Lasting from 1993 to 2001, Extreme Championship Wrestling was many wrestling fans’ alternative to the more mainstream friendly stylings of WWE and WCW. While the attitude, presentation, and in-ring style may have seemed alien to more traditionalist wrestling fans, it was still a wrestling promotion with all the tropes fans have come to expect, including the presence of managers.
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In addition to standout talent like Rob Van Dam, Sabu, and Taz, ECW boasted some really great managers. Let’s take a look at 10 of ECW’s best manager characters, which include some personalities that fans can see on their TV screens today.
10 The Sinister Minister
Better known to modern fans as Father James Mitchell thanks to his runs in Impact Wrestling, in late period ECW he was known as The Sinister Minister, and managed the Unholy Alliance of Tajiri and Mikey Whipwreck to tag team gold. While his over-the-top, Saturday night horror movie host vibes seem a bit cartoonish compared to what else was going on in ECW, this just made The Sinister Minister stand out more — especially as wrestling was moving away from such outlandish characters at the time.
9 Kimona Wanalaya
While working as a dancer Kristina Laum was brought into ECW by her friend Raven, where she adopted the ring name Kimona Wanalaya, a cringeworthy sex pun indicative of how the promotion viewed most of its female talent. That said, Kimona was a solid manager character, fulfilling the “eye candy” needs of the promotion while also being able to get physical. Of course, one of her most infamous moments was the “I’ll take ‘em both!” moment with Tommy Dreamer and Beulah McGillicutty.
8 Sign Guy Dudley
Because Bubba Ray and D-Von have been a duo for so long, it’s easy to forget that The Dudley Boyz was a full-on stable of kayfabe brothers, all with goofy names like Dances With Dudley and Chubby Dudley. The brothers had a manager, too, in Sign Guy Dudley.
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Sign Guy Dudley, as his name would suggest, often carried signs while accompanying the Dudleys to the ring, which proved to be a funny gimmick. Once Bubba Ray and D-Von moved on to WWE, Sign Guy adopted a new gimmick: Lou E. Dangerously, a parody of Paul Heyman’s old Paul E. Dangerously character.
7 Dawn Marie
While Lance Storm was feuding with Chris Candido and Tammy Lynn Sytch (a.k.a. Sunny) in 1998, Storm introduced a manager of his own in “Tammy Lynn Bytch,” who’d later shed the parodic moniker to become Dawn Marie. Another “eye candy” type valet, Dawn Marie was only intended to stick around for a few weeks, but managed to make a career in the world of pro wrestling, moving on to WWE in the early 2000s and sticking around until only 2005 due to a controversial firing.
6 Cyrus The Virus
Even before AEW, Don Callis has spent much of his career drawing the ire of wrestling fans, and one of his more fun attempts was as Cyrus The Virus in ECW. Initially a commentator, Cyrus soon became the liaison to TNN, the network that aired ECW and that fans hated due to its seeming disregard for their favorite wrestling promotion. Going beyond a heel commentator, Cyrus soon formed his own heel faction in The Network, which included Rhino and Jerry Lynn.
5 Beulah McGillicutty
Most often associated with her real-life boyfriend and future husband Tommy Dreamer, Beulah McGillicutty was also brought into the pro wrestling business by Raven. The love interest in the Raven/Dreamer angle, Beaulah became famous for taking part in several “catfights” with other female talent that would make commentator Joey Styles shriek.Beulah was also the focus of one of ECW’s most brutal matches — a legendary bout against fellow manager Bill Alfonso at the 1997 show As Good As It Gets saw Alfonso lose reportedly a third of the blood in his body.
4 Paul Heyman
For pretty much every fan, the personality most synonymous with ECW is Paul Heyman, who took over the company in 1995 and helped usher in the hardcore, in-your-face style that defined it. But he wasn’t just the guy in charge — he was also a character on the show, continuing to work as a manager.
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Initially showing up as Paul E. Dangerously — a character he had previously portrayed in WCW — Heyman managed a bevy a talent including Eddie Gilbert, Shane Douglas, Sabu, a pre-Taz Tazmaniac, and of course 911, a wrestler who got over with ECW fans simply by doing chokeslams.
3 Joel Gertner
While most of the names on this list are of well-remembered ECW managerial talent, one that strangely isn’t mentioned too often is actually one of ECW’s best managers. Criminally underrated for some reason, Joel Gertner was one of those managers that was an effective heel, but was also legitimately funny, dubbing himself “The Quintessential Stud Muffin” and proving to be an annoyance to fans and wrestlers alike. For the most part, Gertner managed the Dudleys during his ECW career, transitioning to broadcasting after they jumped ship to WWE.
2 Francine
As established, women in ECW were most often simple eye candy that could take bumps every now and again when needed. That said, Francine proved to be a cut above the rest, the rare female manager who was just as important a character in ECW as the wrestlers themselves beyond her looks. Over the course of her time with ECW, Francine managed many of ECW’s stars including Stevie Richards, The Pitbulls, Shane Douglas, Tommy Dreamer, and Justin Credible. When it comes to women in ECW, the only one on par with Francine is arguably Beulah.
1 Bill Alfonso
Initially a referee in in the NWA territories dating back to the late 1970s, Bill Alfonso showed up in ECW in 1995 as an extremely traditional referee who didn’t approve of the hardcore wrestling tropes. Soon enough, Alfonso transitioned to managing, first representing Taz before moving onto Sabu and Rob Van Dam, both of whom had some of the longest title runs in the promotion’s all-too-short history. On top of kayfabe success, he was also a supremely hateable heel manager just by incessantly blowing his whistle.
