The Life And Times Of Mr. Perfect

WWE released their new DVD recently and I thought it was okay. Not as good as some of their previous titles but definitely not their worst.

The Life and Times of Mr. Perfect documents the life and career of Curt Hennig who became a worldwide star from his first stint in WWF as Mr. Perfect.

The documentary explores Hennig's life as he was born a son of a wrestler. His Father, Larry Hennig, is interviewed throughout the feature and offers insight to how he was growing up.

They then discuss his rise to the AWA World championship which, at that time, was the third recognised World title in professional wrestling.

His jump to the WWF is then highlighted with comments from road agents, wrestlers and family members who were around him during this time.

The back injury he suffered which stalled his career on numerous occasions is glossed over but the positive that came from it was how he enjoyed his time as color commentator while he was on the proverbial bench.

The DVD also looks at his departure to WCW, his eventual return to the WWE and then his death after a cocaine overdose in 2003.

At the end of the DVD, they showed the Hennig family accepting Curt's place in the Hall of Fame from last year's WrestleMania weekend and then noted that Hennig's son is set to follow in his Father's footsteps.

There were a few things I noticed that the DVD either didn't mention or rewrote history in their storytelling.

The first thing of note was that Hennig's numerous returns to the WWE were not discussed.

As I mentioned earlier, he suffered the back injury in 1991 and then went to do commentary on the WWF telecasts. The DVD fails to acknowledge that Hennig returned to action in late-1992 as a babyface. He wrestled for a year but was then off with an injury. Hennig returned from that injury four or five months later at WrestleMania X where he was named as a special guest referee in the match between Lex Luger and Yokozuna. This bout resulted in Mr. Perfect costing Luger the match thus turning heel. It was meant to lead to a feud between the two but Hennig ended up either fired or quitting the company after he demanded a pay rise.Hennig was missing from wrestling for another twenty months before he returned to the WWF as a color commentator. A job that lasted a year.

The jump to WCW was also inaccurately portrayed in the DVD.

Hennig's back injury enabled him to be paid out on a Lloyd of London insurance policy he had taken. So, he was getting paid because he was not active in the ring. From what I seem to recall from back in 1996, Vince McMahon informed Lloyds of London that Hennig may be returning to action and this prompted the insurers to revoke the policy. Hennig, angry at what McMahon had done, left the WWF and joined WCW.

That was the true story of his jump to Ted Turner's wrestling company. The people interviewed on the DVD claimed it was because he was offered a better deal. Sure, he was getting a good contract to jump ship but the real story was he felt cheated by his employers and went elsewhere.

The collection also includes matches from the AWA, WWE and WCW as well as the vignettes they played on WWF TV back in the 80's when they were introducing him to the viewers.

Like I said earlier, it's a good collection but isn't one of WWE's best offerings.