As the co-writer for his first and second book, I appreciate you shining a spotlight on his story. It was my priviledge and honor to work with him. I miss him terribly to this day. I have a channel (Weasel Tales) where I share the countless tapes that was the basis for the books.Sitting in a hotel room while The Brain told his stories was an out-of-boddy experience.
I remember this epic exchange on an episode of Saturday Night - Heenan: You know when Meng was young, he'd go from village to village, tree to tree, destroying everybody. Tony: He'd go from 'tree to tree?' Wow. You ever watch this show and think, just what are we doing? Heenan: Me? Oh no, I never watch this stuff.
That was on Nitro too! I literally just watched that episode the other day lol. I was surprised he said that. But I guess he got away with a lot of crazy things he said back then. Different era I guess! 🤷🏽♂️ 😂 I Love Bobby
David Arquette donating his wrestling money to the families of Pillman and Owen Hart is incredible, that fact should always be mentioned when his championship win is talked about.
@Cloudy_Jones David didn’t even want to win it he had too much respect for the business and is a wrestling fan that was all a turner decision since ready to rumble was just coming out
I see a lot of people mock Arquette for being the worst world champion of all time, but i rarely see anyone talk about Vince Russo winning the belt since at least David had respect for the business and didn't even want to win the title.
It's great to hear such a legendary announcer praise Mike Tenay. I don't think Tenay gets the recognition he deserves from his peers. Even Gene Okerlund was critical of him.
@@DLRX In a shoot interview he was very dismissive of his announcing abilities. "Not an announcer," and he was surprised he worked in TNA as long as he did.
I've always felt that Monsoon and Heenan could have made a fortune by going to Hollywood and doing buddy-comedy movies. I think they'd have been like Bob Hope and Bing Crosby in their "Road To" movies, just without the singing and dancing numbers.
That story of Heenan telling Mongo not to tell anyone that he knocked the wind out of Mongo in his debut match with that kick, only for Heenan to then brag to everybody about it, is easily the most Bobby Heenan part of the entire video, and I loved it. I bet Mongo's reaction later on was just "Yeah, that Weasel fooled me...".
to be fair, its "better for the business" that way...on one hand, you'd have Mongo ADMITTING that he had his wind knocked out of him, by a Commentator...itd make the 'star' look that much Weaker... ...whereas, a slimey weasely manager/commentator/other "non-wrestler", bragging about getting one over on A Wrestler, gets chalked up as cheeky heel-ish bragging...the kind where youd roll your eyes and say "oh yeah, sure, you got Mongo, and then you threw a football clear over that mountain, right?"
@@rtyuik7 None of this was on camera, though. Heenan was obviously just bragging to everyone backstage about how he kicked the wind out of Mongo. Heenan just decided to rib Mongo by convincing him not to tell anyone else so that he could make a big deal out of it instead, for a laugh.
I hated Tony but loved Mike and Bobby. Tenay was great and knew his stuff, Tony just seemed like he was there to collect a paycheck. Of course, Bobby is a legend.
Tenay was so good as the expert that would chime in with relevant facts and who would take over a bit if it was a match where he knew and cared more about the style and competitors.
I liked how he mistook Gene for Tony (On purpose) and then in his book wrote something like, “Yeah it was dumb for me to mistake the two. Cause Gene actually has talent. And a job!”
I vaguely recall the timing being off, particularly around a 'mother in law' joke that Gene tried to set him up for but it was so great to see those guys commentate one more time.
WCW not telling the commentators anything really comes across cause even listening to reliving the war they seemed just as clueless as the audience at times
I grew up with Heenan in the WWF, so I did appreciate all of the things he did as a manager, as a commentator, and as a host. I think that I was one of the few people who watched The Bobby Heenan Show, which was a spin-off of the WWF Prime Time Wrestling show that aired on USA Network, and enjoyed Bobby's chemistry with his co-host, Jamison. That was some funny stuff. :) And I loved every minute of Heenan in WCW. He made it enjoyable and worth watching, even when it really wasn't.
@@G360LIVE I think that's what they're saying though. Those of us who grew up with Heenan and Ventura didn't have anything worse to compare it to, so we took that level of quality as standard.
Regarding Bobby's rating comment when Mick Foley won the title. Could he have been referring to the quarter hour rating after Schiavone made the "butts in seats" comment?
My vague memory is someone saying, could have been in Foley's book, that they switched over to watch Mankind win but switched back after, because they cared about the WCW main event and they (WCW)could have won that night if they'd just never said anything.
@@SensiofRabbitude Foley mentioned it on the *MONDAY NIGHT WAR* DVD that there was a switch back to NITRO, because that was the same night (4-JAN-1999) Goldberg was arrested for SA against Liz and the “Finger Poke of Doom”
For what it's worth, Tony says he was nowhere near as powerful as Bobby says, but he does admit he handled things poorly with him. Nice to know they made up when they recorded commentary for Showdown: Legends of Wrestling
@@tafua_a The Attitude Era was absolutely pathetic in retrospect. Austin and Rock were way too over and popular for it to matter. It was f***ing catnip for teenage boys. Choppy choppy pee pee and Doctor Henie etc etc etc. Pathetic garbage.
Heenan was held back in WCW. Saw him when I started watching him in 1998 but learned about him truly in 2011. He was much better in WWF and was definitely the brain 🧠 when you hear him speak.
Heenan was excellent in WCW, he always conducted himself as a professional. I never knew anything about Schiavone tbh, but you can clearly see his chair boosted to make him look taller. He probably was/is an extremely insecure man.
I feel like if they'd had something like the WWE network, early post attitude era, they'd have probably given him and Geme Okerlund some kind of show together. With the WWF/E needing network filler content back then, they'd have taken more chances with available legends. I mean you did get stuff like round tables and confidential but it was sporadic and it had to be something they had confidence in, to sell to a tv network.
