Andrew Lutzke
Presented by Kayfabe Commentaries
This is a “unique” shoot concept as Sean Oliver and Vader are sitting in front of a TV and they will be watching random Vader matches and getting Leon’s memories and thoughts about his career as they watch. We of course don’t get to see the matches due to copyright issues, so whenever possible I will try and find a youtube link to share that correlates with what the guys are watching.
Bruiser Brody vs. “Baby Bull” Leon White – from a 1986 AWA TV taping.
Vader says “Baby Bull” was a nickname carried over from his college football days.
At that time his 300+ pound frame was unique in sports.
White says the AWA still had some solid guys on the roster like Stan Hansen, The Freebirds, Jerry Blackwell, The Rockers and others.
Leon feels Verne knew his national expansion would/had failed and just wanted to protect his home market by this point.
Greg Gagne was actually running shows for his dad as Verne wouldn’t travel to house shows. Vader wouldn’t want such responsibility.
Brody is put over as an all time great big man.
Vader’s knee is “injured” by Brody and White believes this match was his last in the AWA.
Boxer Scott LeDoux and Vader got into a heated argument in the AWA over a locker room incident.
Brody was Vader’s first AWA opponent and Bruiser blasted him stiffly quite often. After Brody beat him up quite a few times, Stan Hansen was Vader’s next series. Vader credits them for teaching him his stiff style.
Big Van Vader vs. Antonio Inoki – The debut of the Vader character.
Tatsumi Fujinami was worried about Vader’s reputation as a big stiff (and the fact that the character was new and thus not a known commodity) and refused to face Vader and job here. Inoki, the New Japan leader stepped in and put Vader over instantly as the next big thing.
Inoki told Vader to be stiff and dominant as Vader was to be among the new breed of big scary heels for New Japan since Andre, Hansen, Brody, Gordy and others had all gone elsewhere.
“Vader” was a famous samurai in Japanese lore.
Sid Vicious and The Ultimate Warrior were both picked to be Vader before White.
The fans rioted after the match.
Vader vs. Shinya Hashimoto – 1989 Dome show.
Vader felt Shinya was over paid and over hyped. Hashimoto also drank and smoked too much.
Vader complains about Shinya’s stiffness and his shoot joint manipulation moves.
Vader vs. Stan Hansen – All Japan vs. New Japan “Super Fight” from 1990.
This match cost Vader a lot of money for hospital bills as Hansen smashes Vader in his face and Vader’s eye pops out from Hansen’s thumb.
Vader jumps ahead to his WWF run and explains that he was injured heading into the WWF and Vader only took a few weeks off after surgery instead of the six to eight months he should have and after that Vader just could never work up to the level he wanted to.
Hansen also broke his nose early in the match and Vader had to have it rebuilt.
Vader and Stan were friends, but Vader thinks Hansen intentionally went after his eye because he was pissed at Vader for attacking him earlier than planned – Vader says Hansen came at him first.
Vader puts over Bam Bam Bigelow – IIRC Bigelow buries Vader in his shoot that I covered a few months ago.
Leon blames a European tour for a lot of his growing belly as he loved his German beer.
Inoki had the young training wrestlers put his socks on him as a way to teach them respect.
New Japan offered Vader a lot of money and a long term deal – but Vader jumped to WCW instead. Leon regrets leaving Japan.
Inoki and Baba didn’t meet in front of the guys even though they co-promoted this show. Vader isn’t sure if they met behind the scenes at all.
Around this point Vader won major belts in Germany, Japan and Mexico.
Sting vs. Vader – Vader wins the WCW title
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1uack_sting-vs-vader-great-american-bash_sport
(Here’s their first match ever as well as their angle to set up the title match – kind of crazy that WCW put their first match on the “C” show. The crowd pops for the heel conquering the top face for the title – pretty surprising.)
WCW’s business stunk.
Sting was a great athlete – Vader loved working with him.
Race would threaten Vader with a taser at various times – If Vader was going too slow getting ready to leave, if Vader didn’t keep Harley’s hand filled with a beer can while traveling – etc etc.
Harley would teach Leon how to improve, but never in front of others. Vader appreciated his lessons.
Vader learned how to moonsault on a trampoline.
Vader vs Joe Thurman/TJ McCoy
Infamous match where Vader breaks a jobber’s back.
Vader gets a bit somber as he expresses his regret over roughing the kid up.
Jobber’s had their own locker room.
Vader spent hours with Joe in the hospital that night and gave him money for expenses.
Joe ultimately became a police officer and White is glad to hear he’s okay. (Supposedly Joe’s son has commented on this video and stated Joe wrestled again after this.)
Vader vs. Cactus Jack – Foley loses an ear.
Harley Race taught Vader how to split an eye open with a punch – Vader and Race both failed when trying on Mick.
Vader was blamed by some for the ear incident but Foley called the spot and the ropes did the damage.
Vader vs. Shawn Michaels – SummerSlam ‘96
Vader felt Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan both wanted him gone from WCW to take his spot.
Bischoff couldn’t give Vader a long-term plan other than a losing to Hogan a bunch.
Vader wanted to go over first and build to a Hogan return series.
Hogan was not over with the fans and Vader couldn’t get them to stop cheering the heel (himself).
Vader would be canned after attacking WCW road agent Paul Orndorff.
Vader suspects people within WCW were setting him up to be fired as Vader was accosted by random guys several times over the last few weeks before the incident with Paul and Vader figures somebody wanted him to attack a fan and get fired.
Ultimately Vader refused for weeks to go have promo pictures taken and Orndorff gave him guff for being late for TV interview tapings.
Leon glosses over Paul kicking his butt in the “fight”.
WCW had the Hogan and Flair cliques and then WWF had Shawn’s gang of butt pirates.
Shawn was great in the ring even though he whined about Vader’s stiffness.
Sid was given Vader’s spot on top after Summerslam due to Shawn’s politics.
Vader admits he blew some spots in this match.
Heels call the matches usually but Shawn insisted on calling these matches.
Vader was burnt out by the WWF schedule.
Super Vader vs. Takada – 1994 worked MMA match
MMA in Japan can be traced back to the fans love of Pro Wrestling and this was a hybrid of both.
Crowds were huge as the shows were spread apart like a modern MMA company model.
Final thoughts:
Honestly I was leery when I heard about this concept – I feared a lot of dead air as Vader would get wound up watching the match. However, the match choices were a really solid and diverse cross section of Vader’s career and Vader himself proved to have good memory and a willingness to share what was on his mind. A fun watch!
