10 WWE Wrestlers Who Were Nothing Without Their Managers
7. The Red Rooster
Wrestling apocrypha has it that either Terry Taylor or Curt Hennig were set to get the Mr Perfect persona before the company settled on the latter. Could ice cool Curt done a better job with that chicken strut?
A doomed gimmick for the current Performance Center coach saw Taylor installed as Bobby Heenan's "little Red Rooster" as a vanity project for 'The Brain' more than for Taylor himself.
Heenan was tacitly abusive even as he unveiled his new project, noting to Brother Love that "he's limited when it comes to wrestling, he's limited when it comes to size, he's limited when it comes to a win/loss record, but I'm gonna make this man the next big star in professional wrestling".
From the off, the gimmick was set up for Rooster's babyface turn, but it was dead without 'The Weasel' at its core. Taylor slapped him about at WrestleMania V to gain a measure of revenge, then started strutting and pecking his way through the midcard as if he were anthropomorphic.
His failures ultimately proved Heenan's original assessment right, which wasn't ideal for a babyface already literally comparing himself to a chicken.