Bobby Heenan Once Made WWE Star Crawl Through Venue's Duct System

The late Bobby "The Brain" Heenan will go down as one of the all-time greats of professional wrestling. Whether it was as the legendary manager of the Heenan Family or the charismatic commentator alongside Gorilla Monsoon or later Tony Schiavone, "The Weasel" made more than his fair share of contributions to the business. But Heenan also lent his expertise behind the scenes, offering advice where he could to help other wrestlers improve their characters. 

During a recent episode of "Something to Wrestle," Bruce Prichard shared a story involving "The Brain" and the Brooklyn Brawler. When Steve Lombardi was first transitioning into his new persona, Prichard shared that it was the renowned manager's idea for the Brawler to look more disheveled and battle-tested. "So Bobby made him crawl through the duct system in the boiler room where all the engines [were]," said the former Brother Love. "Just grease and grime and filth and dirt all over the place. And Bobby had him crawl up along there to get dirty and have him roll in it."

However, while this was happening to create the Brawler's signature look, the building personnel in the arena took note of Lombardi crawling through the ducts and remembered this fact when Bad News Brown's sewer rats got loose. Blaming Brawler for the "infestation," Prichard claimed that the venue had to pay $3,000 in exterminating bills to get rid of the rats. As for who really let the rats out, the WWE executive says that former Intercontinental and Tag Team Champion Marty Jannetty was the real culprit. But without proper evidence, it was the Brooklyn Brawler who took the fall.