The Wrestlers' Wrestlers by Dan Murphy

Author:Dan Murphy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ECW Press
Published: 2020-04-27T00:00:00+00:00

On May 2, 1987, Hennig finally beat Bockwinkel for the AWA title after accepting a roll of dimes from Bockwinkel’s arch-rival, Larry Zbyszko, and KO’ing the champ with the foreign object in his fist. Hennig truly excelled as a heel, exhibiting a cool, cocky swagger that would eventually take him to the WWF.

“His style at the time was to make the babyfaces shine by taking big bumps,” wrote Dave Meltzer in his book Tributes II: Remembering More of the World’s Greatest Professional Wrestlers. “Often compared with Flair, Hennig was bigger and came across more athletic and took more outlandish bumps but didn’t have Flair’s charisma. While many of Flair’s big moves were spots that you could see coming, Hennig’s knack in his big spots was that fans didn’t see where the spot was going. Two of his trademarks were where he begged off backwards, and not seeing where he was, would crotch himself on the ringpost, and then he’d hurdle the ropes into the ring and trip and fall on his face. He was also known for what later became a Lucha spot, where his opponent would sweep his leg as he held onto the ropes and he’d take an exaggerated bump on his neck.”

Hennig held the AWA strap for a year before losing it to Jerry Lawler. He then left the AWA and joined the WWF, where he was given the moniker “Mr. Perfect.” The WWF produced a series of vignettes showing Hennig competing in a variety of sports and games “perfectly,” such as bowling a 300 game, throwing a touchdown pass to himself, putting a hole-in-one, and sinking three-pointers with ease. He was paired with “The Genius” Lanny Poffo and put on an undefeated streak, leading to a championship series with Hulk Hogan.

“Hogan knew Perfect would be big, that he had the talent, but he needed a mouth, a manager to give him that push,” Poffo said. “Actually, Mr. Perfect wanted Bobby Heenan to be his manager, but Hulk insisted that I be his manager up until the end of the program and then he could go ahead and have Heenan. I don’t blame Perfect for that because they were friends, plus Heenan is the greatest manager that ever lived. And because of that, I got four months of headliners, headlining Madison Square Garden with Hogan.”

Despite smashing the WWF world title belt on Saturday Night’s Main Event, “Mr. Perfect” proved to be just another foil for Hogan, but Hennig’s wild, over-the-top bumps and selling made their matches — especially Hogan’s “Hulking-up” comeback — particularly memorable. He won a tournament for the vacant Intercontinental title in May 1990 and took on Heenan as his manager. He lost the belt to “The Texas Tornado” Kerry Von Erich at SummerSlam 1990, but regained the title in February 1991. After Heenan retired, Hennig was briefly managed by “The Coach” John Tolos, but in June, Hennig suffered what was considered to be a career-ending back injury, exacerbated by years of risky and damaging bumps.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.