In the world of wrestling today, managers are a lost art. Though they used to be almost standard issue for heels, somewhere along the line they just kind of faded away. Perhaps the business grew up. Perhaps their necessity wore thin with the improved microphone skills of many performers. Perhaps it was just too difficult for new managers to follow in the footsteps of perhaps the greatest manager to ever live, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan.
I realize that many of my readers are younger than me, which makes this DVD absolutely perfect for them. It is a two disc set that tells the story of wrestling's greatest manager. From his time in the AWA, to WWE, to the end of his career in WCW, you'll see highlights from every stop in Heenan's career. That said, the positives for me kind of stop there.
While Bobby Heenan is an interesting wrestling personality, I am an advocate of wrestling DVDs telling a true life story and helping us fans see behind the curtain to the performer's real life. While the DVD does this in bits and pieces, it is not the chronological piece it should have been. I would have liked to have seen more about his childhood and how he came into the wrestling business. Also, once he got in, the DVD basically showed him in AWA and WWF but had no mention of what he was doing at any given time. It would have been interesting to show how he went from managing one guy (Big John Studd) to creating the Heenan family and transitioning into commentating. I'm a fan of telling a story in chronological fashion and this DVD simply didn't do that.
The footage was certainly entertaining and you will learn about Heenan's knack for performing, but there is no story being told with this DVD. It's simply "Heenan was a great performer so here are some career highlights". I know this is going to sound morbid, but I got the sense with this release that the WWE expected Heenan to die by the time it actually came out.
I know that sounds shocking and borderline terrible, but hear me out. Heenan, though interviewed for the DVD is not featured at all in the biographical part. It's all his family and friends talking about him as though he's no longer there. People share fond memories and they speak of his cancer as if it took him. It was very surreal to watch in this way, as I know that he is, as of this writing, still alive. To be fair, his health hasn't been good in a while, but to make a DVD almost with the expectation of death is a little weird for me.
One other point I want to hit on in regards to the biographical section is Heenan's daughter. I found it odd that his daughter was a plant in a lot of WWE stunts. She was shown stepping on her dad's foot as if she were a random child at Busch Gardens and was shown interacting as a front row fan with random superstars. Talk about nepotism! Not only that, often when she was on the DVD, she steered the conversation towards herself and her stunts! The DVD is about her father, not her! It's cool to know that she performed, but had it been presented as "Heenan's love for his family and the business brought them together as his daughter performed several stunts for the WWE" and they showed a couple of clips, that would have been fine. As it was, little Heenan (now married) took the focus off the DVD whenever she was on as she had to have the attention on her. I was bothered.
Despite all these complaints, I'd still recommend this two disc set. It's rare that fans will have a chance to sample the career of a longtime manager, but this is the best opportunity. If you don't know much about Heenan, this will be a good educational tool for you. It will teach you what a manager was and should be for a wrestler and how having that type of personality beside you helped get you heat, despite how over on your own you might have been.
Heenan was a truly unique talent, with perhaps the greatest gift of gab in the business. He is not dead yet, and you can see clips of Heenan talking in the special features which is anything from talking about his experiences to his Hall of Fame induction in 2004. It should be a fun watch for most people, but having high standards, I think this could have been a lot better. For the best manager of all time, I expected an all time great DVD. This fell short, but it was still worthy of a watch, and I recommend that you all do so. Let me know if you agree with my assessments.
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