David Allen Meltzer^[1] (born October 24, 1959) is an American journalist covering professional wrestling and mixed martial arts. Since 1983, he has been the publisher/editor of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (WON). Meltzer has also written for the Oakland Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, Yahoo! Sports, and The National. He has extensively covered mixed martial arts since UFC 1 in 1993.

Early life[link]

Meltzer was born in New York City, lived in upstate New York until he was ten, before his family settled in San Jose, California.^[2] Meltzer earned a journalism degree from San Jose State University and started out as a sports writer for the Turlock Journal. He demonstrated an interest in professional wrestling and a journalistic approach to it early in life. Meltzer wrote several wrestling-related publications that predate WON, dating back to 1971. The most notable of these was the California Wrestling Report, ca. 1973–1974, which reported on the still-extant National Wrestling Alliance territories operating out of Los Angeles and San Francisco.

[edit] Wrestling Observer Newsletter

The beginnings of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (WON) date back to 1980, when Meltzer began an annual poll amongst those with whom he corresponded regarding professional wrestling. According to Meltzer, he was just a fan at first. A short time later, he began maintaining a tape-trading list, and would occasionally send match results and news updates along with tape updates. Meltzer stated that he wanted to keep his friends in college "in the loop" for his tape trading as well as the happenings in the business, as the mainstream wrestling magazines catered to a somewhat younger demographic.^[3]

This led directly to the formation of the WON, which Meltzer first began publishing in 1983 as a way to keep fans informed of various wrestling regions that readers may not have been aware of or had no access to. The WON has been published from the start from various communities in Northern California, except for a six-month period in late 1983 and early 1984 when Meltzer resided in Denton, Texas. For most of its existence, it has been published from Campbell, California, a suburb of San Jose. The publication was originally a 16-24 page publication on 8½ by 14 inch paper, and published roughly every two or three weeks.

Meltzer contemplated a career change during the mid 1980s, which led him to announce in 1985 that he would be ceasing publication, citing disinterest in the wrestling landscape of the time and too much time having to be spent on bookkeeping and mailing lists.^[4] At that point, he continued offering the WON on a "temporary" basis as an 8-page weekly on 8½ by 11 inch paper only to fill out the remainder of his subcriptions. He was to be hired to cover soccer instead and just contribute to other wrestling newsletters.^[4] The reader response to this change was apparently enough to convince him to pursue the WON as his career instead. He started writing the WON full-time in 1987, retaining the smaller 8-page format. By this point, Meltzer began making appearances at major wrestling events, at first mostly in Japan. He was seen as a spectator in the front row at Chi-Town Rumble in 1989, seated next to Brad Muster, at the time a fullback with the Chicago Bears. As kayfabe was still being observed from within the business, Jim Ross acknowledged Muster's presence in the audience during the broadcast, but not Meltzer's.

The WON's earlier years were also marked by revealing insider news and various behind-the-scenes happenings in the industry, a groundbreaking approach in a kayfabe-heavy era.^[5] Meltzer's approach benefitted from professional contacts, a historic perspective, and his own analysis of trends, data, and events. The WWE's 1997 "Montreal Screwjob" was exhaustively covered by the WON, which featured accounts from within the backstage rooms where some of the interaction occurred. Meltzer published data-based evidence suggesting inflated "record" attendance figures for Wrestlemanias 3 and 23. He gave extensive space to various wrestling scandals, including Vince McMahon's 1990s steroid trial, the Chris Benoit murder investigation, and the high drug-fuelled death rate within the wrestling ranks. His newsletter was also known for its lengthy obituaries of deceased wrestling figures, as well as a desire to chronicle the deaths of every wrestling figure possible, no matter how minor.

Meltzer stated that this new, more journalistic approach to covering wrestling earned him scorn from many within the wrestling business. However, Terry Funk and Bill Watts were acknowledged as early supporters of the WON from within the business, and at the start two of the very few. Around when readers first began hotly debating whether wrestling promoters actually read the publication or not, Meltzer published a letter to the editor from Watts, at the time still promoting. He also credited Houston promoter Paul Boesch for taking him under his wing in the 1980s and teaching him how the business works. As the business evolved along with the newsletter, Meltzer gained a little more acceptance.^[6]

Since major wrestling promotions would never acknowledge the existence of any dirt sheets,^[5] Meltzer had to find other ways to advertise his newsletter. Advertisements and other promotion were often published in kayfabe and semi-kayfabe publications. Early sources for knowledge of the WON's existence were The Wrestling News published by Norman Kietzer, as well as Factsheet Five. The latter was decidedly a non-wrestling publication, though the WON and other wrestling "sheets" made up a significant amount of its coverage. Other magazines such as Wrestling Main Event and Wrestling Eye also provided mention. Meltzer was also able to advertise his publication during various guest appearances on wrestling radio shows and guest editorials in various national newspapers.

