Book Review - "Bobby The Brain: Wrestling's Bad Boy Tells All"

I don't know what took me so long to buy this book. I guess, skimming it over in bookstores the past two years or so, I thought it sounded okay but certainly not tremendous. It finally came down to the fact that my Indigo (basically the only chain bookstore left in Canada) card was expiring next month and I needed to use it quickly to get my 10 % discount. A very Heenan-esque cheapskate manuever ("I left my wallet in my other pair of pants"), if I do say so myself. But how foolish I was to select Jimmy Hart's piece-of-crap book over this one; it's easily ten times more logical, well-written and most of all, funnier.

There's a natural inclination to compare the two books because they were both managers during wrestling's golden era who are no longer in the business on a day-to-day basis. But let me reiterate: there is no comparison between these two. Much like in his wrestling career: Heenan is gold.

What distinguises this from the dozen-plus wrestling bios I've read? Quite honestly, Heenan (and his writer, former PWI guy Steve Anderson) sticks to the facts. He doesn't make up b.s. about how ratings shot up and attendance surged whenever he was on the card. He doesn't take credit for keeping the WWF afloat. And he certainly doesn't knock everyone from his past, although he certainly could have. In fact, this may be the most modest of all the wrestling biographies out there: Heenan is humble, and you have to admire him for that. Especially when you consider the character he plays on television -- one who is decidedly NOT humble.

I also like that the book is well-organized. Unlike Hart's or Piper's, he doesn't jump all over the place with dates and other concepts. Sure, some of it is presented out of chronological order, but it serves a purpose. Also worth mentioning -- some of the road stories are funny as hell.

I'd probably rank this behind maybe the autobios of Foley, Flair, Dynamite Kid and Lawler -- but that still puts him far ahead of numerous others. I certainly want to seek out his "Chair Shots" sequel book now, whenever I see it on sale in Canada.

Once I finished reading the book today (and at 160-odd pages, it is a short read), I had to view his speech again from last year's WWE Hall of Fame DVD. He was priceless; even though the guy clearly had lots of trouble speaking, he had the entire audience in stitches for a good 20 plus minutes. Another video I'd highly recommend by the way...

In conclusion, this is one of those books I'd definitely recommend picking up.