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Curt Hennig

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Curtis Hennig
File:Wcwmrperfectnwo.jpg
Born(1958-03-28)March 28, 1958
Robbinsdale, Minnesota
DiedFebruary 10, 2003(2003-02-10) (aged 44)
Tampa, Florida
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Curt Hennig
Billed height6 ft 3 in (190 cm)
Billed weight260 lb (118 kg)
Billed fromMr. Perfect
Trained byVerne Gagne
Larry Hennig
Stu Hart
Debut1979

Curtis Michael Hennig (March 28 1958 – February 10 2003[1]), also known by his ring name Mr. Perfect, was an American professional wrestler who competed for the American Wrestling Association, World Wrestling Federation,Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and World Championship Wrestling promotions. A former World Heavyweight Champion, he also has the distinction of being the longest-reigning Intercontinental Champion of the 1990s. [2]

Professional wrestling career

American Wrestling Association (1979-1982, 1984-1988)

Known as "Cool" Curt Hennig, he began his career in 1979 in the American Wrestling Association, the promotion which had made his father, Larry "The Axe" Hennig a star. He would become one of the promotion's top stars in his own right, forming a tag team with Scott Hall en route to winning the AWA World Tag Team Championship by defeating "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin & "Mr. Electricity" Steve Regal on January 18 1986 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He then re-entered singles competition, and ultimately defeated AWA legend Nick Bockwinkel for the AWA World Heavyweight Championship on May 2 1987. Hennig would hold the title for over a year before losing it to Jerry Lawler on May 9 1988. He left for the World Wrestling Federation shortly thereafter.

World Wrestling Federation (1982-1984, 1988-1996)

Curt Hennig's first tenure in the WWF began in 1982 where he began making a name for himself against the likes of 'Playboy' Buddy Rose and was later featured in tag team matches with another young upstart, Eddie Gilbert, son of another wrestling legend Tommy Gilbert. In his second tenure, the character of "Mr. Perfect" was created. Hennig spent weeks shooting promos for his new persona. These clips showed him hitting a three-point basketball shot, bowling a score of 300, running the table in pool, catching his own Hail Mary football pass, or sinking a long golf putt, all to solidify his claim of being a superior athlete in anything he did. He cut various promos with other pro athletes such as Wade Boggs where Hennig was depicted as the "Perfect" athlete. He would go undefeated for over a year during feuds with The Blue Blazer, The Red Rooster, and Jimmy Snuka, adding to his claim of perfection. That record came to an end when he began feuding with Hulk Hogan over the WWF Championship in 1989, which included a backstage segment where he and The Genius, his original WWF manager, destroyed Hogan's WWF Title belt with a hammer. The shattered belt would be later sanctioned as the WWF Hardcore Championship in 1998. Although a top contender to the WWF Championship, it would elude him for his entire tenure with the company.

Enlisting Bobby Heenan as his new manager, Mr. Perfect went on to win the vacant Intercontinental Title in the final round of a tournament in April 1990 by defeating two-time IC Champion Tito Santana. He lost the belt to The Texas Tornado at SummerSlam 1990. He regained the title in November thanks to interference from Ted DiBiase and held it until August 1991, dropping the belt to Bret Hart at SummerSlam; upon Heenan's retirement as manager in January of 1991, John Tolos became Hennig's new manager, and remained his manager until Hennig took time off after Summerslam. Hennig battled an injured back throughout most of this period, and while recovering he acted as Ric Flair's "executive consultant" during Flair's two WWF Championship reigns. He was a color commentator on WWF Superstars of Wrestling for most of 1992, acting as a suitable heel foil to Vince McMahon's play-by-play. Mr. Perfect soon had a falling-out with Flair and Heenan (Flair's "financial advisor") after Randy Savage asked Perfect to be his partner against Flair and Razor Ramon at the 1992 Survivor Series. After initially laughing off Savage's decision, Hennig was swayed by Savage's cajoling. In one of the most classic segments of Prime Time wrestling, Heenan jarring his pride, said Hennig wasn't capable of wrestling on that level anymore and demanded that Hennig follow orders and do as he was told. Heenan then proceeded to slap Hennig across the face. An infuriated Hennig responded by grabbing Heenan by his tie and pouring a full pitcher of water over Heenan's head. Hennig then stated that he officially accepted Savage's tag-team partner proposal. Hennig returned to the ring at the Survivor Series and he and Savage won the match by disqualification. Perfect later eliminated Flair from the 1993 Royal Rumble and defeated Flair the next night on Monday Night Raw in a "Loser Leaves the WWF Match."

