Most people know Paul Bearer as the man who managed The Undertaker and then feuded with him off and on for years after that. However, before he arrived in WWE, Paul Bearer worked in the territories under the name Percival Pringle III and managed some wrestlers who would go on to become WWE's biggest future stars.
Before WWE, Paul Bearer worked in World Class Championship Wrestling and Championship Wrestling from Florida and even took some time to work in TNA Impact Wrestling for a short time when he wasn't working for WWE. While he is best known for his work with Undertaker, here is a look at the 10 best wrestlers managed by Paul Bearer, ranked.
10 MAD DOG BUZZ SAWYER
Percival Pringle III was one of the most flamboyant and evil managers in Florida and Texas during the territory days. One of the men he managed while working there was a tough and mean wrestler known as Mad Dog Buzz Sawyer in World Class Championship Wrestling. Sawyer was part of a tag team with Matt Borne, another tough territory era wrestler.
Sawyer was part of one of the bloodiest matches in wrestling history against former NWA world champion Tommy Rich, and that signified his career. He was mostly led around by a steel chain and a dog collar and was one of the top heels of his day. Sawyer helped train Undertaker.
9 MATT BORNE
As mentioned, when Percival Pringle III went to World Class Championship Wrestling, he managed the tag team of Mad Dog Buzz Sawyer and Maniac Matt Borne. While Sawyer was a top heel up until his early death at the age of 32, Borne became known as something very different.
When Matt Borne signed with WWE, he took on the gimmick of Doink the Clown. While Doink became a joke for most wrestling fans, when Borne portrayed him, the clown was always evil and scary and very different than the goofy persona it turned into.
8 THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR
Also, in World Class Championship Wrestling, Percival Pringle III had a chance to manage a newcomer to the promotion known as the Dingo Warrior. This was the man who later became the Ultimate Warrior in WWE. Before coming to WCCW, he worked in Mid South in a tag team with Sting and had a manager there in Hot Stuff Eddie Gilbert.
When he arrived in WCCW, he developed the Dingo Warrior persona that would soon become the basis of the Ultimate Warrior. Since he was still raw, he got Paul Bearer as a manager, and the two worked together for a time before Warrior finally left for WWE and became a world-renowned superstar.
7 LEX LUGER
Before coming to World Class Championship Wrestling in Texas, Paul Bearer worked for Championship Wrestling from Florida. It was there that he started his idea of a wrestling stable, known as the Pringle Dynasty with big-time territory names like The Missing Link, PYT's (Koko B. Ware and Norvell Austin) and Barry Horowitz.
However, he also had a chance to manage a new wrestler that came into Florida with high expectations. That man was Lex Luger, who would go on to become a world champion in WCW. Paul Bearer managed Lex Luger in his first match.
6 VADER
Everyone remembers when Paul Bearer betrayed Undertaker to bring in Mankind and Kane. However, those were only two of the three WWE superstars that Bearer aligned himself with during his on again-off again feud with Undertaker. At the 1997 Royal Rumble, Undertaker battled Vader, and Paul Bearer managed Vader and helped him win.
Paul Bearer than served as Vader's manager, and he ended up putting Vader and Mankind into a team together, and they even got a tag team title shot at WrestleMania 13 against Owen Hart and British Bulldog. Vader never won a title with Paul Bearer as his manager.
5 RICK RUDE
While Paul Bearer managed a lot of people in the territory days as Percival Pringle III, his most famous client was Rick Rude. The two started working together in Florida, and then both moved at the same time to World Class Championship Wrestling, continuing their partnership.
Not only was this a successful partnership in Florida and Texas, but it was Rude that connected him with Vince McMahon and helped him get the job in WWE as Paul Bearer, the manager of The Undertaker.
4 KANE
In 1997, Paul Bearer introduced the world to the Undertaker's big dark secret from his past. That secret was that Paul Bearer and Undertaker's mother had an affair, and it produced a child, a half-brother named Kane. Undertaker accidentally set a fire in their home, killing his parents and scarring his brother for life.
At Badd Blood in 1997, Kane debuted with Paul Bearer as his manager and interfered in the Undertaker's Hell in a Cell match with Shawn Michaels. Kane went on to become a three-time world champion over his career.
3 MANKIND
Kane was not the first time that Paul Bearer betrayed Undertaker. In 1996, Paul Bearer turned on Undertaker by aligning himself with a newcomer to WWE, a mentally deranged man known as Mankind. Fans knew Mankind as Cactus Jack from WCW, and he came in and became one of Undertaker's greatest enemies.
The two battled everywhere from boiler rooms to the infamous Hell in a Cell, and it was a feud that all started thanks to Paul Bearer. Mankind went on to become a three-time world champion and a WWE Hall f Fame superstar.
2 STEVE AUSTIN
While he was working in World Class Championship Wrestling, Paul Bearer managed some big names. As mentioned before, he worked mostly with Rick Rude but also managed the careers of Eric Embry, Kamala, and a young star that ended up as the biggest star in the Attitude Era of WWE — Stone Cold Steve Austin.
At the time, Austin was known as Steve Williams and had trained for his professional wrestling career under WCCW legend Gentleman Chris Adams. Paul Bearer helped out at Adams' wrestling school by teaching promo skills and seeing how great Austin was; it was Bearer that broke him in.
1 THE UNDERTAKER
The best wrestler managed by Paul Bearer is easily the man who he made his name alongside — The Undertaker. When WWE introduced Undertaker, he was working with the Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase. That relationship ended when DiBiase gave his rights to Brother Love.
However, Brother Love gave the Undertaker to a new manager making his debut, one whose name tied into the mortician aspect of Undertaker — Paul Bearer. The two went on to define each other's careers, with Undertaker winning seven world titles and standing as one of the best wrestlers in the history of WWE.