![]() There was a quote on the “Spectacular Legacy of the AWA” DVD that WWE released from Bockwinkel who said: “I was extremely fortunate to have the best performer in the business as my partner (Stevens) and the best manager in the business as a partner (Heenan). Perhaps it was just timing, it’s worth pointing out that some of the promos you’ll see with Bockwinkel and Heenan were from the 1980s, Heenan was paired with Bockwinkel and tag team partner Ray “The Crippler” Stevens as early as 1970. Bockwinkel wasn’t the first guy you’d think of who needed someone to talk for him. Bockwinkel used words that other wrestlers didn’t use, he talked in ways other wrestlers didn’t talk – he talked like a champion too. And Nick Bockwinkel could talk – his promo style, one that stood out even then but stood out even more now, one of a considered, well-spoken and educated person. In the case of Brock Lesnar, it was a perfect mix – not only was Lesnar’s talking style not suited to Vince McMahon’s rigid scripting style, but Lesnar’s status as a part timer meant someone to “advocate” for him was a way of keeping a main event talent in the storylines.īut go back to the 1970s – while managers were a lot more common, in a time where being able to talk was vital in getting people to attend shows. ![]() There are of course, notable exceptions to this – Paul Heyman has been an regular on WWE television in the past ten years, but with a couple of exceptions (stares at Curtis Axel) Heyman’s role has been pretty exclusively with main event talent. Where once talented acts who couldn’t quite put people into an arena could be supplanted by any number of talkers, McMahon’s desire for marketability has, for the most part, meant that either you find your voice on the national stage or you lose your spot. While AEW are making a good fist at reviving the role of a manager in professional wrestling, such is the stranglehold Vince McMahon and the WWE have had on the industry in the past thirty years you’d be forgiven for calling it a dying industry. But while Okerlund’s role was required, if a tad redundant in this case, the one question that immediately comes to mind is whether Heenan and Bockwinkel even needed to be a pairing in the first place. Bockwinkel himself, a fine talker and perennial AWA heel, Bobby Heenan – an almost universal pick as the best manager in the history of professional wrestling and Gene Okerlund – another standout when it comes to interviewers in the business. There’s actually quite a good argument, that if you go to Youtube and find a Nick Bockwinkel promo from the right era of the AWA, that the video you’ll be watching would be containing the finest collection of wrestling talkers you would ever likely find.
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