Post by CandyKANE on Feb 11, 2003 14:22:21 GMT -5
Remembering Curt Hennig
WWE is saddened to report the passing of "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig. A former Intercontinental Champion, the 44-year-old Hennig was a beloved member of the sports-entertainment community. Upon returning to WWE last year, Hennig was profiled in Raw Magazine, a story that we have reprinted here.
The Perfect Return
Curt Hennig is back -- and that, my friends, is absolutely perfect
This story originally appeared in the May 2002 edition of Raw Magazine.
When it was announced that Mr. Perfect would be returning to World Wrestling
Entertainment at the Royal Rumble, it seemed to come as a huge surprise to fans, WWE employees and even the WWE Superstars.
But one man who it came as absolutely no surprise to was Mr. Perfect himself.
"I knew I'd be back; there was never been a doubt in my mind," Curt "Mr. Perfect" Hennig tells Raw Magazine. "Some things are meant to be, and this is one of them."
Mr. Perfect's return brought a smile to the face of many fans, who remember the character's boisterous ways -- his cocky walk to the ring, his confident smirk, and even the way he spat out his gum and swatted it away before his matches began. "I've never missed that -- not once," smiles Hennig.
Indeed, Hennig has been a mainstay in the world of sports-entertainment for more than 20 years. But surprisingly, he says he never planned on getting into the wrestling business.
"I hurt my knee playing football at the University of Minnesota," Hennig says. "I got surgery done, and I needed to rebuild it because another school was looking at me. So I went to Verne Gagne's wrestling camp in Minnesota just to rehab. A hundred and ten people went through there, and only Brad Rheingans -- a member of two Olympic teams -- and myself came out of that thing. I wasn't expecting to be a pro wrestler; I just wanted to get back in shape.
"It was grueling -- 500 squats a day, miles of running, different kinds of exercises. Gagne ran a really respectable camp. And I knew from the moment I got through with that camp that this was going to be my life. I just knew it."
The Minnesota native was surrounded by wrestling from the time he was a kid. Curt's father was a pro wrestler -- the legendary Larry "The Ax" Hennig -- but he says his dad never pressured him to get into the business.
"We really never talked about the business around our house," Hennig recalls. "My dad went and did his job, and came back home, and we were a family. We separated the two."
Hennig's best friend since eighth grade was the man wrestling fans know as the late "Ravishing" Rick Rude. The two were practically inseparable up until Rude's death in April 1999.
"One time, I stole some skates from this guy, and I couldn't sell them so I gave them to Rude.
And Rude tried to sell them back to the guy that I stole them from!" laughs Hennig. "And you know what? He never told on me; he took the heat. And from that time on, I had a lifetime friend.
"He was a real man's man. This guy was no bulls**t; he was the kind of guy that would get right up in your face, even if you were just looking at him wrong. I really miss him."
Rude wasn't the only Superstar to come out of Hennig's high school. Hennig, Rude, Nikita Koloff, Demolition Smash, and the Berzerker all graduated from the same class. And other famous Superstars from Minnesota include Blackjack Lanza, Mean Gene, Jesse Ventura, Verne Gagne and the Road Warriors.
"I don't know, maybe that cold weather does something to you," laughs Curt. "It's healthy."
Hennig started at the Minnesota-based American Wrestling Association (AWA) in the late 1980s, even capturing that group's Tag Team Championship with Scott Hall. He also worked for several other regional promotions, and even worked briefly for Vince McMahon Sr.'s Capitol Wrestling.
Before long, though, WWE came knocking, and Hennig was more than happy to answer the door.
"If this WWE door opens up and you pass it up, you're a fool," Hennig says. "And I wasn't about to be a fool."
Prior to appearing on WWE television, Hennig was featured in several vignettes. The vignettes saw him showing just how perfect his character was -- hitting home runs, throwing touchdowns, shooting bulls-eyes and executing picture-perfect dives into a pool.
"Any airport I go to, where ever, people still say, 'There goes Mr. Perfect!' and talk about those vignettes," Hennig says. "Even when I wrestled as Curt Hennig for three years, they still remembered that Mr. Perfect character because Vince developed it so well. It was his idea, and I am that athletic; I can do all those things."
As he was preparing to make his WWE debut, Hennig was looking around for a finishing maneuver. He found it one day on a Japanese tour, as he watch a match featuring his father's old tag-team partner, Harley Race. Race executed a fisherman's suplex during the bout, which turned on a light bulb in Hennig's head.
