>>13892905Begins a reign of terror where he works through the entire New Generations era. Vince attempts to force him to retire at 50 years old in 1998. Bob agrees to lose the strap to WWF's top guy Bart Gunn at wrestlemania XIV. Midway through the match Bob starts shooting on Bart, causing Bart to shoot back. Bart throws numerous punches that the very clearly insane Bob no sells only to get placed in a shoot crossface chicken wing. After submiting and being declared winner the ref is shocked to find Bob won't release the hold. Bart has passed out from the pain and WWF officials flood the ring to try and pull Bob off of him only to discover Bob dead. The post mortem concluded that Bob died from a brain hemorrhage due to the punches while in the midst of submitting Bart.
Bob Backlund is lauded world wide as the immortal wrestler who claimed victory even in death. A statue is erected in his honor in Tokyo next to the Yasukuni Shrine. Several strange phenomia are reported by those living in the vicinity of the shrine such as otherwise normal Japanese children being born with blonde hair and blue eyes. A folk belief begins to spread in Tokyo and slowly Backlund begins to be revered as Bobu no Mikoto, the Shinto deity of warriors.