With the ubiquitous emergence of the Internet and wrestling web sites that are able to provide news in real time, today's WON differs in the way it covers the wrestling scene in that it provides more of an editorial and analysis on the news and what impacts it could have on the business.^[6] Wrestlers, such as Konnan have noted seeing copies of the WON on Vince McMahon's office desk.^[7] It is believed many, if not most of the biggest stars in WWE and other major promotions are subscribers, although few would admit it publicly. Howard Finkel's wife was publicly acknowledged by Meltzer as an early WON subscriber, and at the time, the closest reach the publication likely had to McMahon, which was in response to a reader questioning the likelihood of McMahon himself reading the publication.

Meltzer's newsletter has led to a loyal fan following, radio shows, and even a brief stint working for the WWF as a researcher in 1987.^[8] In his first autobiography, Mick Foley declared that it was the WON's coverage of his independent circuit matches that caused WCW to consider signing him, since he was against "type." Foley also wrote that promoters such as Watts would sometimes change their entire booking direction based on the opinions expressed in Meltzer's newsletter.^[9]

Impact[link]

Rating system[link]

Meltzer popularized the "star rating" system (devised by Jim Cornette and his childhood friend Norm Dooley), which rates matches on a scale of zero to five stars (sometimes going to negative five stars in the case of bad matches) in a similar manner to that used by many movie critics.^[2] As in the field of film, a rating is a largely subjective affair that may take into account the amount of action, as opposed to restholds ("workrate"), the difficulty and variety of moves used, the history of the workers and their feud, the development of an in-match storyline based on the wrestling moves and how they affect the wrestlers, and the overall reaction of the crowd.

Five star matches, as rated by Meltzer, are extremely rare. The latest in the United States was Davey Richards versus Michael Elgin at the 2012 ROH Showdown in the Sun internet pay-per-view (iPPV). 65 matches have received the honor since 1983: Dynamite Kid and Tiger Mask I were the inaugural 'five star match'. Mitsuharu Misawa has the most five star matches with 24; (including one match wrestling as Tiger Mask II).

Despite this rating system representing only the subjective opinion of one individual, wrestlers, such as Bret Hart,^[10] have written how proud they were when their performances were praised in the WON.

[edit] WON Hall of Fame

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame is not a physical place. Nonetheless, it is a respected honor in the world of wrestling. Every year, Meltzer conducted a poll of selected "insiders" and wrestlers to determine new inductees into the WON Hall of Fame. Pro Wrestling Illustrated has adopted the WON Hall of Fame as their own.

[edit] Wrestling Observer Live

Meltzer was the former host of Wrestling Observer Live, a wrestling radio show. Co-hosting the show with Meltzer was Bryan Alvarez, editor of the Figure Four Weekly newsletter. Meltzer and Alvarez hosted the show every Sunday night from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. EST on the Sports Byline Radio Network. Due to the show airing on Sunday nights, replays were played on nights there were WWE pay-per-views. The show debuted in October 1999 and aired five days a week on the internet radio channel, eYada.com. eYada closed on July 9, 2001, with Wrestling Observer Live, its highest rated show, being the last show to broadcast on the station. Wrestling Observer Live was picked up by Sports Byline, a radio syndicator, on March 17, 2002, and had stayed in its current position ever since. Meltzer stopped appearing regularly on September 2007, but still appears sparingly. On Sunday nights, Meltzer regularly does a segment on the radio show Live Audio Wrestling.

Online transition[link]

On June 12, 2008, the Wrestling Observer website merged with Bryan Alvarez's Figure Four Weekly website, using the layout of the latter. After being a print-only newsletter for over 25 years (other than a brief period where it was also available via e-mail in 2000), the Observer became available to subscribers online through the website. Dave Meltzer pens the Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday news updates as contributions to the Figure 4 Weekly Online website (f4wonline.com). His colleague Bryan Alvarez writes the Tuesday and Friday updates.

