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Bobby Heenan RIP


flyonthewall2983

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They don't make them like Bobby Heenan anymore. So talented that if he had connections and so desired, he could have been a success in entertainment. I mean really just think about it. Who would out shine him. Imagine if he was on Saturday Night Live! He would be a great side kick to any Late Night Star.

 

I think Meltzer said that he was being offered scripts for sitcoms at one point. I'd imagine during the SNME era NBC could have seen talent in someone like Bobby that went beyond wrestling.

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Like everyone, I'm devastated. It was so unfair for cancer to take away Bobby Heenan's greatest gift with his gift of gab. Now, he's just gone. There'll never be another manager like Bobby Heenan. The absolute greatest manager of all-time.

 

Agreed 100 percent. Tough one here...most of the guys I grew up watching have passed now. Guys like Bock, Verne, Vachon, and especially Heenan are a big part of what made me a life long fan.

 

RIP and thanks for the memories.

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Heenan suffered an injury a couple of a years ago (I think it's when he fell when he was in Vegas for Tenay's kid's wedding). Right around that time, some enterprising internet troll was basically spending months of his time portraying Heenan's wife believably on Twitter. This was all a long game to set up a plausibly believable Heenan account, which, I suppose, as such things go, was pretty clever and eventually fooled a lot of people in the business until it was debunked. One thing the fake account did was sort of send out a call for get well letters using the personal mailing address that was found elsewhere on the internet and that other people previously had success getting autographs with.

 

I'm pretty certain that, if we're not counting wedding thank you notes back in 09, this is the only actual letter I've mailed to anyone in the entire world in the last ten years. I sent a one pager just telling him what he (and Monsoon) meant to my childhood, my nostalgia, and how listening to him shaped my sense of humor and even how I used his example in my professional life (and I'm a bureaucrat). I finished it talking about how I'd discovered his pairing with Bockwinkel and even how I had recently watched the unearthed Bockwinkel vs Morton match which was one of the very few where Heenan went to Houston with Bock.

 

Once the account got debunked, I felt like quite the mark, but looking back now, the letter was never sent back RTS. I never received a response, but I didn't ask for one either. I'm fairly certain it reached it's destination. Even though I felt sort of foolish at the time, now I'm very glad I had the opportunity to send it.

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Lust Hogan that was an amazing post. I have never seen a Typhoon match, but now I may have to after reading those hilarious Heenan quotes.

 

Bobby The Brain reminds me so much of my Uncle Mike. Their sense of humor is so incredibly similar. I just love that style of humor. Heenan was a part of my childhood as the announcer for Nitro and now going back to watch AWA & WWF 80s he is a great part of my adult life. There are very few pro wrestling personalities that could have been stars in other fields, but I agree with the sentiment that The Brain could have been a break-out standup comedian. I will say I am much happier that he was in the greatest entertainment field of them all Bobby the Brain. Thanks for all the memories. RIP The Brain.

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Back around 2005, Bobby appeared on this ROH show I went to at the Rexplex in North Jersey. Before the show, he was taking pictures with fans for ten bucks a Polaroid. Of course I was on that shit in a heartbeat. When I handed the photo guy a twenty and he gave me my change, the twenty fell on the floor and he didn't see it. I said, "Hey man, you dropped that twenty."

Bobby puts his arm around me for the pose and says to me, "You're not originally from New Jersey, are you?"

I say, "No."

He says, "I know, cause if you were you woulda kept that twenty."

And then the pic was taken.

167684_178619095512164_398777_n.jpg

Rest in peace to the greatest of all time.

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This sucks.

 

Best manager ever IMO, maybe the best heel colour guy ever (neck and neck with Jesse IMO)......but easily one of the most entertaining, funny, witty, well rounded performers in wrestling history. I'm just shy of 36, grew up watching the WWF in the 80's/90's and Bobby was always one of my favorites. A huge loss. I wish there was more early footage of him out there. He was still a great worker and bumper in the late 70's/80's AWA and early WWF stuff. So good at stooging.

 

That said, considering how long he'd been battling, it's kind of amazing he lasted this long. And like other's have said, it's so bittersweet that he lost his gift of gab. He did give a great WWE HOF acceptance speech, and some shoot interviews, before he lost the use of his voice, so we'll always have that. And of course we'll always have all the great footage that will live on forever thanks to youtube and the network

 

And not for nothing, but the Heenan Family is my favorite manager & stable group ever, followed closely by the Dangerous Alliance and The Horsemen. I just loved Bobby Heenan that damn much, and felt he could elevate any talent to that next level. Flair, Arn, Tully, Ole didn't need JJ Dillon to cut promos for them. He added to the package, but they didn't need him. Guys like The Islanders, Andre, Herc, Barby etc. were badasses, but they needed Heenan to cut promos for them

 

RIP

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This is devastating.

