Curt Hennig, or to those familiar with only his WWE run, Mr Perfect, is my favourite wrestler of all time.

In the savage world of ‘rasslin’, his throne was threatened at various times, by Randy Savage, Sting, Ricky “the Dragon” Steamboat, Bret Hart, Davey Boy Smith, Triple H, Chris Jericho and of course, Shawn Michaels, but he always, somehow, reigned supreme.

Although I always tended to resist “gimmicks” as a kid, preferring wrestlers who were more “themselves”, Hennig was totally believable as Perfect. Like Ted DiBiase, Hennig completely inhabited the role, and carried it off with the sort of authenticity that has you believe that no-one else could feasibly have filled the spot.

Hennig was also cool. He had long hair (a must for a wrestler as far as my young self was concerned). His finisher, the Perfect Plex, was awe-inspiring, and so practical, that you could make the Hasbro action figure perform the move (Dangerooooouuuuuus!). He also delivered bloody swell interviews, that were cocky and arrogant enough to be humorous, but at the same time, imposing and menacing. Plus, he was having the most exciting matches on the card, almost without exception.

Just as a couple of years previously, saw the Tag Division display the finest quality of actual wrestling, Perfect’s prime was the era in which the Intercontinental Championship was the jewel in the WWE’s crown. As a young un’, these were the guys that I was drawn to, and their matches, were the ones forever embedded in my impressionable brain.

Obviously, I’ve been eagerly awaiting this release.

There were some minor reservations, however. Three Bret Hart matches? I was sure they’d all be good, but still… did we need so many opposite the same performer? Especially when Perfect had a wide array of superb encounters against all manner of foes. There also didn’t appear to be as many early, pre-WWE matches as I would have liked, but hey…

Plus, was two discs really enough, for one of the most beloved performers of all time in McMahon land?

Best to admit then, that the main portion of “The Life and Times of Mr Perfect” is somewhat disappointing.

The Life and Times of Mr Perfect

It’s a short, snappy run though of his life, that clocks in at nearly an Hour and twenty minutes. This entire feature is enormously entertaining. Seriously, there’s nothing in here that isn’t good. But there is a lot that wrestling fans will find is missing. It actually feels like a documentary made for the biography channel, rather than for a Wrestling DVD.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the discussions about his life, with some wonderful insights from family members, his widow, son, and legendary day, Larry “The Axe” Hennig. But I think most of us would love to have seen all this, in addition to more material that delved deeper into his career.

They feature plays out exactly how you would expect. They briefly introduce the feature by touching on his achievements, then run through his early days growing up.

There’s some great material about his college days, and early forays into the world of grappling. I had no idea he was married so early, and quickly.

There’s footage of Hennig’s first run in the WWE, as a fresh-faced baby face. Alas the extras don’t include any of the bout’s he had, which is disappointing, We then see some great stuff from the AWA, where he made his mark with his dad, before teaming with Scott Hall (sporting a fabulous face caterpillar that makes him look like an aborted offspring of Stan Hansen) who looks twenty years older than he did in 1992. At this point, Hennig was clearly ready for the big time, and in one of the disc’s highlight’s, we’re treated to some nice footage of him becoming a big single’s star, and taking on Nick Bockwinkel in some well loved AWA World title matches. Great stuff and the contributions from Greg Gagne are especially nice.

The main sections of the feature, obviously deal with his coming to the WWE, and the great vignettes that he was involved in, showcasing his Mr Perfect character. Bruce Prichard talks about how he wasn’t literally perfect and you just want him to shut his brown-nosing mouth (if such a thing exists). Clearly he’s jealous because his gimmick was slapping red paint on his face. Arn Anderson also starts popping up occasionally, which is annoying, because as much as I love Arn, his contributions to this DVD absolutely suck, because he insists on speaking in character, while everyone else breaks kayfabe. Has he ever watched this DVD’s back and seen how stupid he looks?

The early appearances of Perfect, and the fact that he was already over before he debuted (much like Ted Dibiase) is something that the WWE really should think of going back to.

The contributors all cover his fabulous Intercontinental title run, and spot-light just how important and successful he was in the role. However, this, and the actual specifics of his run from about 1990-1993, lacks specifics. We’re treated to some funny stories about his humour and pranks, and then move into a section that deals with his back issues, and becoming a commentator/manager.

They discuss his role with Ric Flair, but not the break-up! Yep, no mention of his baby face turn on Heenan and Flair, and great team-up with Randy Savage, at Survivor Series 1992. And nothing at all on booting Ric Flair out of the WWE in their great feud. Very disappointing indeed. And that’s the major problem with this release- it doesn’t cater for those of us who are already fans of Perfect, have already followed his career, and already know the superficial career stuff.

