The Managers
Chapter One: Bring Back the Managers - One 50+ Year Fan’s Opinion
#PWHS #Article #BringBack #Managers
Fans of present day "Professional Entertainment Wrestling" are missing a treasure I saw week-in and week-out during my initial introduction to the exciting sport of Professional Wrestling. In my territory during the 60s and later, an integral part of the scripted plot included the charismatic, verbally-gifted character I remember as the manager of a tag team. Being raised on Jim Crockett Promotional wrestling is the main criteria why my description specified “tag team manager”. JCP was known world-wide as where tag teams were emphasized and local Single Champions were secondary to putting butts in the seats. This niche would prove to be profitable to Jim Crockett Sr, and even to his son until George Scott took over.
As I grew older, I would learn a manager could also manage a single wrestler or surround himself with a “Family”, or “Army”, or “Clique”, or “Stable”, or even “An Alliance”. Managers would come from a history of being a former ref, or a heel with more skills verbally than athletically, or a love for the business to the point of even sacrificing his body nightly to give the fans their money’s worth. One reason I would look forward to 17:00 on Saturday afternoons was to watch, yes, Good triumphing over Evil; but I did not realize until many years later it was because the Evil portrayed their role so excellently.
Usually the Evil character was accompanied by a charismatic troublemaker that made you want to choke, or at least see him receive some bodily punishment for causing my heroes to lose, or even be injured for awhile (little did I know my hero was wrestling in another territory as a favor from one promoter to another, or even vacationing in beautiful Florida or tropical Hawaii). As a mark, even as a pre-teen, I definitely saw the manager and his team as Earthly Evil that someone needed to be corrected, and physical retribution was totally acceptable, and preferred. I somehow felt the world would be a better place if the specific manager and his team were eradicated. Rarely did I ever stop to think how bored I probably would become if every match were between just the scientific wrestlers. What could a manager actually bring to a promotion that would be worthy of a paycheck, and sometimes a great paycheck? Consider this:
1. Foreign wrestlers could have a mouthpiece that could make them more villainous than what our personal prejudices had caused us to perceive already.
2. Familiar wrestlers could put on a mask and not worry about disguising their voice.
3. 2 good workers with weak microphone skills could become a feared main event team.
4. A manager brings so many variations to a match’s storyline, and most definitely to the outcome. It was fun to see how many ways a manager could interfere or distract the ref so his team could get the advantage. Depending on a manager’s hidden arsenal, his team could win with a object (like a canteen, or cane), get a hidden object to his wrestler when the ref would be distracted (like brass knucks or maybe heavy metal to be inserted in a mask). A manager would be there to throw the opponent’s foot off the ropes so his team would not be defeated. The possibilities are limited only by the booker and the feedback of ideas by the manager.
While I was watching a manager and his team, I immediately recognize there is a three on two advantage to the BAD guys. Add other possible stable members and the odds were tilted even more in the BAD guys’ favor. In the earlier days of wrestling, the lines between Scientific and Evil were much more defined and the above sentence was one of the main reasons why. The fans were almost compelled to root for the underdogs as our conscience said “it was the right thing to do”. My rare feelings of liking the charisma of Rip Hawk (the first bad guy I liked), or the slick-skilled verbal techniques of a southern JC Dykes (or even the Chicago playboy character Gary Hart), would be quickly replaced by my upbringing that said cheating was wrong no matter how tempting the package looked. It was rough growing up and facing the difficult questions of life lol.
Much later, I would find out that some managers actually lived their life as a true manager; taking care of finances, making contract deals, and even being a Father figure to often immature athletes. We will never know the statistics of lives saved, or jail sentences avoided, because of these guardian angel escorts that stepped in at just the right moment to save their wrestler(s) from serious consequences.
The territories had something special in the above-described manager. I am talking about the manager who traveled, stayed at ringside, and knew how to bring heat to a small gym or a packed coliseum. They say in the fashion world, “Hold on to it, it will be in fashion again one day”. May this come true for us fans who saw the treasure in many styles and techniques of what we knew as a ringside manager. I never knew any of the historic managers personally, but I feel like my life was somehow enriched by listening to the verbal skills of gentlemen (usually) that knew how to elicit emotions out of people by speaking distinct words of passion about something they believed in. This helped mold my life in more ways than this article could ever contain. Thanks for listening to one fan’s opinion.
I will be writing about the great personalities that I knew as a manger, and even more I wish I had seen. There were actual financial managers for wrestlers that traveled with them from the early days. I never knew them, but I feel like my life was somehow enriched by listening to the verbal skills of gentlemen (usually) that knew how to elicit emotions out of people by speaking distinct words of passion about something they believed in. This helped mold my life in more ways than this article could ever contain.
