Fans of the sport remember Mr. Perfect best, an undefeatable scientific wrestler who carried a
while towel and chewed gum on his way to the ring.  Others remember Curt Hennig’s reign as
the AWA World Heavyweight Champion or his feuds with Ric Flair or Bret Hart.  His
accomplishments rank up there with the best in the world.

Hennig was a second generation wrestler, son of Larry “The Axe” Hennig.  He made his
professional debut in 1979 after growing up in Minnesota.  Early in his career, he ventured
through several regional territories and landed in the World Wrestling Federation.  In 1985, he
returned to Minneapolis and began working for the American Wrestling Association.  There,
he formed a tag team with another youngster, Scott Hall and the two captured the AWA World
Tag Team Title from Jim Garvin and Steve Regal.  The date was January 18, 1986 in
Albuquerque, New Mexico.  They dropped the title on May 17th in Hammond, Indiana to Doug
Sommers and Buddy Rose.

Hennig appeared at SuperClash II in San Francisco on May 2, 1987 and received a shot at
Nick Bockwinkel’s AWA World Heavyweight Title.  An estimated 2,500 fans saw Hennig pin
Bockwinkel and capture the belt.  Some controversy surrounded the match and what seemed
to be an interference on the part of Larry Zbyszko on Hennig’s behalf.  AWA Officials reviewed
the situation and on May 13th, it was announced that a videotape showed no evidence of an
outside interference.  Hennig was the champion.  During the month of August, the AWA World
Title was held-up in a match between the champion and Greg Gagne.  After promoters looked
at the situation, Hennig was awarded his second World Title.  The Hennig-Gagne situation
would continue.

On November 26, 1987 in Minneapolis, Gagne again defeated Hennig for the AWA World
Title.  Verne Gagne had jumped into the ring during the bout and punched Hennig.  Again,
within several days the title was returned to Hennig, disqualifying Gagne for his father’s
actions.  In early 1988, Hennig gave PNW Heavyweight Champion, The Grappler, a shot at his
AWA World Title and was successful in his defense.  Hennig lost a match to Gagne on
February 4, 1988 in Minneapolis at the Auditorium.  The match was a special cage bout with
Leo Nomellini as the guest referee.  The match had been promoted as a non-title match, but
several promoters recognized the title change.  The AWA President, Stanley Blackburn stated
that he would suspend Gagne if he tried to claim the AWA Title.  Hennig remained the World
Champion.

At Rage in a Cage II on April 16th in Las Vegas, the World Champion lost a non-title bout to
Wahoo McDaniel in a cage.  He traveled to Memphis on May 9th for a defense against Jerry
Lawler before 8,000 fans.  Jackie Fargo was brought in to be the special referee.  Hennig lost
to the popular Lawler that night and the AWA Title was lost.  The next day, a report of the
show was printed on the front page of the Memphis Commercial Appeal.  

Hennig returned to the World Wrestling Federation and became known as “Mr. Perfect” in late ’
88.  Through skits and matches, Perfect proved to the fans that he could not be topped.  
Bowling, basketball and golf…there was no way he could ever lose.  With the famous towel
and the gum, Perfect walked to the squared circle and whichever ringside fan caught the gum
in their hair needed a jar of peanut butter around to cleanse themselves.  Mr. Perfect wasn’t
all talk either, he was as talented as they came.  He used the “Perfect Plex” as a finisher and it
was apparent that he was searching for WWF gold.

In El Paso on March 7, 1989 at a television taping, he met John Tenta, who would later turn up
as the Earthquake.  The two battled to a double countout.  Perfect wrestled and beat the Blue
Blazer on April 2nd at WrestleMania in Atlantic City.  An estimated 18,000 fans were in
attendance.  The Genius, also known as Lanny Poffo, became Perfect’s Advisor and was
known to give poetry lessons to audiences.  Perfect beat the Red Rooster by pinfall at
SummerSlam on August 28th in East Rutherford, New Jersey.  In the weeks and months he
wrestled in the WWF, Perfect became a strong contender to Hulk Hogan’s World Title.  At the
Survivor Series on November 23rd in Chicago, he teamed with Rick Rude and the Rougeau
Brothers against Roddy Piper, the Bushwhackers and Jimmy Snuka.  Perfect pinned Butch
and Snuka and remained at the end as the sole survivor.