Of course, the later chapters deal with his WCW run, which was less successful (though that applies to like, everyone…) but the talking heads are quite pragmatic and relate that he was probably quite happy in his role. Rather than be concerned about being “under pushed”, he may well have felt content, and was having a blast amongst friends.

Hennig during his WWF run

It’s great to see footage too of his 2002 return to the WWE, and some of the matches that followed. The company definitely could have done more with him. At the very least, they should have built up to a big Triple H/Perfect PPV match, and maybe an Austin one. But hey, as the likes of Edge point out, he came in, helped the young guys, and brought his career full circle.

Man I couldn’t believe it when he returned in the Royal Rumble that year, looking AWESOME.

Of course, after this, proceedings become rather difficult, as Curt shockingly passed away in February of 2003. It was sickening, heavy dose of reality at the time, and reflecting upon it is not any easier.

I completely loved Hennig as a youngster, and held nothing but fantastic memories for him through my life, and those sentiments are reassuringly echoed throughout this DVD by everyone who knew him.

The circumstances of his death are not ignored, but neither are they dwelled upon, which is perhaps for the best, considering no-one has a bad thing to say about the dude. Wade Boggs, a life-long friend, is particularly emotional when talking about Curt’s death and throughout the disc has some great stories. He really does make you feel that Hennig had a truly wonderful heart.

The feature finishes up with highlights of Hennig’s emotional induction into the WWE hall of fame in 2007, and with the usual highlight/round-up.

Bonus features

Disc One also includes The Hall of Fame induction in its entirety, and a whole bunch of the outstanding vignettes that introduced the Mr Perfect DVD. These are some of the most fondly remembered backstage segments of all time, and seeing them again is a joy.

Also a bonus is a couple of nice edited chapters from the feature, including some Dusty, who is always value for money.

The “Rap is Crap” music video is also here, and if you have no idea what that is, I’m not going to spoil it for you…

Matches

Eddie Gilbert vs. Curt Hennig

This is just a solid little warm-up match. Lots of overhead wristlocks and arm-wringers etc, as both guys hone their craft in front of an audience unfamiliar with them. Gilbert’s selling is really nice here, and both guys work hard to make the holds look realistic and like they actually you know, hurt.

Scott Hall and Curt Hennig vs. Steve Regal and Jimmy Garvin

Good to have Gary Michael Cappetta here on commentary and it’s nice to see Precious In the heels’ corner, complete with a completely horrifying hair-do.

Typical, solid Good Guys versus heel unit match this, with Hennig clearly miles ahead of the green Scott Hall. They work lots of head-locks and mat-holds, and the heels un-do the turnbuckle pad…ooohhh. Curt ends up bleeding, and gets worked over, while Hall comes in and looks confused, and also, like Will Ferrell. We also get some heel miscommunication and a ridiculous pop from the crowd.

Nice to see, but not memorable.

Nick Bockwinkel vs. Curt Hennig (AWA Title Match 1986)

A word of warning, this is the hour-long encounter between the two (the one they talk about on the main feature that “made” Hennig. And I tend to think that it may be too slow for fans not already familiar with the Iron Man efforts of Ric Flair’s generation.

That said, I found this completely absorbing. The first half is largely holds, and reversals. Slow, subtle body-part work, mixed with sporadic bursts of speed, arm-drags and takedowns.

After about half and hour, there’s a referee bump, and it really gets the crowd going. Hennig uses the ring-post, and at this point, has completely destroyed Bockwinkel’s arm. Some superlative arm-work in this. Bockwinkel’s after the legs, having worked them earlier, but can’t get the holds he needs, to put the challenger away. A bit of fortune, and ingenuity, leads Hennig to go for the leg, which he punishes with a Spinning toe hold. Bockwinkel can clearly still go at this point, but it’s Curt that’s doing the majority of the work- he’s astonishing in this one, particularly as he must have been under a lot of pressure to deliver here.

The Champion nails a sweet piledriver after forty minutes, which is the biggest move of the bout thus far, an incredible statistic given how invested in this match the crowd still are. The formula seems to be that either guy gains momentum for a few minutes, but before they can deliver that big move, the other cuts them off, and knocks them back to square one, and it swings the other way. Hennig returns the neck compression favour, with his own Piledriver, with just over ten minutes left. At this point, the ropes are becoming a big time, determining factor in breaking up pinfalls.

