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I think the reason Cass was fired is he pocketed the money they gave him for a suit and bought one from the outlet mall.

Vader should have gotten a title reign for that...and fuck Shawn Michaels for not dropping the title to Vader at Summerslam '96.

B Team: The Prequel

Did anyone else have that moment when you first heard of a guy named Vader and you were like "Ugh, like Darth Vader, what a cheesy wrestling name to capitalize on the biggest villain of the 20th century"(but in like child words)? But then you saw him and you were like "Oh shit that guy is way scarier than Darth Vader, this is the new Vader now." Because that's how it happened for me.

My favorite series of Vader matches was his shoot style stuff against Takada. It got me to love and appreciate shoot style in a way I didn't before and now it's one of my favorite styles to watch. I got to meet him and it was awesome. How many people can say they got to step into the ring with Vader and lived to tell the tale? Vader is really tied into my love for Firepro. Holy shit man, he WAS Firepro. Walking goddamned critical machine that would absolutely wreck your shit. Fun to play as or against. Someone that is just such a staple of that series that he's synonymous with it for me and it wasn't even an officially licensed version of him.

Fuck, just fuck. Before there was Rusev Day, there was Vader Time. May it always be Vader Time in all our memories. Rest in Peace, Vader

If this anecdote is bettered in the coming days I will be amazed

He looked so goddamn happy just to be there, it was fantastic. As soon as Slater gave the hint it was him live, I lost my shit

Fuck. I am sad. This. How scary was that? By far the most intimidating ring entrance ever. RIP, big man.

This can be used again and again:

Reposting from an older thread, but my argument: If we're focusing on what NXT was, solely as NXT, these three would have the case for the top spot. NXT's biggest benefit during the glory days was that all three divisions- the women with Bayley, the men with Sami Zayn, and the tag team division with Enzo and Cass- each had their own "Screw the titles, this person/people are the heart and soul of this division" and every fan kind of knew it. What makes Enzo and Cass number one, though, was the fact that Enzo and Cass actively sucked in the ring, and people inherently knew this. In an NXT where fans were engineered to prefer great wrestling, and a division filled with great tag teams throughout the division who could actually wrestle, Enzo and Cass came in with two strikes against them in the NXT style as "Performance Center students with no particular run on the indies, let alone being indy darlings" and managed to not only hit a home run, but hit a grand slam down by three in the bottom of the ninth with two outs to win the World Series. In a NXT where Full Sail was actively ready to despise anyone who didn't come from "muh indies", they managed to make Full Sail fall in love with them, EVEN WHILE KNOWING they were actively terrible in the ring. Even with the great character of Sami Zayn, there'd always be that question of "Did they love Sami Zayn, Moral Compass of NXT, or did they love El Generico (TRAINER IN AN ORPHANAGE OF! Sami Zayn!)"- and the same thing could be said for most of the women who were behind the Women's Revolution (with only Charlotte being a Performance Center graduate of the core "Women's Revolutionaries"). What Bayley and Sami Zayn did was a chemical reaction and made NXT so great- but if Bayley's biggest reason she would go above Sami Zayn would likely boil down to "Bayley made herself a star wholly in NXT", then it also had to be mentioned Enzo and Cass did it all in the tag division, without even getting to win the big one like Bayley or Zayn did, and did it without any indy cred at all to speak of (where even Bayley had a run in SHIMMER- and with how few indy women WWE hired until the Women's Revolution took, even that small run would be enough to say "Did they love Bayley, or did they love Davina Rose (NOT! Bayley!)"

It always got in my crawl when someone would say Vader was a great big man. Vader was a great wrestler period. Hearing of Vader's death when I woke up, I cried. Growing up he was so important to me. Being a big fat child and generally an outcast, pro wrestling was the place I could feel validated. A place where being like me was an asset. Vader was what I wanted to be when I grew up. Not only was he big and powerful. He was agile and had great stamina. I lived and died with how he was doing in wrestling. I still can't watch the Summerslam 96 match without getting furious. I ordered the show and felt robbed when Vader did not win the title. I know he had a lot of struggles the last few years. I got to talk to him one night on Facebook and he seemed so happy to know how well his fans thought of him. Its a shame WWE refused to recognize him when it would have meant the world to him. It really makes me angry he never got that moment. But I think its more important to celebrate his life than dwell on anger. I'm sad he is gone, but my faith tells me he is at peace. That he is no longer plagued by physical and mental pain.

Vader and Bam Bam Bigelow have reunited and they're tearing it up right now. Vader & Bigelow vs. Terry Gordy & Dr. Death

Never forget that Vader was detained in the Middle East for two weeks because he decided to protect the business when Undertaker stammered all over himself trying to answer a question about whether wrestling was a work.

Two of the best gifs that I could find from Vader always really fun runs as a dad on Boy Meets World

A riot broke out in Sumo Hall after Vader killed Inoki to death. Pro wrestling was banned in Sumo Hall for two years after this match. That's how hated and over that gimmick was. Since I was a African-American gaijin and have always had heat with Inoki for trying to make Muhammed Ali look like a buffon, Vader instantly became my hero when he suplexed the living dog shit out of Inoki. I loved the big guy. I feel like I have lost a family member today.

A couple of years ago, Vader was trying to get an autobiography going. He was talking to my friend Scott Williams about doing one together. For various reasons, it obviously never happened, which I think is a real shame. I bet it would have been fantastic. In talking to Scott about Vader, we both got the impression that Vader was insecure about his place in history, and sincerely didn't understand how great and important he truly was. Getting in the WWE Hall of Fame was important to him, but I don't think he grasped the fact that he was quite probably the greatest super heavyweight wrestler of all time. (Andre being the only one that could conceivably rank higher.) This. Perhaps Vader's greatest strength as a wrestler was knowing exactly how much to sell for his opponent in order to make them look credible, without hurting his own credibility as a monster. His matches against Sting, Foley, and Dustin are all master classes in monster heel psychology.

