Bobby Heenan during the New Generation era of WWF

[wildojinx]

Does anyone think Heenan could have been a great commentator during the new generation era (94-96)? I mean, all the goofiness would give him plenty of material, and I can also see him effectively selling the more serious moments like the Bret/Owen feud, evil Backlund, and Shawn's collapse. I dont see him working well during the attitude era, that would have been way too dark for Bobby, but the New Generation era would have been perfect.

[Hit Girl]

Would have been awesome. He was never really the same in WCW.

[fg]

I wonder what he would say about Goldust specifically the days where he really pushed the envelope?

[Stone Coke Miami Watson 🥃]

He would have had a field day with some of the gimmicks of that era.

[tafkaga]

He would have been better than Lawler, but Bobby's schtick only really worked when he was sitting next to Gorilla.

[Aceorton]

Wow, I forgot Bobby wasn't around for Owen's turn.

He would have been gold weighing in on Backlund snapping. Would have whistled along to Double J's music and told us what a fabulous singer he is. Would have gone to town on guys like the Godwinns, Duke the Dumpster and T.L. Hopper

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Jun 5, 2022 19:37:18 GMT -5 Aceorton said:

Wow, I forgot Bobby wasn't around for Owen's turn.

He would have been gold weighing in on Backlund snapping. Would have whistled along to Double J's music and told us what a fabulous singer he is. Would have gone to town on guys like the Godwinns, Duke the Dumpster and T.L. Hopper

Well, he was there when Owen first confronted Bret. They dragged it on a couple more months, but his final opus in WWF was really the Harts v. HBK and his Knights.

[thegatewaydrug]

"THAT'S GOTTA BE KANE!!"

"But whose side is he on?!?"

[Mozenrath]

I think he'd have done well, maybe alongside Ross, who he got along with. God, those two would have gone through so much "Chocolate Cake", judging by JR's stories of working with Heenan.

Heenan made the right decision for himself and his family from a money, and time/geography standpoint, but I think everyone's recognized how his heart was with the WWF.

I do want to give Heenan credit, though, in that he really did elevate a number of nWo moments. Find me any commentator in wrestling history, and try to pick one that'd have called Goldberg defeating Hogan better. I don't think you could. No one had the history with him like he did to really sell that moment as being a big f***ing deal.

[I'm Team Bayley and Indi]

Jun 5, 2022 19:21:31 GMT -5 tafkaga said:

He would have been better than Lawler, but Bobby's schtick only really worked when he was sitting next to Gorilla.

Gorilla was still commentating until 99 on international b shows, maybe they could have worked together there

[Sephiroth]

Jun 6, 2022 0:21:49 GMT -5 thegatewaydrug said:

"THAT'S GOTTA BE KANE!!"

"But whose side is he on?!?"

“But where’s Abel?”

[tafkaga]

Jun 6, 2022 0:27:19 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

I think he'd have done well, maybe alongside Ross, who he got along with. God, those two would have gone through so much "Chocolate Cake", judging by JR's stories of working with Heenan.

Heenan made the right decision for himself and his family from a money, and time/geography standpoint, but I think everyone's recognized how his heart was with the WWF.

I do want to give Heenan credit, though, in that he really did elevate a number of nWo moments. Find me any commentator in wrestling history, and try to pick one that'd have called Goldberg defeating Hogan better. I don't think you could. No one had the history with him like he did to really sell that moment as being a big f***ing deal.

More than Bobby just not wanting to be there, I tend to think his biggest problem was just that Bobby couldn't really be Bobby in WCW.  The closest he came in the announce booth was working beside Mongo, because Mongo was the only announcer that seemed to understand Bobby's schtick and be capable of playing the Gorilla role, but that was a short lived partnership.  Sitting with Tony and Dusty on PPV's was good, because Dusty was the facilitator between Tony and Bobby, who never really clicked as a duo.  Then there's the fact that wrestling was changing from good guys vs. bad guys to faction wars/shades of gray, and "The Brain" was just a relic in the edgelord era of wrestling.  To his credit, he adapted and did just fine with what he was given, but I don't think there's any scenario where the golden age of Bobby's announcing was going to extend into the mid 90's.  

[jason1980s]

It's crazy to think Bobby from his early WCW career was the same age or younger than some WWE legends who come back for a title run. Bobby in 1980s WWF seemed in his 50s and in WCW he of course seemed even older.
I know his cancer progressed pretty quickly but it's a shame he didn't get one last run with WWF even if just doing backstage skits. It was good hearing that he and Jim Ross worked so well together. It couldn't have been very long at all. As a kid I was always confused how those two could be doing commentary on a WWF match from a year prior to JR being in WWF, but they did the voice overs on a lot of 1993 Coliseum Videos.

[tafkaga]

Jun 6, 2022 10:58:32 GMT -5 jason1980s said:

It's crazy to think Bobby from his early WCW career was the same age or younger than some WWE legends who come back for a title run. Bobby in 1980s WWF seemed in his 50s and in WCW he of course seemed even older.
I know his cancer progressed pretty quickly but it's a shame he didn't get one last run with WWF even if just doing backstage skits. It was good hearing that he and Jim Ross worked so well together. It couldn't have been very long at all. As a kid I was always confused how those two could be doing commentary on a WWF match from a year prior to JR being in WWF, but they did the voice overs on a lot of 1993 Coliseum Videos.

