Curt Hennig

You have just witnessed perfection.

—Mr. Perfect, after winning a match

Curt Hennig was a wrestler in the WWE in the early '90's. During this time he performed under the Mr. Perfect gimmick and was, and still is, considered to be one of the best technical wrestlers in WWE history. He held the AWA World Championship, the Intercontinental Championship twice and has been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. Briefly competed in TNA when it was still a division of the NWA. He passed away in 2003 from acute cocaine intoxication.

You can learn more about his career at The Other Wiki.

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Tropes Associated with Mr. Perfect include:

• The Ace: While a face.
• Arch Enemy: He and Bret Hart had some classic matches that set the pace for future technical wrestlers in WWE.
• Badass Boast: The ring name says it all.
• Blond Guys Are Evil: While a heel.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: In WCW, Hennig betrayed Diamond Dallas Page, The Four Horsemen and the nWo Wolfpac.
• Dark-Skinned Blond
• Defeating the Undefeatable: Went undefeated for his whole first year in WWF, to play up his "Perfect" gimmick. The streak ended rather anticlimactically with mid-carder Brutus Beefcake beating him at Wrestlemania VI.
  • He had lost to Hulk Hogan at some house shows a few months earlier, but none of those were televised.
• Demoted to Extra: As part of the nWo B-Team in WCW.
  • While recovering from a vicious back injury in '91 and '92, Hennig served as a commentator and as Ric Flair's "executive consultant."
• Finishing Move: The Perfect-Plex was almost impossible to kick out of, but these days it seems more like a Name of Power move.
  • Suplex Finisher
• Hair of Gold
• Hot Dad
• Jack of All Stats: Hennig used a combo of power moves, more agile attacks, and submission holds in his arsenal. In a meta-sense, Curt also had great psychology, variety of moves, promo skills, and a great general charisma about him.
• Jerk Jock: May have been the first notable one in professional wrestling. His success probably led to Kurt Angle and Jack Swagger's gimmicks.
• The Dale Oliver Version: His TNA theme "Champion" was a combination of We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions.
• Lightning Bruiser: Agility? He could hit missile dropkicks and jump over opponents. Strength? Once Perfect-Plexed The Big Show. Endurance? Could wrestle for long periods of time and put on great matches even with real injuries. (He wrestled through his Summerslam classic against Bret Hart with a back problem)
• Loveable Rogue: In a time when nobody rooted for the bad guy, he was the asshole heel who was secretly admired by many fans. It's why his Face Heel Turn was more seamless than others.
• The Nicknamer: Coined Shawn Michaels' famous moniker, "The Heartbreak Kid."
  • Interestingly enough, he was also the first to refer to Hunter Hearst-Helmsley as Triple H.
• Power Stable: In WCW he was a member of both The Four Horsemen and New World Order.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Hennig really was an accomplished athlete and Mr. Perfect was a caricature of his real personality.
  • The skills he shows in his vignettes are all real, but Curt needed to not know the camera was running in order to pull them off.
• Role-Ending Misdemeanor: His career was littered with incidents of drug use and drunkenness (it's no coincidence that he used to tag-team with Scott Hall), so it's no surprise that his drunken brawl with Brock Lesnar on a plane ended his second WWE stint.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: His classic WWF theme was a knock-off of Theme from Exodus.
  • He used Theme from Exodus for a period after his debut before it was changed.
• Theatrics of Pain: He had the ability to make his opponents look much better than they were. This was probably why he was used more to put lesser talents over rather than being a Main Eventer.
  • To be more specific, he was well-known for twirling in mid-air while taking powerful strikes (such as a clothesline). He also had his own variation of the "Flair Flip" that he would work into most matches, especially before his back injury.
• Trickster Archetype: In Real Life, Curt loved to prank people not unlike Owen Hart. Once he went to a party and crapped in the hosts' baby's potty and managed to convince them their kid took an adult-sized shit.
• What Could Have Been: Often called "the best wrestler never to be WWE Champion", Hennig's career was plagued by constant injuries which kept him from being used by WWE to his full potential.
  • There was a period of about a month at the end of 1989 where the plan was for Hennig to go over Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania VI to get the WWF title. Popular rumor is that Hogan himself nixed the idea.
  • Before his death, the idea was floated about him possibly taking the NWA world heavyweight championship from Jeff Jarrett.
• Wrestling Family: Curt was the son of Larry "The Axe" Hennig and now his own son wrestles in WWE as Michael McGillicutty.
• Wrestling Psychology