Andrew Lutzke
Vader WCW Timeline 1993
Presented by Sean Oliver and the Kayfabe Commentaries crew.
Sean reminds us all that Vader beat Ron Simmons in the days following Starrcade 1992 in order to reclaim the WCW World title.
Vader felt that the WCW World title was far more important than the WWF’s version. He does put over New Japan and All-Japan’s championships as well.
WCW didn’t have a set date for when Vader was to lose the title, and the company liked Vader enough that they allowed him dates in Japan while still portraying their champion.
The Japanese press was far more demanding of the wrestling champions than how the American media covers it.
Harley Race and Vader rode together from town to town. Race drove like a wild man, going top speed with a beer and cigarette in each hand.
Race gave Vader a lot of help in growing as a wrestler, and he would never bash Vader’s work in front of others.
Cactus Jack turned babyface early in the year. Vader felt he and Mick worked the same violent style whether portraying a babyface or heel.
Foley was a great guy and had a fantastic mind for the business.
Paul Heyman was fired for falsifying expense reports. Heyman tried to swoon Vader into coming to ECW after WCW fired Vader in the fall of 1995.
Vader had a 450-pound bench press and could press well over 300 pounds over his head.
Bill Apter was a welcome part of the wrestling business as his magazines helped put over the talent.
A part of the joys of fandom died when kayfabe went by the wayside. A mag like PWI no longer has a place in a world of instant feedback that social media provides.
Erik Watts was a nice kid who found himself in an awkward place as he was a rookie who happened to be the son of the booker, and thus was pushed way too hard.
Dustin Rhodes overcame a similar background of being the son of the booker and became a damn good hand in his own right.
Vader befriended Cheatum the Midget while they taped the WCW mini-movies together.
When Sting and Vader collided in a violent strap match at Superbrawl. Vader’s ear was accidentally bladed by Sting during the match and he was in a lot of pain.
Vader always knew if a guy had “it” if they would give ideas and input in the locker room while putting together a match.
Bruiser Brody worked with White a lot in the AWA and he learned how to defend himself and fight for getting his spots into a match as well.
When he told Brody how something was going to go down one night, Brody responded by starting the match by kicking White as hard as he could in the face and busting up his mouth.
Vader puts over how in demand he was around the world at this point and how he could have jumped ship for crazy money.
Ole Anderson was against Vader using a moonsault given how huge he was.
Eric Bischoff is named WCW Vice President after Bill Watts stepped down. Vader feels he helped WCW reach new heights… eventually.
The steroids that Vader used were prescribed legally.
Vader was born six weeks premature, but still came out weighing almost eleven pounds.
WCW added the NWA World title into the mix in late 1992. Vader feels it probably diminished his WCW title a bit.
Reid Flair met Vader shortly before his death. Vader mentored him in how the business worked in Japan, some training ideas and other such things.
Vader laments that he didn’t politic more to get his way since he yielded a good amount of power at the time.
The “Lost in Cleveland” skits with Cactus Jack acting like he was suffering from amnesia is an example of something Vader wished he would have put a kibosh on.
Modern wrestling has things far too micromanaged. The improvisation and creativity that used to belong to the workers is now gone.
Bleeding hard way didn’t bother Vader, and he would tell guys to potato him to get blood from old scars.
Jim Ross left WCW in early 92 which hurt the company since Ross had an innate ability to get matches and talent over.
Vader feels that he and Steve Austin would have had an awesome run as a team, but they were only able to partner up a limited amount of times in WCW.
WCW tried to run a house show in NYC. Ric Flair no showed due to a travel issue and that among other things lead to the fans chanting “refund!”
Vader didn’t care where he worked in particular, he just wanted beer after the matches and to count down the days before he could be home again.
Mick Foley wanted to put over his feud with Vader in the best possible way, so he asked Vader to punch him as hard as he could over and over until he suffered facial cuts, a dislocated jaw and other injuries during one of their first TV matches.
Japan promoters paid Vader crazy money to come in for some limited dates overseas.
