| Wrestler: | Vader |
|---|---|
| Real Name: | Leon White |
| Birthday: | May 14, 1957 |
| Hometown: | Denver, Colorado |
| Marital Status: | |
| Height & Weight: | 6’5″ – 450 lbs |
| Trained by: | Brad Rheingans |
| Debut: | 1985 |
| Previous Gimmicks: | Leon “Bull Power” White “Baby Bull” Leon White Little Bull Super Vader Big Van Vader |
| Finishing Move: | Powerbomb (WCW) The Vader Bomb (WWF) |
| Favorite Moves: | The Vader-sault Body Avalanche The Chokeslam |
| Notable Feuds: | Ric Flair Sting British Bulldog Hulk Hogan Shawn Michaels Yokozuna Kane Goldust |
Big Van Vader Title History
Big Van Vader is arguably the most successful big man in the history of professional wrestling holding countless titles and earning worldwide recognition and fame through successes in countries all over the world including Japan, Germany and of course the United States. Over the course of his career which to this day has spanned over 20 years, Vader earned a reputation for his massive size and stature and the fact that despite his size, he was perfectly capable of executing aerial maneuvers that men his size simply should not be capable of, as well as his stiff “strong style” wrestling style that was immensely popular on the Japanese Wrestling scene.
Vader started his career in 1985 in the American Wrestling Association. It was here he first began to become noticed working alongside the likes of Scott Hall, Larry Zbyszko and Stan Hansen. A funny story about Vader’s time in AWA is told by Scott Hall in his shoot interview. He said a giant man came to his apartment door carrying suit cases and said he was going to be staying with him for a while. Hall went on to say, when a man of Vader’s size tells you something, you listen, and Hall subsequently became good friends with Vader.
Vader’s time spent with the AWA was short however as in less than a year he had earned a massive reputation on the American scene, but chose to go to Japan to hone his skills. After a few matches in Japan throughout 1986, Vader signed on officially with All Japan Pro Wrestling before moving to New Japan Pro Wrestling. NJPW became Vader’s unofficial home and his favorite place to wrestle. Vader went on to join fellow Americans who had peaked success in Japan including Stan Hansen, Barry Windham and Terry and Dory Funk.
Throughout the early 1990′s, Vader went on to feud with some of Japan’s biggest stars including Tatsumi Fujinami and Riki Choshu eventually winning the IWGP world heavyweight championship in the process. Later on in 1990, Vader made his return to the Untied States as Big Van Vader, a hulking heel monster while juggling his schedule between World Championship Wrestling and his schedule in Japan, the two companies of which had partnered together to trade talent and put on “supercard” matches between both companies main event superstars. This subsequently led to Vader feuding with the likes of Sting, Lex Luger, The British Bulldog and Nikita Koloff, the career of which Vader ended.
Throughout the remained of his career, Vader had stints in the WWF, but to this day chooses to spend the most of his time wrestling in Japan. Vader also became famous for his career ending streak, as well as being the man who wrestled Mick Foley in a match in Germany where Foley lost half of his ear after getting it ripped off by a barbed wire rope. All this, along with Vader’s hard hitting career, have made him one of the most infamous wrestlers of all time in a career that still to this day, while slowing it down a bit in recent years, is still expanding.
To say the least, Vader is without a shadow of a doubt one of the greatest of all time for a variety of reasons. From being one of the most infamous wrestlers of all time to being one of the most uniquely gifted and talented big men to ever lace up a set of boots; there is truly only one Big Van Vader.
written by Wayne K. Wilkins
