Curt Hennig

[goc]

I intend to rewatch quite a bit of AWA over the next few days so I will revisit some of the Curt Hennig stuff that I don't have much written down. It could all just come down to the fact that I like Hennig a lot better in brawls, and that wasn't what he was doing in a lot of his singles matches.

[Strummer]

In regards to his athleticism, much like Shawn in 92/93, I think he was kind of chunky and borderline out of shape late in his heel push around 91 or so. He looked bloated and had the classic symptoms of someone who was a coke enthusiast (runny nose, dilated pupils) He also seemed to have an "HGH gut". It's also noticeable in his 1993 babyface run. Compare this to his AWA run where he was a brick shithouse and had amazing cardio.

[goc]

Just re-watched Curt Hennig vs. Nick Bockwinkel (6/14/84)

 

Hennig thinks about a handshake early but instead giving the "up yours" signal to Bock. Bock gives a few clean breaks to sucker Curt into a beating a few minutes later. Nick really lays into him and then tosses him outside. He keeps cutting Curt off from getting back in the ring with some stiff shots while arguing with a ref that seems to want to draw attention to himself. Curt starts fighting back with some nice punches of his own on the apron. Eventually Curt goes to work on Nick's arm after Bockwinkle misses a charge into the corner. The arm work feels a little long, but at least they kept things moving and Curt starts really yanking on the arm once the fans started to get restless. They brawl and trade abdominal stretches until Nick winds up tossing Curt back out of the ring. He works another long KOTM sequence, with a lot of arguing with the ref about having until the count of 5. The finish really sucks with Nick pulling Curt into the ring from the apron once Curt starts fighting back and pinning him with his feet on the ropes, with the whole thing looking really botched. Good match with a crappy finish.

 

Curt looked really good in this. On DVDVR, someone commented they were disappointed it was more of a brawl than a wrestling match, but that's what I liked about it. They both really laid their shots in, and I felt the weakest part of the match was in the middle with the arm work and the abdominal stretches.

[ohtani's jacket]

Nick Bockwinkel vs. Curt Hennig (5/2/87)

 

This was a sweet bout. It took me a while to switch into "US wrestling mode" and appreciate the base they were working from before they put it all on the line, and the crowd didn't help much, but the final third where the wear and tear took its toll was some class A professional wrestling. The heel turn probably works better for people who watched it in the context of the times or even the AWA set, but I was more worried about the match and it delivered in spades. I don't know how highly I rate pre-WWF Curt Hennig, but as far as young studs go I can't think of too many better.

[ohtani's jacket]

Nick Bockwinkel vs. Curt Hennig (12/25/86)

 

Another great Hennig/Bockwinkel match. They were pretty blatant with the way they used a mirror-like structure to show that the two were equals, or that Hennig was closing the gap, but it was fairly well done and I accepted it as a trope. Hennig looked great working from the top in this match and Bockwinkel of course was an excellent cagey vet. Stylistically, this was such a good match-up. The finish was the only kind of finish we were going to get in this stage of Hennig's rise, but Bockwinkel cut a great promo afterwards about Hennig having to learn from these sort of situations, and of course it was paid off with the heel turn, which is tremendous long term booking by wrestling standards.