Bob Backlund's 2nd championship win

Reading The Brain's thread on Diesel's reign as WWF champion ( http://forums.wrestlezone.com/showthread.php?t=264145 ) I was reminded of one of the things that have always bothered me in the mid-90s WWF:

Bob Backlund winning the WWF title from Bret Hart.

What exactly was the deal there anyway? That was something that was just baffling to me. Still is to this day, actually.

Backlung returning in the 90s was weird enough in and of itself. His glory days and 6 year run as champion had been way before my time. All due respect - that was then. All I saw in 93 was this older, small, pale guy with simple trunks and no ring music who supposedly used to be this big deal in ancient times, but didn't fit in at all with Vincent Kennedy McMahons colorful, bombastic WWF. Then, when he returned he pretty much lost all matches except against the jobbers, of course. Not a serious contender by any means.

Then he turns heel, goes nuts, startes using the chicken wing crossface and beats guys like Lex Luger all of a sudden. Weird.

And before you know it he is meeting the WWF champion Bret "The Hitman" Hart at Survivor Series for the title.

Did anyone really want to see that? I sure didn't. I was still thinking the pale, flabby, tiny old guy should have stayed retired. I couldn't get myself to care about this guy, let alone take him seriously.

And then he wins the title. o_O Bob Backlund the WWF champion. Was I the only one who groaned when that happened? I was NOT looking forward to that championship reign. Of course it only lasted 3 days, but at the time I didn't know that.

Why did it have to happen in the first place? Does anyone know?
I'm guessing they figured they could kill two flies with one swat:
Honor an old veteran who in the past had been invaluable to the company by having him declared champion one last time. At the same time transition the title to the guy they want to have the belt, without having Bret actually lose to that guy, thereby keeping the door open for that feud.

But still.

As far as I was concerned this loss was pretty much an insult to Hart. As if they had just played a cruel joke on him. No matter the controversy with the towel, the record books state that he just lost the WWF title to a joke. I'm sorry, but that's what Bob was at the time. Bret had overcome the mighty Yokozuna at Wrestlemania and then lost to tiny Bob? He was a joke and the WWF brass knew it.
Just look at the way he lost the title: 3 days later, in an untelevised match he got beat in 8 seconds. There was no rematch that I ever knew of. Would they have done that with someone they didn't consider a joke?
And his push ended then and there. It felt like "Phew, we got that one over with at last. back to reality."

And they certainly didn't do Diesel any favors, kick-starting his championship reign like that. He didn't defeat a credible champion. In fact they never showed him beating ANYBODY. What a mess. But that belong's in the thread mentioned above.

I know I'm being pretty hard here on Bob. After all, this guy was very athletic (once) and the WWWF champion for 6 years straight. .... However that could have been possible. Clearly Vince Sr. had a different vision from his son.

But I've always been wondering if there was more to Bob beating Bret for the title. Was it really just about honoring a veteran, if only for a day? Was it about transitioning the belt without Diesel beating Bret? If so, why? Does anyone know something?

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