Peter Rosenberg says no one outranks Bobby Heenan in his mind.
Rosenberg recently appeared on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, where he named WWE Hall of Famer Bobby Heenan as his number one manager of all time. Rosenberg cautioned that he envisioned Paul Heyman shaming him for not saying his name, but explained that Heyman was much more than a manager.
“Paul is something different altogether. It’s not quite fair to Bobby to put Paul in the same category. Paul has become this thing that is so much bigger than manager. I mean, he’s not a manager, he’s an Oracle, he’s an Advocate, he’s a Wise Man. He’s all those things. But he specifically chose ‘I’m going to be bigger than manager,’ which he is. Obviously, behind the scenes in every way and ECW, his legacy is just unmatched.”
Rosenberg added that while Jimmy Hart deserves more credit for his work, Heenan remains the ultimate manager.
“But as far as managers go, oh yeah, it’s Bobby number one with a bullet. I mean, Jimmy is incredible too, by the way, and I absolutely adore Jimmy Hart, who sometimes can end up in the shadow when we have these conversations. But Jimmy was such a heat magnet also, and did so many things well. So I love Jimmy, but yeah, for me, Bobby was my guy.
Before Heenan’s passing, Rosenberg shared a heartfelt moment when he met him at WrestleCon.*
“He wasn’t communicative at the time. I know he received it, because I know that for him, his issue at that time was he just couldn’t communicate back. Obviously, his brain was fully intact. But I got a moment, and it was when I just started with the company to go up to him and just thank him for everything and tell him how much he affected my entire journey and how great that I thought that he was, and I ended up writing his obituary for ESPN.com.
“I just adored him. I didn’t know him, and I’m sure he was a handful in a million different ways. It certainly seems that way from a distance. But yeah, he was the man, dude, the talent put in that frame, he could have done so many things.”
WWE legend Bobby Heenan managed some of the biggest names in wrestling during his career. His list included Ric Flair, André the Giant, Mr. Perfect, Rick Rude, Haku, Harley Race and more.
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*(Rosenberg didn’t specify which event it was, but it was in Orlando on WrestleMania 33 weekend, where Heenan made one of his final public appearances before passing away in 2017.)
