Bobby "The Brain" Heenan

Interview by Chris Yandek of New Era Of Wresting.com

Bobby Hennan is the proclaimed Manager of the Century. In my exclusive interview, I talked with Bobby about what he has been up to. Also WWF, WCW and WOW comments, and he also announced that he will be auctioning off all his stuff from his WWF Days.

When I asked him what he had been up to, he said "Oh nothing much just enjoying the spring, playing a little golf and just relaxing."

He was part of WCW as an announcer at one time. He comments on the buying of WCW to the WWF and how it will affected the business. He said "Well they had no choice.. they were out of business, they were not making any money that is why they did not want to renew the last year of my contract... they could not afford to pay me what I was making."

While with WCW, his work continued to be cut down and he told them to give him more to do. He said, "Yeah, they told me there wasn't really anything else for me to do."

Back in February, Bobby Hennan was an announcer for the Women of Wrestling, and regarding if Dave McLane had asked him to come back or if there will be another season of the Women of Wrestling he said "I don't know the last time I talked to them. I told him give me a call and find out if I am. He was supposed to have one in April. I also have heard now Vince Russo may be with him."

He was a success in the WWF. The last night he was there when he was escorted out, he saluted the Building he goes into. Was that his idea? He said "Yes that was my idea."

He managed everyone from King Kong Bundy to Andre the Giant, and he was always the right guy to manage a big star or the toughest heels. He said "Well I did think they thought it would work good with my experience and my years managing. I did not really make anybody. Everybody made themselves and the ones that made it made it on their own and the ones that did not make it was not my fault. I didn't worry about the pleasure of creating anything. I always worried
about Bobby Hennan."

When Vince Russo came into WCW, Bobby was already there but they did not see or talk to each other. I asked him if he thought Vince Russo was egotistic. He says "I don't believe I have said 5 words to the man. The only time I would see him was at a production meeting and they did not even know how to have a production meeting. They would bring everyone who had nothing to do with TV and then they would have them read the format and everyone would go to lunch. If you had an idea or something, they thought you were affecting them."

Bobby Hennan has been around for a long time and had been in WCW for many years. I asked him if he had any fun while in WCW. He said, "I have had limited amounts of fun with Mike Tenay. He is a real lot of laughs and smart guy. Other then that no I didn't have a good time.. there it was depressing to work, from where I came being in the Major Leagues going to Tee Ball but it was my choice. I did not want be in the WWF and I was burned and wanted to take some time off."
He returned to Wrestlemania 17 with Mene Gene Okerlund for the Gimmick Battle Royal. I asked him who called him and how he was brought in and if he had fun working with Mene Gene Okerlund. He said "The producer Kevin Dunn gave me a call and asked if I would be available. I said sure. I have worked with Gene for almost 30 years and never know who will show up.. they treated me really well by the way."

As the Manager of the Century, I asked him who he thought had a good chance of becoming a big star soon. He said "I really don't know. I will tell you the guys I like are The Hardy Boys."

He has had a great career and much determination. I asked him who was the most inspirational. He said "Probably Vince McMahon and Gorilla Moonson."

Andre the Giant was a legend like no other. Bobby Goes into what he can remember most about him. He said "I remember he was in pain a whole lot of time through his life. I remembered he liked doing movies and he liked wrestling. That's all he wanted to do was act, drink his wine, wrestle and Play Cribbage. He didn't like people because people always asked how tall he was, how much do you weigh, how big are you, were you really from France and that is enough after all those years. He just kinda enclosed he did not like to be around people."

When he was in WCW Paul Wight at that time called The Giant a character that was just like Andre The Giant, like he was his son. I asked him what he thought of that or if the character offended him. He said "Well if they were smart, they could have pulled that off.. no that is just business. Everybody comes, everybody goes, we're just passing through."

He has been taking time off and is right now a free agent. I asked him if he would every go back to the WWF or the New WCW or if he has any negotiations with a federation to sign a contract. He said "Sure I am always open for negotiations. The New WCW would not be run by the old WCW People. It is just three different letters, but different people running it. I would be interested.. if the money is right we can talk. If you're in this business for anything else then money you're a fool."

There are many places to find him and he now discusses auctioning off his memorabilia from his WWF Days. He said "Just keep looking for me at Bobbythebrain.com and by Monday, May 7th 2001, I should know something. I am meeting with a person who may be putting all my stuff for sale and merchandise. All my wrestling Memorabilia, wrestling jackets, a couple wrestling suitcases, coats, I have the suit I wore in Wrestlemania 3 with Andre.. I have a lot of stuff. I have the first outfits I wore on RAW.. I am gonna get rid of all that stuff. I have got so much stuff I have no where to pack it or keep it when I get old for my grand kids and I don't have any grand kids."

