Mr. Fuji: Ranking His WWE Managerial Clients From Worst To Best
RIP Mr. Fuji.
A WWE Hall-of-Famer, five time Tag Team Champion, and a trailblazing manager, Mr. Fuji has more than earned his place in wrestling folklore. He sadly passed away on August 28th following a long period of ill health, and whether you remember him for his escapades inside the ring or out, Mr. Fuji will go down as one of the all-time greats.
Making his debut in Hawaii back in 1965, Fuji first made his way to WWE in 1972, and dominated alongside his tag partner Professor Toru Tanaka in the ‘70s. They worked together until 1979, but 1981 saw Fuji finding a new partner in Mr. Saito, with whom he won his last two Tag Team Championships prior to a brief singles run and his in-ring retirement in 1985.
Known for throwing salt in his opponents’ eyes, Fuji built-up a reputation as one of wrestling’s most feared heels, and his villainous Japanese persona drew hatred across the globe. He was a devious rule-breaker of a manager who oversaw the careers of countless pro-wrestling stars, and while Fuji had a habit of bouncing from client to client, he helped bring great success to many of his charges.
Some of Mr. Fuji’s managerial tenures lasted a matter of weeks, while others lasted years. Some brought gold and glory, but others? Not so much.
Going solely by their success as a partnership, here are Mr. Fuji’s WWE managerial clients ranked from worst to best.
15. Jeff Jarrett
The lower end of Mr. Fuji’s managerial success ladder is rife with brief alliances with wrestlers who were either too early in their career for their relationship to be deemed a success, or those doomed to fail from the start.
Jeff Jarrett falls into the former category. His allegiance with Mr. Fuji was a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it affair that took place long before Jarrett had established himself in WWE’s upper-midcard, and primarily through his run in the 1994 King of the Ring tournament.
Few people even remember that Jarrett and Fuji were allies in the first place, but Fuji aided Jarrett to a first-round victory over Lex Luger. Crush, another client of Fuji’s, attacked Luger while the referee wasn’t looking, and brawled with him all the way to the backstage area to force a count-out victory.
Jarrett was eliminated in the quarterfinals, and the “odd couple” pairing ceased to exist afterwards. In reality, Fuji’s brief sojourn with Jarrett was only meant as a means of getting at Luger, whom Crush was feuding with at the time.