If not Mr. Fuji, then who?

[BigBadMick]

Cool, I was wondering how you got all those US releases.

 

Silver Vision were fairly skimpy with the 80s, only really releasing the PPVs and Hogan/Warrior tapes and a few others IIRC. I wondered what was wrong with Rumble 88 - I knew it existed and that Bret was in for ages but it was nowhere to be found on tape here.

[KrisZ]

So I'm reading some stuff and Sheik Adnan was trying to get into WWF during a sabbatical from AWA in late 1985 and there were plans to bring him in as Blassie's replacement....that would've been a hoot

[JerryvonKramer]

Cool, I was wondering how you got all those US releases.

 

Silver Vision were fairly skimpy with the 80s, only really releasing the PPVs and Hogan/Warrior tapes and a few others IIRC. I wondered what was wrong with Rumble 88 - I knew it existed and that Bret was in for ages but it was nowhere to be found on tape here.

I got Rumble 88 on VCD from a bootlegger and it was both a revelation and a profound disappointment. I also had a tremendous DiBiase in the WWF comp on 5 VCDs from that same guy and can't for the life of me find it. About as complete a documentation of the Million Dollar Man as money could buy.

[mookeighana]

I think it's worth noting that the awards are voted on so it's not just Dave's pick.

For additional context, here's the runner-ups each year.

(from https://sites.google.com/site/chrisharrington/mookieghana-prowrestlingstatistics/wo_awards_history)

 

1984 - Meltzer's pick: Mr. Fuji; my pick: Arnold Skaaland, who was essentially useless.

1984 MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Jimmy Hart

 

1985 - Meltzer's pick: Mr. Fuji; my pick: Paul Jones, sorry Johnny, he fucking sucked

1985 MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Jim Cornette

Worst Match of the Year: Fred Blassie vs Lou Albano (Nassau Coliseum)

 

1986 - Meltzer's pick: Paul Jones; my pick: Paul Jones

In 1986, they had a best/worst Valet category.

 

1986 BEST VALET

1. Missy Hyatt

2. Precious

3. Baby Doll

4. Elizabeth

5. Dark Journey

 

1986 WORST VALET

1. Elizabeth

2. Sunshine

3. Brenda Britton

4. Dark Journey

5. Raven Rood

 

1986 MANAGER OF THE YEAR

1. Jim Cornette

2. Bobby Heenan

3. Jimmy Hart

4. Percy Pringle (Paul Bearer)

5. J.J.Dillon

 

1986 WORST MANAGER

1. Paul Jones

2. Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissie / Mr.Fuji

4. Slick

5. Lou Albano / The Wizard

 

1987 - Meltzer's pick: Mr. Fuji; my pick: Paul Ellering, I've said it before, he brought nothing to the table, even allowing for his participation in War Games matches. He was good for that one line from Hawk, but a piece of wood could have done the same job.

1987 MANAGER OF THE YEAR

1. Jim Cornette

2. Paul E. Dangerously

3. Bobby Heenan

4. J.J.Dillon

5. Dallas Page

 

1987 WORST MANAGER

1. Mr.Fuji

2. Paul Jones

3. Sir Oliver Humperdink

4. Abdual Wizal / Percy Pringle (Paul Bearer) / Skandor Akbar / Bobby Heenan / Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissie

 

1988 - Meltzer's pick: Mr. Fuji; my pick: Oliver Humperdink, completely worthless, completely.

1988 MANAGER OF THE YEAR

1. Jim Cornette

2. Paul E. Dangerously

3. Bobby Heenan

4. J.J.Dillon

5. Dallas Page

(Was it seriously the same results as 1987 or did something get transcribed askew?)

 

1988 WORST MANAGER

1. Mr.Fuji

2. Paul Jones

3. Oliver Humperdink

4. Abdual Wizal

5. Frenchy Martin

 

1989 - Meltzer's pick: Mr. Fuji; my pick: Gary Hart - strong competition from Hiro Matsuda here, but I've gone over the whole J-Tex corporation mess before, Hart was a real mess on his promos, and served to complicate the situation rather than clarify it with promos that made it feel like time had passed him by. Basically terrible.

1989 MANAGER OF THE YEAR

1. Jim Cornette

2. Bobby Heenan

3. Paul E. Dangerously

4. Sensational Sherri

5. Theodore R. Long

 

1989 WORST MANAGER

1. Mr Fuji

2. Gary Hart

2. Sir Oliver Humperdink

4. Samuel F. Kent

4. Abdul Wizal

 

1990 - Meltzer's pick: Mr. Fuji; my pick: Oliver Humperdink, he crops up briefly in WCW managing Bam Bam Bigelow, still as a face, still completely and utterly worthless.

1990 MANAGER OF THE YEAR

1. Jim Cornette

2. Bobby Heenan

3. Sensational Queen Sherri

4. Theodore R. Long

5. Paul E. Dangerously

 

1990 WORST MANAGER

1. Mr Fuji

2. General Adnan (Sheik Adnan)

3. Slick

4. Jimmy Hart

5. Little Richard Marley

 

1991 - Meltzer's pick: Mr. Fuji; my pick: Big Daddy Dink aka Oliver Humperdink, repackaged as a fat biker groupie, and with "god gawd" DDP to cut promos for him, Dink was the 5th wheel in the incredibly uncool Freebirds entourage.