Bibliography[link]

• Tributes: Remembering Some of the World's Greatest Wrestlers (Winding Stair Press, 2001, Hardcover) ISBN 1-55366-085-4 ISBN 978-1553660859
• Tributes II: Remembering More of the Worlds Greatest Wrestlers (Sports Publishing, 2004, Hardcover) ISBN 1-58261-817-8 ISBN 978-1582618173

Notes and references[link]

See also[link]

• List of Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
• Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame

External links[link]

• Home of the Wrestling Observer Live radio show
• Official website of the Wrestling Observer
• Pick My Brain interview with Dave Meltzer
• DeathValleyDriver interview with Meltzer
• Dean S Planet interview with Meltzer
• "Observer Star Ratings List WWF/WWE 1986–present, ***+ ratings
• "List of matches that have received five stars from Dave Meltzer
• "Ongoing list of Japanese matches that have been given four stars or higher from Dave Meltzer
• "List of the worst rated matches of all-time

Bobby Heenan
Heenan (left) with Larry Zbyszko
Ring name(s)	Bobby "The Brain" Heenan
Billed height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)[1]
Billed weight	190 lb (86 kg)[1]
Born	(1944-11-01) November 1, 1944 (age 67)[2] Chicago, Illinois[2]
Resides	Tampa, Florida[1]
Billed from	Beverly Hills, California[1]
Trained by	Self Taught
Debut	1960
Retired	2000

Raymond Louis "Ray" Heenan (born November 1, 1944), better known as Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, is a former American professional wrestling manager and color commentator, best known for his time with the American Wrestling Association (AWA), the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW). He was known for his skill in drawing heel heat for himself and his wrestlers, and for his on-screen repartee with Gorilla Monsoon as a color commentator. World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE, formerly WWF) has described Heenan as "one of sports-entertainment's best loved legends".^[3]

Heenan was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004 by Blackjack Lanza.

Career[link]

Early career[link]

Always a fan of wrestling growing up in Chicago and Indianapolis, Heenan started in the wrestling profession early on, carrying bags and jackets for the wrestlers, and selling refreshments at the events.^[4] Dropping out of school in the eighth grade to support his mother and grandmother, Heenan's first break in the wrestling business was as a heel manager and wrestler in 1965 when he was known as "Pretty Boy" Bobby Heenan. His gimmick over the years has more or less remained the same, a tough talking big mouth who cowered in fear when being physically confronted.^[1] At the time, heels were often given managers to speak for them in interviews, rile up the crowd during matches, and cheat on their behalf. Bobby "The Brain" Heenan went on to manage some of the most successful wrestlers in the world, creating "The Heenan Family", a stable that existed in several different incarnations and wrestling promotions for over 20 years. Heenan did not like the term "stable", stating that it should only refer to a place to keep horses.^{[citation needed]}

American Wrestling Association[link]

In 1969, Heenan joined the American Wrestling Association (AWA) as a manager and occasional tag team partner of The Blackjacks, eventually moving on to managing Nick Bockwinkel and Ray "The Crippler" Stevens, a duo which became several-time AWA World tag team champions under Heenan's leadership. The AWA was the starting point for Heenan's first Heenan Family, which consisted of Bockwinkel, Stevens, Bobby Duncum Sr., and Blackjack Lanza.^[1] In 1975, with Heenan in his corner, Bockwinkel captured his first of several AWA World titles, ending the seven-year reign of perennial champion Verne Gagne. While Bockwinkel was AWA champion, in 1976, Lanza and Duncum captured the AWA World tag team title, making Heenan the first manager in history to simultaneously manage both a major promotion's singles and tag team World champions. While Bockwinkel and Stevens feuded with The Crusher and Dick the Bruiser, Dick the Bruiser famously called Heenan "Weasel"; this led to faces calling Heenan "Weasel" throughout the rest of his wrestling career.^[5]

In early 1979, Heenan left the AWA to work in the National Wrestling Alliance's Georgia Championship Wrestling group (the kayfabe reason for his departure being given as a one-year suspension from the AWA).^[1] He returned in late 1979 and resumed managing Nick Bockwinkel to renewed championship success, including against a young up-and-coming challenger named Hulk Hogan in 1983. Heenan also managed Ken Patera after Patera returned to the AWA in 1982, but Patera joined forces with Adnan Al-Kaissie after Heenan suffered a serious neck injury while wrestling in Japan in 1983 and had to take time off.