At the 52 minute mark, Hennig is driven head-first past the turn-buckle and into the post. Hennig blades and this is just brilliantly timed. Bockwinkel has the clear advantage, but with five minutes to go, the gushing-with-claret Hennig fights back, and busts the champion open. When Bockwinkel blades, a fan in the second row catches him and hilariously makes blading motions across his face. Unnecessary to have the champ bleed too in my book. The fans go bonkers for the last three minutes, where it looks a guaranteed thing that young Hennig is going to take the title, but he can’t get the resilient Bockwinkel to submit before the bell.

Outstanding effort from both guys. I worried that thanks to the champ’s age, I’d be bored stiff throughout this, but it wasn’t the case at all. I do think some younger fans will struggle with the first half hour, but if they have the patience to stick with it, they’ll be the better for it. The pacing was really, really nice, with some neat psychology going on. The first half is a great example of cleverly building in a way that makes different aspects of the second portion more relevant, and exciting.

Michael Cole and Mick Foley contribute an alternate commentary track for this bout from Wrestlefest, in 1988. Bizarre inclusion. They could have done another Bockwinkel match, or a Lawler one, but instead we get this. We could have had this in addition to those, because it’s only six minutes long! And although the action’s decent, it amounts to very little. Flat finish to the match too and no reaction from the huge crowd.

Michael Cole talks absolute balls on commentary however. “People laugh at that gimmick, but it was pretty successful”. Yes, he’s referring to The Red Rooster. Erm…okay.

Bret Hart vs. Mr Perfect (MSG 1989)

Ahh, awesome, another classic Hennig/Hart encounter from the 80’s, little seen before now. Obviously, this may seem slow paced, to those more familiar with grappling of the noughties, and even those only accustomed to big PPV matches of these two guys. But I loved this. Smart, back-and-forth basics, spliced with subtle re-imagining of more fundamental sequences, these two really worked superbly together. In front of a Madison Square Garden crowd that gets extremely caught up in the action, they go for twenty minutes.

Actually, the only weaknesses in evidence here are completely unrelated to the two grapplers. Firstly, the camerawork is absolutely abysmal. Awful. Big spots are often missed (particularly when a Bret Springboard to the outside is half caught), and they choose to zoom in tight for really awkward, long close-ups, even going out of focus at one point. Bizarre. The other, is the commentating.

Alfred Hayes really was one awful commentator. Check out how long he goes on about Perfect’s singlet for, or “amateur style outfit”. Even in his day, sheesh! And he doesn’t refer to it as a singlet, just a “type-thing”. At one point, near the end of the encounter, he rambles for ages about Hennig having a great build, great balance, the right skills etc, to have the advantage, as if to explain why he’s dominant, and then reveals that Bret has in fact, all of the same traits! And instead of coming up with a naff excuse, he just moves on, having spent ages making a point that he completely crapped on himself!

Sometimes I admit, I still find Hayes’ “insights” funny and charming, and loved his comedy heel stuff, but here he just sucks. Still a damn good match however.

Hulk Hogan vs. Mr Perfect (MSG 1990)

The match that should have headlined WrestleMania in 1990 (I would have then had Warrior/Hogan the following year for the record…). Hennig bumps like a monkey for the Hulkster, and there’s plenty of groovy involvement from the eccentric Genius as well. Perfect even does the attempts to lose his ear, akin to Foley, with a cool Hangman.

This is exciting in the same way that Randy Savage vs. Hogan, or Orndorff, or Ted Dibiase’s efforts were. Perfect knows how to play to Hogan’s strengths, and makes him look like a freakin’ god. Meanwhile, Hogan extracts maximum empathy from the crowd, and his comebacks generate some exciting reactions. They throw out the odd touch that you didn’t usually see in Hogan’s bouts too, and its all gravy. The only really negative aspect of this is, that if you like me, you just never liked Hogan, when he Hulks up, you find yourself frustrated at his superhuman capabilities…

Buckets of fun this one, with Hennig at the peak of his heel prowess. Check out the bump he takes off an Atomic drop…

Roddy Piper’s the special referee in this, and as usual, is completely ludicrous. Good times indeed. This is a rematch from the Summerslam bout, in which Von Erich beat Hennig for the IC title in the first place. It’s more a traditional heel/baby face brawl, than Hennig’s usual technical outings, which is down to Von Erich’s limitations. But they work this style filled with energy, at least for a few minutes…

Tornado also doesn’t sound especially over with this crowd, which I find odd. Though perhaps he took a bit longer to catch on in New York, than other areas? In any case, the fans are somewhat subdued for the majority of the bout, until the bizarre, “both guys have their shoulders down, but one lifts one up!” type finish.

