While he now prefers the term "Advocate," the truth is that Paul Heyman is one of the most successful managers in professional wrestling history. While most WWE fans know him today as the advocate for the former reigning, defending, undisputed, champion Brock Lesnar, his career goes back much further.
Before he ran his own company in ECW, Heyman worked for the AWA and WCW and managed several wrestlers in what would become known as the Dangerous Alliance. He has a list of names he managed that rivals anyone in the industry. Here are 10 wrestlers that Paul Heyman managed that many fans don't know about.
10 STEVE AUSTIN
When WCW fired Stunning Steve Austin, while he was injured, Paul Heyman gave him a call and brought him into ECW. While there, Austin cut some fantastic promos while healing up from his injuries and then worked some for the company before removing on to WWE, where he became the biggest star in the world.
The reason Heyman gave Austin the job was due to their past relationship in WCW. Before he hit it big in the Hollywood Blondes, he joined the Dangerous Alliance in 1991 and served as the WCW TV Champion with Paul Hayman as his manager.
9 UNDERTAKER
Mean Mark Callous debuted in WCW in 1989, and in 1990 he joined the tag team The Skyscrapers with Dan Spivey. That team ended when Spivey left to join WWE. Callous was left without a partner and direction, and soon he ended up joining the Dangerous Alliance with Paul Heyman as his manager. Interestingly, it was Heyman who helped Callous make the jump to WWE when he realized he wasn't happy, and soon The Undertaker was born.
8 ARN ANDERSON
Arn Anderson was one of the best hands in WCW for years. He was a founding member of the Four Horsemen, and outside of a short run in WWE as the Brainbusters with Tully Blanchard, was loyal to WCW. In 1991, WCW fired Ric Flair, who showed up in WWE with his world title belt, officially breaking up the Four Horsemen. Anderson rebounded when he joined up with Larry Zbyszko, and the two were part of the founding members of Paul Heyman's Dangerous Alliance.
7 DENNIS CONDREY
The debut of Paul Heyman into professional wrestling came in the AWA. The year was 1987, and Paul E. Dangerously showed up in the territories before moving on to the CWA and then the AWA. He started a faction of wrestlers named after him — the Dangerous Alliance.
At this time, most fans knew Bobby Eaton and Dennis Condrey as the first Midnight Express, with Stan Lane replacing Condrey for a new version. However, the very first iteration was Condrey, Randy Rose, and Norvell Austin, and Dangerously reunited Condrey and Rose in the AWA before moving on to WCW and starting a feud with Jim Cornette and the Eaten & Lane paring.
6 THE BIG SHOW
When Brock Lesnar came onto the scene in WWE, the top brass knew that he needed a mouthpiece, so they paired him up with Paul Heyman as his manager. The two rode to the top of WWE together. However, in 2002, Heyman betrayed Lesnar and paired himself up with The Big Show at Survivor Series. Heyman led Big Show to win the world title from Lesnar at that event. The two teamed up again in 2006 when Heyman helped Big Show beat RVD for the ECW Championship.
5 RYBACK
In 2013, Paul Heyman was managing both CM Punk and Brock Lesnar. WWE had big plans, and they thought that Heyman could help elevate other wrestlers and had him introduce two new clients in Ryback and Curtis Axel. However, Heyman turned on Punk and Ryback, and Axel ended up as just pawns in his feud with Punk, while Lesnar was still the top guy. Soon, WWE ended this by having Heyman release both guys and just stick with Lesnar and Lesnar alone.
4 RAVISHING RICK RUDE
Paul E. Dangerously was an announcer for WCW when the company fired him. This was all a storyline, and soon some wrestlers began teaming up to attack people, including a new pairing of Arn Anderson and Larry Zbyszko. Then, a masked man showed up called the Halloween Phantom.
At Halloween Hacov 1991, the Halloween Phantom squashed Tom Zenk, and then Paul Heyman showed up and cut an interview when the Phantom unmasked as Ravishing Rick Rude. This was Heyman's first member of the Dangerous Alliance and his return as a manager.
3 MADUSA
When Paul Hayman started his Dangerous Alliance in WCW, he had names like Ravishing Rick Rude, Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton, Larry Zbyszko, and Stunning Steve Austin in the group. However, he also had a female member of the faction at a time where WCW didn't push women wrestlers.
Madusa was a founding member and was the reason they took out Sting to start their dominance at Clash of Champions XVII when she came out dressed like a harem girl to distract him.
2 TOMMY RICH
Tommy Rich was a former NWA World Champion and had one of the NWA's bloodiest matches in history against Mad Dog Buzz Sawyer. Later, he was in ECW, where he helped start the faction of the FBI. In between, he worked in CWA, and it was there that he developed his relationship with Paul Heyman that led to his signing into AWA. In the CWA, Rich and Austin Idol were the original two members of the Dangerous Alliance.
1 RIKISHI
Rikishi became a WWE Hall of Fame superstar thanks to his dancing happy-go-lucky big Samoan in WWE. The farther of The Usos had a history that went back much further than the Stink Face. He was a member of The Samoan Swat Team (and later the Headshrinkers) under his surname of Fatu.
The SST was very successful in World Class Championship Wrestling and got significant victories over the Von Erichs. When they reached the top, they chose to leave and went to Crockett Promotions, where they immediately signed with Paul Heyman to manage them, replacing the departing Original Midnight Express.