World Wrestling Federation[link]

Manager[link]

In 1984, Vince McMahon lured Heenan away from the AWA to manage Jesse "The Body" Ventura; however, after Ventura developed blood clots in his lungs due to Agent Orange use while Ventura fought in the Vietnam War, he was forced to end his active wrestling career. While most of the AWA talent left for the WWF in this time without giving proper notice (the AWA required departing talent to work a six-week notice for booking and syndication-based reasons, with most talent claiming that McMahon paid them extra not to work out their notices with the AWA), only Heenan worked out his notice in good faith to the Gagne family.^[6]

With Ventura unable to wrestle, Heenan instead became Big John Studd's manager for his feud with André the Giant, and he soon reformed the Heenan Family.^[1] Over Heenan's WWF career, the Heenan Family included Studd, Ken Patera, Paul "Mr. Wonderful" Orndorff, King Kong Bundy, André the Giant, High Chief Sivi Afi, The Brain Busters (former Horsemen members Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard), "Ravishing" Rick Rude, Harley Race, The Islanders (Haku and Tama), Hercules, The Barbarian, Mr Perfect, Terry Taylor, and The Brooklyn Brawler. As a manager, he was always one of the most hated men, often the most hated man, in the promotion. Heenan once had a famous feud with André the Giant while managing Big John Studd, and famously challenged André to a $15,000 bodyslam match against Studd at the first WrestleMania, where André had to retire from wrestling if he had lost the match.^[7]

Heenan (left) managed many of the WWF's top stars, notably leading André the Giant (right) in a match against Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania III.

Heenan and the Heenan Family had a monumental feud with wrestling icon Hulk Hogan in the '80s, and Heenan managed two WrestleMania challengers to Hogan's title, King Kong Bundy in 1986, and André the Giant in 1987. André did not win the title at that time, but later bested Hogan for the championship in 1988 in a controversial win after he aligned himself with "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase. On an episode of Legends of Wrestling, Jim Ross claimed Heenan had received a six-figure payoff for his work in promoting the event - arguably the largest pay day in any managerial career. Heenan also had a famous feud with The Ultimate Warrior, who reintroduced Heenan to Weasel Suit matches, which Heenan had during his time in the AWA.^[1]

After being derided by announcers for his first five years in the WWF (mostly by Gorilla Monsoon) for never managing a champion, WrestleMania V was promoted (mostly by Jesse Ventura and later Gorilla Monsoon) as Heenan's quest, and best chance since Wrestlemania III to manage a champion. Heenan finally managed his first champion in the WWF when "Ravishing" Rick Rude upset the Ultimate Warrior for the Intercontinental title. Shortly thereafter, he led the Brain Busters to the WWF World Tag Team championship giving Heenan not only the gratification of managing a champion, but managing two champions at the same time, equalling a feat achieved two years earlier by Jimmy Hart. A few months later, he led Colossal Connection (André and Haku) to the WWF Tag Team Championship. A few months after that, he led Mr Perfect to the first of two Intercontinental Championships. In a year and a half, Heenan went from having managed no champions to having managed two tag teams to two World Tag Team championships and two wrestlers to three Intercontinental championships.

Heenan also had a parody talk show known as The Bobby Heenan Show, which was broadcast in four segments during the second half of WWF's regular weekly program "Prime Time Wrestling". It was co-hosted by Jamison Winger and featured several very overweight women known as The Oinkettes.^[8]

As neck injuries prevented him from taking bumps the way he used to, Heenan retired from managing in 1991 to become a full-time "broadcast journalist" (see below). Nonetheless, Heenan crossed the line to managing sporadically. When the WWF signed Ric Flair, Heenan spent several weeks talking him up as "The Real World's Heavyweight Champion" (then-NWA World Heavyweight Champion) due to Flair's no compete contract with WCW. He continued to act as an advisor to Flair during his first WWF run (and coined the phrase, "That's not fair to Flair" and "You got to be fair to Flair"). Though he nominally managed Flair, Heenan's former protege Mr. Perfect, who temporarily retired due to injury, would regularly accompany Flair to ringside as his "Executive Consultant". At the 1993 Royal Rumble, he introduced Lex "Narcissist" Luger to the WWF to exact revenge on his former protege, Mr. Perfect.^[1]

Commentator[link]

Heenan became a commentator while in the World Wrestling Federation, but continued to manage various wrestlers, such as The Brooklyn Brawler.