"The way he did it, he just fell right on his back, and being an amateur wrestler too, I figured I could just bridge," Hennig recalls. "I have a pretty strong neck. So I did it, and the guy went right over. Then one day (referee) Jim Korderas said, 'Why don't you call it the Perfectplex?' I said, 'That's great! Thank you!
After making his debut, Hennig soon gained a reputation as a solid worker in the ring. In an era where muscle and bulk were seemingly more important than in-ring talent, Hennig stood out as one of the finest mat technicians of the era.
"I think people really respected that character -- work ethic and aggressiveness and athletic ability," he says. "That's why people remember Mr. Perfect.
"I like taking control and being in charge out there. That's what I do and that's why guys like me are hard to find. I'm not being braggadocios on myself; that's the real bottom-line truth. They need leaders in that ring, and I love to be creative like that."
Hennig's combination of athleticism, charisma and skill soon catapulted him to the top of the card, and it wasn't long before Hennig was feuding with Hulk Hogan, in what he calls the greatest run of his career.
His upward climb continued, and in the days following WrestleMania VI, Mr. Perfect won a tournament final to become Intercontinental Champion. He would again capture the title that December, and reigned as champion for 14 out of 17 months in 1990 and 1991.
Heading into the summer of 1991, Hennig was the Intercontinental Champion. But a freak injury suffered during a match would send him to the injured list, and would nearly end his career.
"The turnbuckles weren't lined up right one time, and I hit real hard on the turnbuckles, and it bulged a disc in my back and broke my tailbone," he says. "My whole left leg went numb. I had actually gone so far as to cutting all my hair off, since I thought that was the end of the line for me."
Hennig took two months off to rehabilitate his back, but was still in a great deal of pain. He asked Vince McMahon if he could just tape a backstage segment where he would forfeit over the belt, but Vince asked him to come back and compete one more time to drop the title to Bret Hart at SummerSlam.
"To tell the truth, at that time, I couldn't even really rotate my body," Hennig remembers. "And Vince says, 'Well, I want you to wrestle. I don't care if you go three minutes or whatever; I just need you to wrestle.' And I actually said to Bret Hart, 'You know what? I'm going to do this for you, and I'm going to do this for the business.' So I did what I had to do, had a couple of beers, which took care of the pain a little bit. And when you get in front of that crowd, the pain dissipates.
WWE is saddened to report the passing of "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig. A former Intercontinental Champion, the 44-year-old Hennig was a beloved member of the sports-entertainment community. Upon returning to WWE last year, Hennig was profiled in Raw Magazine, a story that we have reprinted here.
The Perfect Return
Curt Hennig is back -- and that, my friends, is absolutely perfect
This story originally appeared in the May 2002 edition of Raw Magazine.
When it was announced that Mr. Perfect would be returning to World Wrestling
Entertainment at the Royal Rumble, it seemed to come as a huge surprise to fans, WWE employees and even the WWE Superstars.
But one man who it came as absolutely no surprise to was Mr. Perfect himself.
"I knew I'd be back; there was never been a doubt in my mind," Curt "Mr. Perfect" Hennig tells Raw Magazine. "Some things are meant to be, and this is one of them."
Mr. Perfect's return brought a smile to the face of many fans, who remember the character's boisterous ways -- his cocky walk to the ring, his confident smirk, and even the way he spat out his gum and swatted it away before his matches began. "I've never missed that -- not once," smiles Hennig.
Indeed, Hennig has been a mainstay in the world of sports-entertainment for more than 20 years. But surprisingly, he says he never planned on getting into the wrestling business.
"I hurt my knee playing football at the University of Minnesota," Hennig says. "I got surgery done, and I needed to rebuild it because another school was looking at me. So I went to Verne Gagne's wrestling camp in Minnesota just to rehab. A hundred and ten people went through there, and only Brad Rheingans -- a member of two Olympic teams -- and myself came out of that thing. I wasn't expecting to be a pro wrestler; I just wanted to get back in shape.
"It was grueling -- 500 squats a day, miles of running, different kinds of exercises. Gagne ran a really respectable camp. And I knew from the moment I got through with that camp that this was going to be my life. I just knew it."
The Minnesota native was surrounded by wrestling from the time he was a kid. Curt's father was a pro wrestler -- the legendary Larry "The Ax" Hennig -- but he says his dad never pressured him to get into the business.
"We really never talked about the business around our house," Hennig recalls. "My dad went and did his job, and came back home, and we were a family. We separated the two."
