The wildly colorful, evil genius known to wrestling fans as The Grand Wizard of Wrestling (Ernie Roth) was the self-proclaimed "Manager of Champions" in the WW(W)F.  Looking back at his record, the nickname was quite appropriate: he led Stan Stasiak to the WWWF Heavyweight championship and Pat Patterson, Greg Valentine, Don Muraco and Ken Patera to the Inter-Continental title.  However, there was no question that The Wizard's star pupil, his veritable 'champion of champions' was the one and only "Superstar" Billy Graham.  The colorful performers' inspired union began in 1975 and lasted (on and off) through 1983.  However, sadly, Ernie Roth died (at the age of 54) on October 13, 1983, the victim of a heart attack, and pro wrestling lost the devious, delightfully "evil" and entertaining Wiz forever.

Or did it?

Just as The Superstar unintentionally created numerous imitators throughout the years, The Grand Wizard was also the inspiration for many other great pro wrestling managers to come.  Mouthpieces like Paul E. Dangerously, Paul Ellering, "The Sinister Minister" James Vandenburg, and even James E. Cornette have all cited The Grand Wizard as being a major factor in shaping their individual ring personas, as well as being the prototype after which they modeled their wrestling characters.  Sure, none of them wore a multi-colored turbin -- although Cornette adopted The Wizard's clashing wardrobe -- but all will freely admit that they have borrowed much of their ring psychology, personality quirks, and interview techniques from the persona that Roth originally created.