Hennig actively competed in the WWF until the fall of 1993. He wrestled Lex Luger at WrestleMania IX and lost the match, only to chase Luger backstage where he was jumped from behind by Shawn Michaels. This feud would lead to an Intercontinental Title match at Summerslam 1993, which Hennig lost by count-out due to interference from Diesel. As stated in WWE Magazine, Hennig was responsible for coining Michaels' moniker, "The Heartbreak Kid."

At WrestleMania X, Hennig was a special guest referee for the title match between Lex Luger and Yokozuna. Hennig disqualified Luger after Lex put his hands on him, instead of counting the pin. Hennig was set to start another feud with Luger following WrestleMania, but plans were changed. He returned in 1995 as a color commentator at the Survivor Series and served as a manager/mentor for Hunter Hearst Helmsley in 1996 after betraying "Wildman" Marc Mero. The following weekend, Jerry Lawler announced Hennig as his replacement on WWF Superstars, his second stint as a color commentator on the show with McMahon, this time with Jim Ross added as the analyst. Later in 1996, McMahon left and Ross switched to the play-by-play role. Hennig was initially to make his wrestling comeback versus Helmsley but was apparently injured by him backstage. This all turned out to be a ruse for the purpose of suckering Mero into defending his title. Helmsley won the Intercontinental title from Mero and Hennig left the Federation shortly thereafter.

World Championship Wrestling (1997-2000)

Hennig signed with WCW in 1997, no longer billed as "Mr. Perfect" due to a legal clause. Both the Four Horsemen and the nWo showed interest in recruiting him. Hennig made his official WCW debut at Bash at the Beach '97 as Diamond Dallas Page's mystery tag-team partner. Hennig ended up betraying and turning on Page costing them the match. After feuding with Page for a month he joined the Four Horsemen, taking the spot of the retiring Arn Anderson. Anderson's implorement that Hennig take "his spot" was the subject of the following week's parody of the Horsemen by the nWo, which lead to the WarGames match. At Fall Brawl, Hennig was allegedly jumped backstage by the nWo and came to ringside mid-match with his arm in a sling. The whole thing turned out to be a setup as Hennig betrayed the Horsemen and joined the nWo, handcuffing the other Horsemen to the cage and then slamming the steel cage door into Ric Flair's head, afterwards claiming he had "destroyed the Horseman" and as a further slap to Flair, claimed to be "the wrestler that made Minnesota famous". Two months after he joined the nWo, his childhood friend, Rick Rude, was also brought in. Hennig won the United States Title from Steve McMichael in September 1997 before losing it to Diamond Dallas Page in December of that year at Starrcade.

He struggled with a knee injury for much of 1998. When the nWo broke into two different factions, the Wolfpac (red and black) and nWo Hollywood (black and white), both Hennig and Rude joined the Wolfpac. The two did not really fit in with the fan favorite Wolfpac faction, especially when Rick Rude would still get on the microphone and tell the fans to shut up. Hennig was not able to compete against Bill Goldberg at the Great American Bash that June, so he asked his "buddy" Konnan to replace him. Konnan lost the match, and afterward both Hennig and Rude attacked him. The following night on WCW Monday Nitro, Curt Hennig and Rick Rude joined nWo Hollywood. Despite his injury he faced WCW World Champion Goldberg twice (losing both matches), the first being Goldberg's first world title defense at Bash at the Beach. That September, Hennig was taken off WCW TV due to his injury. He returned at Starrcade 1998 to aid Eric Bischoff in defeating Ric Flair.

