Heroes and Villains.. And Brains

Bobby "The Brain" Heenan isn't just an accomplished wrestler, isn't just the most charasmatic person in the industry, but he's also the most consumate professional and strongest factor in a product's overall value. His auto-biography, Bobby the Brain, is not the best written book out there about wrestling, but it might contain some of the best stories.

About Wrestling

Heenan was constantly concerned with putting over the product, something best described by Hulk Hogan, who wrote introduction. He'd do damn near anything if it meant making a storyline better. He worked to make his managed wrestler look better, work to make his wrestlers' opponents look better, work to make the entire program better. As an announcer, his banter with Mikey Tenay is legendary, and his banter with Gorrilla Monsoon is perfect. Heenan talks about how he sells a package in a few different ways. The most notable examples include a diatribe about how the ringside conversation needn't just list every move accomplished, and that by commenting on a disgustingly obvious error to excuse it, you can preserve the facade of pro wrestling.

About Real Life

That last example, commenting on an obvious error, is something WCW frowned upon, and his real like hatred of Tony Schiovane shines through in numerous situations where Schiovane tells him he's wrong. Surprisingly, I don't know how much "away from wrestling" there was for Heenan, even as a manager. He talks about how he only had to work one day a week at WCW, but he doesn't seem to concern himself with things outside of the business. Likely he was a very private person outside of the business, but inside he may be one of the most liked men.

About the End of Fun

WCW may have killed wrestling for Heenan. He hated it because of its lack of order behind the scenes. Here's a guy built around order and structure, and because of this he's probably the biggest McMahon apologist alive. Heenan's not much to drive a thesis about WCW crashing being a catalyst for WWF to run rampant and alienate fans who preferred the alternative or disliked some events happening in the WWF. To Heenan, that stuff didn't matter because the WCW business was nothing like the wrestling business.

Eventually it collapsed on itself, so Heenan probably had a point. Heenan was absolutely disgusted with how they handled Goldberg, defeating him amidst him carrying insane heat, but he watched all of the small decisions kill the company.

Rating/Value: 5.5/Mandatory. Not written well, but I'm telling you, some of the best alternative viewpoints that are found in here are essential to understanding the industry.