Bobby the Brain: Wrestling's Bad Boy Tells All

Author, Ghost Writer, Editor: Bobby Heenan, Steve Anderson
Publisher: Triumph Publishing
Released: 9/02

The Good
Hilarious in parts, kind of funny in others, dull in other areas. Heenan's career is condensed greatly and he mostly delivers humourous little stories and puts them in some sort of order it seems. There are some great ones about ribs, wrestlers being dumb, wrestlers being funny and so on. The more serious parts are nice and his humor makes them more interesting than the typical rambling childhood/parenthood/family stories.

The Bad
This is light read and a fun one...that's all. Anyone can do this in an afternoon and not get much out of it other than a few laughs. Heenan doesn't give much insight aside from how he thinks things are flawed nowerdays, which is more being out-of-touch than being insightful. Everything is so here and there that it's hard to say any number of things add up to equal a sound argument. The WCW stuff could've been better as he'll say they did this and that and it's so stupid, but doesn't always provide an alternative. This guy KNOWS wrestling, he knows how to work a match and even better how to work the crowd, but you'd not get all that from this all too short story.

The Rating: ***

Jimmy Valiant Shoot Interview [Highspots]

The Good
Jimmy Valiant is generally a good interview if you like his persona, his little catchphrases and understand that he tends to kayfabe.  He has led an interesting career spanning an amazing time frame and has been on top in some of the most noteworthy markets in the US.  All of this makes great fodder for a great interview.  I've heard him due interviews, usually radio shows, half a dozen times or so and he's never shocked me.  This shocked me.  He seemed to be out-of-character (as much as he probably is in real life) and was very honest about everything.  He is upbeat about everything from his career to modern pro-wrestling to his life in general, which is always nice to hear from a retired pro-wrestler.  While he's not the best talker (in contrast to his promos), Jimmy Valiant shows fascinating insight into how he created, developed and adapted his persona over the years.  Whether it was "Handsome" Jimmy, the arrogant bleach-blond heel, or the "Boogie Woogie Man," the kissin', huggin', dancin' bearded babyface, Jimmy Valiant understood how to be different, how to stand out and ultimately - how to get over!  If you clip those parts out, this is golden.

The Bad
I'll be honest, I've never cared for Jimmy Valiant.  His in-ring work, his promos, his whole presentation, it's never been my thing.  That aside, I respect the contributions he has made and have no desire to rip on him.  He was/is a great talker, he had a lot of catchphrases and integrated them to the delight of fans (much like the Rock, whose promos I generally don't care for).  That being said, when he's talking like a regular person, he seems to trip over his words and says "ya know" more than Dave Meltzer interviewing Lance Storm.  Overall, Valiant's happy-go-lucky approach plays well, but it seems like there is another side to his experiences that might be going unsaid.  If his book reads like this...well, hopefully it doesn't.

The Rating: ***3/4