What if Perfect Changed His Style?

[wrestler36]

I'm going to use Scott Steiner as a template here. Both were amazing young athletes that could do anything and everything in the ring. Steiner was doing, obviously the Frankensteiner, fall away backflip slams, there's even a video of him attempting a 450. Eventually, his back started to give way and he had to repackage himself. And he did very successfully.

Hennig was very similar. I remember him doing backflips when Bret kicked him on his 'injured' leg and watching him land awkwardly on his head. Eventually his physical style kept him out at the end of 91 and most of 92 and again at the end of 93 all the way to 96. Even injuries accumulated in WCW. I remember seeing video of him in TNA and he was somewhat bloated but still trying to pull off his 'athleticism' as mid 40s wrestler.

What if Mr. Perfect changed his style in '92 and redebuted as not the same athletic Mr. Perfect, but more of a body guy, like how Luger debuted as The Narcissist? Do you think it could've worked? He would've kept the same personality, just bragging about his Perfect Body, along the way working a slower style match and taking less bumps. Not saying he had to be as big as Steiner, just lean and cut. I think he could've pulled it off. Rude was already gone, Martel's physique was very different from when The Model was in his prime. It may have extended his career too. I don't know the extent of his injuries, but I know that Steiner definitely added some longevity to his career.

 

[FlairFan2003]

Steiner's longevity came from a change of GIMMICK, not so much his wrestling style. He was boring and faliing by the way side, already deemed the lesser half of the tag team, changing his look and gimmick prolonged his career, he was already doing far less off the top rope moves, etc as 1997 wore on, and he was always a muscled up freak build wise.

Henning had chronic back issues that were worsened by taking basic bumps....even "non athletic" "Muscle guys" have to take bumps....ever see how many suplexes and over the top rope clothelines Hogan took in big matches ? You mention Luger, watch Luger vs Ric Flair....you'll see Luger take vertical suplexes, belly to back suplexes, deliver off the top rope superplexes, be clothleslined over the top rope, he was hardly remembebered as a fast paced "athletic" worker but in big matches and televised moments he took a ton of those moves, almost everyone did, and still does today.

Henning never did have a "physical" style....he was smaller, technical style wrestler, I would say he took fewer "big bumps" than Savage or Flair did for instance when you look at all the over the top and off the top rope stuff they did, despite neither of them being "high flyers" per se. He was a grounded, scientific athlete, he definitely could bump, but I don't remember Henning taking near as many "big bumps" as many other guys. Plus it wasn't a "bump" that hurt his back as much as it was just being in the Sharpshooter.

Also, drugs & alcohol probably derailed his career more than injuries. He could have been a constant TV presence and worked the "part time" schedule guys like HBK did in the 2000s and been fine but his chemical issues were what derailed him in WCW, he came with a lot of baggage and on a very short leash when he returned to WWE and ruined it not because he was injured or couldn't wrestle but because he wanted to shoot Brook Lesnar (shoot wrestle him, legit wrestle, not actually with a gun shoot him but he might as well have, he could have seriously injured Lesnar and it wasn't tolerated by WWE).

 

[TDFG]

For me Rick was the lesser half of the Steiner Bros. Scott had an impressive move set that needed a change when he turned into Big Poppa Pump, the recliner was a terrible finisher though.

Mr Perfect by his latter career you could see his back was giving him major problems, his move set had dwindled and he relied on being technical.

Injuries often force wrestlers to change their move set, Pillman's ankle injury forced him to go from high-flying to a brawler, a poor one at that.

 

[Mustang Sally]

(Hennig) was a grounded, scientific athlete, he definitely could bump, but I don't remember Henning taking near as many "big bumps" as many other guys.

That's how I remember him, too. He was athletic (unlike so many other guys who wrestle for a living) and was certainly capable of a few high-flying maneuvers, yet the vast majority of the time, he was a technical mat wrestler. Especially as a bad guy, it was one of the things I appreciated him for: a 'Rusev-type' combination of a heel who wrestled mostly clean and scientific. It was his big mouth and arrogant attitude that cast him as a villain.

