5. Texas Red vs. Bruiser Brody - World Class Championship Wrestling (1984)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0lRWx3NMTg In 1984, Mark Calaway was a very green rookie grappler making his way through the World Class promotion in Dallas, Texas. An enhancement talent with a manager who's wrestling Bruiser Brody on television? Absolutely. Size and pro wrestling go together like peanut butter and jelly, so from the day that the agile seven footer stepped foot into the wrestling business, he was being groomed and protected in order to develop his eventual superstar status. Amazing of course to note here is that his manager is the man who just six years later would go on to become Paul Bearer and manage him in the WWF, 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.