When Bobby left WWE he actually planned to retire. He and his wife moved to Atlanta because their daughter was attending college there, and when WCW found out they offered him a job. He was attracted to the lighter schedule and bigger payday Turner was offering and agreed, and even after he got tired of being there he stuck around because as he says here “I had first class airfare, expenses, guaranteed salary, medical, and I only worked a couple of days a week. I didn’t care about anything. All I cared about was doing my job and getting my money.”
I didn't watch the video yet but I hope Heenan and Tony made up before Heenan died. Apparently Bobby was mad at Tony because he told Bobby he shouldn't mention the passing of Gorilla Monsoon on the broadcast which in Heenan's defense is really messed up.
I remember reading Bobby’s book way back some 25-ish years ago. It really made me respect him even more than before. The wrestling world was a much better place with him in it. R.I.P. Bobby!
I can tell you right now, one of my friends who used to work at the Jacksonville Florida Colosseum, told me one time he had the misfortune of working a WCW show for Monday Nitro. He was saying that the WCW staff were very rude to a lot of the Colosseum staff, making a lot of outrageous demands, just being disrespectful to a lot of the staff who were trying to keep the place running but they wanted to have people out of areas to do these worked spots, and then if they trash something they didn't want to clean up anything. He told me once, the talent was nice to them, but only the undercard and midcard guys. Rest of the "stars" were absolute shitheads to everyone. By the end of the show, many of the event staff were begging the management not to have them back. They did a Sunday Night Heat show with WWF a year later. He said the staff at WWF were like dealing with a professional sports team league. They came in, took responsibility when and where needed, had their own sets for stuff to work from, talent was nice all around, management was nice to a point but more professional about it. Real night and day.
Heenan knew that 2000 was the last straw he ever appear in WCW after the chaotic mess that was the entire product. And who could blame him. Once Heenan left, I started giving up on watching WCW Nitro on TV again and just flip the channel to RAW. Heenan will always be one of my favorite announcers growing up as a kid and he and Mene Gene delivers hilarious moments. They’re the Batman and Robin of Pro Wrestling.
I'm fairly certain that Madden Googles his own name to see what people say about him. Once, I commented on a Twitter thread about how he was a poor replacement for Bobby, and he sent me a reply, calling me a mark, which made no sense. He wasn't even tagged in the thread.
Great episode of Blunder. Watch all the clips, love reliving the war. I'm looking forward to seeing myself in the crowd for Rebellion 2001. RIP Bobby The Brain 😊
The fact that Nitro replaced with Heenan with Mark Madden on the last Reliving the War proves WCW didn't know what they were doing Madden was one of the worst announcers ever😒
I feel slightly lucky as when I was able to watch WCW World Wide in 2000 on the UK Channel 5 which had matches and highlights from Nirto and Thunder the announce team was Scot Hudsons and Larry lizbisco *I think that's how I spell his sir name* and they were good for when I was 13 Years old. But yeah Just watching clips now of WCW hearing Mark Madden....yeah not a big fan
Heenan just did not give two fs with how savage he was. His shoot interviews were fun to listen to about the wrestlers and his time in the wwf as well.
Not telling the announcers about the Hogan heel turn should have been a bonus Blunder Point. The one thing about that turn that undermined it was that Bobby Heenan delivered the 'But whose side is he on?' line. If he'd have known the turn was coming, the Brain would *never* have risked compromising the shock value by saying that.
I fully believe, had he known beforehand, Heenan would have pulled a Rumble '92 with Piper & started praising Hogan, admitting that he had been wrong about the man this whole time... only for Heenan to then instantly reverse course after the leg drop & tell Tony & Dusty how he was right the entire time about Hogan.
@@Obscusion2damn, you are so right. Bobby would have milked it and built up Hogan as the ultimate savior and after the leg drop would have pulled a line probably as memorable as Marty jumping through the window to escape.
@johnepants i think an argument can be made either way. I like the "who's side is he on" line, others in hindsight say its a spoiler, but if you actually watch that moment, you will see at least one fan pushing his buddy as if to say 'told you so!' It was never the stunned silence like Undertaker losing at WM. People say it was surprising sure, but it had a LOT of applause from fans on the night itself
Imagine telling a guy who had been in the business as a wrestler, manager, commentator/announcer, and producer since 1961, to basically keep his ideas and opinions to himself backstage and just be a "dancing monkey" on the mike. Shameful and abysmally stupid. And there are still people in the IWC who fellate Eric Bischoff for being a "wrestling genius" to this day. He is the biggest failure the business has ever seen. He got lucky by copying the 1995/96 UWFi invasion of NJPW - and bungled it, partly through incompetence, partly because he was Hogan's little bitch. Bischoff got lucky a second time, because Sting and Luger stumbled over a failed football player named Bill Goldberg in a gym and talked him into training to become a wrestler. Goldberg connected with the audience like almost nobody before or since, despite being greener than a rainforest, just with sheer personal charisma. That wasn't planned - and nobody _could_ have planned it. No other debuting rookie with just a few months of training and no experience, ever caught the audience's attention like him in 1997/98. Bobby's account of WCW and his time there is kind of heartbreaking. He left the WWF to do the right thing for his family, with a treasure trove of not just years, but _decades_ of experience and knowledge. And they treated him as if they had hired some random clueless radio DJ from Atlanta as an announcer. As Jim Cornette would say, replacing Bobby Heenan with Mark Madden, is like intentionally burning down your house, so you can live in a crappy camping tent in the backyard.
RIP Heenan love his shoot interviews, Love his appearance on later with bob costas. Intelligent, witty man. Never got to appreciate him as a kid i was too young when WCW died... but finding myself later watching episode re runs in 2015 i found how gold his commentary is. Life in the way I never finished rewatching all Nitro's.....now at 33 ive seen so much material on Heenan to know he would be dropping gems of knowledge from commentary with Monsoon, McMahon, Mike Tenay, Tony S. , Mongo, Bishoff. I was born 1991 but recently seen some of his work with guerilla monsoon on primetime great stuff. The short lived Bobby Heenan show aswell!