By the time he was in his last go-around at WWE, appearing more as a manager than a wrestler because of his back problems, I had grown bored with him.....and I don't remember people particularly caring when he left WWE to go to WCW.

Of course, we often talk about his defection today as if Randy Orton, John Cena, Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins decided to abandon WWE on the same day......but at the time, it didn't seem to generate much discussion.

What if Perfect changed his style? Given how his body broke down in the last years of his career (and life), I doubt it would have made much of a difference.

 

[MrMojoRisin]

I don't know that changing his image to a bodybuilder type would have worked for Hennig. It wasn't really him, and he would have had to completely change his lifestyle to make it work...

then again, if he had completely changed his lifestyle he might still be with us today.

Hennig was a guy who had what they referred to as a 'wrestlers body'. One that's not built for show (not bad, but he wasn't going to be winning any competitions). It was built to go. As in, the way he trained and conditioned his body he could go in the ring for as long as he needed to, at a high level. Dibiase was the same way. Same with Hart. These were all guys in great shape, but none had amazing, cut physiques. But they could all outwork anyone that got into the ring with them... which is really more important for your long term career prospects anyways.

He did change his style somewhat after he got hurt. A little slower. More cautious. Didn't bump like he used to. And it took some of the bloom off the rose. Although I also think that with the back injury, he found it a lot harder to train like he was used to, and he wasn't really leading the same athletes lifestyle he used to, which helped cause his more bloated appearance and slightly slower style.

One thing though. It wasn't the sharpshooter that hurt him. Half the reason that Hart got the IC title at Summerslam was because Hennig was already hurt, and being close friends outside the ring, Hart was a guy that Hennig was happy to come back and work hurt to drop the title to. Hennig stated that the entire summer leading up to that match, he was in such bad shape he couldn't work out at all, and all he did the entire time leading to the match was fish. If you go back and look at that match again, you'll notice that Hart only had the sharpshooter on Hennig for seconds, and that he gave up almost immediately. That's because he wanted Hart to lay it in so that it looked good, but he knew he couldn't handle the hold. He didn't care that his character wouldn't look great by submitting so easily. He was all about doing business the right way that night and making Bret Hart.

 

[Goldie]

He would have had to adapt the gimmick before 1992.

It was 1991 when Hening did his back in.... taking 15 months out of the ring after dropping the IC title to Bret (a match Curt wrestled in great pain to do so).

After 1991 Curt wrestled in spurts..... came back in late 1992 though it didn't last a year... from 1994 till he signed with WCW in 1997 I don't think he wrestled at all.
By the time he was in WCW he was past his best.

To extend his career with a less risky bump taking repertoire- and using a safer brawling style.... if Curt would have done this before the back injury in '91.... maybe he could have wrestled on a more consistent basis throughout the 90s.

 

[MrHashasheen]

Curt was one of those ex-WWE veterans who would have been best served working in a high-profile tag-team for the rest of his career. Working with a younger guy who could go quite well and carry the bulk of the work while he covered them on the mic and outside the ring would have helped him cover his problems much better, and even could have let him transition to managerial work full-time as he got older. Personally, I always thought him working with Benoit or Malenko as part of the Horsemen would have made the most sense.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Hennig wasn't changing his style or having a long career in 1992.

He was claiming on a Lloyds of London retirment policy, which they were contesting so he had to return to the ring briefly in-case he lost. He didn't so he stopped again until it ran out and then just started again in WCW. Animal came back as soon as his stopped too.

Change Hennig's style and he's no-body. What set him apart was the technical skill and look he had. He was the opposite of the Hoganesque/Superstar Billy blonde... more in shape than a Greg Valentine and more marketable than a Taylor as WWE's equivalent of Ric Flair.

But he was NEVER up to that level and changing him out to be a muscle guy would have made him even less like Flair - and he'd still be nowhere near Hogan.