Weasel Tales: The Bobby Heenan Archives - Pretty Boy's Dual Life in the Wrestling World
Dec 18, 2023
Steve Anderson
Step into the ring with us as we unravel the visceral world of wrestling, narrated by a battle-hardened veteran whose journey through the chaos and charisma of the industry is nothing short of extraordinary. Picture a scene where managing a troop of strangers, dodging violence, and witnessing the raw aftermath of an accident are all in a day's work. That's just a glimpse into our guest's first taste of wrestling, an initiation that sealed his fate in a profession as punishing as it is captivating. As we recount his steps from selling refreshments to masterminding packed events in Indiana, you'll be transported to an era where the thrill of the show was crafted with both ingenuity and illusion.
Locking horns with legends and dodging bullets in the streets of Chicago, our guest—affectionately dubbed "Pretty Boy"—delves into the art of wearing two hats in the wrestling world with finesse and ferocity. His tales of strategy and survival highlight the economic and physical stakes of leading a dual life as both manager and wrestler. From his unforgettable clash with Calvin Prince Paul to managing icons like Angelo Poppo, he paints a picture of the wrestling landscape that is as much about mental agility as it is about physical prowess. So, lace up your boots and prepare for an insider's tour through the grappling, grappling, and grandeur of a life spent inside and outside the ropes.
Step into the ring with us as we unravel the visceral world of wrestling, narrated by a battle-hardened veteran whose journey through the chaos and charisma of the industry is nothing short of extraordinary. Picture a scene where managing a troop of strangers, dodging violence, and witnessing the raw aftermath of an accident are all in a day's work. That's just a glimpse into our guest's first taste of wrestling, an initiation that sealed his fate in a profession as punishing as it is captivating. As we recount his steps from selling refreshments to masterminding packed events in Indiana, you'll be transported to an era where the thrill of the show was crafted with both ingenuity and illusion.
Locking horns with legends and dodging bullets in the streets of Chicago, our guest—affectionately dubbed "Pretty Boy"—delves into the art of wearing two hats in the wrestling world with finesse and ferocity. His tales of strategy and survival highlight the economic and physical stakes of leading a dual life as both manager and wrestler. From his unforgettable clash with Calvin Prince Paul to managing icons like Angelo Poppo, he paints a picture of the wrestling landscape that is as much about mental agility as it is about physical prowess. So, lace up your boots and prepare for an insider's tour through the grappling, grappling, and grandeur of a life spent inside and outside the ropes.
Speaker 1:
So if traffic moves around he was in the other lane going the other way we could go by and see this horrible tragedy. We'd get home about two o'clock in the morning. He'd bring his hand for me five dollars for the night. When I'm thinking to myself, I've got to get up now at seven in the morning to go to work. I've just been to Weaverville, kentucky. I've managed some people I don't really manage. I was almost hung. I was almost beat to death by a man with a nice stick. I was almost beaten by Chinese Valentine. I saw this horrendous accident where a man was alive and on fire for five dollars and all I could think of is this is for me. When can I go do this again? And that's how I started. That was my first day in the business and from then on I'd been in the business.
Speaker 1:
I went to work and got the car dealership after a couple of weeks, found out what I was doing and he said how could you be in such a degrading profession? And I said degrading profession. You're a car dealer. These people come to the door and you take those poor bastards and drop them to their knees. All we're doing is entertaining people. And one thing people got to remember. Everybody said, oh, that's all fake In a reference. Fake, we never said it was real. You said it was fake Before you see a real van show on TV. They don't want to know if they're going to be married. It's just a show. It's just a television show. So that was it. I was hooked. I was now in the business.
Speaker 1:
The guy told me he didn't want me working. I was a dishonorable profession. I said what do you mean? You cheat people with a lot of budget cars. I chased them around the desk. They fired me. I went home and told BlueZ that he didn't have a regular job anymore. This is what I'm going to do full time. That's how I started full time and I didn't make a whole lot more than I made it before the issue. He wasn't a very good pay off guy. He would never give you 50 bucks, he'd give you 45. He'd never give you 100. He'd give you 90. He'd give you 190, not 200. So every time he saved 10 bucks on a guy over a year, he'd make pretty good money. And that's how I started.
Speaker 1:
What about any memories from when you were initially being around selling Cokes and all that? Any stories from there. Any other recollections? I remember the cheat guy. He didn't speak English, he was in big root. He threw fire at people. He really terrified people. He really looked scary.
Speaker 1:
I had my Cokes and he chased me sometimes down the aisle. I was very excited. I didn't know what he did I do if he caught me. He wouldn't catch me, but he got the people all excited, thinking I was going to catch me and hurt this poor kid selling Cokes. I can remember that. I can remember sneaking down the dressing rooms and listening to him talk.
Speaker 1:
I knew it wasn't the beginning. I'd been in a fight. I know if they'd last about 20 seconds they don't last an hour and you just don't want to do anything that good. Turned the rest of the reel around and two guys from the Bears come out cordyline a guy, give the other guy the football spank. He turns the rep background touchdown. You never look in the dugout of the baseball game and see a math guy in the cups. So I just knew this was entertainment.
Speaker 1:
What about the early years after that first day? You know we just kind of go from there. Well, I worked on Indiana from 65 until 69. And all those times around there we worked a lot of Thursdays. I worked around Indianapolis, chicago, st Louis, tv, st Louis.
Speaker 1:
The previous TV I had on Monday night at the Chase Park Park Hotel and for me it was Sam Nushnick. It was the end of TV you ever saw, because it wasn't like studio TV. This was a dining room and they had the ring in the middle of it and they had tables and chairs and everybody came in suits and furrows and they served dinner during the matches and it was from the dining room. There All the matches were in a little squalification, they were all finished shoes and it was really bad and it was kind of wrestling in those days. It was just in the late 60s and I'd never seen anything like it in my life.
