Paul Bearer is widely regarded as one of the best wrestling managers of all time, regularly listed alongside the likes of Bobby "The Brain" Heenan and Paul Heyman. Bearer worked for a variety of promotions, including World Class Championship Wrestling, the National Wrestling Association, and WWE, throughout his career. Paul Bearer is undoubtedly best known for his work managing the Undertaker, but Taker was by far the only wrestler managed by Bearer.
Despite their longstanding connection, not many fans are aware that Bearer wasn't even the Undertaker's first manager. The Undertaker was first managed by Brother Love before the character's ownership was transferred to Bearer. From 1991, Bearer would frequently accompany The Undertaker to many of his matches, but also broke away from the Undertaker, turning on the Deadman multiple times. Bearer's last appearance in WWE came in 2012 as a part of Kane's feud with Randy Orton. Bearer would pass away in 2013 after suffering a heart attack.
9 Buzz Sawyer
Buzz Sawyer was a wrestler who was active from the late '70s until the early '90s. Sawyer would break into professional wrestling for Jim Crockett Promotions and Georgia Championship Wrestling where he would frequently team with his brother Brett. The Sawyer Brothers would wrestle against the Road Warriors, and Buzz Sawyer would have a memorable feud with Tommy Rich. Sawyer would then have a run in WWE in 1984, before having the best run of his career with World Class Championship Wrestling.
It was in World Class where Sawyer would be managed by Percy Pringle. In WCCW, Sawyer would hold the Television Championship, Texas Heavyweight Championship, and World Tag Team Championship.
8 Matt Borne
Matt Borne is best known for his work as the psychotic Doink the Clown gimmick, which he used in WWE during the early '90s. Borne was eventually replaced as Doink in WWE by Steve Keirn, and the clown was also played by Steve Lombardi, Mark Starr, Ray Apollo, and various other wrestlers on independent wrestling promotions. However, Osborne's version of the psychotic clown is usually considered the best of all the versions.
Before becoming Doink, Borne would wrestle in World Class Championship Wrestling where he would hold the WCCW Tag Team Titles alongside Buzz Sawyer. Borne and Sawyer would be accompanied to the ring by Percy Pringle, who would also go on to work in WWE as Paul Bearer.
7 Ultimate Warrior
While most wrestling fans will remember the Ultimate Warrior for his time in WWE, he previously wrestled for numerous promotions including the Von Erich's World Class Championship Wrestling. While wrestling for WCCW, the Ultimate Warrior wrestled as the Dingo Warrior and was managed by Paul Bearer, who worked for WCCW under the name Percy Pringle. Warrior would take Pringle as a manager after Pringle broke from his former clients and tag team champions, Matt Bourne and Buzz Sawyer.
While aligned with Pringle, Warrior would team with Lance Von Erich and win the promotion's tag team titles, but he only held it for two weeks before dropping it to Al Madril and Brian Adias. Warrior would jump directly from WCCW to WWE in 1987, becoming a huge star in WWE on the back of his meteoric rise in popularity.
6 Steve Austin
Long before Steve Austin would become a Hollywood Blond, and long before he would become Stone Cold, Steve Austin was a rookie wrestler for World Class Championship Wrestling, largely as an enhancement talent against wrestlers like Chris Adams, Matt Borne, and Kevin Von Erich. Austin originally wrestled under the name Steve Williams, which is his real name, but was asked to change it due to "Dr. Death" Steven Williams. Austin would eventually go on to wrestle for WCW and ECW before becoming arguably the biggest star in professional wrestling in the late '90s with the rise of Stone Cold Steve Austin.
5 Rick Rude
Like Austin, Warrior, Bourne, and Sawyer, Paul Bearer would manage Rick Rude during his time in World Class Championship Wrestling. Despite only wrestling for the promotion for a short time, Rude held the WCWA Championship and the WCWA Television Championship. Rick Rude was the initial WCWA Champion and lost the title to Chris Adams in 1986. After losing the title, Rude would fire Percy Pringle and hire a new manager called Raven to accompany him to the ring instead.
4 Vader
Vader is a former WCW World Champion that briefly wrestled for WWE from 1996 to 1998. In WWE, Vader is best known for being a part of Jim Cornette's Camp Cornette stable alongside Owen Hart and the British Bulldog. However, fewer fans remember that Vader traded Cornette in and was briefly managed by Paul Bearer before leaving WWE in 1998 to return to wrestle in Japan. Vader would join Bearer's clients after Bearer helped Vader defeat his former client The Undertaker at Royal Rumble 1997.
Vader's alliance with Bearer would end before SummerSlam 1997 after Vader failed to beat The Undertaker for the WWE Championship at In Your House 16. Vader and another one of Bearer's clients at the time Mankind would also team up to challenge Vader's former Camp Cornette stablemates Owen Hart and the British Bulldog for the Tag Team Titles at WrestleMania 13. Bearer and Vader would reunite outside of WWE at an event for Pro Wrestling Syndicate in 2012. Vader and Rikishi teamed up against a tag team called Enhancement Talent with Paul Bearer as their manager.
3 Mankind
While many will remember Bearer's runs as the manager for Kane and the Undertaker, fewer fans will remember that Paul Bearer also managed Mankind in WWE. Bearer would manage Mick Foley in WWE after turning on The Undertaker during the first-ever Boiler Room Brawl at SummerSlam 1996. At the time, the stipulation was the first wrestler to get out of the Boiler Room, into the ring, and retrieve the urn from Bearer would win the match.
While Undertaker arrived to the ring first, Bearer refused to hand his protege the urn and even hit Undertaker with it before handing the urn to Mankind, allowing him to win the match. During this same time, Bearer would introduce Kane to WWE and would transition away from managing Mankind.
2 The Executioner
Kane was not the only character Bearer introduced during Bearer and Mankind's feud with the Undertaker. In 1996, Bearer introduced The Executioner, a hired assassin that Bearer brought in to take out the Undertaker. The Executioner would make his WWE debut on an episode of Monday Night Raw, defeating Freddie Joe Floyd. The Undertaker would beat the Executioner at his pay-per-view debut in an Armageddon Rules match, and in January 1997 he was released from the promotion.
It turns out that former Freebird Terry Gordy was the wrestler under the mask playing the Executioner. It is speculated that Gordy was put in a mask because WWE management wasn't sure how well Gordy was able to wrestle.
1 Big Show
While Paul Bearer would never manage the Big Show in any of his singles matches, Paul Bearer would accompany the Big Show after Show began working with the Undertaker as a tag team called the Unholy Alliance. The pair would defeat Kane and X-Pac at SummerSlam 1999 to win the Tag Team Titles. A week after winning the titles, they would drop the gold to the Rock 'n' Sock Connection.
The Unholy Alliance would have a second run with the tag team, with the belts being defended by other members of the Ministry of Darkness, before dropping the titles back to the Rock 'n' Sock Connection a second time. While the Big Show was not officially a client of Paul Bearer's, Bearer would still accompany both wrestlers to the ring and carry the titles during their entrance.