@@KimberlyArrington-dd3wmPullman grabbed Hernan by the collar without prior knowledge on A Clash of Champions show and Hernan had just had neck surgery and Hernan went berserk
"Mark Madden is a slob from Pittsburgh who likes hockey" As someone from Pittsburgh who used to listen to MM, this is 100 percent accurate. Only problem is he wasn't even good talking about hockey. He's nothing but a Western PA version of Skip Bayliss who would do nothing but bash Pens players people liked or would fish for angles so people would tune in and hate listen. Controversial for the sake of it and that's not good entertainment in my book. Horrible broadcaster and person altogether. I HATED when Madden replaced Heenan because Bobby mailing it in was still 200 times better than any other announcer WCW had. He was brilliant and full wit and enterainment. Good video, man!!!
Well you had WWF a family run business and you had Turner Broadcasting a massive corporation. There is no world where WWF would have been able to afford insurance for everyone back then
The way heenan described the difference between wwf and wcw's production, it's clear to see why Vince won the Monday night wars and put WCW out of business
I've been going back and watching some of the old PVPs that I watched as a child. Im come to admire Heenan more in my older years. Comedy Gold. Never noticed as a child how witty he was.
I'd love for Bischoff to react to this on 83 Weeks, Bobby makes some really valid points and I'd enjoy watching/hearing Bischoff give his side of things.
I love Bobby Hennan. He had the same sense of humor my Grandpa did and I love Reliving the War bc I get to listen to Bobby Hennan again. My favorite commentator. A true smartass.
I remember when Diesel/Kevin Nash debut in WCW and everyone in the crowd was chanting "Diesel, Diesel, Diesel" and Tony said something like...They're calling for you, Weasle. 😂
He didn't cover it in his book, but Heenan was drunk off his ass during the Hogg Wild PPV at Sturgis. Watch the whole show and you'll see. He was okay until about halfway through the show, then he started slurring his words. By the time Hogan and The Giant got in the ring for the main event Bobby was totally blotto. I mentioned this because it's funny in retrospect hearing his commentary and how hard he tried to sound coherent.
@@RetepAdami remember when this happened. Nobody was mad at Arquette, everybody was mad about wcw even using him and then the way he used him, the whole angle just sucked.
I remember in your older videos hearing you talking about Bobby Heenan. I was so glad to see you do this one. I definitely have to read his book. I loved Bobby Heenan, listening to his commentary I just found him to be the funniest person I ever heard. I always said to myself that I wished people though ot me as I think about him. I wanted to make people laugh like he did. You don't realize this then, way later when you are looking back on your r journey as a fan. I wish contemporary wrestling was watchable like it used to be. I have to wallow in my old nostalgia by watching these videos. Love your channel.
THIS is why I LOVE your channel mate! I live hearing the behind the scenes, the WHY to the past. Bobby was amazing, his personality and energy was great. Better with WWE but I appreciate his moments in WCW...for example "but who's side is he on" when Hogan turned. Bobby deserved better but it shows how dumb that company was. Had they invited his insight and used him better, maybe they would have survived. GREAT VIDEO!!!!
I can totally picture Dave"Fit" Finley and The Brain laughing at DDP and Buff throwing worked punches in a so called shoot fight in front of all the boys backstage 😂
If he wrote that they erased the tapes and there was no record of it, what does the wcw tape library being added to the network after he wrote it habe to do with anything other than the statement being false?
Because back then it's a fair assumption that the tape would've been wiped and it was unlikely anyone else had taped it, so there's no way Bobby could've known that it would one day be so easily accessible.
You answered your own question. Clash of the Champions shows weren't released on VHS, so when Heenan said they were "wiped" he meant they were unavailable to the public. The only time they became publically available was through the WWE Network (or through home video recordings)
Because most people have the common sense to understand that back in the 80s and 90s, they didn't typically save anything. Networks might hang on to recordings of things for awhile, but eventually they would erase and reuse their tapes. Obviously he had no clue that Turner wasn't doing that. Its the same thing with older movies, before DVD studios didn't hang on to cut footage, eventually they would have it destroyed rather than take up space in a vault. Its precisely why you don't see alot of "unrated or director" cuts for older films. It all depends on if the studio found some sort of value in holding on to footage or if say the director took a complete reel of the film for himself
@lutherheggs451 that is probably the stupidest thing I've ever read. The book came out in the 2000s, after the sale of wcw, and heenan most likely knew the majority of the wcw sale was the tape library... in fact isn't that all it was, was the tape library along with some trademarks. Wrestling has no retakes, or edits mostly, so there's no extra footage, and if it were common practice to just reuse tapes how is it that the wcw tape library included footage from the family run jcp? I'm sure they would reuse before Turner would...
Wrestling books have so many little details wrong, you’d think there would be a better way to fact check those before they got published. 8 minutes in and already 2 corrections to the brains book. The first being a wrong year and the second was blaming Bischoff when he wasn’t even thurr.
This is very interesting stuff Mr Heenan had a lot of interesting stuff from his book Wow! Heenan always was an interesting man he really got ur attention
Sonny filed his lawsuit when Bischoff had been sent home. Sonny was fired soon after Russo allegedly made racist comments about Japanese and Mexican wrestlers. It was well known that Turner would settle lawsuits, so it was a home run for Sonny and kinda helped Bischoff. There were other racial discrimination lawsuits in that period by African-American wrestlers that did name Bischoff though.
Imagine the Brain interacting with Edge and Christian, the Rock or even Kurt Angle. I bet there’d be some phenomenal work and it’d be interesting how he’d deal with Mr. McMahon. Maybe he’d be a babyface, a tweener or a heel who’s out for himself. I could definitely see a rivalry-alliance between him and Angle as well as him and Austin as like a secondary antagonist.