Right one and all, off to use Vader in Fire Pro Wrestling to fuck people up. R.I.P. Big Man.

Big Ass being fired for breaking down a bathroom door is wonderfully poetic.

Awww, shit. Vader is my favorite wrestler of all time and one of two wrestlers who legit terrified me as a little kid. This sucks. You do not fuck with the mastodon helmet. I'd be running, too.

HAPPY MOTHERFUCKING RUSEV DAY!

"Sometimes, son, you gotta buck that system and grab that there lil ole brass ring goddammit." "You got it Stone Cold!" [Stone Cold's truck heard starting up an tearing out of the parking lot to his billion dollar mansion]: [Stone Cold yelling out the window] "And don't forget to click that goddamn lil ole link and subscribe to goddamn Audible! That's one free month with the promo code asskicker. That's Audiblllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeee............."

Enzo was fired for not telling WWE there was a sexual assault investigation of him. And before anyone else does it: BA DA BOOM, RELEASED GUYS IN THE ROOM, HOW YOU DOIN?

Simon Gotch: "Best case scenario, Enzo made a diss rap about a mentally unstable drug addict who needs counseling for both a drug problem and she's bipolar or whatever mental issue she has. She needs to be seeing a psychiatrist and getting drug counselling. She does not need a diss rap being written about her. That is not going to help her situation. And a decent human being would see that and go 'You know what? I'm going to distance myself from this. I'm going to move on and do my own thing. This does not define me. This is not who I am. I did not do this.' They're going to walk away from it because they're clean and innocent. His reaction was instead to do the diss record. Which worst case scenario, he did commit the act of rape, he lucked out because unfortunately the reality of criminal proceedings is that they are financial acts. Lack of evidence usually means that they don't want to spend any more money trying to gather evidence. That it's not been easy enough to justify the cost and they're going to move on. This is not uncommon in cases of sexual assault because again, you rarely have any sort of evidence beyond DNA and all that really shows is that a sex act occurred. It does not show whether or not that act was consensual. So it's just a he said, she said situation unfortunately. So that means worst case scenario, he did a diss track on a woman he raped. So best case scenario he's an awful human being, worst case scenario he's a monster." I think Gotch did less damage to Enzo that time he nearly killed him

The Bus Ride that turned to Shit

You mispelled "It's Vader Time" from NOAH

I think Vader is the one wrestler who felt unbeatable to me as a kid. In my heart of hearts I always thought the good guy was good enough to win no matter how big the odds were, but Vader felt different. Vader was the one dude that I just didn't understand how the good guy was going to win. I couldn't see how you could fight someone who was that big, that strong, that athletic, and that vicious all at the same time. He was like a rhinoceros, I wouldn't even know where to start when trying to figure out how to to beat him.

The Bus Ride from Heck?

The show must go on. EVEN IF YOUR FUCKING EYE COMES OUT OF THE SOCKET~?? WHAT THE FUCK~?? There will never ever be another dude like the Colossus of Chaos. A living mountain of pure evil. The greatest monster heel of my generation.

Yeah, that feud was Foley's idea because he knew that only Big Van Vader would be able to get the Cactus Jack Manson gimmick over as a babyface. It worked so well that he hasn't been able to work heel as Cactus Jack ever since. Part of the reason he assumed the Mankind gimmick when he came to WWE, so the urban legend goes.

Don't think anyone has mentioned the feud with Mick and the Saturday Night matches. While cringe inducing now, amazing at the time.

Remember the first time you saw one of these. Yes, you absolutely fucking do.

His biggest runs were right between boom periods, but I think there's an argument he was one of the most recognizable faces in North American wrestling at that time behind guys like Hogan and Savage who were still around from the 80s. He also really should have had a second career in Hollywood at the very least in the mold of Funk's acting career. He's absolutely perfect in Boy Meets World, and you can tell they liked him as they brought him back multiple times.

Vader coming out with that steam helmet is one of the indelible moments of my young wrestling fandom.

Because I want to watch good wrestling matches

If you work for WWE, lift your hand:

Impact has been really good lately. Keep them far, far away.

Damn. The sad thing is, together, there was money to be made with the two of them. They were guys who could've overcome sloppy work with Enzo's promo and Cass's size. They were WHITE HOT the last year they were in nxt and the first few months they were on Raw. For the life of me I can't understand the decision to split them up. Been downhill since then...

I lost my fucking job but that's okay I can stay home and watch Fox News all day Who needs to fly around to different cities When I can stay home and play with my titties Word

Must have heard that they've started using a new technique at the performance center whereby they can teach guys to be 7' tall. He knew his days were numbered.

Terrible news, Vader is at the same time a one of a kind wrestler and a total broad stroke wrestler. If you looked at him and had only the slightest knowledge of pro-wrestling you'd think that is exactly what a pro-wrestler looks like, either that or a muscle bound guy like Luger, but at the same time he never felt like that, he was Vader and Vader was unique Vader had an aura that was only his, it couldn't be replicated and even when he showed up on Raw with Coachman and was out of shape it didn't really matter because he was Vader and that aura was still there. Truly one of the best big men of all time, possibly the best depending on how you define big man. I wasn't a big WCW fan as a kid but Vader was a guy I'd stop to watch when I saw him on. How could you not like watching him he was a monster but he was athletic, he looked unstoppable but still vulnerable at the right moments. I'm sad that WWE never gave him his due while he was alive, he should be in the HOF he should be revered as an all time great but in WWE's retelling of history they haven't given him the place he deserves and that feels wrong.

Could it be that the suite is seven feet while Cass is 6'9"?