[1994-01-27-WCW-Clash of the Champions XXVI] Bobby Heenan debuts

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Bobby Heenan gets a SUPERSTAR heel reaction when Gene Okerlund reveals "the worst news he has heard since his mother-in-law announced that she was moving in a year and a half ago". And so it begins.

[Kevin Ridge]

Gene is over the top here. Heenan gets good reaction. As a WWF fan growing up, I had trouble getting use to these guys in WCW. Too bad Heenan can't contribute these days to the Legend Roundtables on WWE Classics.

[shoe]

The heat Heenan gets here is crazy. I know Heenan can't bump but man I think they could have done a huge ppv # bigger than they did, with Heenan manageing a debuting The Giant, Vader, Flair, or debuting heel Savage against Hogan .

[Exposer]

Heenan is the most hated man in WCW on this night. Gene is hysterical with his reaction. Those two had great chemistry. Awesome segment.

[soup23]

Gene saying why do you follow me everywhere is a great line. Hennan's suit is great here.

[El-P]

Heenan is great and all, but I know I'll miss Ventura very soon, and Heenan wil overstay his welcome eventually. This really feels more and more like a WWF wave with each passing months, after Gene, The Boss and now Heenan.

[PeteF3]

Less than two months and Bobby Heenan is back on television and, for right now at least, all is right with the world.

[DMJ]

I'm watching this show right now and it made me wonder - is this night the first time Heenan had ever done commentary with Solie or am I drawing a blank on them working together elsewhere at the table?

 

The matches they call together have been really fun to watch, if for nothing more than just hearing them together after so many years of hearing Heenan with Gorilla, Vince, or Tony Schiavone most of the time.

[PeteF3]

I'm sure Bobby sat in at the podium in Georgia at some point or another while he was managing there. As I recall reading he always called Solie "Norman," "Morton," or anything besides his actual name (worked name, but you know what I mean).

 

What I've always wondered about is if Solie & Ventura ever called anything together.

[Matt D]

Lance Russell and Ventura didn't really intersect in WCW, right?

[PeteF3]

Doubtful. By the time Jesse showed up Lance was working almost exclusively on the Hotline.

[garretta]

The old Heenan, the manager of (almost) champions, was the one who walked down the aisle here. He had a great deal of his old swagger back, and really looked like he'd be a player in more places than the booth. He said in his shoot that he wanted to manage again when he first got there, but they couldn't figure out who to put him with, and after a while when it beciame clear that no one gave a damn about him, he started just showing up and collecting his checks.

 

Let's see, how about getting Fuller out of that Boss Hogg hand-me-down and putting the Brain in his place with Austin, just for starters? Then, in a few months when Hogan starts knocking on Flair's door, have Ric retain him, with references to the fact that he (Bobby) had led him to the WWF title and would help him keep the WCW title from the man whom they both hate more than life itself? You could also play up his past with Bock, with the Brain believing that he has a friend in the commissioner's chair only to find out that a ton of water has gone over the bridge, and now Bock's committed to a fair deal for everyone. You could have him bring Paul Wight in later (though not as Andre's son, for God's sake), and segue into him being the brains behind the NWO, which would allow him to live his real-life dream of managing Hogan.

 

Instead, we're going to get not only an announcer who cared less and less as time went on, but also one of the main people who led to Jesse being shown the door. I know there were other issues between Jesse and WCW as well, but Heenan waltzing in and taking over as the main color guy couldn't have helped matters. I think we've seen the last of Jesse as a pay-per-view commentator already, as a matter of fact; Heenan took his place at SuperBrawl IV. I seem to recall Jesse doing a couple of matches at Bash at the Beach, but I could be wrong about that. Anyway, it's a damn shame that they couldn't have kept both in high-profile positions, because Jesse's never been better and Heenan was in a slump until just before he left Vince. Maybe a new environment will keep him on his toes a little more.

 

Mean Gene was hilarious here, particularly with "You follow me everywhere!​" Those two should have worked together a whole lot more than they did; I wouldn't have minded a bit if ​Nitro ​had ended up a Prime Time-​style recap show that focused on giving them comedy material to work with instead of being live competition for Raw, although I suspect I'm the only one in the world who feels that way. The point is, they squandered so many opportunities for Bobby that it's no wonder he stopped caring about anything but the money. I'm just surprised that he was so honest about it, because it doesn't exactly paint him in a positive light.