During his recent Grilling JR podcast, Jim Ross talked about how wrestlers could learn from WWE Hall of Famer Bobby Heenan:
“If you’re a wrestler today and you get a chance to go back and watch some of his work, whether as a wrestler, manager or broadcaster, you can learn things. Even if you’re a wrestler, you say ‘How would it help me to watch Bobby Heenan as a broadcaster?’ Because it’s all about timing and logic and pushing the right buttons to elicit the right response. Anybody that wants to get better in their craft in pro wrestling can certainly do so by watching as much Bobby Heenan as you can and watching him wrestle and watch how he got matches over. The idea was to embellish and underscore the proficiencies of the babyfaces – in other words, to get the babyfaces over. You can pick out any tape randomly, and you’ll see him doing exactly that each and every time out. He stands above everybody else.”
“He could shoot angles and sell tickets – whether it be for the Bruiser or Gagne – because Bobby made a bump-taking manager. He made that role more viable than anybody that preceded him in the history of wrestling. He always delivered in that way. He was a better heel as a quasi manager and part-time wrestler than 90 percent of the guys in the territory. And he sold tickets. That’s a great mark of being a wrestling villain. That people will actually get off their couch, get in their vehicle, drive to the arena, buy a ticket to see this person – Bobby Heenan in this case – get his ass whipped. They loved that. I just don’t believe there’s every anybody I’ve seen before or since that can do as many things great as Bobby Heenan did. Broadcasting, he aced it. He aced it in the ring. Who was a better manager? There are a lot of great managers, but I’ll say that nobody was a better manager to my eyes, that I actually got to see, than Bobby Heenan. His legacy will never die.”
(quotes courtesy of 411Mania.com)
