WWF Heenan vs WCW Heenan

[Professor Chaos]

I know it was only a couple months but seems he aged a lot from his last WWF appearance to his first WCW appearance. All the energy and great wisecracks were gone and he just seemed like a sad man that really didn't wanna be there.

[Can you afford to pay me, Gah]

I didn't think he aged that much at all. Until post cancer I thought he looked the same as he did in the WWE. Honestly he was fine for a while in WCW until the clear that he didn't have the same chemistry with the announcers in WCW that he did in the WWE. Heenan still had the same witty lines but a lot of cases get no sold by the rest of the time. It got to the point Heenan stop trying or caring because he I think felt as he didn't matter.

There was some interviews he did not long after WCW he talked about working with Tony.

[Ben Wyatt]

Even as a young fan, you could easily tell that his heart clearly wasn't in it

[RowdyRobbyPiper]

For me, Heenan started going downhill during the nWo era. He couldn't credibly turn face because he was the weasel and the old-school heel Schtick was almost becoming a thing of the past. Maybe if Heenan was younger and more motivated, he could have evolved like Paul Heyman did. But as it was, he didn't.

[A Platypus Rave]

He really didn't have the chemistry with the WCW announcers.

Every once and a while Schiavone would respond with a "Will you stop?" and it always sounded so flat.

Not to mention playing the heel it was hard to do that in WCW with the NWO... since the NWO were basically trying to put him out of a job...

Though it did lead to one of my favorite Heenan calls of all time... "I KNEW IT ALL ALONG!" in response to the initial turn he just sounded so happy to finally be validated after hating on Hogan for decades.

[thegame415]

It seemed like he said OH a lot more after big spots.

[Kayfabe FAN don't want none]

While WWF Heenan was miles better than his WCW run, my favorite Bobby (and commentary as a whole) moment is this

[chazraps]

Writing off Heenan's entire WCW run is such an unfortunate trend of the post-Invasion era. While maybe the last year or so of Heenan's WCW run was diluted by the newfound Time Warner bureaucracy, and the very beginning of it was marred by him still adjusting to the product, Heenan had some pretty great work in the middle.

Truth be told, Heenan just needed to be inspired, but with the way WCW would set-up a lot of their programming, he wouldn't be given a lot to work with.

I know these are both notoriously terrible, terrible shows, but give Uncensored '95 and Hog Wild '96 a revisit and solely focus on Heenan's commentary. He's absolutely on fire. Those first few months of Thunder he was great at as well.

[Amazing Kitsune]

I remember that one time he was completely drunk. That was different.

[Clawley Race]

Apr 17, 2014 15:41:56 GMT -5 Kayfabe FAN don't want none said:

While WWF Heenan was miles better than his WCW run, my favorite Bobby (and commentary as a whole) moment is this

I was going to post that video also as soon as I saw the thread title. That is five minutes of gold!

[ellisdee]

Apr 17, 2014 15:41:56 GMT -5 Kayfabe FAN don't want none said:

While WWF Heenan was miles better than his WCW run, my favorite Bobby (and commentary as a whole) moment is this

I KNEW it was going to be this before I even clicked it. Gold.

[tigermaskxxxvii]

Apr 17, 2014 15:50:48 GMT -5 chazraps said:

Writing off Heenan's entire WCW run is such an unfortunate trend of the post-Invasion era. While maybe the last year or so of Heenan's WCW run was diluted by the newfound Time Warner bureaucracy, and the very beginning of it was marred by him still adjusting to the product, Heenan had some pretty great work in the middle.

Truth be told, Heenan just needed to be inspired, but with the way WCW would set-up a lot of their programming, he wouldn't be given a lot to work with.

I know these are both notoriously terrible, terrible shows, but give Uncensored '95 and Hog Wild '96 a revisit and solely focus on Heenan's commentary. He's absolutely on fire. Those first few months of Thunder he was great at as well.

Heenan's work during Uncensored '95 is great just for Heenan constantly shitting all over Tupelo, Mississippi and the humanoids who inhabit the area.

[Deleted]

I agree, his humor sounded so dated in WCW. Like he was doing bits from the '40s in 1996.

Have to remember he couldn't do his biting humor under the Turner regime. He was un-PC at a time when political correctness went crazy with what you could and could not say.

His humor was usually old fashioned anyway, but you started wondering, "Man, when did Heenan get so out of touch?"

[Deleted]

WWF Heenan became WCW Heenan because of money and because Gorilla retired.

Vince told him that he had to cut his pay (by about half) in 1993 and had also asked him to move to Connecticut (from Florida) to be near Titan Towers for the additional voice-over/production work. But Bobby didn't want to move, primarily because his daughter was in her senior year and he didn't want to move her and the family away from that. At some point during the year, WCW entered the picture and made him (and Mean Gene, who also got the salary cut/"move here" talk and bailed a bit quicker) an offer - in Bobby's case, I think they knew Jesse was on the way out so they wanted a replacement. So he left in December, and got a fine sendoff (probably because he gave them a well-in-advance notice).....well, fine for the Weasel, I guess.

And with Gorilla retiring, so that extra bonus of constantly working with a close friend went away.

As a result, we got such an uninspired (yet still good, IMO) Bobby Heenan in WCW.

Plus Bobby was treated well in the WWF, by Vince and everyone else, and only by going to WCW did he learn how awful they were.
(Yet he did stay there for almost 7 years, so the money must've been real good...)

[A Platypus Rave]

Apr 18, 2014 9:00:16 GMT -5 @knapp said:

So he left in December, and got a fine sendoff (probably because he gave them a well-in-advance notice).....well, fine for the Weasel, I guess.

That send off was perfect for Bobby "The Brain" Heenan.

Gorrilla Monsoon finally throwing Bobby Heenan out of the building after years of threatening to do it... all because Bobby "wouldn't stop"

[The Ichi]

His best schtick was his hatred towards Hogan. When they made Hogan actually supposed to be hated there wasn't much you could do.

[CMWaters]

There were times that Heenan was awesome without telling jokes in WCW too.

One example was his calls at the end of Hogan/Goldberg where he showed manager-level intensity wanting Goldberg to end Hogan.

[A Platypus Rave]

Apr 18, 2014 9:09:11 GMT -5 The Ichi said:

His best schtick was his hatred towards Hogan, when they made Hogan actually supposed to be hated there wasn't much you could do.

It did give us one of his greatest calls of "I KNEW IT ALL ALONG!" when Hogan turned

He also didn't have the rapport between the WCW announcers as he did with Vince and especially Gorilla.

[dav]

Apr 18, 2014 9:11:51 GMT -5 A Platypus Rave said:

Apr 18, 2014 9:09:11 GMT -5 The Ichi said:

His best schtick was his hatred towards Hogan, when they made Hogan actually supposed to be hated there wasn't much you could do.

It did give us one of his greatest calls of "I KNEW IT ALL ALONG!" when Hogan turned

He also didn't have the rapport between the WCW announcers as he did with Vince and especially Gorilla.

Wasn't there a section right after the nWo formed and the announcers were condemning Hogan throughout a section while Heenan just sat back with the most smug 'I told you so' look on his face?

[Deleted]

Apr 18, 2014 9:23:39 GMT -5 dav said:

Wasn't there a section right after the nWo formed and the announcers were condemning Hogan throughout a section while Heenan just sat back with the most smug 'I told you so' look on his face?

I vaguely recall this, yes.

I also recall how he'd either COMPLETELY puss out and run when the nWo took over the broadcast booth, or he'd get stuck there and play a complete suck-up to them.

God bless Bobby Heenan. Only he could make that work.