This was a great episode. I like the videos that you do. I sat down and watch your fun in paradise movie from beginning to end at one sitting lol. My only critique to this particular video is I wish you would have put the title of Bobby’s book in the description.I would love to read that.
8:23: It couldn't have been Fulton County Stadium because the Atlanta Braves moved on to Turner Field after the 1996 season. Mark McGwire in 1996, would've still been with the Oakland A's, as he wouldn't join the St. Louis Cardinals until mid-way into the 1997 season.
As the co-writer for his first and second book, I appreciate you shining a spotlight on his story. It was my priviledge and honor to work with him. I miss him terribly to this day. I have a channel (Weasel Tales) where I share the countless tapes that was the basis for the books.Sitting in a hotel room while The Brain told his stories was an out-of-boddy experience.
I am all over that channel, Thank you 😊
The man is an absolute legend.
I have been finished with wrestling for decades but the genius of Bobby Heenan is timeless.
I am a subscriber and love your channel. Thank you for it.
I'd love for those books to go back in print.
I remember this epic exchange on an episode of Saturday Night -
Heenan: You know when Meng was young, he'd go from village to village, tree to tree, destroying everybody.
Tony: He'd go from 'tree to tree?' Wow. You ever watch this show and think, just what are we doing?
Heenan: Me? Oh no, I never watch this stuff.
😂😂 I loved Heenan
That was on Nitro too! I literally just watched that episode the other day lol. I was surprised he said that. But I guess he got away with a lot of crazy things he said back then. Different era I guess! 🤷🏽♂️ 😂
I Love Bobby
Héenan was the best heel manager/Announcer. You loved to hate him. I understand he was a caring person in private.
That's a classic heel right there.
@@CeeMigoLoCothere was no Vince McMahon being a total control freak yelling in your ear on WCW.
David Arquette donating his wrestling money to the families of Pillman and Owen Hart is incredible, that fact should always be mentioned when his championship win is talked about.
I know right?! What an incredible thing for him to do. Respect to him for that 🫡
@Cloudy_Jones David didn’t even want to win it he had too much respect for the business and is a wrestling fan that was all a turner decision since ready to rumble was just coming out
Not Turner Vince Russo@@jimbowlan5804
Tbh, I admit I didn't know that. I have a lot more respect for him now.
I see a lot of people mock Arquette for being the worst world champion of all time, but i rarely see anyone talk about Vince Russo winning the belt since at least David had respect for the business and didn't even want to win the title.
17:02 Some well deserved praise for Sherry Martell by the Brain!
It's great to hear such a legendary announcer praise Mike Tenay. I don't think Tenay gets the recognition he deserves from his peers. Even Gene Okerlund was critical of him.
Tenay, Gene, and Hennan were absolutely amazing 🫡 I loved all of those guys!
What did Okerlund say about Tenay?
@@DLRX In a shoot interview he was very dismissive of his announcing abilities. "Not an announcer," and he was surprised he worked in TNA as long as he did.
@@SteelyBud Oh wow, that's a shame.
Tenay was always better than Schiavone
When he passed, a part of my childhood left with him. RIP to Bobby and Gorilla....
I've always felt that Monsoon and Heenan could have made a fortune by going to Hollywood and doing buddy-comedy movies. I think they'd have been like Bob Hope and Bing Crosby in their "Road To" movies, just without the singing and dancing numbers.
That story of Heenan telling Mongo not to tell anyone that he knocked the wind out of Mongo in his debut match with that kick, only for Heenan to then brag to everybody about it, is easily the most Bobby Heenan part of the entire video, and I loved it. I bet Mongo's reaction later on was just "Yeah, that Weasel fooled me...".
Mongo only pawn in game of life.
to be fair, its "better for the business" that way...on one hand, you'd have Mongo ADMITTING that he had his wind knocked out of him, by a Commentator...itd make the 'star' look that much Weaker...
...whereas, a slimey weasely manager/commentator/other "non-wrestler", bragging about getting one over on A Wrestler, gets chalked up as cheeky heel-ish bragging...the kind where youd roll your eyes and say "oh yeah, sure, you got Mongo, and then you threw a football clear over that mountain, right?"
@@rtyuik7 None of this was on camera, though. Heenan was obviously just bragging to everyone backstage about how he kicked the wind out of Mongo. Heenan just decided to rib Mongo by convincing him not to tell anyone else so that he could make a big deal out of it instead, for a laugh.
@@Rorschachqpfucc you say about mongo
@@MajikATX That's what he said about himself. 🤗
“She looked like Mount Rushmore.”
I can just hear Bobby Heenan in that one.
"They (midgets) can't reach the mail slot"
Really glad Tenay and Heenan became friends. Two of my favorite announcers! This was a real eye opener, thanks for sharing!
I hated Tony but loved Mike and Bobby. Tenay was great and knew his stuff, Tony just seemed like he was there to collect a paycheck. Of course, Bobby is a legend.
Mike and Bobby I feel were a good dynamic to each other
Tenay was so good as the expert that would chime in with relevant facts and who would take over a bit if it was a match where he knew and cared more about the style and competitors.
It's cool that Bobby got to come back to the WWF at WrestleMania 17
I liked how he mistook Gene for Tony (On purpose) and then in his book wrote something like, “Yeah it was dumb for me to mistake the two. Cause Gene actually has talent. And a job!”
I agree... Shame that was while he was battling throat cancer, and as a result his commentary suffered understandably
I vaguely recall the timing being off, particularly around a 'mother in law' joke that Gene tried to set him up for but it was so great to see those guys commentate one more time.
He described it as having the stake removed from your heart, and coming alive again.
WWF/WWE sucks.
