59 Facts About Curt Hennig

Curtis Michael Hennig was an American professional wrestler.

Curt Hennig gained particular attention when he defeated Nick Bockwinkel for the AWA World Heavyweight Championship in 1987, with his 373-day reign being the seventh-longest in history.

Curt Hennig moved to the WWF thereafter, where he feuded with Hulk Hogan over the WWF Championship, and won the WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship twice, becoming the longest-reigning titleholder of the 1990s.

Curt Hennig later headlined multiple PPV events for TNA, in contention for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, prior to his death on February 10,2003.

WWE credited Curt Hennig for raising the standard of technical wrestling in that company, while professional wrestling journalists Bob Ryder and Dave Scherer, in a 2000 publication, recognized him as "one of the best all-round competitors this business has ever produced".

Curt Hennig was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2007 by former Major League Baseball player and longtime friend Wade Boggs.

Curt Hennig was born on March 28,1958, the son of professional wrestler Larry "The Axe" Hennig.

Curt Hennig was childhood friends with fellow wrestler Rick Rude as well as Paul Shulte of Manchester, Vermont who was known as "Mr Perfect".

Curt Hennig established himself as a promising young performer against the likes of "Playboy" Buddy Rose, Greg Valentine and Killer Khan.

In 1982, Curt Hennig teamed up with his father, Larry, and won the NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship defeating Rip Oliver and Matt Borne on April 27.

Curt Hennig later won the titles with Buddy Rose and Scott McGhee in 1983.

Curt Hennig began being associated with Madusa Miceli, the AWA World Women's Champion since December 27,1987.

Curt Hennig would hold the AWA World Heavyweight Title for about 53 weeks, before losing it to Jerry Lawler on May 9,1988.

Curt Hennig presented himself as being superior in athletics or anything else he did.

Curt Hennig made his pay-per-view debut at SummerSlam in 1989, defeating The Red Rooster in a squash match.

Curt Hennig went undefeated on television for over a year, beating mid-card wrestlers including B Brian Blair, Ronnie Garvin, Koko B Ware, The Blue Blazer, The Red Rooster, Jimmy Snuka, Tito Santana, and Bret Hart throughout 1989.

Perfect and Hogan wrestled on the live events, where he lost to Hogan but they did not compete on television until January 15,1990, when Curt Hennig received his first opportunity for the WWF Championship against Hogan at Madison Square Garden and this was his first televised match against Hogan, which he won by disqualification but not the title.

Curt Hennig eliminated Rick Rude before making it to the final two, where he was eliminated by Hogan.

Curt Hennig was chosen to lead Demolition as "The Perfect Team" against The Warriors in a four-on-four elimination tag team match at the Survivor Series pay-per-view, where Curt Hennig's team lost.

Curt Hennig made his return to the ring at Survivor Series, where Curt Hennig and Savage won their match.

Curt Hennig made his return to singles competition on January 2,1993, episode of Superstars, where he defeated The Berzerker.

Curt Hennig participated in the 1993 Royal Rumble match to determine the No 1 contender for the WWF Championship at WrestleMania IX.

Curt Hennig eliminated Flair, Skinner and Jerry Lawler until he was eliminated by Ted DiBiase, Koko B Ware and Lawler.

Curt Hennig defeated Flair the next night on Monday Night Raw in a match where the loser would be forced to leave WWF.

Curt Hennig then went on to feud with the debuting Lex Luger, who berated Perfect during his promos.

Curt Hennig was set to participate as a member of Razor Ramon's team at Survivor Series, but was replaced in the match by Randy Savage.

Curt Hennig took a year off to recover from a back injury until he returned to the company as a color commentator at the Survivor Series pay-per-view in 1995.

In mid-1996, Curt Hennig was placed in an angle with Hunter Hearst Helmsley, where he would come out to the ringside during Helmsley's matches and steal his female escorts, which would often cause a distraction for Helmsley and affect his performance in matches.

Curt Hennig ended up turning on Page costing them the match.

