Tag: Curt Hennig

On This Day: Curt Hennig fired following WWE Plane Ride from Hell in 2002

Posted on by Jake Skudder

Curt Hennig was fired from WWE on this day (May 8) back in 2002, following the infamous ‘Plane Ride from Hell’ incident. Talent were making their way back from the Insurrextion PPV in the UK, and without Vince McMahon on the plane (which is what many believed started the trouble), things got chaotic.

The Plane Ride from Hell in WWE

Here is what our own Dave Meltzer had to say about the situation in the May 13, 2002 issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

“There were numerous problems on the flight back from England’s Insurrextion PPV, most not even related to Hall. Several believe it is due to Vince not making the trip and wrestlers believing they weren’t going to get in trouble because of late, discipline has been not taken seriously because of everything Hall has been allowed to get away with.

“Among the incidents, and while incidents on overseas flights involving wrestlers are not uncommon, the number on this flight made it just about the worst flight anyone could remember.

“Dustin Runnels was on the p.a. singing love songs to his ex-wife (Terri Boatright), who was terribly uncomfortable. She asked him to stop and he didn’t. Jim Ross had to sit Runnels down.

“There was also heat on agents Gerald Brisco and Arn Anderson for how out of hand things got, and the heat on Anderson and Michael Hayes was strong, particularly Anderson because as an agent, it’s his job to keep the boys from getting out of control and he was more like one of the boys. Flair started to get wild, but eventually calmed down when Ross told him to.

How Curt Hennig got fired from WWE

“Curt Hennig was spraying people with shaving cream, and kept egging Brock Lesnar into fighting (the two know each other from Minnesota and when Hennig was between gigs and before Lesnar started with OVW, they trained together at Brad Rheingans’ camp) . Lesnar didn’t know how to handle it as a newcomer not wanting to get in trouble, but reportedly was told that if he didn’t stand up to him now, he’d get a bad rep in the business. Lesnar took Hennig down in the aisle way, actually more than once, until David Finlay told Lesnar to stop. Hennig tried to get him to do it again, but Paul Heyman told Lesnar to ignore it. Another report said that Lesnar first grabbed him and bulldozed him against the door and people on the plane freaked because they were afraid the door would open.

“Michael Seitz (Hayes) was out of control, got into either a serious or a not serious brawl with Bradshaw and started cutting wrestling promos on everyone. Hayes tried to halfway pick a fight with Hall, although it was also said Hall had that one coming by his own behavior, as well as others, and was generally really nasty. When he finally fell asleep, someone, believed to be Sean Waltman, cut lots of his hair off. The next day at Raw, his mullet was pinned to the wall backstage as a trophy by Waltman. When he woke up on the plane and found his hair cut off, he started wanting to fight several people.

“Everyone is waiting to see how Vince handles all these various situations, although he did immediately make an example out of Hall. Hayes really got chewed out by Vince, Stephanie and Ross at Raw. There was a feeling that as a writer and an agent, he should be leading by example. Undertaker was said to be furious at how out of hand this got.“

DragonKingKarl: Pro wrestling in January 1986

Posted on by Karl Stern

In the DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show, we have now exited 1985 in Karl Stern’s monthly deep dive and finished his book, DragonKingKarl’s 1984-1985 Pro Wrestling Omnibus, in the process.

Now, it’s time to sail into uncharted territory: 1986.

It was a red-hot time in pro wrestling. WWF had established itself as a dominant national brand, but Jim Crockett Promotions and the NWA were putting forth some of the best action of the era. A strange tag team title change took place in the AWA , giving two top stars of the future (Scott Hall and Curt Hennig) a major championship.

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Fight Game: WWF Survivor Series 1992 review

Posted on by Garrett Gonzales

John LaRocca and Garrett Gonzales return with a holiday edition of The Fight Game Podcast.

This isn’t a show about current wrestling, rather it’s a review of the 1992 Survivor Series, but done in a slightly different way.

We go through the history of the time in WWF post-SummerSlam. Randy Savage is the WWF World Champion but soon enough, Ric Flair and then Bret Hart would take the title. The Ultimate Warrior is fired only a couple of weeks before Survivor Series and they have to scramble with a late turn of Mr. Perfect to save the main event.

