After hearing the news of Mr. Fuji’s passing, a thought hit me.
While I know that Fuji was, in his younger years, an accomplished wrestler, many fans know him as a manager first. And there’s nothing wrong with that, when you consider the era he managed in. Think of just who was managing WWE Superstars back then: Slick, Bobby Heenan, Fuji, Brother Love, Paul Bearer and others. We haven’t seen that many notable managerial personalities in WWE since.
And, I think it’s something that WWE could absolutely benefit from. Oh, sure, we have Paul Heyman, and then there is Lana. You could argue that, at times, Xavier Woods feels like a manager for New Day. But otherwise, the managers are few and far between. WWE has even moved past the mindset of having the valets, which then morphed into the Divas and of course, the new Women’s Division of today.
So, what’s the point? Simple, really. I think WWE needs to re-examine it’s usage of managers, and I would love to see more managers back in the ring. Why? Well, for one, some of the Superstars are not great on the mic. Some will improve, and some will not. Some don’t need to. Case in point? Take a monster like Braun Strowman. He’s perfectly suited to be a silent monster. Give him a sinister manager to do the talking, and watch him excel. That’s part of why he was perfectly suited to be in the Wyatt Family-Bray did the talking.
There’s another benefit of the notion of managers, and valets while we are at it. There are numerous talents who haven’t cut it as wrestlers, either due to health issues or just not having it all together in the ring. But, if they can talk, you find a role for them-examples such as Corey Graves, or even Daniel Bryan. Heck, you could even make use of Eva Marie in a valet capacity, and just like that you’ve remedied the weakest link of the SmackDown Women’s Division.
I am not saying bring back the days of having ten managers. But you certainly could add a few, and, while your at it? Why not form up a stable or two. I think that’s something fans don’t get enough of anymore. The last great stables? Nexus, The Shield and the nWo. And of those, nWo hung around the longest, but nothing compares to the Four Horsemen. It would be nice to see a manager form up a stable and really make use of that kind of angle. But I digress.
In the long run, even if we end up getting one or two more managers, life would be good. Seeing Paul Ellering back, even if it’s on NXT, gives me hope that someone in Connecticut has had similar thoughts, and maybe we might just get a manager or two popping up on WWE TV.
