10 Stories From Bobby Heenan's One-of-a-Kind Career
RIP 'Brain'.
Bobby 'The Brain' Heenan wasn't just perhaps the greatest wrestling manager of all time - he was also the arguably the industry's best ever colour commentator and, in the eyes of some, the most brilliant bad guy in all of entertainment history.
(And, to be honest, you can probably take out the qualifiers perhaps, arguably and in the eyes of some without making that sentence any less accurate).
News that one of wrestling's most beloved sons passed away at the age of 72 after a lengthy battle with ill-health this week was greeted with an outpouring of emotion - both from those who personally worked with the great man, and the generation of viewers who came to know him alongside long-time broadcast partner Gorilla Monsoon as the voice of the WWF.
Having been involved with wrestling, under various guises, for close to four decades, there is also no shortage of colourful stories from Heenan's time on the road and in the locker room, which speak to a man who was as warm and generous with the fans as he was mischievous and, at times, outrageous in the company of his contemporaries.
10. Paying His Due
Bobby Heenan's working life began sooner than most; in fact, the future WWE legend, as he described in his autobiography, took his first steps in professional wrestling before he hit his teens, performing odd jobs at local events in Chicago and Indianapolis.
In the eighth grade, he dropped out of school altogether and took up full-time work, variously, as a theater usher, store clerk, milkman, and car jockey, in order to help support his mother and grandmother during times of financial difficulty.
Two things jump out at you here, the first being that it's mightily impressive a man who didn't finish high school went on to the nickname 'The Brain'. The second is that it really speaks to his incredible workrate, which probably explains how he was able to turn his hand to everything with such seamless aplomb.