In 1986, Heenan became a color commentator in addition to his managing duties. He replaced Jesse Ventura on Prime Time Wrestling and All American Wrestling, aired on the USA Network, teaming up with Gorilla Monsoon. He also replaced Ventura to team up with Monsoon on the syndicated All-Star Wrestling, which was replaced in the fall of 1986 with Wrestling Challenge. Heenan and Monsoon's usually-unscripted banter was very entertaining, and inspired many classic moments. Heenan, calling himself a "broadcast journalist", shamelessly rooted for the heels while they cheated or did something under-handed and referred to his audience as "humanoids," and babyface wrestlers, especially jobbers, as "ham-and-eggers."^[1] Another classic moment between Heenan and Monsoon occurred repeatedly when Heenan went on a long rant supporting the heel wrestlers, until an exasperated Gorilla Monsoon would say, "Will you stop?"

Heenan, still suffering from the broken neck he received ten years earlier and unable to cope with the long working hours, decided to leave the WWF at the end of 1993. He was given an on-air farewell by Gorilla Monsoon on the December 6, 1993 edition^[9] of Monday Night Raw who, in kayfabe was fed up by Heenan's constant insults, threw him and his belongings out of the Westchester County Center and onto the sidewalk of White Plains, NY. Heenan mentioned that the idea was his and Monsoon's. Afterwards, Heenan states that at the hotel he and Monsoon embraced each other and wept for over an hour.^[10] In an interview later Heenan recalls the incident saying he chose Monsoon to throw him out of the WWF seeing it as appropriate. He also poked fun at Monsoon saying he ate the bananas that Monsoon brought as a going away gift for Heenan.

Heenan's original plan was to retire, spend time with his family, and relax, but he was contacted by WCW soon after he left the WWF. He was unsure at first, but accepted their offer once he found out that WCW provided lighter work schedules and health insurance. Also, his daughter went to school in Alabama; Atlanta where WCW was based, is a couple hours drive.^[11][12]

World Championship Wrestling[link]

In 1994, Heenan joined WCW as a full-time commentator. He served as color commentator on WCW flagship shows Monday Nitro and Thunder, as well as the Clash of the Champions specials and many pay-per-views. Heenan acted as the heel of the broadcast team, cheering on the heel of the fight and making excuses for them when they cheated. Heenan was largely uninspired in WCW due to the negative work environment, which he later described as night and day compared to the WWF, and due to conflicts with Eric Bischoff and Tony Schiavone.^[13]

In 1995, Heenan had neck surgery.

Heenan made one return to ringside at the 1996 edition of the Great American Bash, leading Ric Flair and Arn Anderson to victory over Steve McMichael and Kevin Greene and also conspiring with Anderson and Flair to bring McMichael into the fold.

Starting in late January 2000, WCW replaced Heenan on Monday Nitro and pay-per-view events with Mark Madden. Heenan continued to commentate on Thunder along with Mike Tenay until April 2000. The two were then joined by Tony Schiavone in April 2000. Heenan was then replaced by Stevie Ray beginning in August 2000 on Thunder. Heenan was then only seen with Scott Hudson on World Wide until he was released by WCW in November 2000.^[14]

Brian Pillman incident[link]

At one notable Clash of the Champions event broadcast live on TBS on January 23, 1996, Heenan screamed, "What the fuck are you doing?" when Brian Pillman grabbed him by his neck, which he had surgery on not too long before, during Pillman's "loose cannon" gimmick. Heenan returned to the air later and apologized for his audible cursing on air. According to Heenan, Pillman apologized to him for the incident backstage, citing he did not know of Heenan's history of neck problems beforehand, and more specifically that Heenan had been labeled "no-touch" by management because of his injuries.

Heenan, in later interviews, explained that the reason for his outburst was that he did not know it was Pillman who was grabbing him, as he was looking at Eddie Guerrero (Pillman's opponent) in the ring. Since Heenan was watching Guerrero on the ringside monitor (which displays the match as it is broadcast on television), he stated that he did not know that Pillman was behind him, and figured a fan had jumped the guard-rail and attacked him. The language was edited out of all WCW tapes, but can be heard in the 2006 DVD release on Pillman's career.^[15]

Post-WCW career[link]

Heenan kept busy after being let go by WCW, providing commentary to the Gimmick Battle Royal match at WrestleMania X-Seven and lending his talents to smaller promotions.

In 2001, Heenan worked briefly as a "sports agent" in the X Wrestling Federation with Curt Hennig under his tutelage.

He has written two career memoirs, 2002's Bobby The Brain: Wrestling's Bad Boy Tells All, and 2004's Chair Shots and Other Obstacles: Winning Life's Wrestling Matches which has an introduction by Ric Flair. Both books were co-written by Steve Anderson.

