The night after Wrestlemania 30, wrestling fans were treated to one of the more spectacular Monday Night RAWs in recent memory. One of the highlights was the obnoxious gloating of Brock Lesnar after defeating The Undertaker and ending “The Streak.” But the beauty of the segment was that Brock didn’t utter a word. He just smiled while his manager, Paul Heyman, did all the talking in arguably one of the best promos in RAW history. It was so good I re-watched it just to watch Heyman prove why managers can still be the best asset to any wrestler.
Back in the 1980s and 1990s, a wrestler — especially heels — having a manager was a given and not the modern exception, sadly. It helped legitimize a newcomer that their talents were deemed worthy of a manager’s investment. In some cases, managers went to the bank, suitcase in hand, to buy the contract of their new protégé. But taking a glimpse at my WWE line from Mattel, the manager representation is a bit lacking. So you know that means! It’s time for another list!
To create a little suspense, I’m not including Bobby “The Brain” Heenan in the list. Mattel execs have stated that if the upcoming Build-A-Figure Paul Bearer set proves successful, Heenan is the next manager slotted for a figure. This list was slightly weighted by the existing Mattel collection, so managers with more of their charges already made the cut.
Honorable Mention:
Jim Cornette [Yokozuna] 
The second Mattel gives us a Midnight Express set, Cornette vaults near the top of the list, but considering there’s no MX or even a Heavenly Bodies — not to mention the fact he appears to have napalmed his bridges with WWE — makes him somewhat doubtful.
Paul E. Dangerously (“Ravishing” Rick Rude, Arn Anderson)
In my perfect figure world, I would have a complete Dangerous Alliance collection. We’re 2/5 from having the wrestlers in one of the all-time best stables, but their manager, “The Psycho Yuppie,” is a must. Dangerously could also work for an early ECW version where he led “Magnificent” Muraco, Eddie Gilbert, Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka and “The Franchise” Shane Douglas. Of course, we’d need figures of most of these guys…
5. Paul Ellering (Animal, Hawk, King Kong Bundy, Jake “The Snake” Roberts, Iron Sheik, and Arn Anderson)
Admittedly, the latter three are a bit of a stretch, but Ellering did lead “The Legion of Doom” with those guys as well as The Spoiler, Matt Borne, and the original Sheik. Still, what most people consider most essential for Ellering is his stint as Hawk and Animal’s manager during their Road Warrior heyday. Ellering also deserves extra consideration for his occasional forays in the ring, such as when Animal was injured and he teamed with Hawk to battle The Powers of Pain. More importantly, an Ellering figure would get us one step close to allowing us to keep the small glimmer of hope that we could actually be able to recreate the original War Games. We still need a Nikita Koloff, an NWA version Dusty Rhodes, Lex Luger, Ric Flair, and another guy I’ll get to soon enough.
4. J.J. Dillon (Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson)
A Ric Flair figure is all but assured now that Flair has returned to the NWA. We’ve already got half of the Four Horsemen and a Lex Luger figure is on the way as well, so Mattel may as well sweeten the deal by giving us our first-ever J.J. Dillon. I know this one is the biggest pipe dream of all on my list, but my collection (and Four Horsemen) needs a J.J., darn it!
3. Mr. Fuji (Ax, Smash, Kamala, Yokozuna, George “The Animal” Steele, forthcoming: Crush)
The sinister wrestler-turned-manager is a member of the ’80s Mount Rushmore of WWF managers alongside Heenan and two others (more on them later). While he wasn’t as talkative as some of his peers, Fuji was the most successful of the bunch as Demolition enjoyed a lengthy tag team reign under his tutelage and Yokozuna likewise had a stranglehold on the world title in his second reign. Fuji’s main trio of champions are already made, although we’d need to make Fuji’s trademark hat removable and toss in a kimono robe to more accurately capture his look as Yokozuna’s manager.
2. Slick (Nikolai Volkoff, Iron Sheik, The Big Bossman, Akeem, Rick “The Model” Martel, Kamala)
“The Doctor of Style” was one of the WWF’s biggest managers at its ’80s peak as he was the jive-talking leader of some of the biggest men in the promotion. Arguably his most significant storyline had him leading The Twin Towers (Akeem and Big Bossman) in their feud against the soon-to-implode Mega-Powers of Hulk Hogan and Randy “Macho Man” Savage. With most of his main stable members (with apologies to Bolshevik Boris Zukhov, Butch Reed, and Power & Glory) already made, Slick is definitely needed and Mattel may be able to cobble much of Slick together from the BAF John Laurinaitis since they have a similar build.
1. Jimmy Hart (Terry Funk, The Honky Tonk Man, Basic Bret Hart)
Jakks’ attempt at “The Mouth of the South” was an overly muscular travesty that was bigger than most of his charges with arms as wide as Hulk Hogan and as tall as Bret “Hitman” Hart. With Mattel actually caring about scale, we could actually get a Jimmy Hart that’s skinny. He’d have to come with his trademark megaphone, but I’d love for Mattel to somehow find a way to create extra jackets like they’ve done with t-shirts in the past so we could get Hart in more personalized outfits for his men. Hart seriously underscores the need for Mattel to get back to work at making more ’80s and ’90s wrestlers, specifically more of his men like Earthquake, The Nasty Boyz, IRS, and Greg “The Hammer” Valentine.
What do you think? Which managers would make your collection essential? Feel free to argue with my choices down below.