THE HEENAN FAMILY

[Waterproof]

One of the most underated and greatest stable in wrestling history that was a force in 3 wrestling companies in the 70's, 80's and 90's. But dont let the Brain hear you call his FAMILY a stable because he will tell you that they are a family,

THE HEENAN FAMILY

The Heenan Family was a stable of heel wrestlers managed by Bobby "The Brain" Heenan beginning in the 1970s. Heenan managed wrestlers under the Heenan Family name in the American Wrestling Association (AWA), the National Wrestling Alliance's Georgia Championship Wrestling, and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). The term "stable" refers to a group of wrestlers in an ongoing alliance, often under a single manager. Heenan notoriously disliked the term, stating "A stable is a place where you keep a bunch of fly-infested horses," and instead referred to his collective wrestlers as his "family." The name moved with him, and changed members frequently.

The Ultimate Warriors vs. The Heenan Family (Survivor Series 1989)


American Wrestling Association (1969-1979)
Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, a professional wrestling manager debuted in American Wrestling Association (AWA) in 1969, where he began managing teams like The Blackjacks (Lanza and Mulligan), the team of Nick Bockwinkel and Ray Stevens and Bobby Duncum, Sr. forming the first version of Heenan Family.

Heenan lead his members to many title reigns, including the AWA World Heavyweight Championship and the AWA World Tag Team Championship before leaving AWA in 1979 to join Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW)

THE HEENAN FAMILY NICK BOCKWINKLE AND RAY STEVENS

 

[Waterproof]

Georgia Championship Wrestling (1979)

In GCW, Heenan formed his second version of Heenan Family, where Blackjack Lanza remained in the stable, while Heenan received new members in Masked Superstar

Killer Karl Kox

,
Professor Toru Tanaka

and Ernie Ladd . He also lead this version to numerous title reigns before he was fired by GCW.

Return To AWA (1979-1984)

After his firing from GCW, Heenan returned to AWA, where he reformed Heenan Family with Nick Bockwinkel. The stable got its newest member, Ken Patera

in 1982, but Patera left the group in 1983 when Heenan suffered an injury in Japan.

 

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WWF (1984-1993)
Heenan made his debut appearance in the World Wrestling Federation in September 1984, seconding Big John

Studd to the ring. While Jesse Ventura was originally supposed to be the first member of the WWF version of the Heenan Family, he was forced to retire due to health problems. Studd officially became the first member of the WWF version of the Heenan Family and wasn't long before Patera joined the fold.


The Heenan Family's first target was Andre the Giant, with whom Studd had been embroiled in a bitter feud over who was the true "giant" of wrestling. The Heenan Family scored the first major victory in the feud when Heenan helped instigate a 2-on-1 attack on Andre, an incident that resulted in Studd and Patera cutting Andre's famous locks of hair. Andre regained the upper hand, prompting Heenan to bring King Kong Bundy

into the Family.
Bundy, along with Studd, continued to make life difficult for Andre, who turned to Hulk Hogan and Tony Atlas for assistance. In 1986, as part of a storyline explaining Andre's leave of absence from the WWF (due to health problems and a tour of Japan), the Heenan Family campaigned to have Andre suspended for failing to show for matches against Studd and Bundy, and later to require a lifetime suspension from the WWF if they could prove a masked man competing as the "Giant Machine" was Andre.


In addition to Andre, WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hogan was another frequent target of the Heenan Family. Early on, Heenan turned to Studd, Bundy and Hogan's on-again, off-again friend "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff to win the title from Hogan, but they were all unsuccessful. In early 1987, Heenan appeared to score a major coup for his stable when Andre turned heel and challenged Hogan for the title at WrestleMania III. However, Hogan was also successful in his match against Andre.

After going more than four years without a champion, the Heenan Family got its first title when "Ravishing" Rick Rude

(with help from Heenan) upset The Ultimate Warrior to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania V. Shortly thereafter, he led the Brain Busters

(former Horsemen members Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard) to the WWF World Tag Team championship (over Demolition), giving the Heenan Family two champions at one time. Late in 1989, the Colossal Connection (André and Haku) won the Tag Team Championship, again defeating Demolition. In the spring of 1990, the Heenan Family got its fourth title when "Mr. Perfect"

won a tournament to fill the vacant Intercontinental Championship.

Other wrestlers who were part of the Heenan Family, at one time or another, were The Missing Link, Harley Race , The Islanders (Haku and Tama)

,

Hercules , The Barbarian, Terry Taylor, and The Brooklyn Brawler. Several of them -- most notably Race -- challenged Hogan for the WWF Heavyweight Championship, while others played key roles in various mid-card and main-event storylines

 

[Waterproof]

HEENAN FAMILY MEMBERS IN AWA, WWA and NWA GEORGIA

AWA members
Nick Bockwinkel
Ray Stevens
Blackjack Lanza
Blackjack Mulligan
Bobby Duncum
Ken Patera
Super Destroyer Mark II
Stan Hansen

WWA members
Angelo Poffo
Chris Markoff
Jimmy Valiant
Johnny Valiant
Baron von Raschke


NWA Georgia members
Blackjack Lanza
Masked Superstar
"Killer" Karl Kox
Professor Toru Tanaka
"Big Cat" Ernie Ladd
Bobby Jaggers
Ron Bass
Austin Idol

 

[Waterproof]

WWF members
Adrian Adonis
The Missing Link
Ken Patera
Big John Studd
King Kong Bundy
Buddy Rose
"Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff
Harley Race
André the Giant
Rick Rude
Hercules Hernandez
The Barbarian
Haku
Tama
"Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig
"The Red Rooster" Terry Taylor
The Brooklyn Brawler
The Brain Busters (Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard)

 

[jerniebert]

The Heenan Family used to have me as a kid.

 

[Waterproof]

The Heenan Family used to have me as a kid.

Yeah they did, They stayed whoopin on Hulk Hogan

 

[Stir Fry]

...Like Bobby the Brain Heenan, y'all don't know what I'm meanin'

 

[BlackDiBiase]

king kong bundy was the wackest one, i dont even think heenan bothered trying to put him over

 

[Waterproof]

king kong bundy was the wackest one, i dont even think heenan bothered trying to put him over

But somehow he main event Wrestlemania 2 against Hogan

 

[HipHopStan]

king kong bundy was the wackest one, i dont even think heenan bothered trying to put him over

Hogan actually did his first stretcher job for Bundy:

 

[ZEB WALTON]

king kong bundy was the wackest one, i dont even think heenan bothered trying to put him over

woah now, 5 count bundy the man

 

[Kunty McPhuck]

The 88 - 90 family, if they had given Rude the World title.



Rude as World
Perfect as IC
Brain Busters as Tag
Haku as King

+

The 3 Godfathers Brain, Andre and Harley Race

 

[HipHopStan]

You know - it just dawned upon me that a good portion of the Heenan family is dead. Heenan, Studd, Andre, Perfect, Rude (off of the top of my head). People talk about Career Match at Mania 7 is sad (which it is), but also look at the IC title match. Big Bossman vs. Mr. Perfect (w/ Bobby Heenan) with later interference by Andre the Giant with Gorilla Monsoon and Lord Alfred Hayes on commentary. Is the referee also dead as well? I'm getting mixed signals on that one.

 

[Amor fati]

Sad that most of the Heenan family are dead.