Bobby at the ‘92 Royal Rumble is the greatest commentating in Wrestling history. In my humble.
the star power and in ring action made it a classic. Brain's commentary made it legendary
@@stuffingtonjfluffypantsiiiWell said!
He made it great. So much gold.💯
If you want to be fair to Flair, then you got to be fair to Flair and say only a man as fair as Flair...
"They can't reach the mail slot"
Damn I loved this man
classic Heenan....off the cuff deadly
You really spoil us, @Wrestling Bios. This channel is awesome
Hell yea i love this channel
WCW not telling the commentators anything really comes across cause even listening to reliving the war they seemed just as clueless as the audience at times
Yeah, but who’s side is he on?
*Berlyn puts Bert Hart in the Berlin Wall*
WCW commentary table: What the F is this move Wait it’s called the Berlin Wall *it’s an inverted bear hug*
Heenan was the best, we didn't know how good we had it growing up.
Man, ain't that the truth.. RIP Bobby 🙌🏼
I grew up with Heenan in the WWF, so I did appreciate all of the things he did as a manager, as a commentator, and as a host. I think that I was one of the few people who watched The Bobby Heenan Show, which was a spin-off of the WWF Prime Time Wrestling show that aired on USA Network, and enjoyed Bobby's chemistry with his co-host, Jamison. That was some funny stuff. :)
And I loved every minute of Heenan in WCW. He made it enjoyable and worth watching, even when it really wasn't.
@@G360LIVE I think that's what they're saying though. Those of us who grew up with Heenan and Ventura didn't have anything worse to compare it to, so we took that level of quality as standard.
No amount of money will compensate a toxic workplace.
Like I often say, "what good is a pile of cash if I have to spend half of it on shrinks?"
Like the WWF/WWE and their sexual assault enabling company?
Regarding Bobby's rating comment when Mick Foley won the title. Could he have been referring to the quarter hour rating after Schiavone made the "butts in seats" comment?
That was my thought when I read his book.
Yep, I think you're right.
My vague memory is someone saying, could have been in Foley's book, that they switched over to watch Mankind win but switched back after, because they cared about the WCW main event and they (WCW)could have won that night if they'd just never said anything.
@@SensiofRabbitude Foley mentioned it on the *MONDAY NIGHT WAR* DVD that there was a switch back to NITRO, because that was the same night (4-JAN-1999) Goldberg was arrested for SA against Liz and the “Finger Poke of Doom”
Thanks for the refresher!
Bobby talking about the announcers and the psychology of wrestling was actually very interesting.
For what it's worth, Tony says he was nowhere near as powerful as Bobby says, but he does admit he handled things poorly with him. Nice to know they made up when they recorded commentary for Showdown: Legends of Wrestling
Even tho this was true if you listen to WHW podcast it seems like he retroactively took it back because he never says nothing nice about Bobby anymore
Absolutely they did. Wrestling Bios won't park their WWF/WWE bias to illustrate that fact however.
@@jasonmccrank4981 He sings the praises of WCW all the time when they do something good, it's not his fault that he's covering WCW's worst year.
@@tafua_a The Attitude Era was absolutely pathetic in retrospect. Austin and Rock were way too over and popular for it to matter. It was f***ing catnip for teenage boys.
Choppy choppy pee pee and Doctor Henie etc etc etc. Pathetic garbage.
@@sithlordo66 Heenan was an absolutely phenomenal heel manager but in retrospect was a complete jackass behind the scenes.
One thing I'm surprised didnt get brought up was Bobby having to threaten to quit of he couldn't acknowledge Gorilla passing away
The ‘Brain’ was the man
Tony Schiavone burial lol
Tony Jabroni
Right. Like heenan added that much to WCW. He was better as a manager in wwf. He was over paid in WCW and made a books whining about it
To be fair, the guy has always been a bit of a goober.
I believe they actually made up shortly before Heenan's death when they did the commentary for a Legends Of Wrestling video game.
Heenan was held back in WCW. Saw him when I started watching him in 1998 but learned about him truly in 2011. He was much better in WWF and was definitely the brain 🧠 when you hear him speak.
Heenan was excellent in WCW, he always conducted himself as a professional. I never knew anything about Schiavone tbh, but you can clearly see his chair boosted to make him look taller. He probably was/is an extremely insecure man.
God bless the Brain. Wish he did more post WCW but throat cancer is horrid. He did a few WWE and TNA appearances that were fun in the 2000s at least
I recall he was in ROH for a period of time as a manager in the mid-2000's.
He also appeared in XWF managing Curt Hennig before he went to the wwf in 2002
I feel like if they'd had something like the WWE network, early post attitude era, they'd have probably given him and Geme Okerlund some kind of show together.
With the WWF/E needing network filler content back then, they'd have taken more chances with available legends.
I mean you did get stuff like round tables and confidential but it was sporadic and it had to be something they had confidence in, to sell to a tv network.
I suppose going back to the WWE wasn't an option but Heenan on the desk working with either Vince himself or JR would have been interesting
When Bobby left WWE he actually planned to retire. He and his wife moved to Atlanta because their daughter was attending college there, and when WCW found out they offered him a job. He was attracted to the lighter schedule and bigger payday Turner was offering and agreed, and even after he got tired of being there he stuck around because as he says here “I had first class airfare, expenses, guaranteed salary, medical, and I only worked a couple of days a week. I didn’t care about anything. All I cared about was doing my job and getting my money.”
@MrBeardsley I mean yeah if I got all that then I would do it, I mean you would be a fool not too.
I didn't watch the video yet but I hope Heenan and Tony made up before Heenan died. Apparently Bobby was mad at Tony because he told Bobby he shouldn't mention the passing of Gorilla Monsoon on the broadcast which in Heenan's defense is really messed up.
Tony said they did, at the Showdown: Legends of Wrestling recording sessions of all places.
@@tafua_a Thank goodness.
The fact that he hated it and still that good showes how awesome he was as an announcer.