Speaker 1:
And there was something I remember in Pittsburgh you could only get 20 people to come to TV, so they had a backdrop curtain with faces drawn on it and they did the lights so it looked like a place of 450 people, which was a lot, I guess. For a little. I mean at the Harmony Indianapolis sometimes Bruiser and Snyder became the promoters they had been and they would take like six matches on a Tuesday night. We don't know if they didn't start to take 30 nights. So you got maybe 75 guys in the back there for six tapes. You got 20 stands out there.
Speaker 1:
So after about the first two hours of taping everybody was going home. So they just had the boys get dressed and they're closing and they're sitting in the stands so it looked like a packed place. There was always one bleach and only one camera. It looked like there were 100 people there but there were boys dressed in a waddle and then half the guys would fall asleep and then he'd take this music from the barbers game and he'd put it in underneath. There were so like 1,000, 50,000 people cheering. You know you had the pair of guys in sleep in the front row and they'd go back and forth. Yeah, I put them in the front row.
Speaker 1:
Oh yeah, and that was how TV was done at television studios and they never said anything from the ring. I can remember it was always done in a TV studio. Or armies, they made tapes In the place where they had dinner. Did that ever interfere with, I mean, did a match? The match never spilled out of a ring? No, they didn't have it. In those days you didn't bang a guy's head into a guy's bowl of soup. They didn't power bomb a guy through a table. People sat there and they had.
Speaker 1:
One of the announcers was the ring announcer, mickey Grigiole, joe's brother, and he had a huge, huge head of hair where Joe has no hair and Mickey was a major D in a restaurant there in St Louis. And I got in Georgia able with the ring a commentator, and he said one commentator, no color man, nothing, and he would bring a guy down and do an interview on the floor. But no, there was a huge deal with baby faces and there was heat. People would yell and scream but no one threw anything. No one got out of their chairs and tried to fight anybody or anything. The rest of the fight never spilled out into the floor and in fact St Louis never used interviews. They'd maybe do one in a three week program going into the show, maybe one interview in three weeks and be a baby face. So I'm just hitting my key. So I also was the first manager ever to be used in St Louis in the NWA in 1968, I think.
Speaker 1:
And then you worked your match at the Keele Auditorium, which was downtown, but it was different. There were people all dressed up and the women had furries on. I remember the army with the women. Well, they didn't give them checks at any days, they just whipped them in front of their dress and knew what they had. They had the egg, you had the chicken, you had the chili. I used to see people come there and take their coin for us. They'd pour them out in the counter and count the change up and bang them up, pick it, pick it here. I don't know how they got home, yeah, and those days ringside was three bucks, joe mission was about a buck and a half and Grandsand was two dollars. So Remember, the promotion would always tell you they pay at the house with ten grand. They tell you the house is a grand. They tell you was ten to make you feel good. They pay on six. There's no, you can have a counterhouse. You're in the dressing room. I mean, you can't count here to cheer into people. So we never got a fair Count. I don't think so.
Speaker 1:
You started the common, this conception. You started as a wrestler and then you became a manager. You started as a manager, yeah. So how did you get into the wrestling? Almost right away, because they thought I could take bumps. See, my thinking was when I started as a manager. I'd seen managers before. Usually a manager was a guy that was pulled to the hill, was hanging around to get a couple paydays, a couple years left and the promoter was using because of his name and I Got extra to blast. You know in the 80s couldn't rest on anymore, but you had a name, so you're using to talk for maybe a guy that couldn't talk. But I saw this. These guys will hold you guys around the way out and they always manage the same way. They always hit a cane and hit a guy with it. I never want to use a cane because I use the cane and he's coming out of rings. We're gonna.
Speaker 1:
My hands were busy. I couldn't defend myself. I'm gonna hit anybody with a can of a lawsuit. So I'm wearing my hands free. But I took bumps. No, I can't take a bump with a cane there that came from a part of my hand and some fans gonna get it and give it back to me the hard way.
Speaker 1:
And I thought to myself I'm going to manage like a wrestler and wrestle like a manager. No, which means when I'm on the floor my man's getting hit. I'm gonna register to, I'm gonna sell like my man's song. I'm not gonna take bumps, but I'm gonna invest in this guy. I'm supposed to be his manager. I'm gonna be concerned about him. So I did come to me to get brought to the ring. That's when I started taking off and I just had the ability to take bumps and I got back from my service. I'm going to manage like a wrestler and work like a manager and and After a while, that you start using me both ways because it is cheaper. You can use me as a wrestler and manager. I'm one guy to pay for doing two jobs. And that's what happened. And the first guy wrestled with a African-American named Calvin Prince Paul, who was the bouncer of Bruiser's Bar, called a hero. And Calvin I had my first match with and my I got it from after the attack and I wouldn't manage another team. I. And then I managed his team of Angel Poppo, who's the father of Randy Macho man Savage, and I can't increase my part.
Speaker 1:
One hit a guy from Yugoslavia and Chris was a little backwards. He was just left in the ring. He said watch the kick After he kicked him. He kicked him a groin so hard on the way down to him and said watch the kick. My wife made that for me. And 1965, that's better. Yeah, who came up with pretty boy? I did, but I started from Larry Hinnick. Oh, okay, that's just what. They shot at me in Chicago shot five people, we just 75. Maybe we bet You'll throw this off, it'll be better for you. They shot at me in the amphibian in Chicago and the finish was it was back and we go again. Very good part of the champion, so, so.