Bobby would have been around 50 when he started in WCW.  He was born in '44, but he did seem older than that.  

[Mozenrath]

Jun 6, 2022 8:58:10 GMT -5 tafkaga said:

Jun 6, 2022 0:27:19 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

I think he'd have done well, maybe alongside Ross, who he got along with. God, those two would have gone through so much "Chocolate Cake", judging by JR's stories of working with Heenan.

Heenan made the right decision for himself and his family from a money, and time/geography standpoint, but I think everyone's recognized how his heart was with the WWF.

I do want to give Heenan credit, though, in that he really did elevate a number of nWo moments. Find me any commentator in wrestling history, and try to pick one that'd have called Goldberg defeating Hogan better. I don't think you could. No one had the history with him like he did to really sell that moment as being a big f***ing deal.

More than Bobby just not wanting to be there, I tend to think his biggest problem was just that Bobby couldn't really be Bobby in WCW.  The closest he came in the announce booth was working beside Mongo, because Mongo was the only announcer that seemed to understand Bobby's schtick and be capable of playing the Gorilla role, but that was a short lived partnership.  Sitting with Tony and Dusty on PPV's was good, because Dusty was the facilitator between Tony and Bobby, who never really clicked as a duo.  Then there's the fact that wrestling was changing from good guys vs. bad guys to faction wars/shades of gray, and "The Brain" was just a relic in the edgelord era of wrestling.  To his credit, he adapted and did just fine with what he was given, but I don't think there's any scenario where the golden age of Bobby's announcing was going to extend into the mid 90's.  

It's a bit of a shame in that Tony seems much more willing to have fun and be loose on commentary these days, whereas I feel like he seemed to be under a lot of pressure in the '90s, especially getting frustrated with the company jerking him around with "working the boys" ridiculousness. Makes me think that it probably was a situation where there were a lot of strikes against it working.

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Jun 6, 2022 8:58:10 GMT -5 tafkaga said:

Jun 6, 2022 0:27:19 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

I think he'd have done well, maybe alongside Ross, who he got along with. God, those two would have gone through so much "Chocolate Cake", judging by JR's stories of working with Heenan.

Heenan made the right decision for himself and his family from a money, and time/geography standpoint, but I think everyone's recognized how his heart was with the WWF.

I do want to give Heenan credit, though, in that he really did elevate a number of nWo moments. Find me any commentator in wrestling history, and try to pick one that'd have called Goldberg defeating Hogan better. I don't think you could. No one had the history with him like he did to really sell that moment as being a big f***ing deal.

More than Bobby just not wanting to be there, I tend to think his biggest problem was just that Bobby couldn't really be Bobby in WCW.  The closest he came in the announce booth was working beside Mongo, because Mongo was the only announcer that seemed to understand Bobby's schtick and be capable of playing the Gorilla role, but that was a short lived partnership.  Sitting with Tony and Dusty on PPV's was good, because Dusty was the facilitator between Tony and Bobby, who never really clicked as a duo.  Then there's the fact that wrestling was changing from good guys vs. bad guys to faction wars/shades of gray, and "The Brain" was just a relic in the edgelord era of wrestling.  To his credit, he adapted and did just fine with what he was given, but I don't think there's any scenario where the golden age of Bobby's announcing was going to extend into the mid 90's.  

Yeah, Heenan spoke about this in first book. Saying at the end of the day, Gorilla was a former wrestler and much larger than him and really The Brain was scared of Monsoon. He couldn’t have that with Tony or anyone else in WCW.

[fw91]

He could have lasted and fit in well up until around mania 13.

[salz4life]

Jun 6, 2022 0:27:19 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

I think he'd have done well, maybe alongside Ross, who he got along with. God, those two would have gone through so much "Chocolate Cake", judging by JR's stories of working with Heenan.

Heenan made the right decision for himself and his family from a money, and time/geography standpoint, but I think everyone's recognized how his heart was with the WWF.

I do want to give Heenan credit, though, in that he really did elevate a number of nWo moments. Find me any commentator in wrestling history, and try to pick one that'd have called Goldberg defeating Hogan better. I don't think you could. No one had the history with him like he did to really sell that moment as being a big f***ing deal.

As great as JR and Lawler were together.... I think JR and Heenan could've been even better.

[Milkman Norm]

He would have been fine but after he couldn't do physical work anymore he seemed to slowly lose interest. I think Bobby saw his heel commentary, especially in building up his guys, as something he did before he'd bump for the babyface his top guy was working to get them even more over. When that ended it was kind of like "What's the point, how is this getting the face over?" Or at least that's my take.

[eudypfohl]

Jun 5, 2022 12:16:00 GMT -5 Hit Girl said:

Would have been awesome. He was never really the same in WCW.

He never wanted to leave. He knew how poorly WCW was run...he only jumped ship because WCW offered him health insurance, more $ and a chance to be closer to his daughter who I believed lived in the Atlanta area. He wasn't his old self there and did not have the same purpose and direction. Just basically getting paid and mailing it in. I would too probably if I was in his situation.

If Vince gave him what he wanted then I feel he too would've probably been disillusioned with the decline in talent around him in the WWF, but working for a guy like Vince would've kept Bobby more on his toes and this mailing it in stuff would never fly