A good friend is hard to find, harder to leave and impossible to forget.

Wade Boggs forged a legacy for himself as a reliably consistent Major League Baseball hitter averaging a remarkably impressive career batting average of .328 spanned across 18 seasons. He was also a 12-time all-star and first-ballot MLB Hall of Famer in 2005.

The two athletes first crossed paths at a banquet dinner in Rochester, N.Y where they quickly realized how much they had in common, particularly their love of hunting. The following year, the two would become great friends even going down to the Florida Keys to fish and up to British Columbia on a moose hunt.

Naturally, since his moniker was Mr. Perfect, he always had to capture the biggest animal.

On-screen, the two would first appear together during one of the many memorable Mr. Perfect vignettes after Bobby Heenan reached out to Wade. Boggs would introduce the “Perfect Hitter” which saw Curt step up to the plate, point to the outfield and effortlessly knock the ball out of the park as Wade Boggs stood by and proudly proclaimed, “absolutely perfect!”

While many of the vignettes took multiple takes in order to achieve the end result, Wade noted Curt actually hit those home runs without any struggle, which undeniably impressed him.

While featured on The Life and Times of Mr. Perfect documentary, Wade Boggs went on to explain that Curt wasn’t just his dear friend, but also his guardian angel:

"I consider Curt my guardian angel because we were in Iowa deer hunting and we were making drives and one of the ranchers had asked us if we wanted to hunt together or hunt separately.

I said it's up to you, Curt. Whatever you decide.

He said, Boggsy, let's hunt together.

So, we took off walking and we walked about a half a mile, three-quarters of a mile and came to this barbwire fence. There was a little tree on the other side of the barbwire fence and handed Curt my gun. I tried to step over the barbwire fence and got entangled in it and I was upside down and I couldn't get out. Didn't know what happened, it happened so fast. I feel something running down my leg and I'm upside down with my feet up in the air and Curt's struggling to get the barbwire loose and finally he does. My legs come out and I told him I thought I broke my collar bone and there's something wrong with my leg, pulled up my pants and I'm wide open from my knee all the way down to my ankle.

I said, dude, it's a long way back to the truck.

He said, don't worry, I'll carry you.

He carried me about three-quarters of a mile. He gets me to the hospital and then the doctor said, it's a good thing he was there. He said you would have bled to death sitting on that fence because nobody would have found me and if he wasn't there, I wouldn't be here. It's tough."

An interesting piece of trivia is that Wade Boggs claimed to have formed a Wolfpac with the now-famous hand gesture, but Curt started using it with Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) which was then used by Kevin Nash and many others.

Tragically, Curt’s lifeless body would be discovered on the morning of February 10, 2003, in a hotel room located in Tampa, Florida which was the result of acute cocaine intoxication. Upon hearing the news from his wife, Wade nearly fell to the ground. Once Wade found out the circumstances of Curt’s death, he blamed himself.

“He was here in Tampa and to this day it haunts me that he didn’t call me. I feel a lot of it is my fault that had he called me, I would have possibly done something to help him out. I deal with that every day. It’s very difficult that I feel a portion of it is my fault.”

When Curt Hennig was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame back in 2007, it was Wade Boggs who received the call from Jerry Brisco to induct his friend while also introducing Curt’s family. Wade described it as very similar to the call he received for the Baseball Hall of Fame just a few years earlier along with a great honour that he still cherishes to this very day. With all the tears, the only thing missing was Curt, so Wade could shake his friend’s hand and congratulate him in person.

Boggs beamed with pride when interviewed by WWE.com:

"It's special for me to induct Curt. I know the weekend I had in Cooperstown, and I wish he was around to see his induction. He was so passionate towards sports entertainment and was a tremendous showman. It's so fitting.”

When describing Curt Hennig as a performer, Wade would note the following:

“He made his mark and he left a huge impression in an industry that needs showmen. They need the person that people want to go to an arena and want to be entertained by. Not only was he a showman, but he was an entertainer and he was a damn good entertainer.”

During a 2020 appearance on The Wrestling Inc Daily Podcast, Wade Boggs reflected on something everyone should know about Curt:

"Probably his selflessness. He would give you the shirt off his back with his generosity towards others. He could light up a room like nobody else and that was the neat thing. He had that infectious laugh and I miss him every day."

The comfort of having a friend may be taken away, but not that of having had one.