Top 10 Managers Ever in your view

[khawk20]

Heenan I'm basing solely on WWF stuff, and could go a little higher as I see more AWA.

You will. His AWA stuff was amazing.

 

Apparently his stuff before that in Bruiser's WWA was even better but there isn't much footage to check out on it. The Chicago guys swear it was his best stuff.

[El-P]

For the rest of my top 10 i'd go with non standard choices and for sure have Go Ito for his work with Team No Respect in FMW and Police for his work as Mayumi Oazaki's second in GAEA/OZ Academy in thear. Great sleazy, weasly, cheating heels.

Why am I not surprised. Actually, I think Go Ito, if he had a longer career in this role, could be put in the top 10 easily. I didn't understand his promos but he got the message across. And he was quite great in his role. Not to mention he was a great referee too.

Police. Well, you know my feelings about GAEA. Oz is such a queen, she doesn't need a stupid second. It detracted from her matches to me. I love JWP Oz so much better.

 

Sunny just didn't do enough. Her years in WWF peaked with the Phineas Godwinn promo ending with the slopping. That's pretty sad for such a great talent.

[Dylan Waco]

Actually I did like Sunny a good bit as a manager in SMW and at times in the WWF

[FLIK]

Not to mention he was a great referee too.

And booker

Really underrated guy in the history of puro with him being assistant booker during the Onita years and head booker until late 98 plus a really good post FMW run putting shows together circa 02/03 until up to a couple years ago.

[rzombie1988]

There are people who like Jimmy Hart and people who don't, same with Gary Hart.

What about the old WWWF's "Triumvirate of Terror" (Blassie, Albano, Grand Wizard)?

How do they rate?

- I liked the trio and thought they were great but Blassie's schtick just never really appealed to me like the other two. I thought he was pretty funny especially with Volkoff and the Sheik.

 

Do you rate Vince and Shane as "managers", or Bischoff?

- I don't rank them as such. Shane kind of was for a little if I remember, but even in kayfabe, they weren't managers.

 

Was Meltzer right to rag on Mr. Fuji for all those years?

- Fuji was pretty over. I don't think he provided alot for the guys he managed aside from one good promo with Haku/Barbarian though. Fuji's schtick mostly involves him. The cane was memorable and I always bought into him as being sneaky as a kid.

 

What about Slick?

- Slick cut some pretty good promo's, but he never really stuck out. Much like Akeem, he was more of a comedian than anything.

 

Do we count women and if so is Sherri top 10, or Liz for that matter?

- Sherri should be top 10 and Liz would make a pretty good case for it, though she drifts more into valet territory.

 

What about manager runs people seldom talk about? Race in WCW,

- I really liked Race's run in WCW, but he was always overshadowed by the guys he managed. I did enjoy the usual bump or two he'd take.

 

Perfect as Flair's "Executive Consultant" in 92

- He really got beat by Heenan on this one.

 

Teddy Long as manager of Doom

- Teddy and Doom were alot of fun. Teddy had some pretty funny lines and played his role really well. HOMIE DONT PLAY DAT. Loved the doo-rags and the one segment he had where he was playing around on Ric Flair's yacht. He really fell though in later years as a manager. He didn't look like Teddy and he certainly didn't act like Teddy used to. On a side note, Doom shouldn't have broken up.

 

Bruce Pritchard as Brother Love,

- There is no one I find more annoying than Brother Love. Instant channel changer.

 

Lanny Poffo as The Genius

- He did pretty good but it's still Lanny Poffo and I can't take him seriously.

 

Harvey Wippleman

- I never got into him. He seemed like a really strange fit with Sid and with the WWF period. I don't see the appeal.

 

Paul E. Dangerously in WCW

- Top 10 for sure. Owned it in Memphis, WCW and WWE.

 

Paul Ellering in general

- Definitely not a top 10 for me. He was always just there to me.

 

Also, add Ox Baker somewhere near my list. I could listen to the Ox talk all day. He was the best thing AWA had before they closed.

[Loss]

I don't think Vince counts as a manager, if only because he didn't accompany Corporation guys to ringside as a rule.

[FLIK]

Do we count women and if so is Sherri top 10, or Liz for that matter?

- Sherri should be top 10 and Liz would make a pretty good case for it, though she drifts more into valet territory.

On that note, I don't think she's top 10 at all but Missy Hyatt's atleast worth a mention as well.

 

Do you rate Vince and Shane as "managers", or Bischoff?

- I don't rank them as such. Shane kind of was for a little if I remember, but even in kayfabe, they weren't managers.