Curt Hennig continued to use the fisherman suplex as his finishing move, renaming it Curt Hennig-Plex.

Curt Hennig ultimately joined the Four Horsemen, taking the spot of the retiring Arn Anderson.

At Fall Brawl, Curt Hennig was allegedly jumped backstage by the nWo before the WarGames match and came to ringside mid-match with his arm in a sling.

The whole thing turned out to be a setup as Curt Hennig betrayed the Horsemen and joined the nWo, handcuffing the other Horsemen to the cage and then slamming the steel cage door into Ric Flair's head, afterward claiming he had "destroyed the Horseman" and as a further slap to Flair, claimed to be "the wrestler that made Minnesota famous", thus becoming a villain.

Curt Hennig held the title for the next three months, during which he successfully defended the title against Flair in a standard wrestling match at Halloween Havoc and a no disqualification match at World War 3, before dropping the title to Diamond Dallas Page at Starrcade.

Curt Hennig lost to Hart at Uncensored and defeated Bulldog at Spring Stampede.

Curt Hennig was sidelined due to a knee injury in mid-1998.

Curt Hennig joined forces with Barry Windham to take on Flair and his son David in a tag team match at Souled Out in 1999, which Curt Hennig's team lost.

In 1999, both nWo factions reunited and Curt Hennig was placed in the nWo B-Team, a group consisting of mid-card wrestlers of the nWo.

Curt Hennig formed a tag team with Barry Windham and continued the rivalry with The Four Horsemen.

Curt Hennig participated in a tournament to crown the new World Heavyweight Champion, during which he defeated Disco Inferno in the first round but lost to Jeff Jarrett in the second round.

Curt Hennig was reinstated by the powers that be a month later and joined forces with Creative Control, during which the trio defeated Harlem Heat and Midnight at Starrcade.

Curt Hennig remained on the WCW television, continuing to make sporadic appearances with the company.

Curt Hennig entered a feud with Shawn Stasiak in the spring of 2000, after Stasiak referred to himself as "The Perfect One" which was a ripoff of Hennig's "Mr Perfect" character and even used entrance music composed to sound like Mr Perfect's theme song.

Curt Hennig left WCW after his contract expired in the summer of 2000.

In January 2001, Curt Hennig made a one-night appearance in Japan with All-Japan Pro Wrestling at its King's Road New Century 2001 event, taking part in a six-man tag team match in the Tokyo Dome.

In mid-2001, Curt Hennig made a handful of appearances with Harley Race's World League Wrestling promotion.

Curt Hennig then wrestled sporadically on the independent circuit until November 2001, when he joined the newly-formed X Wrestling Federation.

Curt Hennig wrestled for the XWF for the remainder of the year, facing opponents including Buff Bagwell and Vampiro.

Curt Hennig was drafted to Raw during the first ever WWF Draft.

Curt Hennig participated in a dark match at the Insurrextion on May 4,2002, defeating Goldust.

Curt Hennig was released from the company on May 7,2002, due to a physical confrontation with Brock Lesnar on the return flight from the pay-per-view.

Curt Hennig wrestled his last match on January 8,2003, defeating David Flair in a "Axehandle on a Pole match".

On February 10,2003, Curt Hennig was found dead in a Brandon, Florida, hotel room, at the age of 44, six weeks away from his 45th birthday.

TNA paid tribute to Curt Hennig by displaying his wrestling singlet and a framed photo as he was employed by TNA at the time of his death.

On September 9,2008, WWE released a two-disc DVD set focused on Curt Hennig titled The Life and Times of Mr Perfect.

Curt Hennig was mentioned on Raw 1000 by his old friend Bret Hart, who acted as the guest ring announcer for the night's Intercontinental title match.

Hart stated that one of his best moments was winning his first ever Intercontinental title from Curt Hennig, and described him as "one of the greatest superstars that ever lived".

Curt Hennig then went on to win the Intercontinental Championship in 2013 at Payback on Father's day, and he dedicated his victory to his father.

Curt Hennig was inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in Amsterdam, New York in 2015 by his son Joe.