In 2004, Heenan was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame shortly before WrestleMania XX. In his acceptance speech, he paid tribute to his late broadcast partner and real-life close friend, tearfully saying "I wish Monsoon were here."^[1]

Heenan made a brief appearance between matches at the actual WrestleMania XX broadcast; while Jonathan Coachman was "searching" the backstage area for The Undertaker, he investigated some noises to discover aged female wrestlers Mae Young and The Fabulous Moolah. Heenan and "Mean" Gene Okerlund appeared moments earlier in a disheveled state; Coachman implied that the four had been involved in a sex act of some sort.^[14] Heenan also appeared in interviews for The Self-Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior DVD in 2005.

Heenan is still involved in wrestling on a limited basis, giving interviews and making sporadic appearances. In February 2001, Heenan did color commentary for the Women of Wrestling Unleashed pay-per-view. In 2004 he returned to the spotlight, feuding with fellow managerial legend Jim Cornette in Ring of Honor.^[16] Also in 2004 he joined former WCW commentators Tony Schiavone and Larry Zbyszko in providing commentary for the video game Showdown: Legends of Wrestling.

On April 2, 2005, Heenan inducted his former protege Paul Orndorff into the WWE Hall of Fame and on April 1, 2006 Heenan inducted Blackjack Mulligan and Blackjack Lanza and on March 31, 2007 Heenan inducted Nick Bockwinkel.^[17]

Heenan appeared for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) towards the end of 2005 on TNA Impact! alongside Chicago White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski and strength coach Dale Torborg when they presented TNA wrestlers A.J. Styles, Chris Sabin, and Sonjay Dutt with autographed gifts from the team. They were interrupted by The Diamonds in the Rough which led to a second appearance.^[18]

On September 6, 2006, Heenan made another appearance in TNA on an episode of Impact! making a bid to manage "free agent" Robert Roode.^[19]

Heenan's latest appearance on World Wrestling Entertainment occurred on the June 11, 2007 episode of Monday Night Raw (also billed as the WWE Draft 2007). Heenan was featured in a taped segment giving his thoughts on Mr. McMahon for "Mr. McMahon Appreciation Night".

Heenan was honored by the Pro Wrestling Report at the annual Blizzard Brawl event on December 5, 2009 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as he was given their Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to this, The mayor of Milwaukee, Tom Barrett, declared December 5, 2009 to be "Bobby Heenan Day".^[20]

On April 17, 2010 Heenan appeared at TNA Lockdown fanfest.

WWE released a retrospective two disc DVD set of his career on December 28, 2010.

Personal life[link]

Bobby has been married to Cynthia Jean (known as Cindy) since September 14, 1966. Together they have a daughter, Jessica Ida Heenan-Solt (born 1978).^[21] Heenan became a grandfather when his grandson was born in 2008.

Although on-screen they were often at odds, Heenan was actually very close with his WWF broadcast partner Gorilla Monsoon. Heenan was working for WCW when Monsoon died on October 6, 1999 and Heenan reportedly insisted that WCW announce the death of his friend on the air despite Monsoon having never worked for WCW. On the October 11 episode of WCW Monday Nitro, Heenan and Schiavone announced Gorilla's death, with Heenan giving him a goodbye before leaving the broadcast booth in tears^{[citation needed]}. During his WWE Hall of Fame induction speech, Heenan stated that Monsoon's presence was the only thing missing from the occasion. Heenan is also good friends with Gene Okerlund.

He also, despite being at odds with him, even during his heel run, has been friends with Hulk Hogan for a long time. Heenan even wrote praises for Hogan in his autobiography, Bobby The Brain: Wrestling Bad Boy Tells All, while Hogan wrote the foreword for the book.

Battle with throat cancer[link]

In January 2002, Heenan announced on his website that he was battling throat cancer:

Heenan has since largely recovered from throat cancer, but lost a great deal of weight, dramatically changing his appearance, and suffered a drastically changed voice: Heenan now speaks in a soft, high-pitched tone which contrasts noticeably with the strong, rugged tone fans were accustomed to hearing him use as a color commentator. Heenan went from being 246 lbs. to being 190 lbs. or even less. These drastic differences led to rumors that Heenan was terminally ill, most (if not all) of which have since dwindled.

