Curt Hennig

Curtis Michael Hennig (March 28, 1958 – February 10, 2003) was an American professional wrestler, manager, and color commentator who performed under the name of Curt Hennig for the American Wrestling Association (AWA), the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (now Impact Wrestling). In the WWF, he found his greatest success as Mr. Perfect, a nickname introduced in his second run with the company that became his official ring name. Hennig is the son of wrestler Larry "The Axe" Hennig, and father of current WWE wrestler Curtis Axel. Hennig held the AWA World Heavyweight Championship once (with his 373-day reign being the seventh-longest in history), and the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship once. A two-time WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion, Hennig was named by WWE as one of the top five champions of all time; he was the longest-reigning titleholder of the 1990s. In addition to winning multiple championships in WCW during the late 1990s, he was a member of the New World Order and leader of stable and country music group The West Texas Rednecks, who recorded the popular tongue-in-cheek song, "Rap is Crap". Hennig returned to the WWF for a brief period in 2002, being one of the last three men remaining at that year's Royal Rumble. He later challenged for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in TNA, prior to his death on February 10, 2003. WCW recognized Hennig as "one of the best all-round competitors this [wrestling] business has ever produced", while WWE credited him for raising the accepted standard of technical wrestling. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2007 by former Major League Baseball player and longtime friend Wade Boggs. Former rival Hulk Hogan remarked, "Everybody would check their egos at the door when they came to a building that Curt Hennig was in, because you couldn't out-work him, you couldn't outshine him and you couldn't out-perform him. He was the best of the best."