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Heenan actually started as a wrestler, making his in-ring debut in 1965 against Calvin “Prince” Pullins. Though he showed some potential, he did his best work on the microphone and found his niche as a ringside manager.
Known as Pretty Boy Heenan, he led Nick Bockwinkel and Ray Stevens to tag team glory in the early-1970s. Flush with his success, he adopted the name “The Brain,” a moniker that stuck for the rest of his career.
As he often pointed out later in his career, Heenan never officially retired as a wrestler and periodically donned the tights and got back into the ring, usually with disastrous results. However, he scored one of his biggest wins as a wrestler in September 1974, when he teamed with The Sheik to defeat Dick the Bruiser and Bobo Brazil in Chicago.
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“The Brain” enjoyed his first major success as a manager not in the WWF, but in the old AWA, where he led fellow Hall of Famer Nick Bockwinkel to three World titles.
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Heenan added his first world championship to his resume as a manager on November 8, 1975, when he guided Bockwinkel to the AWA title. Heenan and Bockwinkel would win that title together on three occasions. “The Brain” also led Blackjack Lanza and Bobby Duncum to the AWA World tag title in 1976.
After being given a one-year suspension by the AWA for constantly interfering in matches, Heenan moved on to Georgia Championship Wrestling. There he managed Lanza, Masked Superstar, and Killer Karl Kox before moving back to the AWA and reuniting with Bockwinkel.
In 1983, he suffered an injury that would plague him for years, breaking his neck during a tour of Japan. Heenan held off on getting surgery all the way until 1995. In 1984, he rebuilt the Heenan Family in the WWF, signing the federation's resident giant, Big John Studd. He later recruited King Kong Bundy and Ken Patera and launched feuds with Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan.
Heenan was a master at infuriating fans (whom he arrogantly called “humanoids”) and was actually attacked by some a few times.
Capitalizing on his gift for gab and his improvisational skills, the WWF paired him with Gorilla Monsoon, and the two became the company's top announcing team.
Heenan orchestrated Andre's heel turn against Hogan, setting the stage for WrestleMania III. However, no matter whom Heenan sent after Hogan, he couldn’t wrest the WWF title from the “Hulkster.” In fact, Heenan's first taste of WWF gold didn't come until 1989, when he helped Rick Rude upset The Ultimate Warrior for the Intercontinental title. He had considerably less success in the ring that night, losing to Terry “The Red Rooster” Taylor in just 32 seconds.
Heenan went on to guide Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson and Andre and Haku to tag titles, and Hennig to the Intercontinental title. After retiring as a manager to become—ahem— a “broadcast journalist,” he was lured back to ringside as Ric Flair's adviser and helped Flair win two WWF World titles.
Looking for a less taxing schedule and a very big payday, Heenan left the WWF for WCW in 1994. While in WCW, he concentrated exclusively on color commentary and traded barbs with Tony Schiavone and Lee Marshall, among others. In 1997, Indianapolis Mayor Steve Goldberg presented Heenan with a plaque, proclaiming April 3 as Bobby Heenan Day. But Heenan was very critical of WCW management during his stay there and was released in 2000.
He had brief stints with Women of Wrestling and the XWF in 2001, and appeared alongside his old pal Gene Okerlund to provide commentary for the gimmick battle royal at WrestleMania X7. Heenan is the only wrestling personality named to the All-Madden Team (1989) and was voted Manager of the Year by the readers of PWI four times. In 2002, he released his memoirs, Bobby “The Brain” Heenan: Wrestling's Bad Boy Tells All, along with Steve Anderson. He and Anderson recently finished a second book, which covers Heenan’s battle with throat cancer, among other topics.
Heenan was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame in 1996.
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| Tears welled up in Heenan’s eyes in March, when, while accepting induction into the WWE Hall of Fame in March, he mentioned how he wished his old broadcast partner Gorilla Monsoon was still alive to see him get honored. |
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