Brian Fowler Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 3 minutes ago, Tromatagon said: Yeah, that match was fucking dope. Vader does what I can only describe as a reverse tope into the ring, which would have been a cool spot for a junior in 1994, much less a 400 lbs monster. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeadCheese Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 Two of the best gifs that I could find from Vader always really fun runs as a dad on Boy Meets World 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(BP) Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 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. 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nice Guy Eddie Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 Vader should have gotten a title reign for that...and fuck Shawn Michaels for not dropping the title to Vader at Summerslam '96. 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Control Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 Vader is my favourite wrestler of all time. He’s powerbombing angels in heaven now. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nice Guy Eddie Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 3 minutes ago, Control said: Vader is my favourite wrestler of all time. He’s powerbombing angels in heaven now. Vader and Bam Bam Bigelow have reunited and they're tearing it up right now. Vader & Bigelow vs. Terry Gordy & Dr. Death 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 The first time I ever heard of Vader was the build to the Flair match. I didn't watch WCW at the time but the ads made it seem like life and death. Then he showed up in the WWF and I immediately had a new favorite. Even as a kid I knew when they were burying him and it stank. Then, years later, I see him against Takada and along with the classic King's Road stuff, a new world of wrestling opened to me. Vader was a waystation wrestler that helped connect the dots and I'm forever indebted to him for that. Feel no pain, big man. RIP 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 46 minutes ago, J.T. said: 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. I loved the guy. I feel like I have lost a family member today. You're thinking of their 1987 match. This was their Dome match from 1996 during Inoki's retirement countdown. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 Also, I just watched the Ron Simmons title change last Saturday -- that's how recent Vader has been seen by me recently. Now I need to see the Flair match that I've STILL never seen... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 If you listen to past stories from Cornette and Ross, they paint Leon as very insecure, particularly in his WWF tenure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Green Meanie Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 By all intensive purposes he was a good man in real life that got handed some sucky medial issues. A big loss for the industry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firebreaker Chip Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 1 hour ago, mattdangerously said: 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. The execution of the Starrcade match as a plausible way for Vader to be beaten always struck me as particularly masterful Jesus what a scary human being he was in that WCW run though, like probably a few people in the UK my first exposure to WCW was him destroying a very young Bagwell on Worldwide, watching in horror and wondering how Ventura was cheering an on-air murder so jovially Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PetrolCB Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 What more can you say? Greatest big man of all time and it’s a damn shame he’ll never get the hall of fame moment he deserved. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victator Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 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. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DreamBroken Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 Damn. RIP to one of the all time greats. Sad to hear, loved the pop when he showed up in the build to Raw 1000. Those BMW episodes are so fun, total 90s greatness. 2 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said: Vader and Bam Bam Bigelow have reunited and they're tearing it up right now. Vader & Bigelow vs. Terry Gordy & Dr. Death One of my all time favorite Fire Pro matchup pairings, me and my brothers losing our minds when we first got Fire Pro G on Playstation and that was the final of a big tag team tournament. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L_W_P Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 6 hours ago, Smelly McUgly said: Vader/Sting in the King of Cable match is one of my sharpest childhood wrestling memories and is still a great fucking match today. Sting's best opponent. Yeah I said it. They should have done so much more work together. RIP Vader 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Kronos Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 I see there's a Sting/Vader/DDP table for 3 video. Never noticed it before -- I'll have to check that out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boydy Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 I really wish Vader and Sabu had a match when they were both in their prime, I bet they would of worked a really good hard hitting match. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
"Stone Cold" Steve Austin Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zakk_Sabbath Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 3 hours ago, Brian Fowler said: He had a lot of matches with Traylor, but I'm pretty sure the specific one you guys are thinking of is Spring Stampede 94. There's so much good stuff on that PPV that I don't know if i've actually seen that match in its entirety until today, but WOW he worked his ass off for him. Sure, he didn't get the famed "one last run" or the HOF nod, but I'm still glad he got that moment™ on WWE TV with the Heath Slater vs legends thing a few years back--not that that's everything, but just to at least put the guy on the international stage once more, and hopefully create more little dorks like us who might've gone right to YouTube to look up his shit with Hansen or Cactus or Sting or whatever (I think that was pre-Network?) For the record, the first two WWF action figures I ever owned in the 90s were Vader and Bret, so I always had an affinity for both guys. Another random thought: I for some reason loved when he'd put his singlet on backwards but just say ah fuck it. What a bummer. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 15 minutes ago, Zakk_Sabbath said: the Heath Slater vs legends thing a few years back 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 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Kronos Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 Aww, man, that clip with Slater makes me happy. Never seen that segment before. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nice Guy Eddie Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 13 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said: 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 Not even Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler can ruin that. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nice Guy Eddie Posted June 20, 2018 Share Posted June 20, 2018 For a part Italian kid growing up in New Jersey, whose first exposure to wrestling was the WWF in 1988, Vader attacking Gorilla Monsoon was like he attacked a family member. Keep in mind, I loved Vader in WCW until Hogan showed up and ruined him. I eventually got over Vader's attack on Gorilla. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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