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R.I.P., Bobby Heenan


Gonzo

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Rewatching Royal Rumble '92. This performance is still freaking legendary 25 years later.

*Piper hits someone to save Flair*

"I never thought I'd say this, but thank you, Roddy. It's a kilt. It's not a skirt, it's a kilt."

*Piper goes after Flair*

"YOU NO-GOOD CREEP! YOU SKIRT-WEARING FREAK! IT'S NOT A KILT, IT'S A SKIRT!"

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Heenan was a great manager and commentator by his wrestling his wrestling is vastly underrated. Was he the most polished? No. And he also professed to be a self taught bumper (which i think made him one of the best bumpers in how unique he did it was as he looked like a guy who shouldn't be taking bumps) but he made everything look so impactful and every move given to him look so devastating and after the heat he got running his mouth it was so fulfilling to see him get tossed around the ring. A true innovator and legend in every sense of the word. RIP Brain.

 

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Bobby Heenan's call of the '92 Rumble not only transcends into all time great sporting event broadcasting, but deserved an Emmy for the character work he brought to it. An ensemble cast of approximately fifty and he made every single one of them seem super important to the broadcast. I don't think I re-rented a tape from video stores more, and it still gets a play on the Network every few months from me.

His performances on mainstream media shows like Arsenio Hall and Bill Maher showed talents were wasted on wrestling. The guy just never got beat verbally. Ever. You wanted an opinion on his opinions, and you cared one way or another about people simply because he had an opinion on them to begin with.

Sad day.

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just finished watching his HoF speech.

just such a great guy, and soo funny.  he genuinely loved what he did, and he made you love it too.  not gonna lie, it got a bit misty in here.  and then at the end with "i wish monsoon was here" i fully lost it.

RIP to a legend, the likes of which we'll never see again.

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"I'm Indiana's favorite Bobby"

"Flair should've been number 31."

"Humanoids"

"They say never kick a man when he's down, but can you tell me a better time to kick him?"

"Remember the old saying: 'What the hell, use the bell!'"

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I'm pretty sure Bobby Heenan is directly responsible for at least 33% of my sense of humor.  (Garry Shandling gets another 33%.  Not sure who to blame for the really dark shit I find funny.)

This kind of feels like losing Bowie to me.  Both were singularly gifted talents we'll never see the likes of again.  I'm thankful I got to see The Brain in his prime.

I'm not ready to live in a world without Bobby Heenan.

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Death is an unavoidable part of life, but I think in the world of wrestling it's hard to remember that because these legends were big parts of our lives or influenced us in some way that we don't think about them ever not being around. When one wrestling legend passes its always a "wtf I can't believe another one" feeling with me. So sad, but with a passing I feel proud to be a wrestling fan & experienced their career. Thank you Bobby Heenan for all the moments.

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Right now, Heenan is going through all his pockets at the Heavenly Gate with Saint Peter...

 

"I know my invite's in here.. where is it, it must have been that no good Piper.. always stealing my stuff did I ever tell you that.."

 

and from inside the gates, Gorilla Monsoon's voice calls out.

 

"Heenan, Will you STOP already? I told them you didn't need an invite"

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This one hits hard. Had oddly enough been seeing a lot of Bobby this past week in random viewing.

Had gotten back this past week into throwing on the Network and having TNT on in the background. Currently at the build for Wrestlemania 2 and Heenan has been on fire in appearances building up Hogan/Bundy.

And just today - prior to reading the news - I watched Disc One of the new WWE Unreleased 86-95 DVD set and was marveling and laughing at Heenan having some awesome stooge moments and getting his comeuppance in early matches on that set, with a big smile on my face the whole time.

Thank you to the first heel manager that both made me angry and made me laugh my ass off at the same time.

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I am not kidding when I say Bobby Heenan may be my biggest single influence as a comedian. I usually play characters who are pompous blowhards and he was the best at it and is really only challenged by Ted Knight.

Maybe the greatest one night wrestling story ever told was Flair winning the Rumble. Heenan's commitment to constantly putting Flair over -- the over-the-top desperation -- was incredible.

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When I had my hair bleached for a couple of years, almost everyone said it made me look like Ric Flair.

Ric Flair was not the reason I had bleached hair.  Bobby Heenan was.

Heenan was one of my Mount Rushmore of managers (along with Heyman, Cornette and Sherri) and probably my greatest influence as a performer, and now two of them are gone.

This one really hurts.

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Used to watch Bobby manage at the Winnipeg Arena when I was really young, with my dad and my grandfather. My parents divorced when I was young, so our monthly trip on a weeknight to see the wrestling was a special occasion. After Bobby jumped to the WWF, my grandfather became less interested in going to the shows, so it ended up being just me and my dad, until the WWF started coming on a regular basis, and Bobby was back in town. Grandpa HAD to come back to yell and scream at Bobby. Our "gang" was back together, at least a couple of times a year to watch the wrestling.

My grandfather passed away over 10 years ago. The three of us had not been to a wrestling event together for at least 25 years, but my dad still called me today to ask if I had heard the news, and we talked for 15 minutes about all of our memories going to cheer against Bobby all of those years.

RIP Bobby. Greatest manager and greatest broadcast journalist the business has ever seen.

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54 minutes ago, Johnny Sorrow said:

Back around 2005, Bobby appeared on this ROH show I went to at the Rexplex in North Jersey. Before the show, he was taking pictures with fans for ten bucks a Polaroid. Of course I was on that shit in a heartbeat. When I handed the photo guy a twenty and he gave me my change, the twenty fell on the floor and he didn't see it. I said, "Hey man, you dropped that twenty."

Bobby puts his arm around me for the pose and says to me, "You're not originally from New Jersey, are you?"

I say, "No."

He says, "I know, cause if you were you woulda kept that twenty."

And then the pic was taken.

167684_178619095512164_398777_n.jpg

Rest in peace to the greatest of all time.

Shit, now I really want to know what his comeback would have been if you were from Jersey.

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