In 1999, he joined nWo Black and White and tagged with Barry Windham. Hennig and Windham lost to Ric Flair and Flair's son David at Souled Out 1999 due to interference by Arn Anderson. After the match, the rest of the nWo came out and humiliated Flair by handcuffing him to the ring, and forced him to watch his son David take a beating from Hollywood Hogan. Shortly afterward, Hennig was attacked by the nWo and thrown out of the group for no apparent reason other than Scott Hall stating "it's time to trim the fat". Hennig went on to win the World Tag Team Titles with Barry Windham. Three months later, he became the leader of the West Texas Rednecks with Barry, Barry's brother Kendall Windham, and Bobby Duncum, Jr.. They were supposed to be heels to feud with rapper Master P's No Limit Soldiers, but the southern WCW fans cheered them and the angle was soon dropped. The Rednecks recorded a country song titled "Rap is Crap" that received some airplay. After the Rednecks disbanded, Hennig feuded with Harlem Heat and Shawn Stasiak. During the feud, Stasiak called himself "Perfectshawn" Stasiak, which was a ripoff of the "Mr. Perfect" gimmick. After Stasiak won the feud, Hennig briefly began coaching Stasiak before Hennig left WCW after his contract expired in the summer of 2000.

X Wrestling Federation (2000-2002)

He was a franchise star for the short lived XWF where he had a brief run.

World Wrestling Federation (2002)

Mr. Perfect returned to the WWF in 2002 as a competitor in the Royal Rumble, and was one of the final three before being eliminated by Triple H. He then had short feuds with Stone Cold Steve Austin and Rob Van Dam before forming a tag team with Shawn Stasiak at house shows throughout March 2002 and April 2002 as well as a tag team on television with The Big Boss Man. He was released from the company on May 5 2002, a few months after the WWF Renamed itself World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) after reportedly becoming intoxicated and getting into a fight with Brock Lesnar on a return flight from the United Kingdom.

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling/All Star Wrestling (2003)

After being fired from the WWE,[1] he went on to work for TNA and Jimmy Hart's All Star Wrestling.

Death and legacy

On February 10 2003, Hennig was found dead in a Florida hotel room. The Tampa Coroner's office and the Tampa Medical Examiner's office declared an acute cocaine intoxication as the official cause of his death. His father said a lethal combination of steroids and painkillers contributed to his death. [2]

Hennig's widow Leonice signed a WWE Legends contract on her husband's behalf.

In February 2007, WWE confirmed that it would be producing a two disc DVD set focused on Hennig titled "The Life and Times of Mr. Perfect". Wade Boggs, who famously appeared in a vignette with Hennig, inducted him into the WWE Hall of Fame on March 31 2007. His wife, his four kids, and his parents accepted the award on his behalf.

On July 4 2007, Hennig was posthumously inducted into the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in Waterloo, Iowa. His father, who was inducted the prior year, represented him at the event.

There is a song about "Mr. Perfect" by "Macho Man" Randy Savage called "Perfect Friend".

Curt's son Joe is currently pursuing a career in pro-wrestling, and is being trained by Harley Race. Joe Hennig has wrestled as talent-enhancement on WWE television and has taken to wearing a style of singlet similar to that of his father.

Curt's daughter Amy is also currently pursuing a career in pro-wrestling and is reported to have undergone a one week evaluation training session with WWE's Ohio Valley Wrestling School.

In wrestling

Championships and accomplishments

References

  1. ^ http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/profiles/c/curt-hennig.html
  2. ^ http://www.wwe.com/superstars/halloffame/curthennig/bio
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