LIFE & TIMES OF MR PERFECT

Curt Hennig is one of those people in wrestling who never had a major promotional machine behind himm (Hulk Hogan), wasn't always put in a position to be the top draw of the company (Ric Flair), or even the most popular wrestler (Sting) but was always over with the fans as either a face or heel, had some of the biggest respect & love from the wrestling industry today, and as without a doubt on of a kind weather he was in the ring wrestling or pulling a classic prank outside of it to the point where Michael Hayes at one time called him wrestling's version of "Dennis The Menace." The name given to him in the WWE just describes him at whatever he did in the wrestling business, PERFECT!

The documentry stars off talking about Hennig growing up, how he started wrestling young, and hung around his father (Larry "The Ax" Hennig) when he was training with Verne Gagne before meeting his future wife in high school. How Curt started wrestling for Vince Sr. before moving onto the AWA to team with his dad & Scott Hall (if you haven't seen him outside of his "Razor Ramon/nWo" look then you'll be suprized) was discussed before his feud with Nick Bockwinkel & becoming AWA Champion. How the feud between Curt & Greg Gagne spilled into a family feud with their fathers getting involved before losing the AWA Title to Jerry Lawler & leaving was brought up next. How he got the name Mr. Perfect & the truth behind the "Absolutely Perfect" sport skits was talked about with hysterical footage to go with the story before Wade Boggs tells a story of how Hennig saved his life. Curt's Intercontinental title reign was heavily talked about in terms of how he elevated the championship along with the SummerSlam match with Bret Hart. Stories of Curt's classic pranks were talked about next before talking about his back injury led to him being an announcer, how Curt did in his role in that position along with being advisers to Ric Flair & Triple H before moving on to WCW. The story behind Hennig's involvement with the Horsemen & the nWo was discussed along with Wade Boggs telling a story behind what he had to do with the "nWo Wolfpac" before moving on to the infamous "Rap Is Crap" song. The effect his Royal Rumble performance had on his career & his "role" within his last WWE run was profiled before closing out the documentry talking about his death, his Hall Of Fame induction, and legacy left behind with his son Joe training to be a 3rd generation wrestler.

Matches Include:
w/Scott Hall vs. Jimmy Garvin & Steve Regal - This was more of an match to showcase Hennig more than anything else as he was the legal man for the majority of his match showcasing his athletic & technical style. You did see Hall display his power of the team as well but for the most part, this was all Hennig.
"AWA Championship Wrestling" Nov. '85

vs. Bret Hart - This was more of a preview for their series of matches in later years as Bret was still part of the Hart Foundation tag team while Hennig was in the early stages of his "Mr. Perfect" gimmick. Great technical match between both men but again, they would go on to bigger & better matches against each other.
"MSG" Apr. '89

vs. WWE Champion Hulk Hogan - Hulk Hogan said during the documentry something to the extent of how you had to bring your A game when you went against Hennig. Well, Curt Hennig was a good counterpart for Hogan as Hennig just knew how to sell (or oversell, depending on how you look at it) Hogan's offense while also had Hogan be more competitive than your used to seeing against others. The Genius was Perfect's manager at this time and added to this match as well which in the end was a better inring quality performance that "sterotypical Hogan" match you would usually get at these house shows.
"MSG" Jan. '90

w/special refree Roddy Piper vs. WWE Intercontinental Champion Kerry Von Erich - Before the match, pay attention to the "patdown" that he gives Hennig...classic comedic Piper. Hennig & Von Erich had good matches against each other & this was no exception either as a miscue with an exposed turnbuckle really hurt Perfect's back throughout most of the contest. It was a good match between the two eventhough I would have prefered the match where Hennig regained the championship days later.
As a side note, check out for the aftermath afterwards between Hennig & Piper that would lead to their match the next month that is available on the "Legends Of Wrestling: Roddy Piper/Terry Funk" DVD.
"MSG" Nov. '90

WWE Intercontinental Championship Match vs. Bret Hart - This is a pure wrestling fans dream here and tons of credit here goes to Mr. Perfect for putting on this type of performance with a back injury that would keep him out of the ring for over a year. This would be the match that put Bret Hart on the map as a solo star & was also the debut of the Sharpshooter.
SummerSlam '91
("Bret Hart: Best There Is, Best There Was, Best There Ever Will Be" & "History Of The Intercontinental Championship")

vs. WWE Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels - These two had been feuding with each other ever since their backstage brawl at WrestleMania IX & Hennig costing Shawn the Intercontinental Title against Marty Jannetty. These two just flowed with each other with Shawn working over Perfect's lower back. Shawn's bodyguard, Diesel (Kevin Nash), did come into play at times & was the deciding factor in the end of what was otherwise a good match.
SummerSlam '93

vs. Bret Hart - This was from their short feud in WCW where Bret Hart has issues with the nWo so Curt Hennig took on the task of taking out Bret Hart. Hennig did focus on Bret's knee but it was interesting to hear how Mike Tenay referenced to their past history without actually mentioning WWE by name. As was typical with the nWo at that time, Rick Rude did get involved & delivered the first Rude Awakeing in years. This was a good encounter as they never had a bad match but they've had much better.
WCW Uncensored '98

Other matches include a match from his early '80s WWE run vs. Eddie Gilbert, his classic one hour match vs. AWA Champion Nick Bockwinkle, and vs. Terry Taylor with commentary by Mick Foley & Michael Cole.