It's weird to think, if they came a few years later guys like Bobby Heenan prob would have been slotted as heel commisioners rather then heel managers. More or less that's what the role has evolved into as far as modern, main stream US wrestling goes.

[El-P]

Not to mention he was a great referee too.

And booker

Really underrated guy in the history of puro with him being assistant booker during the Onita years and head booker until late 98 plus a really good post FMW run putting shows together circa 02/03 until up to a couple years ago.

 

Yep. Go Ito was the Man.

 

On the subject of "Managers that I don't quite get", Paul Ellering gets the cake. What exactly did he brought to the Road Warriors ? I know he was their real life manager, but seriously, what did he brought to the table ? They didn't need him for interviews, he was a shitty worker (compare him to what Bobby Heenan or Jim Cornette could do in term of bumping)... Why was he needed ?

 

Rewatching NWA 1989, I thought Gary Hart was still excellent on promos then.

[El-P]

Do we count women and if so is Sherri top 10, or Liz for that matter?

- Sherri should be top 10 and Liz would make a pretty good case for it, though she drifts more into valet territory.

On that note, I don't think she's top 10 at all but Missy Hyatt's atleast worth a mention as well.

 

Can't believe I forgot Missy, but I don't know, she was fun as a TV character, but didn't leave a mark on me as a manager that much. Really, everything she did after Mid-South was un-noticeable (and she said it herself on interviews, she wanted to do broadcasting and hosting shows, she wasn't interested in managing anymore in the 90's). The über slutty Missy with Sandman was fun, but it was a drop of quality after the awesome pairing with Woman I thought. It was too slutty and there was no contrast with the dirtyness of the Sandman.

[FLIK]

Not sure if it'd hold up or not but at the time I liked her short run with the Nasty Boys.

[Al]

Heenan is my absolute #1. Garnered so much heat in the AWA that he really only had to wrestle once a year. And fans would jam the building to watch him get his comeuppance. Cornette/Sherri/Jimmy Hart had great runs of five years or so. Heenan had about 15 great years as a manager.

 

What about territory era managers? Red Berry is in the Observer Hall. Crybaby George Cannon comes to mind as well.

[Strummer]

Missy being in "no condition to perform" really hurt her ECW run. I guess I didn't notice that stuff back then but she's completely out of it most of the time, especially during the Pulp Fiction closing segments she was in

[Mad Dog]

There's not a ton of footage of Red Berry's peak with the Fabulous Kangaroos so it's really hard to judge.

[PeteF3]

Other pre-'80s guys besides Berry who seem most qualified: Dr. Ken Ramey, Saul Weingeroff (deserves special recognition for the sheer audacity of a stereotypical Jew managing two Nazis in the Von Brauners), Prof. Boris Malenko, Sam Bass, J.C. Dykes, and Bobby Davis.

 

And Bobby's year-long stint in Georgia shouldn't be overlooked, either. I admit he was kind of a weird fit for the territory but it was a fresh new setting for him at a time when he needed one.

[cm funk]

My personal favorites are Bobby Heenan, Paul E. Dangerously (in WCW, ECW or w/ Brock in WWE), Sherri Martel, Col. Robert Parker and Skandor Akbar. Jim Cornette and Jimmy Hart are really great and belong on any top manager list, as do Gary Hart, Grand Wizard, Freddie Blassie and Lou Albano. Paul Bearer and Mr. Fuji were great as gimmicky managers who were well suited to a particular character. My first real exposure to Harley Race (I was pretty young when he had his King run in the WWF) was as a manager and I thought he was really great too, especially with Vader. I liked Tammy Sytch a lot in Smokey Mt, but the Sunny character really never hit the mark as well as it should have, probably just due to a lack of good material and guidance.

 

Some modern indie guys I really liked were Prince Nana, Julius Smokes, Ultramantis Black and Larry Sweeney. Jim Mitchell was good in his ECW and TNA runs too.

 

I haven't seen enough of Paul Jones, just random stuff on youtube, but he seems really good.

[cm funk]

Oh, and I can't forget the Manager of Champions, Bill Alphonso!!

[sek69]

When I think of Paul Jones, I think of a guy who's stable was largely second tier guys. Other than Rude and Fernandez his guys were always on the US tag/Mid Atlantic/Six man championship level. Plus watching NWA tv, he frequently loses his place and/or stumbles in his promos. It's even more obvious when watching the promos between the Powers of Pain and the Road Warriors. Ellering didn't do much in terms of traditional managing, but he was excellent when he would sum up Hawk and Animal's promos (which at times, they needed someone to do for them). Then Jones comes out in his goofy ass 70s cowboy gear and mush mouths his way through another interview.

