Best Heenan Family Group

[The Brain]

During his time as a manager Bobby The Brain Heenan referred to the group of wrestlers he managed as the Heenan Family. Over the years Heenan saw many wrestlers come and go from the family. Heenan would usually manage anywhere from three to seven wrestlers at a time. Which was your favorite incarnation of the Heenan Family? To answer this question, do not overlap anybody. For example you can not mention Andre The Giant and Mr. Perfect together. Heenan managed both in 1990 but never managed them at the same time. I don’t expect everyone to remember exact dates of when someone joined or left the Heenan Family but try your best to be accurate.

I liked The Heenan Family best in late 1987. The members were Andre The Giant, King Kong Bundy, Ravishing Rick Rude, Hercules, King Harley Race, and The Islanders. I think with this group Heenan had everything covered. At any point on a wrestling card you had a chance to see Heenan with these guys. He had main eventers, a tag team, and mid card guys that could seamlessly transition into a main event or lower card match at any given time. I think this is when Heenan managed the most guys at once. I’m not just choosing quantity over quality. I think this was a good group that worked well with Heenan. It would have been nice to include the Brain Busters instead of the Islanders. I like the Islanders but the Brain Busters were a much better fit with Heenan and one of my all time favorite teams. By the time the Busters got to the Heenan Family Hercules, Race, and Bundy were gone and Andre was breaking down quickly.

What’s your choice for the best Heenan Family group? You don’t have to pick a time where he managed a lot of people if you feel a smaller group worked better. Feel free to go back to the AWA years too if you like.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

I think his best 2 groups are tied... I think the iteration that had Rude, Perfect, Barbarian were the best of his "family groups". I take the point that Andre was a major part, but in that later group you had a very definitive hierarchy. Rude was the main guy, Perfect just behind and Barbarian and Haku covering the lower/tag team side of things. The group you mention had a lot of fat to it in Bundy, Islanders and Herc. It diluted the effectiveness of the group, much as the Dangerous Alliance and NWO got too big.

A close 2nd for me was the Busters era but Perfect wasn't part of it at that time. He was the one who clicked most with Heenan and it shows in my joint 2nd pick..

Heenan with Flair and Perfect was his best work in my eyes. It was in some ways a watered down Horsemen but you could tell when Heenan went to commentary that he'd lost some of the spark, especially when Rude left. Flair brought that glint in his eye back and while he wasn't an offical manager, he certainly performed most of the duties, leaving the physical stuff to Perfect. That 3 man group had Brains, Mic Skills and Brawn... I always felt they could have added a tag team like the Hart Foundation or Rockers to it to make a full "Horsemen" type group, heel Shawn and Marty would have been a very interesting way to go had they not split.

 

[HBKistheHOF]

Well first off I'd like to say that I am a huge fan of Bobby 'The Brain' Heenan. I think he is without a shadow of a doubt the greatest color-commentator that professional wrestling/sports entertainment has ever seen (or will ever see for that matter) & he is in a very elite class of the few truly great managers throughout history with the likes of Paul Heyman & Sensational Sherri.

With that being said, it is a little hard to really narrow it down because The Brain has managed so many great superstars & had such a wonderful career as a manager. I loved his work with Rick Rude, he was the best possible manager for Andre, his chemistry with guys like Ric Flair was almost unparallelled, Heenan with The Brain Busters was awesome, etc.

But my all time favorite is The Brain & Mr. Perfect! The Brain had some amazing incarnations of The Heenan Family but there was something about just those two together that was pure magic. Curt Hennig holding that IC belt & having Heenan by his side is as good as it gets, the WWE couldn't paint a better picture if they tried & it was was simply the PERFECT combination. They remind me a lot of the recent pairing of CM Punk & Heyman. Neither Hennig nor Punk needed a mouth piece or really needed a manger at all but there was just something about having the perfect accomplice around like Heyman or Heenan that brought everything to a whole new level. Perfect on his own is one of the best ever & the greatest IC champion ever IMO but with Heenan he was truly complete. Perfect & Heenan are hands down the greatest manager/superstar duo in history IMO.

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

I always liked the 1988-1989 group that had the titles on Rude and The Brain Busters, Haku was the King, and Andre was Andre. Rooster was hanging around as a "newbie". The Heenan Family was involved in some great feuds at the time:

1. Rude Vs. Jake The Snake Roberts
2. Rude Vs. Ultimate Warrior
3. Andre Vs. Roberts
4. The Brain Busters Vs. Demolition
5. The Brain Busters Vs. The Hart Foundation

Just all around good stuff, IMO

 

[FlairFan2003]

Its kind of like picking your favorite incarnation of The Horsemen (anyone ever do that thread ?), Its hard to say.

The group probably hit its stride in 1987 with Andre & Rick Rude as anchors and legit threats to Hogan's WWE Title. Heenan did great work with numerous others, adding legitimacy to mid carders and was terrific with pros like Curt Henning & The Brainbusters.

87-88 still to me was the one group that looked like it could accomplish Heenan's goal storyline wise which was dethrone his nemesis Hogan. The only other time he really looked like he could do it was during the 'Real Worlds Champion' angle with Flair, although by then it really wasnt a stable anymore. Heenan did some great work during that run also.

 

[Goldie]

Tough to call.... as Heenan was such a great manager and had so many guys under his wing.... I would probably call it as very early 1990.

At this point he had both Rick Rude and Curt Hening in the family... two of my favourite ever heels! Rude was a former IC champ, a title Curt would just after WM6 .... and there were the current tag champs in the Colossal Connection. Though Andre was nearing the end at this point, there was still that presence and aura about him, and Haku the silent, brooding menacing guy in the background.

The triage of Flair, Hening and Heenan was also great! .... Heenan on commentary justifying Flirs dastardly deeds was hilarious!