That’s “Manager of the Year, Bobby the Brain Heenan” - a reference to a storyline from the pre-Raw days when they had a postcard-based (or was it 900-number) “Manager of the Year Contest” which, of course, was rigged from the start; just as they were about to announce the winner, Heenan claimed that all of the other heel managers agreed to give their votes to him, but then Hillbilly Jim (who would have been the actual winner based on the fan vote - he was considered “Uncle Elmer’s” manager) said he was giving his votes to Lou Albano, who was declared the winner.
Actually, Heenan was once named the “official manager” of the All-Madden Team.
I remember the infamous weasel suit match … its hazy but it was either heenan himself or one of his wrestlers verses ultimate warrior and if bobby lost hed have to wear a weasel costume …the match lasted maybe 2 minutes heenan tried to get away and warrior stuffed him in the costume …
the look on his face in the costume was priceless and aired on the “prime time wrestling” (raws precursor ) intro for almost a decade
Nothing like the way it’s done now when the Brain started in WWE. They would work out some general story ahead of time, after that mostly improv. Vince would be talking in commentators ears sometimes, but not too many specifics. But that era is when the heavy scripting began, Vince liked the idea of more choreography in matches and knowing what would be said on the mike ahead of time whether it was promo, interview, or commentary. In his own day, Vince did all of that himself, while pretending to be some pawn of the mighty WWWF and he bristled at the way the talent would take advantage of him in that position. His emergence as the owner, CEO, Grand Imperial Poobah, and Almight God of Wrestling corresponded with the modern heavily scripted and choreographed mode of wrestling. It was necessary to turn it into a major nationwide sports/entertainment promotion instead of a local whistlestop affair. The wrestlers are so ingrained in that now very few of them could handle the total improv style that used to be. And that was a good thing since not many of them could do it well back then either.
thanks …they (wwe) never aired the whole match more than once or twice which confused people on why bobby was in the intro in some costume …
funny thing is be was never bitter about doing such things saying he was just another part of a circus … he did say make sure tho when ya have a contract with vince is get an outside attorney to look it over because he liked to put goofy things in them and call ya on it in the worst possible moment
They need to make the US title match a steel cage no-escape match (remember those?), and include a wooden chair.
And then, if they’re paying tribute to 1985, they need to pay tribute to 1986 as well, and have the Again Yet Still Even Another Rematch between The Usos and The New Day a scaffold match - Night of the Skywalkers!
I seem to remember AWA playing with it even earlier and the other wrestler being Buck Zumhofe (AWA being local). But given Zumhofe’s later actions, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was totally erased from the internet and history. Either that or I’m misremembering something similar to it.
They just ran a video clip tribute (~10:25 Eastern), plus the standard opening plaque. Personally, I would have liked a tolling of the bells for someone as influential as Heenan.
Hopefully they’ll do a special about him. They didn’t have much time to put together a tribute for the show last night, maybe we’ll see more tonight. The Brain wasn’t my favorite announcer or manager, but I still enjoyed him, much, much more than many others. He was influential in change, I appreciate what he did.
The whole Jason Jordan thing is absurd. He’s going to be seen as a future star, he’s a great athlete and shows a lot more maturity as a performer than typical for someone his age, but the Angle storyline is flat out stupid. He’s laying down for all the big names so I think we’ll see him cashing in those receipts soon and earning a top belt. But I don’t see the staying power there. It’s like he’s being groomed to be a transitional champion for someone with much more charisma.
Jim Cornette sometimes reminisces about how all they did to produce a show was talk to the booker and come up with their own lines. Basically, “Get the audience to love X and hate Y.” The only long-term planning they did was to make sure a feud was still hot and had legs.
Heenan and Gorilla’s banter was mainly improvised, but they knew their roles and had a system. Gorilla was the play-by-play announcer and straight man, but still the 800-lb gorilla that Bobby sold being afraid of. Heenan was color and obnoxious heel. Heenan had winged it most of his life and knew how to roll with the punches. The two were best friends behind the scenes. I can’t think of any other announce team that had their level of chemistry.
GFW…Impact…whatever the hell they’re calling themselves nowadays announced the Bound for Glory PPV and the subsequent tapings would take place in Canada next month.
Kinda bummed I’m going to miss it, and also I hope this isn’t the end of Impact being taped here in Orlando. I’ll miss those monthly shows.
Well, WWE apparently went too far with the Jinder Mahal promo and even had the audience chanting as much. Now they’re trying to quietly bury it.
I dunno, what do you expect when a racist old man micromanages everything?
As I pointed out and quoted elsewhere;
"Jim Ross noted that back when Gail Kim was initially hired by WWE, Vince McMahon was hesitant to do so because she was Asian-American. Ross said that while he also spoke about Kim’s in-ring ability to sell her to Vince, he also had to take drastic measures.He said: ““I remember Vince said, ‘You want to hire this Asian girl, right? I don’t know, I just don’t know.’ And I said, ‘Well Vince, you know, there’s a lot of guys that like Asian women. There’s Asian porn sites.’ ”
This news, according to Ross, “shocked” Vince."
Yeah, well, we all know how past Japanese stars have been booked in WWE - as basically comedy acts. It also explains why Shinsuke wasn’t treated as anything special on the main roster. Because Vince (and Michael Hayes) are as racist as the day is long.
