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Bobby Heenan, the greatest manager in the history of pro wrestling — referred to by fans as “The Brain” for his savvy management, quick wit and boisterous personality over a lifelong career as a pro wrestler, manager and color commentator — died on Sunday, the WWE reported. No cause of death has been confirmed, although Heenan was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2002 and battled tongue cancer later in life. He was 73 years old.
Born Raymond Louis Heenan in Chicago, Illinois, the wrestler and manager went by “Pretty Boy” Bobby Heenan on the World Wrestling Association circuit until he left the ring to join the American Wrestling Association as a full-time manager in 1974, when he publicly adopted “The Brain” persona. Heenan managed the greats of pro wrestling under the “Heenan Family”—Nick Bockwinkel, “Ravishing” Rick Rude, King Kong Bundy, Curt “Mr. Perfect” Hannig, and Andre the Giant—and he traded verbal takedowns with fellow WWE Hall of Famers “Mean” Gene Okerlund and Gorilla Monsoon as a color commentator.
(Get into pro wrestling shape with this weighted vest.)
Adoration for Heenan’s contributions to all areas of pro wrestling poured out onto social media following the news of his death. Ric Flair, a.k.a. Nature Boy, called him the “greatest manager,” Triple H said Heenan was “one of a kind,” and Joey Ryan remembered him as an “innovator of comedy in wrestling.”'
How will you remember Bobby Heenan? We rounded up five of The Brain’s funniest moments as a tribute to pro wrestling’s greatest, funniest manager.
The Costas Interview
The beef between The Brain and the Ultimate Warrior peaked when the Warrior defeated Heenan and dressed him in a humiliating weasel suit; Heenan repaid the favor when he helped his fighter, Ravishing Rick Rude, defeat the Warrior by holding Warrior’s leg down in a pin. When Costas asked about the incident, Heenan was unapologetic.
“Well what happened, Mr. Costas, is that the Ultimate Warrior insulted me right before this happened, so I just took matters into my own hands. There’s not a baseball player that doesn’t load a baseball, not a football player that doesn’t hold, there’s not a hockey player that doesn’t give a cheap shot, there’s not a boxer that doesn’t stick you in the eye with their thumb, there’s not a basketball player that doesn’t hit you with the elbows; I just did what I had to do.”
Prime Time Wrestling - The Phone
Heenan famously boasted that he had a “seventh grade education,” so watching The Brain handle the logistics of the upcoming Wrestlemania III while Gorilla Monsoon heckled his phone skills was classic.
Banned in Boston
Second to “The Weasel,” Heenan’s haters loved to call him the “goldbricker,” which means “anything supposed to be valuable but which turns out to be worthless,” according to Dictionary.com. Popular usage of the word spiked in 1987, which was not-so-coincidentally when Boston wrestling fans made shirts with a weasel wearing a neckbrace to show their skepticism of Heenan’s apparent neck injury, which required him to wear a neck brace during his Prime Time Wrestling commentary.
Heenan’s Neck Examination
To prove that he was in fact not a goldbricker, Heenan flew Dr. Von Brandenburg from Düsseldorf, Germany, to examine his neck x-rays on live television and disprove the neck injury skeptics in Boston. Von Brandenburg, the supposedly esteemed physician, held the x-ray upside down and examined it with his monocle before tapping Heenan with a hammer and declaring his neck to be “not broken, just fractured.”
Golf Lesson
Former pro wrestlers aren’t exactly known for finesse and Heenan’s golf game was no exception. When asked to address the ball, The Brain leaned down and said, “Hello, ball!” After repeated attempts to hit the ball out of a sand trap, The Brain used his brain and threw it onto the green.