 

Ironically, I think the WWWF trio probably suffers from less footage available. Most people today remember Blassie as the old guy the WWF would trot out and Albano as either Mario from Saturday Morning TV or the sloppy fat guy who did those funny skits on TNT. The Wizard died right before the big boom and hardly ever gets mentioned anymore in official WWE canon, so he's almost forgotten by everyone who didn't grow up watching 70s WWWF TV. Albano would probably be a solid #2 behind Heenan all time when it comes to being a guy who could get people to pay to see him get his ass beat. The main difference I noticed is that Bobby usually would get his ass beat and bump like a superball for the babyface, while Albano would usually do his "take one bump, juice, and bail" routine when it came time for the payoff. I thought people would figure it out that he always seems to escape, but it seemed to work every time they did it until they turned him face. Most of their best work is locked in the basement somewhere in Titan Towers. They just started running WWWF Championship Wrestling on WWE On Demand so hopefully we'll see some of the masters at work before they close it down for the Titanic Channel (aka WWE Network).

[Death From Above]

I really need to watch some non WWF/WCW Jimmy Hart at some point, because he always struck me as a totally useless buffoon there even when I was a kid. Having seen mostly just that, he never did anything for me at all. But the (very) little I've seen from Memphis was quite different and looked really promising.

[Johnny Sorrow]

Paul Jones was a great manager because he only managed mid card guys. All to feud with Jimmy Valiant. Jones' Army existed only to fuck with Valiant, or to occasionally feud with a member who left the Army, ala Superstar Billy Graham.

He then managed the greatest tag team of all time, Rude and Fernandez, but by then he was just a guy in a fabulous suit, and not the focus.

[GSR]

I really need to watch some non WWF/WCW Jimmy Hart at some point, because he always struck me as a totally useless buffoon there even when I was a kid. Having seen mostly just that, he never did anything for me at all. But the (very) little I've seen from Memphis was quite different and looked really promising.

Search out the 1980 Memphis TV set; the guy pretty much carried the territory in the wake of Lawler getting injured and being out most of the year. So much of the stuff would revolve around him.

[rzombie1988]

I also forgot George Cannon and Dr Jerry Graham Jr. Graham had a try out with WWF but it didn't work out.

[Al]

Here's a McMahon interview with Fred Blassie and Stan Hansen.

 

 

Hansen is effective in getting his character over but he's stumbling a bit. Fred Blassie gets him on point, getting Hansen on point to build towards a big match.

[Matt D]

My big problem with Hart in Memphis, and it's not a huge one as it was effective, but he REALLY put himself over the talent. Now, in part, he had to because a lot of .. I mean, look, I like Dream Machine as much as the next guy but I'm going to spend money to see Hart get it more than I'll spend it to see Dream Machine get it.

 

But it's more than that. At least early on, Hart was always in the thick of things in matches. He really imposed himself physically in a way you'd expect Harley Race to do, maybe, but not a guy like Jimmy Hart. That might have been part of why he was so over, to be honest, because he was so often right in the middle of the brawls and on a visceral level seeing a scrawny loudmouth do that is infuriating, but it's always a little offputting to me.

[FLIK]

Albano would probably be a solid #2 behind Heenan all time when it comes to being a guy who could get people to pay to see him get his ass beat. The main difference I noticed is that Bobby usually would get his ass beat and bump like a superball for the babyface, while Albano would usually do his "take one bump, juice, and bail" routine when it came time for the payoff.

The very little i've seen of Heenan as an actual wrestler he was actually quite good. Never saw Albano in ring but i've always heard he kinda sucked.

 

I'll use this as an excuse to post a link to Lord Alfred Hayes vs Bobby Heenan from AWA, awesome match that everyone should see if you haaven't allready. For what's billed as a "battle of the managers" they look better then all but the top tier talent around.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKASakc7_zY

[jdw]

I thought Jones was a horrid manager when I started watching him in 1986. It didn't help that he had Corny and JJ as manager to compare with along with a number of other guys who could talk their asses off (Flair, Arn, Dusty even if I hated Dusty on the mic back then). But... Jones was terrible. Sek nails is: mush mouth, loses his place and/or stumbles in his promos.

 

I wonder if he was good on the mic as a wrestler to have been pushed as long and hard in Mid Atlantic as he was... or if he's one of those oddball local guys who just happened to be pushed.

 

John