On a recent edition of his “The ARN Show” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Arn Anderson discussed Bobby Heenan leaving WWE for WCW in 1994.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On Bobby Heenan leaving WWE and joining WCW: “Bobby was as big a star and as hot a heel as there was in WWF. When they started the ‘Weasel’ chants, you might as well shut the match down in any arena anywhere in the country because that dominated. He had heat. He had legitimate heat because he was such a dick, and he was so quick-witted. Nobody could outmatch him on the wits, you know. And he just was one of those guys that even though he went from a manager and a part-time color guy, if he walked down [and] sat down, somebody said, ‘Okay, he’s the lead guy.’ Nobody questioned it.”
On the importance of signing Bobby Heenan in 1994: “Oh, yeah. Well, it tells the wrestling world that you’re investing in your product. You’re getting the very best that’s available, and that’s interesting.”
On whether he was surprised Heenan left WWE for WCW: “I’m sure he was up there a decade or more. When you work the schedule and you travel the way everybody does that works there, and now you have another option. Let’s just say you’re working a fourth of the time and traveling a whole lot less, a lot of it being centralized around Atlanta and just a short drop down to Macon, up to Chattanooga — whatever the deal was, down to Columbus and doing those TVs — it’s a hell of a lot better than flying coast to coast and working the hundreds of days that those guys did. Everybody that left there, man, you just you would talk to them and they would just go and burn.”
On Bobby Heenan being different in WCW than in past promotions: “He was our manager. He would just be at TV. He didn’t go on the house shows; occasionally, if we were in Madison Square Garden or LA or one of the big clubs like that, he would show up. He wasn’t on the road in a lot of events. All of his guys were, you know, on TV. He wouldn’t actually even go out with everybody on TV because that would water down whoever was featured on that show. If we just had an enhancement match, let’s just say sometimes he wouldn’t go out with us because he was going to be with John or Haku or somebody, or Rick Rude or somebody in the main event. So you don’t want to water that down.”