Yes i agree. Bobby was legendary at everything he did. Bless him 🙏🏼
"The money that Arquette made wrestling in WCW went to the families of the late Brian Pillman and Owen Hart." David Arquette didn't even know them.
❤
I remember reading Bobby’s book way back some 25-ish years ago. It really made me respect him even more than before. The wrestling world was a much better place with him in it. R.I.P. Bobby!
I can tell you right now, one of my friends who used to work at the Jacksonville Florida Colosseum, told me one time he had the misfortune of working a WCW show for Monday Nitro. He was saying that the WCW staff were very rude to a lot of the Colosseum staff, making a lot of outrageous demands, just being disrespectful to a lot of the staff who were trying to keep the place running but they wanted to have people out of areas to do these worked spots, and then if they trash something they didn't want to clean up anything. He told me once, the talent was nice to them, but only the undercard and midcard guys. Rest of the "stars" were absolute shitheads to everyone. By the end of the show, many of the event staff were begging the management not to have them back.
They did a Sunday Night Heat show with WWF a year later. He said the staff at WWF were like dealing with a professional sports team league. They came in, took responsibility when and where needed, had their own sets for stuff to work from, talent was nice all around, management was nice to a point but more professional about it. Real night and day.
"Bischoff won't wake up til sometime around Easter"
Heenan after Flair beat Bischoff on the last Nitro in 1998
8:07 At the end, David Arquette paid for his wrestling sins. You can’t kill David Arquette.
But you can kill his iconic character with an short problem
Heenan knew that 2000 was the last straw he ever appear in WCW after the chaotic mess that was the entire product. And who could blame him. Once Heenan left, I started giving up on watching WCW Nitro on TV again and just flip the channel to RAW. Heenan will always be one of my favorite announcers growing up as a kid and he and Mene Gene delivers hilarious moments. They’re the Batman and Robin of Pro Wrestling.
Our family was already maining WWF and just checking WCW on commercial breaks by 1998. By 2000, yeah we didn't even bother.
We all did. At least I did the way WWF was being run in comparison. I just couldn't get into WCW in 2002.
I'm fairly certain that Madden Googles his own name to see what people say about him. Once, I commented on a Twitter thread about how he was a poor replacement for Bobby, and he sent me a reply, calling me a mark, which made no sense. He wasn't even tagged in the thread.
I remember that thread he was calling people marks and how Bobby was a drunk that's why they fired him
"Will you stop" every Gorilla and Bobby calling matches. Was some of the greatest announcing next to Jr and the King.
I can still hear Gorilla saying that. That really brings back memories!
Great episode of Blunder. Watch all the clips, love reliving the war. I'm looking forward to seeing myself in the crowd for Rebellion 2001. RIP Bobby The Brain 😊
Excellent vid sir, this is gold. I would love to see more of these!!
The fact that Nitro replaced with Heenan with Mark Madden on the last Reliving the War proves WCW didn't know what they were doing Madden was one of the worst announcers ever😒
Then they had tank abott drag him into the ring, and attack him, rip his shirt off, Disgusting I can’t get that image outta my head 🤮
I feel slightly lucky as when I was able to watch WCW World Wide in 2000 on the UK Channel 5 which had matches and highlights from Nirto and Thunder the announce team was Scot Hudsons and Larry lizbisco *I think that's how I spell his sir name* and they were good for when I was 13 Years old. But yeah Just watching clips now of WCW hearing Mark Madden....yeah not a big fan
My dad was a big Bobby Heenan fan in WCW. He’s a big fan of commentators dropping funny lines or saying ridiculous things and Bobby was the greatest.
"The midgets will write in"....."They can't reach the mailbox". I died after hearing that.
Heenan just did not give two fs with how savage he was. His shoot interviews were fun to listen to about the wrestlers and his time in the wwf as well.
Thanks to your Bio on Bobby Heenan, I subscribed before the “Reliving the War” series. It’s kind of cool watching the channel grow.
Bobby Heenan was always good. He gave to wrestling/ the fans much more than he took from them.
Bobby Heenan quiet quitting before it had an actual term attached to it. What a baller
Not telling the announcers about the Hogan heel turn should have been a bonus Blunder Point. The one thing about that turn that undermined it was that Bobby Heenan delivered the 'But whose side is he on?' line. If he'd have known the turn was coming, the Brain would *never* have risked compromising the shock value by saying that.
I fully believe, had he known beforehand, Heenan would have pulled a Rumble '92 with Piper & started praising Hogan, admitting that he had been wrong about the man this whole time... only for Heenan to then instantly reverse course after the leg drop & tell Tony & Dusty how he was right the entire time about Hogan.
@@Obscusion2damn, you are so right. Bobby would have milked it and built up Hogan as the ultimate savior and after the leg drop would have pulled a line probably as memorable as Marty jumping through the window to escape.
@johnepants i think an argument can be made either way. I like the "who's side is he on" line, others in hindsight say its a spoiler, but if you actually watch that moment, you will see at least one fan pushing his buddy as if to say 'told you so!' It was never the stunned silence like Undertaker losing at WM. People say it was surprising sure, but it had a LOT of applause from fans on the night itself
Hogan drops the leg on Macho:
Brain: "Ooh I knew he was gonna do that"
8:57 WCW not caring about anyone other than Hogan and Nash was one of their biggest problems.
I wish I could have met Bobby Heenan, just so I could tell him how much I appreciate him. We miss you, Brain.
This was GREAT! Bobby had some many great "zingers" and is really insightful about the business and backstage. More of these please. :)
Imagine telling a guy who had been in the business as a wrestler, manager, commentator/announcer, and producer since 1961, to basically keep his ideas and opinions to himself backstage and just be a "dancing monkey" on the mike. Shameful and abysmally stupid.
