Bob Backlund
I have a policy before I get out of bed, I convince myself that I'm going to have a positive mental attitude all day, and I never capitulate on that rule.Collection: Attitude
I'm a dad, I'm a family man, I believe family is the most important unit on the face of the earth. If anything is going to get fixed, family will do it.Collection: Dad
That's how I got started in the wrestling business. I was broke, I was homeless, and I was sleeping in the trunk of my car. It made me very conscious to never try to live beyond my means or try to keep up with the Joneses.Collection: Car
Do your best, try to do your best at everything you do.Collection: Best
My favorite part about the wrestling industry is the fan base. I really enjoy going out to see fans and conversing with them outside the ring.
Let me be bad by being good and I became a bad guy by being a good person.
I had a policy that you had to recite the presidents of the U.S.A. to me before you could get my signature.
I never really wanted to be a bad guy. But I was more happy being a bad guy if I had to do what other people were doing to be good and be liked.
I was working out in a gym in Minneapolis and I met this guy named Eddie Sharkey. He had a school there where wrestlers like Red Bastien, Billy Red Lyons and Mad Dog Vachon were working out. Those were some very interesting characters, but they were all good athletes, so I joined.
When I won the championship, my whole life changed. I was known all over the world.
People want to loaf, but they didn't loaf when they were in the ring with me.
I learned to love the oil business as much as I love the wrestling business.
Vince McMahon Sr. was the man who was behind me so much. I wasn't in a clique. I didn't schmooze with other promoters when I was coming up.
Andre the Giant and I had beers together a few times.
My relationship with Triple H has been fantastic. He has kept his word on everything that he has said to me and I respect him for that.
I have to sleep to stay alive. I have to eat to stay alive.
One of my biggest things is I don't want to have to lie around all day and take pills to stay alive. And I think working out is a better alternative to some doctor giving me pills all day. I don't want that to happen. It's a big reason I work out.
When they have you in the short-arm scissor, they keep you in it for quite a while, and you're fighting to get out. And the more enthusiasm you can do when you're fighting to get out, the better. But if you're not in shape, you're not going to keep up with that rate.
I tell myself I have to work out to stay alive. I'm not just staying alive to stay alive, I mean stay alive and live a quality life.
When I was inducted into the Hall of Fame, Donald Trump was inducted on the same night. When I was done with my speech, he came over to me and said I could light up New York City if they could plug me into it.
I'd like to go to schools and give speeches to people about training, working hard and getting ahead in life.
We live in the greatest country in the world and there are opportunities out there. You can't stay at home with your parents and just sit there, you have to get out there and do it.
You can't stay at home with your parents and just sit there, you have to get out there and do it.
I was able to slowly climb to the top of the wrestling business thanks to the principles I learned in junior high and high school.
Don't throw your garbage out the window of your car anymore because you're defacing our country.
I worked as hard as I could in the ring to make the matches enjoyable as much as I could.
Darren Young was looking for someone to train him and finally he came and asked me if I wouldn't mind to be his life coach. I said, 'I sure would, you're a great man and good for the business.'
When you have a set program in your match it gets old to do the same thing over and over and over again.
When I think about 'All American Boy' I think of someone that lives by the Golden Rule: treat people how you wanted to be treated. That's one of my rules in life.
I respect everybody. We're all equal, we're all human beings and we're all here to do good things.
In amateur wrestling, you are always wanting to win matches and win matches and win matches. I changed my goal when I got into professional wrestling and I said I wanted to go out there and entertain at the highest level I could.
Guys like Brock Lesnar that come from amateur wrestling love the business just as much as they loved the athletics in amateur wrestling.
To go and win a gold medal in the Olympics, not too many people get a chance to do that and it is such a great accomplishment.
The chicken wing and the cross-face were in the business but I was the first one to clasp my hands when I had both of them on. So I was sort-of the inventor of it.
Bruno Sammartino is the greatest wrestling champion ever in the world. I wrestled more than he did but he was a strong man, he pushed a lot, threw people around and he was the greatest. I actually did more wrestling maneuvers then he did but that wasn't his thing.
My business was wrestling and I wanted to be ready to go in the ring and do my best and I didn't have time to worry about what was going on behind the scenes and I didn't want to know.
I understand the saying 'it's lonely at the top.'
I wanted to be bad because the good guys were lying, cheating and swearing. Let me be bad by being good and I became a bad guy by being a good person.
I go around and talk to a lot of kids at wrestling tournaments. I talk to the moms and dads.
I didn't have any problem whether I won or lost as long as I had as good as a match as I could.
When I go to the signings like at WrestleMania and people have the options of what they want me to do with them, and more often than not they want me to put them in the cross-face chicken wing.
When I got put into the Hall of Fame in 2013, I told Triple H I would like to get back in the business and put a little bit more W in it and I was serious about it. I don't know if he is ever going to take me up on the offer. I do think about it every now and then.
The Harvard Step Test really makes your heart rate go down. I do that a few times a day and a high number of squats with other stretching and weight routines.
In '85, I read a book that helped me forget about the past and work on the future as far as success goes, and it was Napoleon Hill.
I will be a role model, I wanna be a role model, and I will not cheat.
The people in the Republican Party and the Democrat Party, I don't think they realized how many people out there that were good, basic Americans would support a wrestler getting into the political arena.
As Mr. Backlund, I truly believed in what I was saying. I believed in every word that I said. I believed that society had fallen off a cliff morally compared to the '80s.
I believed that people should be held responsible for their own actions. And I believed that hard work and dedication paid off.
When I got out of my hometown of Glastonbury, Connecticut, I became 'Mr. Backlund' and if someone did not call me Mr. Backlund I just kept walking. I demanded respect because I believe that in life that respect is so important, especially for kids to respect others.
I read a book in 2005 called 'Think and Grow Rich' that changed my life.