The Goodness 02.28.07: The Perfect Wrestler
Posted by on 02.28.2007
The title will be the last pun I use in my ode to Curt Hennig, a truly deserving Hall of Famer and a personal favorite.
I was going to write this column last week but life intervened and I was unable to pump out a column. I hope y'all will forgive me. It's been getting pretty interesting on the Road to WrestleMania, don't you think? Saturday Night's Main Event gets cancelled at a time when the WWE is enjoying a rare wave of mainstream attention thanks to the unique participation of Donald Trump. The two main events seem to have good storylines and has the net at least a tiny bit excited. The crowds have been hot for recent Raw shows and the rumored addition of 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin will only help matters. But one of the real selling points of WrestleMania weekend, and usually the accompanying DVD, has been the Hall of Fame ceremony.
The Goodness 02.28.07: The Perfect Wrestler
The WWE Hall of Fame doesn't even exist in a map. There's no museum like there is for baseball, football or, heck, even rock 'n roll. It exists literally only on the WWE website and the minds of pro wrestling fans. In recent years, the WWE has acknowledged their past more than ever and the Hall of Fame, and its annual ceremony, have become a vital component of that. Five years ago, it would be unheard of for the WWE to acknowledge the greatness of Dusty Rhodes or other stars that made it big without the WWE's aid. But it's commonplace now. Two years ago saw the induction of Hulk Hogan. Last year, the ceremony provided an historic moment as Bret Hart appeared on WWE television for the first time in about a decade. There is no name, as of yet, for this year's class that approaches the level of those two. But there is one of my all-time favorite wrestlers.
Curt Hennig, better known as Mr. Perfect, was one of the most unique pro wrestling superstars of his era. The 1980's, especially when it comes to the WWF, was a land filled with physical marvels and giants. Hulk Hogan was 6'8''. Andre was literally a giant, ditto for King Kong Bundy and Earthquake. The Ultimate Warrior was jacked out of his mind. Save for the emergence of Randy Savage, size most certainly mattered in the WWF. This is by no means to say Mr. Perfect was a small guy, he would dwarf over Rey Mysterio, he was a relative cruiserweight in those days. He stood out though. It went beyond how big he was or how muscular he was.
Mr. Perfect in the ring was as close to perfection (there, I did it again) as there was in a professional wrestling ring. If the term "bouncing around like a pinball" ever applied to anyone in wrestler, it was Curt Hennig. Few wrestlers, if any, have brought the type of athleticism, enthusiasm and speed to wrestling ring. It is a shame he didn't have an opportunity to shine in, say, the NWA at the time and have a go with guys like Ricky Steamboat, the Great Muta or a young Sting. No, Hennig was forced to wrestle circles around guys like Brutus Beefcake and still manage to damn near steal the show each night.
For most of Hennig's prime from 1989 to his first back injury in 1991, the competition was not on his level. For all of Hulk Hogan's charismatic gifts, he couldn't keep up with Hennig. Nor could guys like Kerry von Erich or the aforementioned Beefcake. But Hennig was just so damn good at what he did, it didn't matter. From the second he entered the ring, threw the towel and spit out the gum, the arena stood still. There were never loud boos for Hennig, just a sort of eerie, silent heat. You knew the crowd cared, it buzzed when he arrived, but they weren't vocal about it. They rooted for his opponent to win but they never truly rooted against him.
As a wrestling fan just taking a liking to it, Mr. Perfect was fascinating. I knew he was a bad guy but I didn't really boo him. Most of the time, I kind of wanted him to win. I knew the more he won, the longer he kept that Intercontinental Title, the more I'd get to watch him. Even at the age of 10, it was obvious that the guys who were the best in the ring were the most fun to watch. I always watched Perfect's matches. Even if he was beating some hopelessly overmatched jobber on Superstars, I was watching.
This is by no means to lessen the significance of the Mr. Perfect characters, one of the most original, well-acted characters of all-time. As Larry Hennig, Curt's father, said in the piece on Curt during Raw, "He lived it." Hennig was perfect (That's just bad). The aura around him when he came to the ring is still unmatched to this day. The vignettes where Curt would hit home runs or throw a touchdown pass to himself were only icing on the cake. Even the vaunted little things, like swatting the gum, became part of his legend.
After the announcement Monday, I spent Tuesday night like a good wrestling geek and popped in my Bret Hart DVD. No, it wasn't to watch Owen beat Bret at WrestleMania X again. I wanted to see Bret beat Mr. Perfect, first at SummerSlam 1991 and then at the 1993 King of the Ring, in two of the greatest matches I've ever seen. I saw their first encounter taped but I ordered the 1993 King of the Ring. As the biggest Bret mark in the world at that point, I wanted Bret to rip through Perfect.
Watching the match again, it starts off painfully slow. You can see the crowd milling about, not to into the match. Mind you Perfect had lost a step, but this was still a guy that put on a nearly five-star classic with Ric Flair on Flair's way back to WCW. In retrospect, it is obvious the two professionals were just waiting for the crowd to calm down, take the seat and get involved.
Fast-forward 20 minutes later and the Nutter Center in Dayton that June night was rocking, rolling and reeling with every two count and near-submission. By the time Bret won with a small package, the crowd exploded. Sure Bret was over but the crowd reacted like he just regained the WWF Title at WrestleMania. The match didn't even have any build, it was just a semifinal match. How could a match elicit such a response?
The crowd exploded because Hart and Hennig put on a classic. In maybe his last classic match, Hennig got into the flow and went hold-for-hold with Hart until the crowd was enraptured. It was perfect (man, I'm really sorry) execution of a well-thought out plan as, watching the two matches back-to-back, you realize just how much the second match built off the first. It's scary good, actually.
By 1994, Mr. Perfect had morphed into a commentator and sometimes manager before heading to WCW, where he was a late addition to the nWo party. I think he might even have played around with the Four Horsemen but it didn't provide anything too memorable. Save for being one of the West Texas Rednecks and lending his singing talents to "Rap is Crap". Oh, good ol' WCW.
His last bit of glory came in 2002, when he returned at the Royal Rumble and lasted until the final four, surprisingly. He even provided one last classic moment when, as he was tied up with Angle and Triple H (I think), he took the opportunity to spit and swat his gum. Rarely at the end of the Royal Rumble do you hear an audible laugh from the crowd.
Hennig is no longer with us, just another sad statistic of pro wrestlers dying before they should. It'll feel hollow when Hennig is inducted and he won't be there. I know we're treading on cliché terms now, but Hennig will always be there. For most any WWF fan during the Hogan era, Mr. Perfect was a favorite. Rarely do you hear a fan say or see a columnist like myself pen a bad word about Mr. Perfect. He was an excellent wrestler, he was excellent at giving interviews and he was excellent at drawing you in. I guess you could say Curt Henning was perfect (I had to...).
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