When your father is Mr Perfect Curt Hennig, following in his footsteps as a professional wrestler is always going to be a tall order. As a third generation wrestler, the profession was in Joe Hennigs blood. The WWE have always been high on second or third generation wrestlers, and, like Ted DiBiase Jr, Randy Orton, Roman Reigns and many others, he was signed up with hopes of greatness. He debuted in Florida Championship Wrestling, the precursor to the NXT promotion, under his real name. He was then drafted onto the second series of the NXT television show on WWE television. However, he was renamed Michael McGillicutty. It was a strange decision. Although it was understandable to not want to lumber him with the high expectations that went with the Hennig name, the commentators still acknowledged him as the son of Mr Perfect, which only served to be a huge distraction as people wondered why he was going by the name of McGillicutty, a name which seems popular with wrestling characters (see Beulah in ECW) but Ive never, ever heard in real life. Hennig made it to the main roster as part of the second version of the Nexus faction under the leadership of CM Punk, but never really connected with the fans or the office, and soon found himself bouncing around between appearing on Superstars and NXT broadcasts. Then WWE creative had a brainwave. Rather than (sort of) hiding his heritage, they decided to go in the completely opposite direction. He was repackaged as Curtis Axel, named after his father (Curt Hennig) and his grandfather (Larry The Ax Hennig). He was also paired up with manager Paul Heyman, whose career was flourishing with WWE Champion CM Punk at the time. In his first appearances, he was belittled by Triple H on Raw, which hardly helped to get him to connect with the fans. He quickly won the Intercontinental title but his reign was not a classic, and he lost it five months later, after losing several televised non-title matches in the meantime. He is now working in a lacklustre tag team with fellow drifter Ryback. The problem for Joe Hennig was, despite his T-shirt saying that he is Better Than Perfect, he was never able to live up to his fathers legacy. Mr Perfect was one of the greatest in-ring performers in the history of wrestling. Whatever the WWE tries with Joe Hennig, he does not possess his fathers skills.
Dean Ayass is a well known name to British wrestling fans. A commentator, manager, booker and ring announcer who has been involved in the business since 1993, Dean's insight into the business is second to none.