In December 2007, Heenan had reconstructive surgery on his jaw, after the first surgery was unsuccessful. Heenan was placed in a medically induced coma and was slowly brought out.^[22] In the second half of January 2008, Heenan had come out of his medically induced coma. Though not yet able to speak, he was communicating with his eyes. He has more surgeries to come, but they are plastic surgeries to reconstruct facial features. The reconstructing of his jaw is complete. In October 2008, it was reported that Heenan was then able to speak a few sentences before he gets tired. In February 2009, it was reported that while Heenan is still relearning how to speak clearly, he is now out of the hospital and plans on attending some Major League Baseball spring training sessions. Heenan accompanied Gene Okerlund to the WWE Hall of Fame the day before WrestleMania XXV.

On December 11, 2009, Bobby Heenan was hospitalized at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, FL after an examination of his rebuilt jaw found an infection that needed to be treated. As a result, Heenan missed his scheduled appearance at the K&S Wrestlefest event in New Jersey.

By 2010, Heenan's jaw infection was completely eradicated.

Books[link]

• Bobby Heenan with Steve Anderson. Bobby The Brain: Wrestling's Bad Boy Tells All. Triumph Books. 2002. ISBN 1-57243-465-1

• Bobby Heenan with Steve Anderson. Chair Shots and Other Obstacles: Winning Life's Wrestling Matches. Sports Publishing. 2004. ISBN 1-58261-762-7

In wrestling[link]

• Nicknames^[23]
  • "The Weasel"
  • "The Brain"
  • "Pretty Boy"

• Wrestlers managed

• • Nick Bockwinkel^[1]
  • Ray "The Crippler" Stevens^[1]
  • Angelo Poffo
  • Bobby Duncum Sr.^[1]
  • Blackjack Lanza^[1]
  • Blackjack Mulligan
  • Adrian Adonis
  • Big John Studd^[1]
  • Ken Patera^[1]
  • King Kong Bundy^[1]
  • André the Giant^[1]
  • "Ravishing" Rick Rude^[1]
  • "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff^[1]
  • Don Muraco (For one night against Hulk Hogan)
  • Harley Race^[1]
  • The Islanders (Haku and Tama)^[1]
  • Hercules Hernandez^[1]
  • The Barbarian^[1]
  • "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig^[1]
  • High Chief Sivi Afi
  • Red Rooster^[1]
  • Brain Busters (Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard)^[1]
  • "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase
  • The Brooklyn Brawler^[1]
  • Ric Flair^[1]
  • The Missing Link
  • Nikolai Volkoff
  • Colt Cabana^[1]
  • Jimmy Jacobs^[1]
  • Nigel McGuinness^[1]
  • CM Punk^[1]
  • Baron von Raschke^[1]
  • Ernie Ladd^[1]
  • Dick Warren^[1]
  • Killer Karl Kox^[1]
  • Masked Superstar^[1]
  • Lex Luger

Championships and accomplishments[link]

• Cauliflower Alley Club

• Iron Mike Mazurki Award (2004)

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated

• Manager of the Year Award (1972, 1976, 1989, 1991)

• Pro Wrestling Report

• PWR Lifetime Achievement Award (2009)^[24]

• St. Louis Wrestling Hall of Fame

• Class of 2010

• World Wrestling Entertainment

• WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2004)

• Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards

• Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)

• Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum

• Class of 2006

References[link]

External links[link]

Professional wrestling portal

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Bobby Heenan

• Bobby Heenan's WWE Hall of Fame Profile
• Bobby Heenan at the Internet Movie Database
• Bobby "The Brain" Heenan Interview Conducted With Ringside Radio

Chris Jericho
Jericho on his 2007 book tour
Ring name(s)	Chris Jericho[1] Corazón de León[2] León de Oro[3] Lion Do[4] The Lion Heart[4] Super Liger[4]
Billed height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)[1]
Billed weight	226 lb (103 kg)[1]
Born	(1970-11-09) November 9, 1970 (age 41)[2] Manhasset, New York[2]
Resides	Tampa, Florida[4]
Billed from	Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada[2]
Trained by	Ed Langley Katsuji Adachi Keith Hart[4] Stu Hart
Debut	October 2, 1990[4]
Website	chrisjericho.com

Christopher Keith Irvine (born November 9, 1970),^[2] known professionally as Chris Jericho, is an American-born Canadian professional wrestler, musician, media personality, actor, author and businessman. He is signed to WWE, appearing on its Raw brand in addition to being the lead singer of heavy metal band Fozzy. He is also well known for his time in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), and internationally in Canadian, Mexican and Japanese promotions.

Jericho has won 30 championships between WWF/E, WCW, and ECW - the three most prominent American promotions in the 1990s and early 2000s. He is credited as being the first Undisputed WWF Champion, having unified the WWE Championship and World Championship (formerly the WCW Championship) in 2001.

