for the next show
Booking Backlund against the Houston number 1 heel and having the heel lose by dq would elevate the heel as the wrestler who took it to the champion.
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