And there are still people in the IWC who fellate Eric Bischoff for being a "wrestling genius" to this day. He is the biggest failure the business has ever seen. He got lucky by copying the 1995/96 UWFi invasion of NJPW - and bungled it, partly through incompetence, partly because he was Hogan's little bitch. Bischoff got lucky a second time, because Sting and Luger stumbled over a failed football player named Bill Goldberg in a gym and talked him into training to become a wrestler. Goldberg connected with the audience like almost nobody before or since, despite being greener than a rainforest, just with sheer personal charisma. That wasn't planned - and nobody _could_ have planned it. No other debuting rookie with just a few months of training and no experience, ever caught the audience's attention like him in 1997/98.
Bobby's account of WCW and his time there is kind of heartbreaking. He left the WWF to do the right thing for his family, with a treasure trove of not just years, but _decades_ of experience and knowledge. And they treated him as if they had hired some random clueless radio DJ from Atlanta as an announcer.
As Jim Cornette would say, replacing Bobby Heenan with Mark Madden, is like intentionally burning down your house, so you can live in a crappy camping tent in the backyard.
Heenan, although very witty, seemed to have phoned it in during 1999. He was awesome in WWF. Good video, Bios.
RIP Heenan love his shoot interviews, Love his appearance on later with bob costas. Intelligent, witty man. Never got to appreciate him as a kid i was too young when WCW died... but finding myself later watching episode re runs in 2015 i found how gold his commentary is. Life in the way I never finished rewatching all Nitro's.....now at 33 ive seen so much material on Heenan to know he would be dropping gems of knowledge from commentary with Monsoon, McMahon, Mike Tenay, Tony S. , Mongo, Bishoff.
I was born 1991 but recently seen some of his work with guerilla monsoon on primetime great stuff. The short lived Bobby Heenan show aswell!
Pillman attacking him off script came to mind
Wait what please explain Lol
@@KimberlyArrington-dd3wm Explain what? Watch the video.
Same here. I loved Bobby "The Brain" Heenan in WWF and WCW. (RIP The Brain)
@@KimberlyArrington-dd3wmPullman grabbed Hernan by the collar without prior knowledge on A Clash of Champions show and Hernan had just had neck surgery and Hernan went berserk
That was just a 1 off,
Bobby just hated wcw in general
"What the fk are you doing?!" WCW in a nutshell 😅 Bobby was the best part of anything he was involved with.
"Mark Madden is a slob from Pittsburgh who likes hockey" As someone from Pittsburgh who used to listen to MM, this is 100 percent accurate. Only problem is he wasn't even good talking about hockey. He's nothing but a Western PA version of Skip Bayliss who would do nothing but bash Pens players people liked or would fish for angles so people would tune in and hate listen. Controversial for the sake of it and that's not good entertainment in my book. Horrible broadcaster and person altogether.
I HATED when Madden replaced Heenan because Bobby mailing it in was still 200 times better than any other announcer WCW had. He was brilliant and full wit and enterainment. Good video, man!!!
“Where’s my wallet” had me dying 😂😂😂
Great Video, please make more of these!
I love your content. Even Thunder in Paradise. Greetings from Germany.
Heenan hated WCW but he loved that health insurance!
mental comment
Well you had WWF a family run business and you had Turner Broadcasting a massive corporation. There is no world where WWF would have been able to afford insurance for everyone back then
Probably cause his health was not the same following his neck surgery and it would have come in handy for any follow ups, other health issues etc
Would love to see a video of Tony Schiavone's short term in the WWF.
Wait, when was that?
EDIT: Goddamn, only one year?
Bobby in WCW was so different from WWF Bobby. Him not having a Monsoon-like foil in WCW didn't help.
I agree. Heenan had his moments in WCW but nothing compared to his time in the WWF with Gorilla Monsoon.
The way heenan described the difference between wwf and wcw's production, it's clear to see why Vince won the Monday night wars and put WCW out of business
I've been going back and watching some of the old PVPs that I watched as a child. Im come to admire Heenan more in my older years. Comedy Gold. Never noticed as a child how witty he was.
Epic piece of work! This channel is pure class!
Thank you for the video! Bobby is a Legend!
I'd love for Bischoff to react to this on 83 Weeks, Bobby makes some really valid points and I'd enjoy watching/hearing Bischoff give his side of things.
4:37 - ooooh lala with the pronunciation 😂😂 love you Bios! You’re a hell of a jam up guy 💪🏻
this is an excellent video and i enjoy this minor change in format style its really informative. I should read that book
It's funny because when Nash defeated Goldberg you could see the fans cheering loudly but they had gone in and changed the audio to boos
I love Bobby Hennan. He had the same sense of humor my Grandpa did and I love Reliving the War bc I get to listen to Bobby Hennan again. My favorite commentator. A true smartass.
Bobby Heenan was one of the greatest commentators. He was really great with Gorilla Monsoon
I remember when Diesel/Kevin Nash debut in WCW and everyone in the crowd was chanting "Diesel, Diesel, Diesel" and Tony said something like...They're calling for you, Weasle. 😂
11:28 I love that picture.
He didn't cover it in his book, but Heenan was drunk off his ass during the Hogg Wild PPV at Sturgis. Watch the whole show and you'll see. He was okay until about halfway through the show, then he started slurring his words. By the time Hogan and The Giant got in the ring for the main event Bobby was totally blotto. I mentioned this because it's funny in retrospect hearing his commentary and how hard he tried to sound coherent.
Heenan was drunk every day at the time.
Bobby was so awesome! I miss him more than anyone in wrestling. He was a diamond no doubt. Rest easy Brain!
Incredibly fascinating, thanks for putting this together!
David Arquette does not deserve the hatred he got
In addition to not wanting to do it, he honestly also legit did a great job in the role.
@@RetepAdami remember when this happened. Nobody was mad at Arquette, everybody was mad about wcw even using him and then the way he used him, the whole angle just sucked.
