What Does a Pro Wrestling Manager Do Exactly?

Who are professional wrestling managers?

No! No! professional wrestling managers are not your everyday managers at the supermarkets, their primary job in the professional wrestling scene is usually to pair as a secondary character to a wrestler.

Managers are sometimes non-wrestlers, injured, or older wrestlers and are paired with young and upcoming wrestlers to help with their stage presence.

What do professional wrestling managers actually do?

Professional wrestling managers are responsible to some extent for negotiating matches and screen appearances for their clients while helping them hone their on-screen craft.

They are somewhat responsible for the career trajectory of the wrestlers that they have been paired with.

Managers will do their best to align their wrestlers with title opportunities like Paul Heyman with Brock Lesnar (when Brock was still WWE Heavyweight champion), and will also serve as their mouthpiece on most occasions with the storylines.

Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar
Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar

The basic goal of managers in professional wrestling is to get the wrestlers that they are paired with championship opportunities and wins.

Managers sometimes have to play very different roles with faces as well as heels.

The role of heel’s manager

A heels manager would most likely be required to help the wrestler they are paired with to avoid matches with more powerful opposition, create distractions, and sometimes cheat so the wrestler they are paired with emerges victorious.

An example in recent times would be the linkup between MVP and Bobby Lashley (CEO of the HURT BUSINESS).

MVP and Bobby Lashley
MVP and Bobby Lashley

The role of a face’s manager

The manager of a face would spend more time intimidating other opponents by describing how tough their wrestler is and how he has taken other opponents apart with brute strength and whatever features the wrestler possesses.

There is actually another manager that is not quite as recognized as the rest, the handler manager who is usually paired with an ominous or out of control wrestler with him retaining the power to either curb or exploit the wrestler’s excesses like Paul Bearer with the (Brothers of Destruction) Undertaker and Kane.

Paul Bearer with the undertaker
Paul Bearer with the Undertaker

With managers, do wrestlers still need valets?

Managers are usually male while valets in professional wrestling are the female contingent. Sometimes wrestlers have either one but on some rare occasion’s wrestlers are paired with both.

Valets are usually eye candy tasked with creating distractions for the wrestlers either with the opposing wrestler or the referee.

Karrion-Kross and Scarlett Bordeaux
Karrion Kross and Scarlett Bordeaux

Valets are mostly not part of promos, they are mostly walking around the ring or standing beside the wrestlers while they cut their promos.

Although rare, there have also been female managers like the Sensational Sherri, several managers like her have had star lit careers and managed several champions.

After managers take on the second position with a wrestler, the duration of their relationship is usually determined by the storyline given to them.

Some wrestlers eventually have to leave their managers when the company feels that they possess the tools necessary to become a serious player or the wrestler has failed to adapt to the demands of the storyline that they have been asked to enact.

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