Big Van Vader

[Necro]

Championships and accomplishments

• All Japan Pro Wrestling
  • Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship (2 times)[78]
  • World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Steve Williams[79]
  • Champion Carnival (1999)[7][5]
• Catch Wrestling Association
  • CWA Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship (1 time)[80]
  • CWA World Heavyweight Championship (3 times)[81]
  • CWA Bremen Catch Cup (1987)
• Impact Zone Wrestling
  • IZW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
• New Japan Pro-Wrestling
  • IWGP Heavyweight Championship (3 times)[7][82]
  • IWGP Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Bam Bam Bigelow[7][83]
  • Super Grade Tag League (1991) – with Tatsumi Fujinami[84]
  • IWGP Title Tournament (1989)[85]
• Pro Wrestling Illustrated
  • Wrestler of the Year (1993)[86]
  • Ranked No. 2 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1993[87]
  • Ranked No. 27 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003[88]
  • Ranked No. 36 of the top 100 tag teams of the "PWI Years" with Bam Bam Bigelow in 2003[88]
• Pro Wrestling Noah
  • GHC Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Scorpio[37]
  • GHC Tag Team Title Tournament[89] (2001) - with Scorpio
• Tokyo Sports
  • Best Tag Team Award (1998) with Stan Hansen[90]
• Universal Wrestling Association
  • UWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)[91]
• Union of Wrestling Forces International
  • Pro-Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)[92]
  • Best of the World Tournament (1994)[93]
• World Championship Wrestling
  • WCW United States Heavyweight Championship (1 time)[94][95]
  • WCW World Heavyweight Championship (3 times)[96][97][98]
  • BattleBowl (1993)[99]
• World Wrestling Federation
  • Slammy Award(1 time)
    • Crime of the Century (1996)[100] – Assault on WWF President Gorilla Monsoon
• Wrestling Observer Newsletter
  • Best Heel (1993)[101]
  • Best Wrestling Maneuver (1993) Moonsault[101]
  • Most Improved Wrestler (1999)[101]
  • Wrestler of the Year (1993)[101]
  • Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)

Themes:









Tributes:

 

[Chris]

I consider Vader's '93 year to be one of the very best by any wrestler in history, even more so bc overall '93 WCW was not good lmao

 

[Necro]

Kane vs. Vader: WWE No Way Out of Texas: In Your House



Shawn Michaels vs. Vader - WWE Title Match: SummerSlam 1996



Undertaker vs. Vader: Royal Rumble 1997




WCW Starrcade 1992 Sting Vs Vader




Here are some matches.

 

[Grimoire Lenin]

Vader truly is the man. His Mid-90's run was such a shambolic misbooking tbh. As soon as Hulk Hogan arrived in WCW, he was treated like shit and booked like just another goof despite being a dominant monster less than a year before. In WWF, politics fucked over Leon worse than anything else as he should have won the WWF Championship and been the main adversary for Shawn going into Royal Rumble 1997. His 1997 should have also been dominant with at least a title run with some sort of belt, heck, make him a tag champion instead of the fucking Headbangers. By 1998 though he really had been so badly misused that he gave up.

Vader probably should have quit the WWF and gone back to New Japan or even All Japan in the late 90's, could you imagine Vader vs. Misawa?

 

[Death By Looch]

Hands down, best big man (besides Taker) in the business for me.

 

[GARBAGE]

WCW not running a Vader vs. Dustin Rhodes feud throughout 1995 is just about the worst thing in wrestling history. Their match at the Clash in late 94 is one of my favourite things ever and could have kicked off an awesome PPV program.

Vader probably should have quit the WWF and gone back to New Japan or even All Japan in the late 90's, could you imagine Vader vs. Misawa?

He did go to AJ, and Vader vs. Misawa happened at least four times in 1999 (and at least once in Noah after that).

 

[Hoss]

It's criminal that he didn't get used as a proper main event attraction in WWF, although somewhat understandable with the amount of wear and tear he had sustained up to that point. To me he is the best proper big man in wrestling history.

 

[Necro]

Big Van Vader vs Antonio Inoki (New Japan 12.27.1987) (Vader Debut)




Big Van Vader vs Antonio Inoki (New Japan 01/04/1988)




Big Van Vader and Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Keiji Mutoh and Hiroshi Hase New Japan on 3/1/92




Toshiaki Kawada vs Vader(AJPW 00-02-17 - )




AJPW - 03-06-1999 - Vader vs. Akira Taue (Triple Crown Title - Vacant)




AJPW - 02-27-2000 - Vader (c) vs. Kenta Kobashi (Triple Crown Title)




AJPW - 05-02-1999 - Vader (c.) vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (Triple Crown Title)




Stan Hansen & Vader vs Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa

 

[Necro]

Don Frye vs Vader




Very cool to watch, I always a Don Frye mark so seeing him and Vader go at it was amazing to see.

 

[Chris]

On this day 22 years ago, Vader won the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship for the second and final time during his redemption tour after the disastrous end to his WWF run by defeating Mitsuharu Misawa and further proving he could still go with the greats

 

[Chris]

On this day in 1992, Vader regained the WCW world title from Ron Simmons

 

[Cwalker]

It's criminal that he didn't get used as a proper main event attraction in WWF, although somewhat understandable with the amount of wear and tear he had sustained up to that point. To me he is the best proper big man in wrestling history.

What’s criminal is that Shawn Michaels was such a dick in the 90s that he robbed Vader off what would’ve only been a 2-3 month run with the belt

 

[Grimoire Lenin]

What’s criminal is that Shawn Michaels was such a dick in the 90s that he robbed Vader off what would’ve only been a 2-3 month run with the belt

Chances are if he was going to be given the belt, he'd hold onto it until he dropped it to Shawn at the Royal Rumble.

 

[Cwalker]

Chances are if he was going to be given the belt, he'd hold onto it until he dropped it to Shawn at the Royal Rumble.

That was exactly the plan. Vader was supposed to win it at Survivor Series 96 and drop it back to Shawn at Rumble 97 since it was in San Antonio. Shawn threw a hissy fit about working with Leon so they went with Sid instead

 

[Chris]