Here are some of the other things we talk about:

  • A list of Dave Meltzer’s best singles and tag matches of the early 1990s
  • What was happening in 1992 in pop culture during this time
  • What has aged well and not-so-well from the show
  • Guessing Dave Meltzer’s star ratings from the event

Because of the holiday week, we’ve put this show for free on our Spotify and Apple Podcast feeds, as well as on YouTube, which you can see below.

Click Here to Listen (sub needed)

February 24, 2003 Observer Newsletter: Career of Curt Hennig, more

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

Curt Hennig used to brag to his friends that he had a horseshoe up his ass because he was so lucky. And friends, dumfounded how Hennig would routinely hit jackpots on quarter slots and managed to make big money from wrestling without giving up his family and hanging out with his friends, were even more shocked when hearing that he had passed away.

For Bobby Heenan, who Curt would always say was like a second father to him, it was eerie, reminding him of the death of Heenan’s favorite traveling partner, Ray Stevens.

“He called me last week and it was strange,” said Heenan. “It was like Ray Stevens, who never called me, other than to say pick me up at 5. Stevens called me the day before he died. He said he just wanted to talk. I’d known him for 30 years and he never called to talk. That’s just how he was. Curt called last week and I wasn’t home. He left a message saying that he just wanted to see how I was doing.”

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February 17, 2003 Observer Newsletter: Death of Curt Hennig

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

Curt Hennig, whose career was one of the top wrestlers in the world ended prematurely with a back injury, saw his life end shockingly under mysterious circumstances in a Brandon, FL hotel room on 2/9. He was 44.

Hennig was considered one of the top five or ten wrestlers in North America from 1987-91 during a period where he had lengthy runs with both the AWA world heavyweight title and the WWF Intercontinental title.

Born March 28, 1958, Curt was the son of veteran badass Larry Hennig, a burly 6-3, 300 pounder who wasn’t a great worker, but was well respected as being one of the tough guys of his era. Larry started his career as “Pretty Boy” Larry Hennig, known for his late-1960s tag team with “Handsome” Harley Race and early 70s tag team with “Luscious” Lars Anderson. He was known later in his career after turning babyface as “The Axe,” using a form of clothesline as his finisher.

Current subscribers click here to continue reading.

May 20, 2002 Observer Newsletter: Fallout from the plane ride from hell

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

Curt Hennig was the second WWE star fired stemming from the flight from London detailed in last week’s issue.

Besides spraying the shaving cream in people’s hair (one of whom was Big Show), which would have been overlooked, he goaded Brock Lesnar into their skirmish, which put people in danger. Even after Lesnar pinned him down in the aisle, Hennig kept wanting more, and people were calming Lesnar down and telling him it wasn’t worth it at that point. Fighting, or actually amateur wrestling roughly on an airplane is dangerous enough, but the fact they were fighting near the emergency exit is even worse.

The stories about them almost going through the door were blown up out of proportion, because the force it takes to open such a door is incredible. Then again, Lesnar is also incredibly strong

There was tremendous heat on both Arn Anderson and Michael Hayes, since both were agents and their jobs are to keep the wrestlers under control, and neither was in any condition to do so.

Current subscribers click here to continue reading.

Portland Wrestlecast: Remembering Larry and Curt Hennig

Posted on by Jim Valley

Before he was perfect, Curt Hennig was a young, green wrestler in Portland Wrestling. Then, he won his first-ever pro wrestling title, the Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship, with his late father Larry “The Axe” Hennig.

In this edition of the Portland Wrestlecast, I recaps Curt’s career in Portland, including his feuds with Buddy Rose and Rip Oliver.

Then, I talk to his father, the legendary Larry “The Axe” Hennig who passed away earlier this week. Larry reminisced about how their tag team victory was more than just a wrestling angle and how the entire family came out from Minnesota to experience it. In 1985, the Hennigs would team again in Oregon, this time facing AWA Tag Team Champions The Road Warriors at the famous Don Owen 60th anniversary extravaganza.  

In addition, Larry remembered a memorable fishing trip on the Columbia River when he and Curt accidentally discovered a nudist colony.

If you’re new to the podcast, it relives the memories of Don Owen’s Portland Wrestling territory and every week, I recap the history and interview the people who made the territory so memorable. 

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