#HWETW Top 10 – Heat

2. “Weasel” Heat – Bobby “The Brain” Heenan

It’s hard to imagine anyone ever doing more with pajamas than Ray “Bobby” Heenan did. His willingness to play the fool while also acting like the smartest guy in the room is deservedly the stuff of legend. It’s hard to imagine much of the Hogan era — from AWA to WCW — without Bobby Heenan. While Paul Heyman’s tangential legacy — meaning the people he made — may be glitzier, but the sheer amount of people Bobby Heenan made relevant period is almost literally the entire Rogues Gallery of the professional wrestling’s Golden Era.

That’s not the only reason Heenan’s higher than Heyman or Vickie, his two closest competitors for

“G.Heat.Magnet.O.A.T.”: He’s also the archetypal heel commentator and was a world class bump machine before his neck injuries. In the same way that he did with every person he worked with, he made every match he called or worked himself seem like a bigger deal because he had invested his time and (one assumes) money into them. And that’s why we loved to hate him so much.

The reason he was so well loved backstage is because, well, “Brain” wasn’t just a nickname. His understanding of what he had to do to get heat from the crowd, and how to translate that into eyeballs/butts in seats also made him money in a way that Paul Heyman is just starting to develop with any sustainable consistency.  And while Vickie would eventually give us what we wanted after years of us subconsciously begging for it, Heenan did that all the time, supercharging heat on feuds then hitting the release valve by wearing that beautiful weasel suit.

Other examples: Nobody

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