Brian Damage
A gimmick is something that is intended to hook the attention of fans to a wrestler. They may be outrageous or steeped more in reality, whatever the case may be…some have succeeded and many others have failed. The Gimmick Table takes a look at the origins of some of your favorite and not so favorite gimmicks of professional wrestlers.
Today we browse the gimmick of Mr. Perfect
When Curt Hennig signed a deal with the World Wrestling Federation in 1988, he sat in a meeting with Vince McMahon, Pat Patterson and his father Larry Hennig in Stamford, Connecticut. According to Larry Hennig, the meeting was to develop a gimmick for Curt to use in the company. The elder Hennig claimed that the initial meeting had Vince McMahon stumped on what character to give Curt. It wasn’t until Vince saw videotape of Curt playing various sports in school and noticed how easy and “sleek” he played them whether it was golf, diving, tennis etc.
A second meeting was held with the aforementioned people and that is when Vince’s eyes let up and proclaimed that Curt Hennig would be known as ‘Mr. Perfect.’ Basically, Henning would play a character very similar to himself. Someone that excelled at everything he did in and out of the ring. A series of vignettes would be filmed by Bruce Prichard to introduce the new character. According to Prichard, the rumors that Terry Taylor was originally pegged to get the Mr. Perfect gimmick was nothing but a myth. Prichard said that Taylor signed with the WWF around the same time, and debuted at the same time, but that is where the similarities ended.
Despite being able to cut solid promos on his own, Hennig was given Bobby ‘the Brain’ Heenan as his manager. At the time, McMahon felt that all heels needed a manager to make sure fans knew who the heels really were. Heenan and Hennig bonded and became friends. Heenan claimed that Hennig disliked the Mr. Perfect gimmick. He said he constantly felt pressure not to screw up a promo or a move in the ring. Heenan stated that Hennig always wanted a cowboy gimmick, because that’s more of the real persona that Hennig had as a very outdoorsy person. Heenan said that the West Texas Redneck gimmick he was given in WCW was his favorite.
Despite Hennig’s reservations about doing the Mr. Perfect character, it is the gimmick that most fans attach to him. He portrayed Mr. Perfect from 1988 until he left the company in 1996. He would revive the gimmick when he briefly rejoined the company in 2002.
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