Hennig's best friend since eighth grade was the man wrestling fans know as the late "Ravishing" Rick Rude. The two were practically inseparable up until Rude's death in April 1999.
"One time, I stole some skates from this guy, and I couldn't sell them so I gave them to Rude.
And Rude tried to sell them back to the guy that I stole them from!" laughs Hennig. "And you know what? He never told on me; he took the heat. And from that time on, I had a lifetime friend.
"He was a real man's man. This guy was no bulls**t; he was the kind of guy that would get right up in your face, even if you were just looking at him wrong. I really miss him."
Rude wasn't the only Superstar to come out of Hennig's high school. Hennig, Rude, Nikita Koloff, Demolition Smash, and the Berzerker all graduated from the same class. And other famous Superstars from Minnesota include Blackjack Lanza, Mean Gene, Jesse Ventura, Verne Gagne and the Road Warriors.
"I don't know, maybe that cold weather does something to you," laughs Curt. "It's healthy."
Hennig started at the Minnesota-based American Wrestling Association (AWA) in the late 1980s, even capturing that group's Tag Team Championship with Scott Hall. He also worked for several other regional promotions, and even worked briefly for Vince McMahon Sr.'s Capitol Wrestling.
Before long, though, WWE came knocking, and Hennig was more than happy to answer the door.
"If this WWE door opens up and you pass it up, you're a fool," Hennig says. "And I wasn't about to be a fool."
Prior to appearing on WWE television, Hennig was featured in several vignettes. The vignettes saw him showing just how perfect his character was -- hitting home runs, throwing touchdowns, shooting bulls-eyes and executing picture-perfect dives into a pool.
"Any airport I go to, where ever, people still say, 'There goes Mr. Perfect!' and talk about those vignettes," Hennig says. "Even when I wrestled as Curt Hennig for three years, they still remembered that Mr. Perfect character because Vince developed it so well. It was his idea, and I am that athletic; I can do all those things."
As he was preparing to make his WWE debut, Hennig was looking around for a finishing maneuver. He found it one day on a Japanese tour, as he watch a match featuring his father's old tag-team partner, Harley Race. Race executed a fisherman's suplex during the bout, which turned on a light bulb in Hennig's head.
"The way he did it, he just fell right on his back, and being an amateur wrestler too, I figured I could just bridge," Hennig recalls. "I have a pretty strong neck. So I did it, and the guy went right over. Then one day (referee) Jim Korderas said, 'Why don't you call it the Perfectplex?' I said, 'That's great! Thank you!
After making his debut, Hennig soon gained a reputation as a solid worker in the ring. In an era where muscle and bulk were seemingly more important than in-ring talent, Hennig stood out as one of the finest mat technicians of the era.
"I think people really respected that character -- work ethic and aggressiveness and athletic ability," he says. "That's why people remember Mr. Perfect.
"I like taking control and being in charge out there. That's what I do and that's why guys like me are hard to find. I'm not being braggadocios on myself; that's the real bottom-line truth. They need leaders in that ring, and I love to be creative like that."
Hennig's combination of athleticism, charisma and skill soon catapulted him to the top of the card, and it wasn't long before Hennig was feuding with Hulk Hogan, in what he calls the greatest run of his career.
His upward climb continued, and in the days following WrestleMania VI, Mr. Perfect won a tournament final to become Intercontinental Champion. He would again capture the title that December, and reigned as champion for 14 out of 17 months in 1990 and 1991.
Heading into the summer of 1991, Hennig was the Intercontinental Champion. But a freak injury suffered during a match would send him to the injured list, and would nearly end his career.
"The turnbuckles weren't lined up right one time, and I hit real hard on the turnbuckles, and it bulged a disc in my back and broke my tailbone," he says. "My whole left leg went numb. I had actually gone so far as to cutting all my hair off, since I thought that was the end of the line for me."
Hennig took two months off to rehabilitate his back, but was still in a great deal of pain. He asked Vince McMahon if he could just tape a backstage segment where he would forfeit over the belt, but Vince asked him to come back and compete one more time to drop the title to Bret Hart at SummerSlam.
"To tell the truth, at that time, I couldn't even really rotate my body," Hennig remembers. "And Vince says, 'Well, I want you to wrestle. I don't care if you go three minutes or whatever; I just need you to wrestle.' And I actually said to Bret Hart, 'You know what? I'm going to do this for you, and I'm going to do this for the business.' So I did what I had to do, had a couple of beers, which took care of the pain a little bit. And when you get in front of that crowd, the pain dissipates.