Bob Backlund vs Sgt. Slaughter (WWF - 3/21/1981)

Great, great match. Best steel cage match I've ever seen. How can you possibly say Backlund wasn't a great wrestler after seeing this match ? It has a real shot at making my list.

I've never been a fan of the escape-only cage matches, but I'd make an exception for this! Slaughter and Backlund are pros at milking the escape teases. Backlund had Slaughter's leg hanging on by a thread as he tried to leave via the door and you could cut the tension with a knife! The pace of this never let down and the crowd was nuclear-hot the entire 15 minutes that this bloodbath lasted. Nobody takes a turnbuckle bump as well as Slaughter does and that whip reversal he takes face-first into the cage also served as a great transition for Backlund to begin his ass-kicking segment. Slaughter's not here to fight and just wants to escape the cage and win the match. I love him using his last bit of strength to lunge himself to the door as Backlund was pounding on his bloody head. I can't name you a cage match that I've enjoyed more than this one! ★★★★★

It's interesting watching Backlund through 2023 eyes, thinking about what my eyes from 15 years ago told me. Almost none of the Backlund I've watched in the last five years has landed with me the way it did in 2008, and that's okay because I have way different tastes now, but honestly this kind of did. I wouldn't call it a top 10 match in WWF history like I would have before, but it might be top 40 so that's still pretty good, right? It's probably my favourite escape-the-cage cage match ever and I thought they worked around that aspect of the stip about as well as you could want. It's also one of the most satisfying matches ever. I mean, look, this was a crowd that wanted to see Bob Backlund fucking murder Sgt Slaughter and if the aim of the game is to send the crowd home happy then I don't think that could've been achieved any better short of actual and legitimate murder. It was pretty much a perfect Backlund revenge tour and in some ways it makes me reconsider my SCATHING critique of the January match for not having an extended Backlund payback section before the non-finish. The crowd were desperate for Backlund to rip Slaughter apart after Slaughter took him to the cleaners, but just as it looked like Backlund was about to do that the ref' called a halt. I guess that makes the match less satisfying in a vacuum, but it really elevates this one because we get Backlund ripping Slaughter apart and more. Maybe there's something to be said for delayed gratification and all that. It's not even about the match as a whole being one big piece of revenge for Backlund; there are individual moments of revenge within it that are tremendous. Slaughter outright punches Backlund in the dick three times during the match, the first time just to kill some of Backlund's early momentum, and Backlund's payback low blow later is maybe the GOAT ball shot. Slaughter was climbing the cage and Backlund went low to high like a Mortal Kombat fatality where Slaughter would've been cut in half from gooch to cranium. Slaughter takes about a dozen bumps into the cage, most of them face-first, some vertical, some horizontal, some into the mesh parts, some into the support beams, and obviously by the end he's a whole entire mess. Rudman is damn near perverted on commentary after every bump wondering if it's led to blood being spilled. Sarge also takes one of the wildest piledrivers ever, legs flailing as he lands all awkward on his forehead. Some of the escape teases were amazing. As soon as the match started Slaughter tried to climb out the thing and then at various points after that he'd make a beeline for the door. A couple times he'd almost be through and Backlund would need to drag him back in, really having to work for it while we'd get close-up camera shots of Slaughter's fingertips holding onto the cage for dear life. Backlund eventually slamming the door on Slaughter's face and stomping his fingers into the cage to force the break ruled. When Slaughter does muster some offence he chucks Backlund into the cage, and I liked how Backlund would take those bumps by really leaning his shoulder into them to play up a previous angle where Hansen injured that shoulder. Has this always had a jump in the tape leading to the finish? This version does and it's pretty annoying as it comes right before the finish, but the finish itself is great. Both are on the top rope, Backlund smashes Slaughter's head off the cage, he falls and ends up tangled between ropes and cage, Backlund walks out the door in triumph, hands aloft, the people in raptures. If we're judging matches based on what we think they ought to be within the context in which they're worked (crowd, setting, where it's placed in the feud, to what ends they're working, etc.) then this feels like it might actually be top 10 match in WWF history. Look at me writing this much about a Bobby Backlund match in 2023. Time really is a flat circle.