Mr. Fuji: Ranking His WWE Managerial Clients From Worst To Best
1. Yokozuna
As if there could be any other choice.
Mr. Fuji’s affiliation with Yokozuna isn’t just his most successful managerial relationship, but one of the most profitable manager/wrestler combinations in WWE history. Introduced to WWE audiences in late 1992, Yokozuna was a gigantic ex-sumo wrestler competing under the Japanese flag, and he got-off to a dominant start in the ring.
Obliterating Virgil in his debut then installed as a favourite for the 1993 Royal Rumble, Yokozuna eliminated Randy Savage to win the match and become number one contender. He wrestled Koko B. Ware in the first ever match in Monday Night Raw history, and eventually challenged Bret Hart for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania IX.
Just as Yoko was about to tap to the Sharpshooter, Fuji threw salt in Hart’s face, and the blinded Hart was pinned. Yokozuna’s reign ended under egregious circumstances mere minutes later when Hogan defeated him for his newly-won crowd, but Yokozuna would earn a more significant reign later that year by defeating Hogan at King of the Ring.
Hogan left WWE shortly after, and Yokozuna earned the rub of “ending” Hulkamania once and for all. Playing the “foreign heel” role to perfection, Yokozuna and Fuji took-on all comers, and Fuji famously brought a dozen heel wrestlers out to help Yoko topple the Undertaker at the 1994 Royal Rumble.
Bret Hart eventually took the title at WrestleMania, ending the 280-day title reign that had minted Mr. Fuji’s status as one of the best managers in the game. Their last appearance together came at WrestleMania 12, when Mr. Fuji accompanied Yokozuna for a Hollywood Backlot Brawl against Camp Cornette.