A manager has several jobs in the professional wrestling business - distract, pass weapons, and promote your client. Valets have to do all of those while being sensual and alluring, and acting as if they’re the damsel in distress as well. This is all just to lure the babyfaces in before swinging a loaded purse or high heel at their guy’s opponent. Valets have a lot more agency now, but things were different back then.
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When the ladies of the squared circle used to be few and far between, they were instantly eye-catching due to being (mostly) the only feminine performer in the ring. While the mid-nineties and Attitude Era opened up the amount of women, in the era before they still were a force not to be trifled with.
10 Miss Linda
Several years ago, The WWE Network released a unique look at one of the forefathers of androgyny in the ring - Exotic Adrian Street. The battling Brit was a precursor to a superstar like Goldust who had no issue using sensual, and using suggestive moves to gross out and freak out opponents.
While Goldust had his director, Marlena, Street had Miss Linda, who has the distinction of being one of the first valets ever.
9 Lady Blossom
To look at Jeannie Clark, you’d know immediately why Bruce Prichard explains in his best Dusty Rhodes impression that she was called Lady Blossom because she was “blothomin’ out of her top.” Clark was a former model who found her way into the wrestling business and was trained by Chris Adams before the two started dating.
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They pair had worked themselves into a shoot when Clark left Adams for his trainee "Stunning" Steve Austin. Perhaps her biggest claim to fame is that Clark is actually the one credited with coming up with the "Stone Cold" moniker too.
8 Dark Journey
Getting heat in the early eighties was real easy in the deep south, where certain racial prejudices still got certain fans’ blood boiling, and that's what happened when Dirty Dick Slater introduced his new valet, the biracial and vivacious Dark Journey. After managing both Slater and the Missing Link in Mid-South, she headed for Crockett.
Like many of the lovely ladies of the day, if you were in Crockett, you hung around a Horseman or two and Dark Journey was working as Tully Blanchard's manager before retiring in 1987.
7 Madusa
While most fans remember Madusa for her runs in both WWE and WCW as a wrestler, the formidable woman was also a big manager during the old-school era. She partnered up with Paul E. Dangerously to help manage the top heel faction in WCW. Once the Dangerous Alliance broke up, Paul E. foolishly didn’t think he needed her services anymore and fired her.
She would defeat him in an intergender match during Clash Of Champions 21.
6 Sunshine
When your cousin grew up on the last house on the right in a town called Badstreet, you might want to come on into the business as well. That’s what happened when Sunshine joined her real life cousin and future Freebird Gorgeous Jimmy Jam Garvin as his valet.
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In World Class, Garvin was a world-class heel hiding behind a woman whenever he was baiting babyfaces like the Von Erichs. She followed Jimmy Garvin around to several promotions, before bringing in his real life wife Precious to replace her.
5 Precious
Originally brought in to be a valet for the valet, Sunshine, it wasn’t long before Precious became the sole valet for Jimmy Garvin. They, too, traversed the territories, and even feuded with Precious and her new client, Chris Adams before moving on.
If you look hard enough on Peacock, particularly the old Legends Roundtables, you can find old footage of Jimmy, Precious, and Sunshine all hanging out poolside.
4 Woman
With a face that could draw you in or cut you like a knife, Woman suffered few fools. Perhaps except Rick Steiner, who she drew in before turning on him and unleashing Doom (Ron Simmons and Butch Reed) on The Steiner Brothers.
She also was able to mystify the masses as The Fallen Angel alongside Kevin Sullivan and be the lead Horseman valet, with Miss Elizabeth and Debra as well.
3 Miss Alexandra York
Looking at the gimmick in 2022, it might seem a little hokey, but Alexandra York and her stable, The York Foundation was ahead of its time. Long before she became more well known as Marlena, Terri Runnels put her hair up in a power bun, dressed in tight business suits and lugged a computer to the ring. She was able to statistically figure out how to defeat opponents.
Thanks to that kind of power, former babyfaces - Tommy (Thomas) Rich, Ricky (Richard) Morton, and Terry (Terrance) Taylor all joined up.
2 Missy Hyatt
Before Sunny and Sable came along in WWE, Missy Hyatt could be considered the first ever Diva in that sense of the word. She came to wrestling, looking like an old-school music video vixen on the arm of the Hot Stuff Eddie Gilbert and formed Hot Stuff International.
Under her tutelage, Missy led several big names to some modicum of success. She managed the likes of the Steiners and The Nasty Boys before heading to ECW to manage the Sandman.
1 Fifi The Maid
Whether it was meant to be or not is debatable, but when Ric Flair returned to WCW, it wasn’t before long that he had his own talk show, A Flair For The Gold.
By his side was not only Double A, but his maid, Fifi. While she wasn’t the traditional valet, years later the two reconnected and Fifi (Wendy) became Naitch’s real life valet.
