Curt Hennig

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Curtis Hennig


Statistics
Ring name(s)	Curt Hennig Mr. Perfect
Billed height	6 ft 3 in (190 cm)
Billed weight	260 lb (118 kg)
Born	March 28, 1958 Robbinsdale, Minnesota
Died	February 13, 2003 (aged 44) Tampa, Florida
Trained by	Verne Gagne Larry Hennig
Debut	1979

Curtis Michael Hennig (March 28, 1958 – February 10, 2003), also known by his ring name Mr. Perfect, was an American professional wrestler who competed for the American Wrestling Association, World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling promotions. He was the longest-reigning WWF Intercontinental Champion of the 1990s.

1 Professional wrestling career
2 WWE Hall of Fame
3 Death and legacy
4 Wrestling facts
5 Championships and accomplishments
6 External links

[edit] Professional wrestling career

[edit] American Wrestling Association

The son of wrestler Larry "The Axe" Hennig, Curt Hennig spent the greater part of the first decade of his career rising through the ranks of the promotion. Due to his considerable talent, and the defection of other wrestlers to the WWF and NWA, Hennig eventually became one of the top stars in the AWA. Hennig's first big push was with his father in a feud with the Road Warriors in 1985. The Hennigs were unsuccessful in their bid to win the tag titles, but proved to be worthy opponents for the Road Warriors, an attempt by the AWA to raise Curt's clout amongst the fans.

Hennig eventually won the AWA World Tag Team Championship with partner Scott Hall in 1986, defeating the team of Jimmy Garvin and Steve Regal. They would lose the titles to the team of Buddy Rose and Doug Somers that same year, at which time Hennig immediately began his long awaited pursuit of the AWA World Heavyweight Championship.

Then champion, Stan Hansen, was embroiled in a feud with Jerry Blackwell for the title. According to the storyline, Blackwell had been injured in a car accident and was unable to face Hansen for the title. Hennig was Blackwell's replacement and wrestled Hansen to a draw. When Hansen was stripped of the title and the belt was awarded to former 3 time world champion Nick Bockwinkel, Hennig was the obvious #1 contender.

Hennig and Bockwinkel would feud for nearly a year over the title, headlining AWA cards throughout the midwest. Several of their title matches would go the full one hour time limit and most were considered classics.

Before the title change, the AWA and Hennig decided to take his character in a new direction. Hennig began to express frustration during interviews and his in-ring tactics began to straddle the fence between face and heel. Hennig's heel turn was furthered when he won the AWA World Heavyweight Title from Nick Bockwinkel on May 2, 1987, after using a roll of dimes given to him by Larry Zbyszko, and cemented by attacking tag team partner Greg Gagne during a match.

Hennig and Gagne would feud over the title during late 1987 and early 1988. The most interesting (and perhaps only) twist to the feud was the involvement of the fathers, Larry and Verne, respectively, in many of the matches. Greg Gagne apparently won the title on several occasions, only to have the belt returned to Hennig on a technicality, a common booking practice of the AWA at the time.

After a one year title reign, Hennig lost the title to Jerry Lawler on May 9, 1988, in Memphis. Hennig made a few more appearances on television and claimed that he wanted title shots from Lawler, but left the AWA shortly after the title loss.

[edit] World Wrestling Federation

The character of "Mr. Perfect" was created upon arriving in the WWF. Hennig spent weeks shooting promos for his new persona. These clips showed him hitting a three-point basketball shot, bowling a score of 300, running the table in pool, catching his own Hail Mary football pass, or sinking a long golf putt, all to solidify his claim of being a superior athlete in anything he did. He cut various promos with other pro athletes such as Wade Boggs where Hennig was depicted as the "Perfect" athlete. He would go undefeated for over a year during feuds with The Blue Blazer, The Red Rooster and Jimmy Snuka, adding to his claim of perfection. That record came to an end when he began feuding with Hulk Hogan over the WWF Championship in 1989, which included a backstage segment where he destroyed Hogan's WWF Title belt with a hammer. Originally handled by The Genius, Hennig eventually enlisted the services of Bobby Heenan as his manager and went on to win the vacant Intercontinental Title in the final round of a tournament in April 1990 by defeating two-time IC Champion Tito Santana.

He lost the belt to The Texas Tornado at SummerSlam 1990. He regained the title in November thanks to interference from Ted DiBiase and held it until August 1991, dropping the belt to Bret Hart at SummerSlam. Hennig battled an injured back throughout most of this period, and while recovering he acted as Ric Flair's "executive consultant" during Flair's two WWF Championship reigns. He was a color commentator on WWF Superstars of Wrestling for most of 1992, acting as a suitable heel foil to Vince McMahon's play-by-play. Mr. Perfect soon had a falling-out with Flair and Heenan (Flair's "financial advisor") after Randy Savage asked Perfect to be his partner against Flair and Razor Ramon at the 1992 Survivor Series. After initially laughing off Savage's decision, Hennig was swayed by Savage's cajoling, Heenan jarring his pride by saying Hennig wasn't capable of wrestling on that level anymore and Heenan demanding that Hennig do as he said and say no. Hennig returned to the ring at the Survivor Series and he and Savage won the match by disqualification. Perfect later eliminated Flair from the 1993 Royal Rumble and defeated Flair the next night on Raw in a "Loser Leaves The WWF Match".

Hennig actively competed in the WWF until the fall of 1993. He wrestled Lex Luger at WrestleMania IX and lost the match, only to chase Luger backstage where he was jumped from behind by Shawn Michaels. This feud would lead to an Intercontinental Title match at Summerslam 1993, which Hennig lost by count-out due to interference from Diesel. As stated in WWE magazine, Hennig was responsible for coining Michaels' famous moniker, "The Heartbreak Kid".