Fans of Hulk Hogan were stunned at the actions of Perfect and the Genius during an edition
of Saturday Night’s Main Event on November 25, 1989.  The duo conspired to beat Hogan
and then take what meant the most to him, the WWF World Title Belt, and proceeded to
destroy it.  The Genius had beaten Hogan by countout to score an official win.  Afterwards,
Perfect took a hammer to Hogan’s Gold Plated WWF World Title Belt.  It was broken in to
pieces before a national audience.  Of note, the broken championship would later be pieced
together and became the WWF World Hardcore Title in 1998.  The actions of Mr. Perfect and
the Genius made history, thrusting them into the spotlight and many thought it was just a
matter of time before Perfect won the World Title in the ring.  The Genius would be there on
the sidelines to cheer him on.

He entered the Royal Rumble on January 21, 1990 in Orlando and drew the luckiest number
of them all, number thirty.  Three participants were left when it came down to the bare
knuckles.  It was Perfect, Rick Rude and Hulk Hogan.  Perfect was tossed over the top rope
but never hit the floor as he went under the bottom rope and remained active.  When he
pulled the top rope down to regain balance, Rude was eliminated by Hogan.  Perfect
reentered the fracas to a motivated WWF Champion and the eventual did occur.  Hogan won
the event.  Mr. Perfect played even a bigger part in the Hogan-Ultimate Warrior build-up when
he teamed with the Genius on January 27th during Saturday Night’s Main Event.  Hogan and
the Warrior were together in the midst of a growing anxiety.  Perfect and his partner were
losers in the contest, but dragged the feud out and led to the signing of the WrestleMania
match-up.

Perfect appeared in Toronto on April 1st at the Skydome and faced Brutus Beefcake to
determine the number one contender to the Intercontinental Title.  Beefcake won the match,
shocking many as some thought Perfect owned that right.  The loss became his first on
television, despite several on television tapings prior.  He remained at the top of the contender’
s list.  Things were going to get better before they were going to get any worse.  The Ultimate
Warrior beat Hogan for the World Title in WrestleMania’s main event, and the Intercontinental
Belt went up for vacancy.  Immediately after the event, officials declared a televised, several-
week tournament to crown a new I-C Champion.  Perfect was one of the eight men to enter.  
He advanced through to the finals against Tito Santana.

On April 23rd in Austin, Perfect beat Santana and captured the belt.  He later took Bobby
Heenan as his manager and dropped the Genius.  Finally, Mr. Perfect had a belt to defend in
the WWF, but it wasn’t the one he had originally planned to win.  He remained the titleholder
throughout most of the summer.  On Monday, August 27, 1990, Perfect met Kerry Von Erich,
a recent invader of the organization from North Texas.  He lost the belt at the SummerSlam
event in Philadelphia.  Perfect regained the belt in November at a television taping with some
outside interference from Ted DiBiase, who had been the special guest ring announcer for the
match in Rochester.  His second I-C Title reign began.

Perfect later took the Coach, John Tolos, as his manager.  He would endure a long reign as
champion between November and August 1991.  During the summer of ’91, a former tag team
champion had begun achieving fame in the singles world and was about to blow the scene
up.  Mr. Perfect was his first target.  Bret Hart, the “Excellence of Execution” received a shot in
New York’s Madison Square Garden at Perfect’s I-C Title on August 26, 1991.  The challenger
locked in his sharpshooter and forced Perfect to submit.  The belt was lost.  The match was
one of the best scientific matches the WWF had ever seen, but Perfect suffered a serious
back injury during the match.  He would miss some time and then eventually turn to
managing.  Perfect became Ric Flair’s technical advisor on November 11, 1991.

The former NWA Champion’s rise to the top of the WWF occurred in January ’92 when he
captured the vacant World Title at the Royal Rumble.  With Flair at the top of the charts,
Perfect was walking with the “man.” He added his two sense into the main event World Title
match at WrestleMania VIII at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis on April 5, 1992.  Despite
outside interference, Randy Savage still captured the WWF Title.  Later in the year, Perfect
and Flair went their separate ways and began to violently feud.  He teamed with Randy
Savage in Richfield on November 25th against Flair and Razor Ramon.  They won by
disqualification in the tag match.  Perfect competed in the 1993 Royal Rumble in Sacramento.

Later in January 1993, Perfect defeated Flair and put him out of the World Wrestling
Federation.  The victory came in a special loser-leaves-WWF match during Monday Night
Raw.  On February 6th, Perfect injured his knee in a match against Razor Ramon in Boston.  
He returned to wrestle the “Narcissist” Lex Luger on April 4th at WrestleMania IX in Las
Vegas.  Perfect was pinned despite his feet being on the ropes.  He attacked Luger in the
back area after the match.  The brawl also involved Shawn Michaels.  A day later, Perfect
nearly regained the Intercontinental Championship in a controversial match in Phoenix.  
Perfect faced Michaels and pinned him.  Bill Alfonso was the assigned referee for the match,
but was knocked out.  Dave Hebner ran into the ring and was the one to count the pinfall.  
Jack Tunney, WWF President, stepped in and disqualified Michaels.  In that case, Michaels
remained the champion and Perfect’s third title reign was erased.  He had been the champ for
less than thirty-minutes.