DVD extras include all of the Mr. Perfect sports vignettes featuring such celebrities as Wade Boggs & Steve Jordan & Felton Spencer& Mike Modano, his Hall Of Fame induction, the "Rap Is Crap" music video, and bonus stories on how Curt loved karaoke & the funny truth behind his appearence on "Lifestyles Of The Rich & Famous" told by Brock Lesnar. Hidden DVD extras include bonus stories of pranks Curt did by Wade Boggs & Chris Jericho, a live performance of "Rap Is Crap" on WCW Thunder, a promo Hennig did as AWA Champion, and the infamous segment where Curt Hennig destroyed the WWF Championship with a hammer...which would later become the famous WWF Hardcore Championship almost a decade later.

In the end, the only negatives I could state is that I think something could have been said for his close friendship with Rick Rude & while I didn't think the Terry Taylor match wasn't anything special, the commentary with Foley talking about Hennig made up for it. Eventhough his SummerSlam match with Bret was a classic, it was already on Bret's DVD (which they advertised during the documentry) & on the upcoming Intercontinental Championship DVD so it wasn't really necessary here & could have been easily replaced by the tournament final were he actually won the Intercontinenal Championship from Tito Santana or a Ric Flair match from their feud in WCW. Besides those minor issues, this DVD is fits the name for the late Curt Hennig who was one of the greatest inring wrestlers & personalities for his generation...PERFECT! I recommend.

Some may wonder why WWE decided to release a DVD featuring Mr. Perfect Curt Hennig, but I welcome it. I wish WWE would release more DVDs like this. Not every feature star needs to be a main event legend to get his own DVD in my opinion.
This release features one of the best documentaries WWE has produced on any wrestler. It's very informative, entertaining and moves at a fast pace. The story of Curt Hennig is told by his family, friends and his fellow wrestlers. All of Curt's career highlights are featured and those who only know him as Mr. Perfect from his debut in the WWF in the late eighties, will get to see all of Curt's prior accomplishments in wrestling before becoming Mr. Perfect, and there are a lot of them! For example, Curt was the AWA World Heavyweight Champion before his stint in the WWF, and this is talked about in great detail.

Most are complaining about the match selection, and with good reason. There are some good ones in this set, but not many. I was shocked when WWE decided to include the classic one-hour draw AWA World Heavyweight Championship match between Hennig and champion Nick Bockwinkel from Nov. of 1986. This is pro-wrestling at it's best, with the last 10 minutes being just as good, or better, than any championship match you'll see today. Both men bleed and push each other to the limit. One thing to look for, is when Bockwinkel blades, there is a fan near the front row, who excitedly pantomimes Bockwinkel blading to his friends, letting them know how smart he is to the business. When Bockwinkel places the blade back into his wrist tape, this same fan also pantomimes this to his friends too. It's pretty funny to see.

The matches with Bret Hart are the best, but the inclusion of the match from WCW Uncensored between these two is perplexing, since it's so terrible, at this point Curt just wasn't the worker he once was and Bret was uninspired in WCW. The match from SummerSlam '91 is a classic, but has been released three times on DVD now, so chances are you've already seen it. The MSG match is interesting, because both men perform both their signature spots from their future SummerSlam '91 encounter as well as their classic King of the Ring match from '93. However, due to it's slow pace (most of those MSG shows were slowly paced) the match really isn't something you'll want to see over and over again. So, the highlight here is Curt's work in the AWA.

One match was included, simply to make a point and that's the match from WrestleFest between Hennig and Terry Taylor. Michael Cole and Mick Foley, who recorded new audio for this match, explained that these two were in the running for the Mr. Perfect gimmick, and Curt ended up receiving it. Couldn't they have just said this in the documentary and shown a few clips from this match instead of wasting a match selection on it? Poor decisions like this hurt the release.

One match I wish they had included, you only see highlights of it, is the AWA World Title match against Jerry "the King" Lawler. In the documentary, Lawler said this was his favorite match ever, so it would have been nice to see all of it.

So, I recommend this for the excellent documentary, vignettes and Curt's matches from the AWA, but don't expect much else that you'll either enjoy or have already seen on DVD before.

Good dvd. Good matches. Good documentary. However, it allmost completely ignores Curt Hennig's drug problems. A small tidbit for maybe 30 seconds near the end mentions he died from a cocain overdose. I felt the dvd lacked the full honesty of Curt Hennig's life because it hid his drug use almost completely.