30 Days of WWE Challenge Day 11: Favorite Manager

Bobby Heenan

 

About two years ago at the Northeast Wrestling event Spring Slam, I had the wonderful opportunity to talk to one Jimmy “Mouth of the South” Hart. It was pretty quick (well, the security guy asked me to wrap it up), but nonetheless it felt really special talking to a guy of that caliber.

I told Jimmy how funny it was to hear Gorilla Monsoon regularly going off on him about his managerial tactics. Jimmy confided that as good as he was, Bobby Heenan had him beat.

As I started to watch more footage of ‘The Brain’, I understood why.

Now keep in mind before I start, that “managing” is currently not “in-fashion” in WWE right now. I know about Tyson Kidd and the angle on Superstars about how he sucked so bad, he needed a manager, and he went through what seemed to be a different manager a week. That’s not the magic WWE tried to recreate.

In the 1980’s, the grand majority of the heels on the roster had a bevy of managers to pick from. You either had the aforementioned Hart, “The Doctor of Style” Slick, “Classy” Freddie Blassie (for the foreigners mainly), and Heenan.

While Heenan’s clientele reads like a who’s who of wrestling, there are a few things all of those men had in common: Heenan gave them exposure, Heenan gave them the proverbial brain behind the brawn, but more importantly, Heenan made every man he managed a threat.

Your typical Heenan promo. And yet, he outclasses everyone on TODAY’s roster!

And that’s before what he was most known for: the comedic wits about him!

Paired up routinely on WWE television with his late and dear friend Gorilla Monsoon, the two would regularly banter during commentary, and on Primetime Wrestling, always get into skits that would make today’s television bow down.

Rumble 92 and Wrestlemania VIII were the height of these men’s verbal abilities. ESPECIALLY Heenan’s.

Your typical Primetime episode. “WILL YOU STOP!”

I know I can hardly do the man justice regarding his ability, but there’s also one thing I can’t do justice for: his heart.

Heenan, as most of you may know, had a bout of cancer earlier in the last decade. That cancer robbed him of his voice, and while he made a stirring and resounding speech at his Hall of Fame speech in 2004, it was more than noticeable something changed.

Although the cancer was beat, the side effects were not. Bobby’s jaw had eroded away from the chemotherapy, and therefore he needed a new one. It took two attempts, and months of silence before Bobby even started to recover. While Bobby sadly looks grotesque with this facial deformity, this blogger notes that he is one of the bravest men to have ever lived, and that he’s a better man than me for going into public to meet his fans while it could have been easier to stay at home.

So to wrap this up simply, thanks for the memories Brain! With how sports-entertainment is, it’s safe to say there will no one that can come close to Heenan’s all-around versatility.