I remember in your older videos hearing you talking about Bobby Heenan. I was so glad to see you do this one. I definitely have to read his book. I loved Bobby Heenan, listening to his commentary I just found him to be the funniest person I ever heard. I always said to myself that I wished people though ot me as I think about him. I wanted to make people laugh like he did. You don't realize this then, way later when you are looking back on your r journey as a fan.
I wish contemporary wrestling was watchable like it used to be. I have to wallow in my old nostalgia by watching these videos. Love your channel.
THIS is why I LOVE your channel mate! I live hearing the behind the scenes, the WHY to the past. Bobby was amazing, his personality and energy was great. Better with WWE but I appreciate his moments in WCW...for example "but who's side is he on" when Hogan turned. Bobby deserved better but it shows how dumb that company was. Had they invited his insight and used him better, maybe they would have survived. GREAT VIDEO!!!!
LOVE this video and concept and the Brain is really missed. He had a wonderful mind for the business and loved him and Geno in the booth
I can totally picture Dave"Fit" Finley and The Brain laughing at DDP and Buff throwing worked punches in a so called shoot fight in front of all the boys backstage 😂
If he wrote that they erased the tapes and there was no record of it, what does the wcw tape library being added to the network after he wrote it habe to do with anything other than the statement being false?
Because back then it's a fair assumption that the tape would've been wiped and it was unlikely anyone else had taped it, so there's no way Bobby could've known that it would one day be so easily accessible.
You answered your own question. Clash of the Champions shows weren't released on VHS, so when Heenan said they were "wiped" he meant they were unavailable to the public. The only time they became publically available was through the WWE Network (or through home video recordings)
Because most people have the common sense to understand that back in the 80s and 90s, they didn't typically save anything. Networks might hang on to recordings of things for awhile, but eventually they would erase and reuse their tapes. Obviously he had no clue that Turner wasn't doing that.
Its the same thing with older movies, before DVD studios didn't hang on to cut footage, eventually they would have it destroyed rather than take up space in a vault. Its precisely why you don't see alot of "unrated or director" cuts for older films. It all depends on if the studio found some sort of value in holding on to footage or if say the director took a complete reel of the film for himself
@lutherheggs451 that is probably the stupidest thing I've ever read. The book came out in the 2000s, after the sale of wcw, and heenan most likely knew the majority of the wcw sale was the tape library... in fact isn't that all it was, was the tape library along with some trademarks. Wrestling has no retakes, or edits mostly, so there's no extra footage, and if it were common practice to just reuse tapes how is it that the wcw tape library included footage from the family run jcp? I'm sure they would reuse before Turner would...
Wrestling books have so many little details wrong, you’d think there would be a better way to fact check those before they got published. 8 minutes in and already 2 corrections to the brains book. The first being a wrong year and the second was blaming Bischoff when he wasn’t even thurr.
7:20 Bobby Heenan discovering the concept of FOMO for the first time:
Heenan was getting ready to get into radio and podcasting, but sadly his cancer diagnosis kept him from that shortly after his book came out.
Captain Jack Brother Dude again....WBs for 2 nights respect. Also Bobby The Brain Heenan is wrestling original Wiseman! 😊
And Lieutenant Dan!
@ArchangelSteve Oh that Lietenant Dan! Complete Tit Lieutenant Dan! 😂😂😂😂
Not just for them, that stupid floating turd-boat wouldn't work for anyone brother.
This is very interesting stuff Mr Heenan had a lot of interesting stuff from his book Wow! Heenan always was an interesting man he really got ur attention
5:54 Wow, that looks identical to my first car except for the rims.
I miss Heenan. I really wish I got to meet him.
28:15 that would be a very interesting subject because Sunny Onoo and Bischoff were friends long before Bischoff became President of WCW
Sonny filed his lawsuit when Bischoff had been sent home. Sonny was fired soon after Russo allegedly made racist comments about Japanese and Mexican wrestlers. It was well known that Turner would settle lawsuits, so it was a home run for Sonny and kinda helped Bischoff. There were other racial discrimination lawsuits in that period by African-American wrestlers that did name Bischoff though.
i always felt that bobby should have stayed with the WWF, but now i know he should have. damn shame.
Imagine the Brain interacting with Edge and Christian, the Rock or even Kurt Angle. I bet there’d be some phenomenal work and it’d be interesting how he’d deal with Mr. McMahon.
Maybe he’d be a babyface, a tweener or a heel who’s out for himself. I could definitely see a rivalry-alliance between him and Angle as well as him and Austin as like a secondary antagonist.
20:39 Could it be that RAW did a 7 to 2 in the final segment maybe?
Bobby is right about it. Bobby Heenan was The Brain known for a reason.
Honestly i would have loved to hear Heenan on AEW if only he was still alive cause i think he would be saying similar things to here in his book
More of that kind of Videos please.Very Nice Inside Informations,i like that.
This was a great episode. I like the videos that you do. I sat down and watch your fun in paradise movie from beginning to end at one sitting lol. My only critique to this particular video is I wish you would have put the title of Bobby’s book in the description.I would love to read that.
This is a great video because you don't just blindly go along with everything he said, but instead you take him to task where appropriate.
8:23: It couldn't have been Fulton County Stadium because the Atlanta Braves moved on to Turner Field after the 1996 season. Mark McGwire in 1996, would've still been with the Oakland A's, as he wouldn't join the St. Louis Cardinals until mid-way into the 1997 season.
That was Pro Player Stadium (now called Hard Rock Stadium), where the Marlins played at the time. Those teal and orange seats stand out.
Love this video. Thanks for posting. Does his book cover any more of his career other than WcW?
Heenan was worth his wight in gold
That's cool to hear Arquette gave his pay to the families of Owen and Pillman
Sounds a lot like AEW today. Tony Khan should have read this book and taken notes. I hope Jim Ross is able to talk about it after he leaves.