Tornado makes a comeback at about the 13 minute mark, and the match dies after that point. He looks absolutely awful here, and it’s easy to see why he didn’t have a lengthy success in the federation. Really a shame. Worst WWE match of the set.

Afterwards, Perfect beats the snot out of Roddy Piper, in a really heated angle. This is great, but the Main Feature of the DVD doesn’t highlight their feud or anything, so you’re left hanging, thinking how great this was, but it doesn’t result in anything!

I could go on about this one, but why bother? It’s one of my favourite contests of all time, a status that is held with many other fans. Most of you have probably already seen this, and if not… WHY the hell not?

This bout has a reputation for having been something of a disappointment back in 93. And I can totally understand that. Aside from perennial baby face, Bret Hart, these two were the elite amongst the grapplers famed for their technical prowess, especially as heels. But therein lies the problem- they were both big bump takers, who specialised in blending smooth, seamless exchanges that highlighted mat-based reversals and counters, with generous “showing of ass”. Thus, as Michaels himself said, in his book, Heartache and Triumph, they just didn’t gel, neither comfortable especially as they both specialised in complementing others.

But I’m not in the camp that was disappointed by this bout. Perfect of course, was my preferred superstar. But by this point, Michaels was a rising star, and he was definitely vying for a spot as my number one. I tend to think then, that as a ten-year old, this was first experience of a real “dream match” (I didn’t fully appreciate the greatness of Perfect/Bret or Davey/Bret at 8… And Warrior/Hogan suffered because I HATED Hogan). I wasn’t disappointed back then (except maybe for the count-out finish), and looking back on it, I still find this a highly enjoyable effort.

The arrogance of both guys is a big part of the psychology of this bout, as in attempting to prove “who is the greatest Intercontinental champion, of all time”, they constantly attempt to one-up each other, with Perfect playing a more straight-up good guy than many people will be used to. Both wrestlers do really well here.

Insanely, on commentary, Tony Schiavone admits that while this match could be a classic, it’s unlikely to be, because of outside interference. Need we wonder why this company went bust? Jesus, just insane.

Obviously, both guys were past their prime here, and less motivated than during their WWE runs, however I’m sure that they both relished an opportunity to lock up here.

They do run through some of the sequences that characterised their earlier encounters (almost twenty years prior in some cases), and it’s pretty damn good. Unfortunately the action is overshadowed somewhat by the storyline of Rick Rude being in Hennig’s corner, and offering an unfair advantage. It’s as if by writing this stuff into the “story”, they can excuse the matches from the PPV on which this took place, from being saturated with run ins. Curt works the leg, and even teases a Figure Four on the ring-post. Crowd heat’s low, but then again, it often was for anything that lasted longer than four minutes in WCW at this point.

As the bout goes on, Bret makes his comeback, and it’s a completely uninspired run-through some of his typical spots, which makes it feel like a house show effort. Both guys are a step off their best, and they seem to find it hard to draw the crowd in. The fans do finally respond when Hennig nails the Perfect Plex, and Hart kicks out. Heenan says “I’ve never seen anyone kick out of that”, which almost causes me to choke, even though it’s an almost excusable cliché.

There’s also a dud finish that see’s Bret get the Sharpshooter on for the submission, but Rude runs in, a second late, and kicks the crap out of him. It just made Rude look like an incompetent manager in all fairness. Worth watching.

The matches included aren’t all great choices either. I know that they’re trying to feature more previously un-televised, or at least, non-PPV material, but even at that, couldn’t we have had the Tornado/Perfect match that saw Hennig regain the strap and the full match from Heat against Edge? How about the tournament final where he beat Tito Santana? He had some good clashes with Warrior too. We also could have had a couple more from his WCW days. Sure, it wasn’t chock full of career highlights, but he did feud with the Four Horsemen…

But ignoring all those grumbles, this still comes highly recommended. It’s Mr Perfect after all… but I guarantee that after watching this, it’ll only whet your appetitive, and you’ll be on YouTube in a tick fiendishly searching for…..erm… Perfection…

Ahh crap, I got so far before making that pun!

If you’re in the UK and Europe you can pick up a copy of this DVD via Silver Vision at this link.

Thanks for taking the time to check this out. I welcome any and all feedback and I can be contacted at www.myspace.com/michaelwrestlingetc or simply by emailing me at Michael@ifight365.com. I look forward to hearing from you and will be back soon!