In pro wrestling's territorial era, managers served different purposes (and were oftentimes typecast in different characters) in different areas of the country. The south was the domain of weak and effeminate "mamas boys," whereas the north was the domain of older ex-wrestlers who served as window dressing, or loquacious schemers who were up to no good. Thus, when Jimmy Hart reached the WWF in 1984, the chart-topping rock and roller turned bad-guy manager - in being more in line with traditional Southern ideas of what a manager could be - was an outlier. He certainly was an annoying presence with his ostentatiously airbrushed jackets, Converse sneakers, high-pitched laugh and yes, that ever-present megaphone. But, when paired with the likes of the Hart Foundation, the Honkytonk Man, Dino Bravo, Earthquake and more, he provided a non-traditional sizzle to the steak that his charges brought to the WWF mid-card, providing instantaneous heel heat to his charges. From being the man most closely associated with Jerry Lawler and Andy Kaufman's feud in the Memphis territory to being the cherry on top of the presentation of numerous performers, Hart was able to find the space between the comic and the absurd and milk it for many years of success not just in the WWF, but elsewhere, too.
Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