 

He was a great manager, but I loved The Brain and Gorilla so much as a broadcast team too.

 

One of my favorite memories of Bobby Heenan was such a goofy little nothing moment, but I'll never forget it. Heenan was doing color on a match, with Gorilla on play-by-play. (This was while Heenan was still managing the Heenan Family, before he moved to commentary full time.)

 

Somebody (I forget who) was fighting a masked jobber named "The Gladiator." The Gladiator looked suspiciously like another regularly used enhancement talent by the name of Rick Hunter, and was not exactly an imposing figure.

 

You never knew how The Brain would call these types of matches. It would depend what kind of mood Heenan was in. This time, he decided to try and add some drama and mystery to the proceedings.

 

Bobby Heenan: "That could be a dangerous man there. We don't who that is under that mask. That could be anybody."

 

Gorilla Monsoon (in a thoughtful voice): "That's true. That could be Haku."

 

*incredulous pause*

 

Bobby Heenan: "It's NOT Haku!"

 

(King Haku was managed by Bobby Heenan at that time, of course.)

 

I don't know why, but that kind of back-and-forth between the two of them used to crack me up to no end. From that day forth, whenever my friends and I saw a masked wrestler, we used to put on serious voices, nod thoughtfully, point at the wrestler in question and say to each other seriously:

 

"That could be Haku."

 

One of my favorite Bobby Heenan memories (of many) and just a small example of the fun and irreverent commentary both those guys used to provide. You could just tell that there was legitimate friendship and camaraderie between the two of them. They were having fun and we had fun listening to them. First we lost Gorilla and now Bobby Heenan, and the world is so much the worse off. On their best days, the guys who call wrestling now could never match that kind off-the-cuff, unrehearsed, goofy fun. That's what wrestling was and is supposed to be, as far as I am concerned. It has lost something from becoming so scripted, slick and over-produced. We will never see another team like Gorilla and The Brain.

 

What a one-of-a-kind talent. RIP Bobby "The Brain" Heenan.

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I've never read one negative comment about him personally.

 

 

Warrior didn't like him and said he was a trouble maker.

 

I know someone's gonna say "but it's the Ultimate Warrior", but I think the Warrior is a lot smarter than what people give him credit for. He got in, got big, stood up to Vince, got out of wrestling and got Vince to praise him in the end.

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I've never read one negative comment about him personally.

 

 

Warrior didn't like him and said he was a trouble maker.

 

I know someone's gonna say "but it's the Ultimate Warrior", but I think the Warrior is a lot smarter than what people give him credit for. He got in, got big, stood up to Vince, got out of wrestling and got Vince to praise him in the end.

Ah, fuck Ultimate Warrior. Like anyone should care about what a Fucking homophobic dummy has to say.
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I've never read one negative comment about him personally.

 

 

Warrior didn't like him and said he was a trouble maker.

 

I know someone's gonna say "but it's the Ultimate Warrior", but I think the Warrior is a lot smarter than what people give him credit for. He got in, got big, stood up to Vince, got out of wrestling and got Vince to praise him in the end.

Ah, fuck Ultimate Warrior. Like anyone should care about what a Fucking homophobic dummy has to say.

 

So because he has views you don't agree with he doesn't deserve the right to his freedom of speech?

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I've never read one negative comment about him personally.

 

 

Warrior didn't like him and said he was a trouble maker.

 

I know someone's gonna say "but it's the Ultimate Warrior", but I think the Warrior is a lot smarter than what people give him credit for. He got in, got big, stood up to Vince, got out of wrestling and got Vince to praise him in the end.

Ah, fuck Ultimate Warrior. Like anyone should care about what a Fucking homophobic dummy has to say.

 

 

Amen!

 

and IIRC I think when Andre & Bobby were working with Warrior on the road he was reckless with Bobby and injured him, and got a receipt from Andre, which is where the bad blood stemmed from. I've heard multiple stories that Andre didn't like him, and I think it stemmed from that

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I've never read one negative comment about him personally.

 

 

Warrior didn't like him and said he was a trouble maker.

 

I know someone's gonna say "but it's the Ultimate Warrior", but I think the Warrior is a lot smarter than what people give him credit for. He got in, got big, stood up to Vince, got out of wrestling and got Vince to praise him in the end.

Ah, fuck Ultimate Warrior. Like anyone should care about what a Fucking homophobic dummy has to say.

 

So because he has views you don't agree with he doesn't deserve the right to his freedom of speech?

 

 

What a ridiculous strawman. No one said he had no right to his freedom of speech. Just that others have a right to not give a fuck about him and his opinions because of his views.

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