Back at Wrestlemania 2, he was in the hospital and he left the hospital. He tells me about that experience. He said "I left the hospital told them I would be back. I got on a plane and went to the event, went on a plane came back and the nurse said where have you been? I said I went to wrestle she said you can't do that, I said I just did."

He believed if you were a Manager you worked like a wrestler and if you were a Wrestler you were like a manager. He said on that topic "Some managers will be running up and down and they will be yelling at the people and they will be tripping guys and kicking guys and doing this and that all at the wrong time. Their man may be in there trying to tell a story line and get a match going and watch this goose running up and down and being an idiot. But if you work that corner like you were in that ring every time your man gets hit, you have to register you have to feel what he is feeling, you have an investment in this man.. you're his manager. He is a member of the Bobby Hennan Family, he has to mean something to you, then when you get him in the ring and he has to work matches. The manager breaks into it and that's how you get over."

Managers, mostly men, are uncommon of late besides the Manager of Champions Bill Alfonso. I asked him why he though there were not many managers and why there are so many female valets today. He said "Well first off you have to get the character over and to do that you have to have a Mene Gene Okerlund. I think it's really hard to come out and do a 6 minute rap on someone and think you can get anybody over. I think you have to know this man and you can not just start off being a heel or tripping people. I never hit anybody unless it was a finish to the match, otherwise it did not mean nothing. You see, a manager was usually a young kid starting in the business or an old guy on his way out.. no one really wanted to make a career as a manager, but I did cause I knew I could make money off of it and I knew I could work, I knew I could get myself into positions with major promotions and have to get me to the Main Events."

I told Bobby he was the Manager of The Century. He said "That is what they voted me I heard. This Monday the people will be coming over to take inventory and pictures and I have to sign a lot of stuff. I don't know how it will be produced yet."

2nd Interview

He has battled through throat cancer and many years of wrestling. Bobby Heenan sits down for his second interview with me talking about the state of professional wrestling, his new book coming out, and the WWE Confidential special on himself.

First off how are you, and how is your health?

"I am doing good. I have trouble saying a few words, and other then that my blood pressure is good, my weight is good, and they say my health is good. I feel good, and I just don't have the strain I had two years ago, but it will come back. Other then that I feel really good."

How did the whole WWE Confidential thing come about?

"Mean Gene Okerlund called me, and he said they wanted to do a story and hoped you would not mind doing it. I said no I wouldn't mind doing it, and they set the date and sent a camera crew to my house and we did it."

Do you think the story on WWE Confidential was delivered out the right way, and what do you think the fan reaction was to your story battling throat cancer?

"Well, I think people missed half of it because they showed an interview I did at the beginning, and then they showed the Steve Austin stuff in the middle and a lot of people thought the interview was over, and after that they went back to my story and a lot of people missed that half of it. I thought it was received quite well, and all the email and people I talked to liked it."

Mean Gene Okerlund is the host of WWE Confidential. What are you best memories of Mean Gene and yourself?

"I remember Mean Gene over 30 years ago in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Mean Gene used to be a disk jockey, and used to work under the name Gene Leader or something like that. He had an afternoon show, and did all the stax with wax and finger on the trigger and things like that. He then went into sales and was selling TV time to sponsors, and at that time we had an announcer in the AWA and his name was Marty O'Neil who was an older guy with glasses and just a super man. He got sick and had a heart attack or stroke or something, and Mean Gene has some experience in TV, and they asked him to come down and do some interviews and he said yeah. Mean Gene came down to the offices, and he knew some stuff and right off the bat you heard that voice with strong types, and Mean Gene did a heck of a job for someone who never did it. As time went on Marty came back a little, and it was obvious he couldn't do it anymore, and they offered Mean Gene the job and he took it. History was made from there on."

Is there any possibility at all that you may go back to WWE on one of their programs in the near future?

"I would go back on one of their programs, but I would not want to be obligated to a contract where I have to do something a couple times a week where I have to go fly and stand two hours in line at the airport and all that stuff. Right now today as we talk I am not into that, and that could all change but I really don't see myself doing that. I wouldn't mind being a public relations guy for them, and meet people at some of the shows they do. I wouldn't mind going to WrestleMania's and sign autographs, and even do on sale tickets for them, but to be involved in a storyline or something like that I really don't have it in me anymore. The product today as well is not the product I was raised on. It is not the wrestling I know, but I can still shake hands and meet people. As far as doing it on a regular basis probably not, but then again I haven't heard the money involved."

You have a book coming out on your whole career, maybe you can summarize what fans can expect from reading the book?