At SummerSlam on August 30th before a large crown in Auburn Hills, Perfect again
challenged Michaels for the I-C Title.  He lost by countout.  Perfect pinned Diesel on October
28th in Fort Pierce, Florida, with a perfect-plex.  Due to injury, he was unable to compete as
scheduled in the Survivor Series.  After some time to recover, Perfect returned to the WWF as
a special referee for the Lex Luger-Yokozuna World Title match at WrestleMania X on March
20, 1994.  During the bout, he got into a verbal argument with Luger and eventually, the
challenger put his hands on Perfect.  In turn, he was disqualified.  Perfect again went into
retirement.

Curt and his father traveled to Philadelphia in May 1994 to take part in the festivities
surrounding WCW’s Slamboree pay-per-view.  Many of wrestling’s legends were present at a
special dinner to honor them.  Perfect did commentary, substituting for Jerry Lawler, for the
April 8, 1996 edition of Monday Night Raw.  Diesel joined the commentary booth for the Shawn
Michaels-Lawler bout in the main event.  After the World Champion won, Diesel brawled with
Michaels and Perfect tossed the former the World Belt.  The object was used to hit the champ
and lay him out.  Diesel and Perfect walked away as Michaels was laid out alone.  He was the
outside-the-ring referee for a match between Davey Boy Smith and Shawn Michaels for the
WWF Title on June 23rd in Milwaukee.  Perfect began to get more and more involved in the
sport.

In October, he helped Hunter Hearst Helmsley capture the WWF Intercontinental Title from
Marc Mero in Fort Wayne.  Perfect began to advise Helmsley before disappearing once
again.  Hennig left the WWF.

During the summer of 1997, he signed with World Championship Wrestling and first entered
as a fan-favorite.  That would soon change.  On July 13th in Daytona, Hennig teamed with
Dallas Page against Randy Savage and Scott Hall at the Ocean Center.  Before the bout was
over, he walked out and left his partner to fend for himself.  In August at Road Wild, Hennig
beat Page by pinfall.  Also that month, Arn Anderson announced his retirement and asked
Hennig to take his place in the Four Horsemen.  He accepted, joining Ric Flair, Chris Benoit
and Steve McMichael.  It seemed as if he put his hatred for Flair behind him.  Maybe not.

He turned his back on the Horsemen and joined the New World Order on September 14th in
Winston-Salem during the Fall Brawl PPV.  Hennig was scheduled to team with Flair,
McMichael, and Benoit against Kevin Nash, Syxx, Konnan, and Marcus Bagwell in the main
event “War Games” Match.  It has been announced that Hennig was attacked in the back area
and suffered a broken arm when he did not report for the beginning of the two-ring cage
match.  After the Horsemen had went ahead without a fourth wheel, Hennig arrived on the
scene with a slinged left arm.  In a series of actions, Hennig’s sling hit the ground and Benoit
was soon to follow.  The handcuffs brought out by the former AWA World Champion and were
used to bind both Benoit and McMichael to the cage.  McMichael, in turn, gave up as the NWO
had Flair in a predicament, his head in the cage door.  Instead of just leaving the three
wrestlers behind untouched after the close of the match, Hennig slammed the door on Flair’s
head.  Hennig had joined the New World Order.

The next night in Charlotte, Hennig beat McMichael to capture the WCW United States Title
during Nitro.  He was matched with Flair in Michigan at World War III on November 23rd.  
Hennig pinned his former ally to retain his U.S. Title.  The special no-disqualification match
saw Hennig also use the belt to smash Flair in the head.  A little more than a month later in
Washington DC, Dallas Page beat Hennig for the United States Title before 17,000 fans.  The
“Ravishing One” Rick Rude soon joined him in WCW.  Rude was also a former U.S.
Heavyweight Champion and the two were both from Robbinsdale, Minnesota.  Hennig wrestled
Bret Hart on March 15, 1998 in Mobile during the Uncensored pay-per-view.  He was defeated
by submission.  After the match, Hennig and Rude attacked the new champ.  On the 25th of
that month, Hennig was beaten by Hart in Baltimore.  He beat Davey Boy Smith on April 19th
in Denver at the Coliseum during Spring Stampede.

