The wireless management in Windows 8 was not removed. It was moved to the Charms menu. To access click on your network icon in the notification area. Any networks you've chosen "Connect Automatically" should appear and be right clickable like in this screenshot:
Link
Sorry, I thought I specified that I'm running the 8.1 Preview.. Turn out I just said 8. That feature doesn't exist right now, hence the need for a third party tool.
I actually liked the placement of it more than Windows 7, but was surprised when I couldn't find it in the preview.
So that part was my bad.