"Well, it is a great book to read when you're on an airplane. It is a great book to read when you're sitting around with a bunch of people. It is not one of those books where you read from page one and don't find out what happened until page 712. The book has 200 to 300 something pages, but its like USA Today there are short stories about my life. Most of the stories in there are about the ribs we did, fun we had, and I tell stories about Vern Gange, The Iron Shiek, Vince McMahon, the belt, stories on the road, working with Ray Stevens, and a bunch of things we did. I think it is very entertaining."

Will there be a good look at the life of Andre The Giant in the book?

"Yeah. There are Andre stories in the book. There really isn't much to hide. He was a big man that didn't like a lot of people, and he's dead. Everybody knows what he did in the ring, being the Six Million Dollar man, playing Bigfoot, and The Princess Bride and things he did. The reason he didn't like people is because he got tired of people coming up to him asking, "Are you Andre The Giant?" "No, I am a shoe maker or a jockey, who do you think I am?" and how much do you weigh, how big are your hands, and how is the weather up there, he really just got tired of it. They told him he wouldn't live to be 50 because he had the giant disease, and that's where your body grows but your organs don't. Gorilla Monsoon had the same disease but he controlled it because he is from America in Rochester, New York. He got all the medication, but Andre wasn't putting out how to piss. I am not sure they had all that technology then."

Are you surprised Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff are both in the WWE working for Vince McMahon?

"No, I am not. I am not surprised Hogan is because he was probably offered a truck load of money to do it. Another thing, Hogan really does love the business. I don't understand people when they say I love the business because we are the business. Vince McMahon and the promoters are not the business. Vince is different though because he created the business the way it is today. The boys would never be making the money they are right now if it was not for Vince because I think we would still be back in the old territories making $50 a shot, maybe $100 now I don't know. I am not surprised Hogan went back because what are you gonna do when you have done it your whole life, and when your offered a lot of money and it is a pretty easy schedule you take it. As far as Eric Bischoff goes I heard he is busted, and that he isn't making much money. He said all things about Vince McMahon on TV, and you think Vince isn't gonna get back at him come on."

The WWE product and ratings have been up and down of late. What are your thoughts on what the WWE needs to do with The Rock not there full time, and Steve Austin not active in the company right now?

"You have had the belt on Undertaker, The Rock, Steve Austin, and Hulk Hogan the hottest things they have. The numbers are going down tell me why? I will tell you why because people don't care anymore, and life has really changed in this world. If you wanna see a guy go through a table big deal. You can see planes go into a building, a live war on TV, people being kidnapped, car chases, and you can see reality TV shows which is real. I think wrestling has been lucky to have the run it had. I think wrestling is in very severe trouble. I don't care who you bring in, and what hurt Vince McMahon more then anything was buying WCW. As long as he had a competition he was doing fine. Once you buy your competition where you gonna go? Wrestling goes in hills and valleys, and you may see it go up again. Eddie Graham when he was a promoter here in Tampa, Florida used to run shows every Tuesday night, with Tampa, Florida every Wednesday night in Miami, Florida, and every Thursday in Jacksonville, Florida. You really can't do that anymore. First of all these guys have big salaries, and it cost every time we did WCW Monday Nitro $250,000 plus a $1,000,000 a month. That all includes pyro, salaries, airplane, 17 trucks, wrecking ambulances, catering, and that really all costs a lot of money. When you have nothing coming in that really stops quick, and they didn't have a good product to run."

Any final comments?

"I hope people find the book entertaining, and that they learn something about the business. I just hope I entertain the fans the way they want to be entertained, but I really just don't see any interest. I drive all around town and across the country, and people never say to me anymore, hey whatever happened to this person and that, now they say nothing. I don't watch wrestling much anymore. When I was watching Raw this past week I was flipping through and I saw The Fabulous Moolah, and then I saw those two garbagemen get in the ring and beat up those two old women, and what if one of those women had died? If you look at Moolah down on her neck with no place to go, where she could have broken her neck, then what do you say to sponsors? This is a very serious thing where you have one women in her 70's and one in her 80's where there is no TV value to beating two women up. Then you have three guys out there with an upside down flag, you tell me why no one is watching, it is shit. There really is nothing to watch. No one does interviews anymore, and when you introduce a guy with Mean Gene they would play short videos of the guy coming, and you can see anyone beat someone up and put people through tables. You really have to establish themselves whether he is a lumberjack, German, Nazi, cowboy, and talk about the ranch or Berlin to get the character over. It just doesn't seem like they're really there anymore with getting talent over. Interviews really got the people over. The book comes out August 28th, and when you're reading it and going to the bathroom, think of me."

Interview by Chris Yandek of New Era Of Wresting.com

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