Hennig announced that he was one of the Wolfpack NWO with Kevin Nash, Konnan and
Randy Savage during the May 4th Nitro, much to Brian Adams’ dismay.  Hennig became the
number one contender to the WCW World Title in July prior to Bash at the Beach.  The
champion was possibly the most popular athlete in the organization, Bill Goldberg.  Hennig
and Goldberg locked up on July 12th in San Diego and Hennig was pinned.  He pinned
Konnan on August 3rd in Denver during Nitro with an assist from Scott Norton and a
chokehold.  Hennig was a participant in the nine-man battle royal on August 8th in Sturgis.  
On September 13th in Winston-Salem, he was disqualified in a match against Dean Malenko.

In the months that followed, he remained out with an injury.  Hennig returned to form a tag
team with Barry Windham.  On January 17, 1999 at Souled Out in Charleston, the two lost a
tag bout to David and Ric Flair.  David pinned Hennig.  They entered the vacant WCW World
Tag Team Title Tournament.  At SuperBrawl IX in Oakland on February 21st, Hennig and
Windham defeated Chris Benoit and Malenko in the finals to capture the vacant tag title.  
Earlier in the night, they had lost to Benoit and Malenko, but it was their first loss in the double-
elimination tournament.  They eventually dropped the belts to Benoit and Malenko in Louisville
on March 14th.  He returned for the Great American Bash in Baltimore.  Hennig teamed with
Bobby Duncum Jr. in a loss to Rey Misterio Jr. and Konnan.

On July 11th in Sunrise, Florida, Hennig teamed with Duncum Jr. and the Windhams, Barry
and Kendall, in a loss to Misterio Jr., Brad Armstrong, Konnan and Swoll.  The bout was a
special elimination match.  Hennig teamed with Duncum and Windham on August 14th in
Sturgis against the members of the Revolution, Shane Douglas, Perry Saturn and Dean
Malenko.  Saturn pinned Duncum for the victory before an estimated 5,000 fans.  He took
more time off until November, where he lost to Buff Bagwell at Mayhem in Toronto.  At
Starrcade in Washington DC, he teamed with Creative Control to beat Harlem Heat and
Midnight.  Again, Hennig disappeared from the sport and many thought he was forever gone.

In April 2000, World Championship Wrestling went through a major change when Eric Bischoff
and Vince Russo teamed to form the “New Blood.” When Hennig returned in May, he was
facing a new promotion.  There was also a wrestler who was entering the ring to familiar music
and acting in a way many had seen before.  It was the young lion, Shawn Stasiak.  A feud
between Hennig and Stasiak quickly evolved.  At the May pay-per-view, Stasiak pinned him.  
He soon left the organization.  During the fall and winter of 2000, Hennig competed in Puerto
Rico, where he challenged for that region’s top prize, the Universal Heavyweight Title and it’s
champ, Carly Colon.

During the summer of 2001, he joined a new promotion run by John Collins.  Hennig was billed
as the Main Event Championship Wrestling World Heavyweight Champion.  He wrestled and
beat Chris Harris on August 11, 2001 in Philadelphia at the Viking Hall.  Hennig drew lots of
applause from those who attended the show and promoters were planning for the next event.

On Tuesday, November 13th, Hennig appeared in Orlando at Universal Studios for the XWF
initial series of television tapings.  Bobby Heenan returned as his manager, reuniting the two
after nearly a decade.  He wrestled Vampiro and lost after Roddy Piper, the XWF
Commissioner, interjected himself.  He beat Buff Bagwell in his second match.  Later, he
teamed with British Storm to beat both Bagwell and Vampiro.  Out of three matches, he had
won two.  The next day, he wrestled and beat Johnny B. Badd.  Hennig also battled Hulk
Hogan in another match reminiscent of 1989-90.  Hogan pinned Hennig.  Based on two-days
worth of tapings, the XWF seemed as if it could really combat the WWF.  One major factor was
preventing an early battle…the XWF didn’t have an outlet, either regionally or nationally.

Mr. Perfect made his triumphant return to the World Wrestling Federation in January 2002.

Hennig passed away in 2003.

TITLE HISTORY:
-NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Title (1983) defeated Abdullah Ali Hassan
-Co-holder of the AWA World Tag Team Title (1986) w/ Scott Hall
-A two-time AWA World Heavyweight Champion
       -Defeated Nick Bockwinkel (1987)
       -Defeated Greg Gagne (1987) held-up title victory
-A two-time WWF Intercontinental Champion
       -Defeated Tito Santana (1990) tournament final
       -Defeated Kerry Von Erich (1990)
-WCW United States Heavyweight Title (1997) defeated Steve McMichael
-Co-holder of the WCW World Tag Team Title (1999) w/ Barry Windham
-iGeneration World Heavyweight Title (2000) awarded
-MECW World Heavyweight Title (2001) awarded


Research by Tim Hornbaker
Curt Hennig Wrestling History
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