1991 MANAGER OF THE YEAR

1. Sensational Sherri

2. Paul Bearer

3. Paul E.Dangerously

4. Bobby Heenan

5. Jim Cornette

 

 

1991 WORST MANAGER

1. Mr.Fuji

2. Coach (John Tolos)

3. Slick

4. General Adnan (Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissie)

5. Jimmy Hart

 

 

1992 - Meltzer's pick: Mr. Fuji; my pick: Paul Ellering ... 1992 was a strange time for Fuji, he was transitioning to the robes and managing Yokozuna but still had hair and remnants of his old identity, such as the cane. He was floating around not really doing much, managing Orient Express at the start of the year, and maybe Berzerker, before kinda disappearing until Yoko's debut. I think he wasn't exactly bringing much to the table in 92. However, nothing can beat Paul Ellering with a puppet. I hate Ellering.

1992 MANAGER OF THE YEAR

1. Jim Cornette

2. Paul E.Dangerously

3. Ron Wright

4. Madusa

5. Sensational Sherri

 

1992 WORST MANAGER

1. Mr.Fuji

2. Dr.Harvey Whippleman

3. The Genius (Lanny Poffo)

4. Gary Hart

5. Sebastian

 

 

1993 - Meltzer's pick: Mr. Fuji; my pick: Sir William ... I can hear the howls and the boos from the Memphis fans, but that accent is fucking ridiculous, worse than Dick Van Dyke. Very difficult for me to get past, even if Regal is a ton of fun in 93.

1993 MANAGER OF THE YEAR

1. Jim Cornette

2. Tammy Fytch (Sunny)

3. Ron Wright

4. Paul E.Dangerously

5. Harley Race

 

1993 WORST MANAGER

1. Mr.Fuji

2. Harvey Whippleman

3. Paul Bearer

4. Missy Hyatt

5. Col. Robert Parker (Robert Fuller)

 

 

1994 - Meltzer's pick: Mr. Fuji; my pick: Ted DiBiase, so much of the card was built around his awful stable, and so much of the stuff he was involved with stank. At least you can say the stuff Fuji was doing with Yoko was over and / or effective, especially in the early part of the year. Million Dollar Corporation was very poor.

1994 MANAGER OF THE YEAR

1. JIM CORNETTE (254) 1,776

2. Paul E. Dangerously (159) 1,140

3. Sensuous Sherri (64) 703

4. Tammy Fytch (26) 634

5. Ted DiBiase (24) 361

6. Woman 185

7. Harley Race 166

8. Jason 133

9. Col. Rob Parker 76

 

1994 WORST MANAGER

1. MR. FUJI 226

2. Harvey Whippleman 82

3. Col. Rob Parker 45

4. Jimmy Hart 42

5. Hunter Q. Robbins III 25

6. Oscar 24

7. Sensuous Sherri 21

8. Lou Albano 17

9. Harley Race 12

 

 

1995 - Meltzer's pick: Mr. Fuji; my pick: The Task Master, Kevin Sullivan, don't know if it's a cheat picking Sullivan but honestly I can't remember Fuji much in 95, and seem to recall an awful lot of Dungeon of Doom awfulness, so him.

1995 MANAGER OF THE YEAR

1. JIM CORNETTE (302)1,985

2. Paul E. Dangerously (79)771

3. Brandon Baxter (52)672

4. Woman (49)618

5. Sunny (36)432

6. Sister Sherri (8)314

7. Ted DiBiase (12)280

8. Rob Parker (11)122

9. Jimmy Hart (7)78

10. Stevie Richards (10)74

 

1995 WORST MANAGER

1. MR. FUJI247

2. Sonny Onno75

3. Harvey Whippleman69

4. Jimmy Hart56

5. Rob Parker47

6. Kevin Sullivan22

7. Shinja7

8. Paul Bearer6

[ohtani's jacket]

WON readers really liked Mr. Fuji.

[Al]

Re: The Devious One. I think the backstage ribbing is behind it. But from a character standpoint, Fuji always struck me as the one most willing to outright maim an opponent. Bobby Heenan and Jimmy Hart would cheat, but they had some scruples. Fuji was the person who would beat his charges to make them go harder.

[Goodear]

Regarding the four managers of note at the time:

 

Fuji was the sadist who would always pressed his charges to deliver punishment as we've already discussed.

 

Heenan had two main types of guys. Mindless thugs like Barbarian or Haku who would be blockers for his main charges and his main guys who were a form of wish fulfillment for the Brain. Bobby would want to be like (for example) sexy like Rick Rude and would be a key instigator in the prematch kissing ceremony. You get the sense that Bobby would be like these members of the Family if he had the body to match his brains.

 

Hart tended towards oddballs like The Honky Tonk Man or The Mountie. Guys who would never really be accepted by the mainstream as anything other than deviants despite their success or how much they wished for accolades.