He worked for some fake shoot fighting promotions in Japan like the UWFI, where the only guy that scared Vader was Victor Zangriev, who was a legit Russian wrestler.
Ric Flair had tremendous political clout that allowed him to get his way in many situations during this time.
Japan offered Sid Vicious the “Big Van Vader” gimmick first.
Vader explains why Sid’s style didn’t mesh with the Japanese style, so he wasn’t a good fit for the gimmick anyway.
Sid and Vader’s team had two guys who growled and hissed, which didn’t exactly translate to great promos.
Micheal Buffer came in to do ring announcing work. Vader implies he was a ladies man. Buffer seemed to think the wrestler’s were crazy, but liked the big checks he cashed.
White goes on and on several times about how WCW wasted the feud between he and Foley and never got all they could have out of it.
Bischoff orders WCW Worldwide to be pre-taped months in advance, which revealed planned title changes months ahead of time.
Vader talks about his life changes in recent times, including his divorce, weight loss, and quitting drinking.
The art of doing a moonsault is gone over. Having to look down at a crowd 15 feet below you, before flipping backwards and crashing (gently) onto your opponent is a scary moment.
The road travel killed marriages.
Davey Boy Smith cost the locker room a bunch of money as he had a habit of cutting up people’s suitcases and clothes as a “rib”. If you freaked out on him, he would do it even more often.
Sid Vicious met Harlem Heat on an indy show and liked them right away. The original gimmick idea was for them to be escaped murderers in chains led to the ring by Col. Parker.
The Shockmaster debuts and falls flat on his face. Oliver suggests that the heels should have run over and put the boots to him to cover for the slip up.
The Road Warriors were giant roided and painted up guys in 1983 but by 1993 the gimmick had been copied a ton of times and everybody was on roids, making the Warriors far less special.
Vader was VERY happy with his pay and that may have been part in why he overlooked protecting his own interests better when it came to booking.
Inoki was upset with Vader for jumping ship to the UWFI. He had treated Vader very well in New Japan and had free perks from the office like having Japanese women come to his hotel room to give him massages and such.
Vader had a seriously messed up knee that New Japan wanted him to tape up and work injured. Vader refused and that caused some friction.
New Japan owned the “Big Van” part of White’s gimmick name, but “Vader” was George Lucus’ trademark, so White was able to keep using the name.
Vader puts over the WWF/E hard as being the best wrestling group ever.
The modern era of Japanese wrestling depresses Vader as the business is all but dead.
Bill Watts took a cut of Vader’s $100,000 a match deal he signed with the UWFI in order to make up for Vader missing WCW house shows.
The WCW crew was touring England with the boys partying hard with booze and drugs. Then the plane rides also saw the boys get liquored up. During one night, the boys drank and drugged themselves up till almost the break of dawn. Soon after they finally went to bed, Sid Vicious and Arn Anderson ended up in a knife fight that ended up with both men stabbed. Vader saved Sid’s life by plugging a gushing wound with his thumb. Sid ended up fire over the incident.
Vader won the “BattleBowl” PPV but didn’t get a fancy ring like Sting had received a year earlier after winning the event.
Bischoff praised Vader and Sting for keeping WCW afloat during a down period before Hogan could be signed and start the new business boom for them.
White won’t go into too many details about his backstage fight with Paul Orndorff that saw Orndorff kick his butt.
Vader agrees to drop the strap to Flair at Starrcade, and booker Dusty Rhodes promised that Vader would win the title back six weeks later at SuperBrawl. Before that could occur, Flair became booker and canceled the title switch.
We close with White talking about a weight lifting tool he’s developing.
Final Thoughts: A lot of ground was covered here that has been gone over before but hearing Vader’s personal point of view made for interesting viewing. He has a healthy ego but maintains his “nice guy” real life persona.
If you’re interested in Vader shooting on the rest of his career, you can check out my article on a previous Vader interview: http://culturecrossfire.com/wrestling/kayfabe-lies-and-alibis-ringside-with-vader/#.VTE2pfnF_rE