Hennig's back injury flared up again, so he took more time off. At WrestleMania X, Hennig was a special guest referee for the title match between Lex Luger and Yokozuna. Hennig was set to start another feud with Luger following WrestleMania, but plans were changed. He returned in 1995 as a color commentator at the Survivor Series and served as a manager/mentor for Hunter Hearst Helmsley in 1996 after betraying "Wildman" Marc Mero. Hennig was initially to make his wrestling comeback versus Helmsley but was apparently injured by Helmsley backstage. This all turned out to be a ruse for the purpose of suckering Mero into defending his title. After HHH won the Intercontinental title from Mero, he disposed of Hennig as his mentor and Hennig left the Federation shortly thereafter.

Hennig was part of the broadcast team at Royal Rumble (1996), Summerslam (1996) and Survivor Series (1995), but he never did get to broadcast a Wrestlemania.

[edit] World Championship Wrestling

Hennig signed with WCW in 1997, with both the Four Horsemen and the nWo trying to recruit him. After feuding with Diamond Dallas Page for a month he joined the Four Horsemen, taking the spot of the retiring Arn Anderson, with Anderson's implorement that Hennig take "his spot" the subject of the following week's parody of the Horsemen by the nWo, which lead to the WarGames match. At Fall Brawl, Hennig was allegedly jumped backstage by the nWo and came to ringside mid-match with his arm in a sling. The whole thing turned out to be a setup as Hennig betrayed the Horsemen and joined the nWo, handcuffing the other Horsemen to the cage and then slamming the steel cage door into Ric Flair's head, afterwards claiming he had "destroyed the Horseman" and as a further slap to Flair, claimed to be "the wrestler that made Minnesota famous". Two months after he joined the nWo, his childhood friend, Rick Rude, was also brought in. Hennig won the United States Title from Steve McMichael in September 1997 before losing it to Diamond Dallas Page in December of that year at Starrcade.

He struggled with a knee injury for much of 1998. When the nWo broke into two different factions, the Wolfpac (red and black) and nWo Hollywood (black and white), both Hennig and Rude joined the Wolfpac. The two did not really fit in with the fan favorite Wolfpac faction, especially when Rick Rude would still get on the microphone and tell the fans to shut up. Hennig was not able to compete against Bill Goldberg at the Great American Bash that June, so he asked his "buddy" Konnan to replace him. Konnan lost the match, and afterward both Hennig and Rude attacked him. The following night on WCW Monday Nitro, Curt Hennig and Rick Rude joined nWo Hollywood. Despite his injury he faced WCW World Champion Goldberg twice (losing both matches), the first being Goldberg's first world title defense at Bash at the Beach. That September, Hennig was taken off WCW TV due to his injury. He returned at Starrcade 1998 to aid Eric Bischoff in defeating Ric Flair.

In 1999, he joined nWo Black and White and tagged with Barry Windham. Hennig and Windham lost to Ric Flair and Flair's son David at Souled Out 1999 due to interference by Arn Anderson. After the match, the rest of the nWo came out and humiliated Flair by handcuffing him to the ring, and forced him to watch his son David take a beating from Hollywood Hogan. Shortly afterward, Hennig was attacked by the nWo and thrown out of the group for no apparent reason other than Scott Hall stating "it's time to trim the fat". Hennig went on to win the World Tag Team Titles with Barry Windham. Three months later, he became the leader of The West Texas Rednecks with Barry, Barry's brother Kendall Windham and Bobby Duncum, Jr.. They were supposed to be heels to feud with rapper Master P's No Limit Soldiers, but the southern WCW fans cheered them and the storyline was soon dropped. The Rednecks recorded a country song titled "Rap Is Crap" that received some airplay. After the Rednecks disbanded, Hennig feuded with Harlem Heat and Shawn Stasiak. During the feud, Stasiak called himself "Perfectshawn" Stasiak, which was a ripoff of the "Mr. Perfect" gimmick. Hennig left WCW after his contract expired in the summer of 2000.

[edit] Late career

After a brief run as a franchise star for the short lived XWF, he returned to the WWF in 2002 as a competitor in the Royal Rumble, and was one of the final four before being eliminated by Triple H. He then had short feuds with Stone Cold Steve Austin and Rob Van Dam before forming a tag team with Big Boss Man. Some people say that this partnership was historical in a way as both Boss Man and Hennig passed away after a year or so. He was released from the company on May 5, 2002 after reportedly becoming intoxicated and getting into a fight with Brock Lesnar on a return flight from the United Kingdom that became known as the "Plane Ride From Hell". After being fired from the WWF, he went on to work for TNA and Jimmy Hart's All Star Wrestling.

[edit] WWE Hall of Fame

On March 31, 2007, Hennig was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. His wife, his four kids and his mom and dad accepted the award on his behalf.

[edit] Death and legacy

On February 10, 2003, Hennig was found dead in a Florida hotel room, just before a scheduled wrestling match. The Tampa Coroner's office and the Tampa Medical Examiner's office declared acute cocaine intoxication the official cause of his death. His father said a lethal combination of steroids and painkillers contributed to his death. [1]

He left behind his parents Larry and Irene, wife Leonice and four children, Joe, Hank , Katie, and Amy.

Hennig's wife Leonice signed a WWE Legends contract on her husband's behalf.

In February 2007, WWE confirmed that it would be producing a two disc DVD set focused on Hennig titled "The Life and Times of Mr. Perfect", and announced on the February 19, 2007 episode of RAW that he will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2007.

Wade Boggs, who famously appeared in a vignette with Hennig, inducted him into the WWE Hall of Fame on March 31, 2007 along with Hennig's family.