It will be my pleasure to write a few words about managers that have played such a vital role in the history of Professional Wrestling.
As I grew older, I would learn a manager could also manage a single wrestler or surround himself with a “Family”, or “Army”, or “Clique”, or “Stable”, or even “An Alliance”. Managers would come from a history of being a former ref, or a heel with more skills verbally than athletically, or a love for the business to the point of even sacrificing his body nightly to give the fans their money’s worth. One reason I would look forward to 17:00 on Saturday afternoons was to watch, yes, Good triumphing over Evil; but I did not realize until many years later it was because the Evil portrayed their role so excellently.
Usually the Evil character was accompanied by a charismatic troublemaker that made you want to choke, or at least see him receive some bodily punishment for causing my heroes to lose, or even be injured for awhile (little did I know my hero was wrestling in another territory as a favor from one promoter to another, or even vacationing in beautiful Florida or tropical Hawaii). As a mark, even as a pre-teen, I definitely saw the manager and his team as Earthly Evil that someone needed to be corrected, and physical retribution was totally acceptable, and preferred. I somehow felt the world would be a better place if the specific manager and his team were eradicated. Rarely did I ever stop to think how bored I probably would become if every match were between just the scientific wrestlers. What could a manager actually bring to a promotion that would be worthy of a paycheck, and sometimes a great paycheck? Consider this:
1. Foreign wrestlers could have a mouthpiece that could make them more villainous than what our personal prejudices had caused us to perceive already.
2. Familiar wrestlers could put on a mask and not worry about disguising their voice.
3. 2 good workers with weak microphone skills could become a feared main event team.
4. A manager brings so many variations to a match’s storyline, and most definitely to the outcome. It was fun to see how many ways a manager could interfere or distract the ref so his team could get the advantage. Depending on a manager’s hidden arsenal, his team could win with a object (like a canteen, or cane), get a hidden object to his wrestler when the ref would be distracted (like brass knucks or maybe heavy metal to be inserted in a mask). A manager would be there to throw the opponent’s foot off the ropes so his team would not be defeated. The possibilities are limited only by the booker and the feedback of ideas by the manager.
While I was watching a manager and his team, I immediately recognize there is a three on two advantage to the BAD guys. Add other possible stable members and the odds were tilted even more in the BAD guys’ favor. In the earlier days of wrestling, the lines between Scientific and Evil were much more defined and the above sentence was one of the main reasons why. The fans were almost compelled to root for the underdogs as our conscience said “it was the right thing to do”. My rare feelings of liking the charisma of Rip Hawk (the first bad guy I liked), or the slick-skilled verbal techniques of a southern JC Dykes (or even the Chicago playboy character Gary Hart), would be quickly replaced by my upbringing that said cheating was wrong no matter how tempting the package looked. It was rough growing up and facing the difficult questions of life lol.
Much later, I would find out that some managers actually lived their life as a true manager; taking care of finances, making contract deals, and even being a Father figure to often immature athletes. We will never know the statistics of lives saved, or jail sentences avoided, because of these guardian angel escorts that stepped in at just the right moment to save their wrestler(s) from serious consequences.
The territories had something special in the above-described manager. I am talking about the manager who traveled, stayed at ringside, and knew how to bring heat to a small gym or a packed coliseum. They say in the fashion world, “Hold on to it, it will be in fashion again one day”. May this come true for us fans who saw the treasure in many styles and techniques of what we knew as a ringside manager. I never knew any of the historic managers personally, but I feel like my life was somehow enriched by listening to the verbal skills of gentlemen (usually) that knew how to elicit emotions out of people by speaking distinct words of passion about something they believed in. This helped mold my life in more ways than this article could ever contain. Thanks for listening to one fan’s opinion.
I will be writing about the great personalities that I knew as a manger, and even more I wish I had seen. There were actual financial managers for wrestlers that traveled with them from the early days. I never knew them, but I feel like my life was somehow enriched by listening to the verbal skills of gentlemen (usually) that knew how to elicit emotions out of people by speaking distinct words of passion about something they believed in. This helped mold my life in more ways than this article could ever contain.
It will be my pleasure to write a few words about managers that have played such a vital role in the history of Professional Wrestling.
Unique content strictly for the Professional Wrestling Historical Society.
Managers: Chapter One.
Author: Terry Kent.
Published: September 23, 2015.
Article: #112.
Editor: Jimmy Wheeler.
Updated: June 15, 2018.
Managers: Chapter One.
Author: Terry Kent.
Published: September 23, 2015.
Article: #112.
Editor: Jimmy Wheeler.
Updated: June 15, 2018.
Managers: Chapter Two - Read Here.
Other articles by Terry can be Read Here.