In WWE Jericho is a six-time world champion, having won the Undisputed WWF Championship once, the WCW/World Championship twice and the World Heavyweight Championship thrice. He is also a record nine-time Intercontinental Champion, and the fourth WWE Grand Slam Champion.^[1]

Outside of wrestling, Jericho formed the band Fozzy in 1999 as their lead vocalist. Their eponymous debut album (2000) and Happenstance (2002) consist of cover songs and original music; All That Remains (2005) and Chasing the Grail (2010) feature all-original music. He also competed in the 2011 series of Dancing With The Stars, lasting until the sixth week. Prior to this, he hosted the ABC game show Downfall.

Professional wrestling career[link]

Early career (1990–1996)[link]

At age 19, Irvine entered the Hart Brothers School of Wrestling where, on his first day, he met Lance Storm. Two months later, he was ready to start wrestling on independent shows, making his debut on October 2, 1990, in a draw against Storm. The pair then worked as a tag team, initially called "Sudden Impact". Meanwhile, he took the name "Jericho" from the Helloween album, Walls of Jericho.^[5] Jericho and Storm worked for Tony Condello in the tours of Northern Manitoba with Adam Copeland (Edge), Jason Reso (Christian), and Terry Gerin (Rhino).^[2] The pair also wrestled in Calgary's Canadian National Wrestling Alliance (CNWA) and Canadian Rocky Mountain Wrestling (CRMW). In 1991, Jericho and Storm started touring in Japan for Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, where he would befriend Ricky Fuji, who also trained under Stu Hart.

In the winter of 1992, he traveled to Mexico and competed under the name Leon D'Oro, and later Corazón de León, where he wrestled for several small wrestling companies, as well as the largest in the country, Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). In CMLL, Jericho took on Silver King, Negro Casas, and Último Dragón en route to an 11 month reign as the NWA Middleweight Champion that began in December 1993. After leaving Mexico, Jericho would wrestle in Hamburg, Germany for six weeks as part of a tournament run by Rene Lasarteese.^[2] His burgeoning wrestling skills also took him to Japan in 1994 where he competed for Genichiro Tenryu's Wrestling and Romance (later known as Wrestle Association "R") (WAR) promotion, facing the likes of Gedo and Último Dragón, to whom he lost the WAR International Junior Heavyweight Championship. He would also become a member of the heel stable Fuyuki-Gun (also known as Team No Respect) with Gedo, Jado, and Hiromichi Fuyuki under the name Lion Do, and would go on to team with Gedo to become the first WAR International Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions.

1994 also saw Jericho reunited with his former teammate from CRMW, Storm, as the Thrillseekers in Jim Cornette's Smoky Mountain Wrestling promotion, where they feuded with the likes of Well Dunn, The Rock 'n' Roll Express, and The Heavenly Bodies. In December 1995, Jericho competed in the second Super J Cup Tournament, hosted by WAR, losing to Wild Pegasus.^[2]

Extreme Championship Wrestling (1996)[link]

In 1996, thanks in part to recommendations by Chris Benoit and Perry Saturn, to promoter Paul Heyman, and after Mick Foley saw Jericho's match against Último Dragón for the WAR International Junior Heavyweight Championship in July 1995 and gave a tape of the match to Heyman, Jericho began wrestling for the Philadelphia-based Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) promotion, winning the ECW World Television Championship from Pitbull #2 in June 1996. While in ECW, Jericho wrestled Taz, Sabu, Rob Van Dam, Cactus Jack, Shane Douglas, and 2 Cold Scorpio. It was during this time that he drew the attention of World Championship Wrestling (WCW).

World Championship Wrestling[link]

Cruiserweight Champion (1996–1998)[link]

On August 26, 1996 Jericho made his first appearance with WCW, and on September 15, he appeared at his first pay-per-view show in a match against Chris Benoit at Fall Brawl.^[6] In January 1997, Jericho made his debut for New Japan Pro Wrestling, who had a working agreement with WCW, as Super Liger, the masked arch nemesis of Jushin "Thunder" Liger.^[7] According to Jericho, Super Liger's first match against Koji Kanemoto at Wrestling World 1997 was so poorly received that the gimmick was dropped instantly.^[7] The following six months, Jericho worked for New Japan unmasked, before being called back by WCW.^[7] On June 28, 1997, Jericho defeated Syxx in Los Angeles, California to win the Cruiserweight Championship for the first time. He won the title again on August 12, 1997, by defeating Alex Wright.