 

Slick was an expression of black power as he reigned over a biker "turned African" and a prison guard/cop. Subverting cultural norms and putting the majority of the audience on edge.

[Blazer]

So I'm reading some stuff and Sheik Adnan was trying to get into WWF during a sabbatical from AWA in late 1985 and there were plans to bring him in as Blassie's replacement....that would've been a hoot

 

Fascinating. Could have worked. Where did you see that? An old observer?

[KrisZ]

Going through old sources for results yeah.

[C.S.]

So I'm reading some stuff and Sheik Adnan was trying to get into WWF during a sabbatical from AWA in late 1985 and there were plans to bring him in as Blassie's replacement....that would've been a hoot

 

Would it have been though? He didn't exactly light the wrestling world on fire when he eventually did join the WWE in late 1990 as General Adnan. I can't imagine that the WWE's approach to his character would have been radically different only five years earlier.

[cm funk]

I really like Paul Jones in the early-mid 80's and will never understand the hate he gets. To me he's a perfect midcard heel manager. Kind of buffoonish and over the top, but he's a guy I find it easy to "love to hate". The Paul Jones' Army feud with Johnny Valiant was great stuff, imo

 

To me Oliver Humperdink is an easy choice here. I never liked anything he did in 80's WWF or later his WCW stuff. To be fair, I haven't seen a lot of his Florida stuff which is what is most highly praised by people, and what I've seen is far better than the later stuff. And he's praised by a lot of people, like Moody and Sullivan, who I generally trust opinion wise, so I'll cut him some slack, but as a kid I just thought he was terrible. I remember when Bam Bam showed up in WWF for the first time and they did that bidding war for his services and even as a young kid I could not believe that Bam Bam would go with a loser like him when guys like Heenan and Freddie Blassie were right there

 

I actually liked Fuji too. In kayfabe he wasn't an objectively good manager, but I really liked his character. I thought he was really effective managing Yokozuna as well, and really added to the overall presentation of that character. Fuji cutting broken english promos and laughing maniacally while Yoko just stood there breathing heavily and looking massive and menacing.....I thought that pairing really worked well. I loved when they brought in Cornette as their "American Spokesperson" too

 

I never thought Whippleman was very good, but it was more because they paired him with monster characters when he seemed like such a comical jokey heel manager. Those pairings in the WWF in the early 90's never worked for me, because it was guys that you should be taking as serious threats, and their manager is a joke. I liked him a lot more when he was paired with guys who were losers, or the comedy stuff with Bertha Faye and The Fink. Maybe "Downtown Bruno" worked better in Memphis, but on the big stage he was just way too cartoonish to me to be managing a Giant Gonzalez or a Mr. Hughes or an Adam Bomb who they were pushing like they were serious monsters

 

Also, I loved "Sir William" and this was as a kid not having seen any of him as Bill Dundee at the time. I just thought that act with him and Regal was so great. Sir William was such an annoying troll.....and he wasn't a manager.....he was Regal's "butler" and manservant lol

 

As far as other managers I just thought sucked.....John Tolos leaps to mind. Skalland was awful. Johnny Valiant never did anything for me. Moving out of the 80's....ECW had a ton of shitty manager types, but most of them were entertaining on some level. As an example....Jack Victory and Jason "the world's sexiest man" did nothing of note as managers, but they were perfect as stooges, and were entertaining as these lame hanger-on guys who were perpetual fuckups but the guys they were with kept them around seemingly only to eat offense and run shitty interference. ECW had a lot of characters like that who were objectively useless in kayfabe, but added some comic relief to the proceedings. I think we've all had useless friends who we hang around with because they are loveable fuckups who might actually stumble into being useful at points

[KrisZ]

 

So I'm reading some stuff and Sheik Adnan was trying to get into WWF during a sabbatical from AWA in late 1985 and there were plans to bring him in as Blassie's replacement....that would've been a hoot

 

Would it have been though? He didn't exactly light the wrestling world on fire when he eventually did join the WWE in late 1990 as General Adnan. I can't imagine that the WWE's approach to his character would have been radically different only five years earlier.

 

There was no Gulf War in 1985 so him as his AWA persona in WWF managing Sheiky & Volkoff would've been funny

[Al]

I always thought Whippleman's role was to make the monster heel look bigger by comparison.

[C.S.]

As far as other managers I just thought sucked.....John Tolos leaps to mind.

 

Did Tolos do any managing outside of his wretched "Coach" persona? If not, it might be unfair to judge him on 2-3 months of work for something he had never done before, while being saddled with a crappy gimmick to boot. Plus, he replaced Bobby Heenan - which is about the worst, most thankless spot you can get, because who could've possibly followed "The Brain"?

[Mr. Lacelle]

He managed Cactus Jack & Bob Orton in Herb Abrams' UWF, the wrestling magazines at the time were pimping him pretty heavily.

[ButchReedMark]

His commentary in UWF was his best contribution. Especially his use of "SUPER DUPER" for everything.

 

UWF managers sucked lots of dick though. I've already mentioned Colonel Red, but Kevin Casey and Zoogz Rift were also absolutely terrible.