The iconic Vader had a tremendous career with stints in WCW, WWE, New Japan, All Japan, and a few other promotions to leave a treasured legacy. Vader perfected the monster heel act during his WCW run feuding with the top faces. However, he might have been an even bigger star in Japan since the audience bought his credibility.
Vader did have some struggles in WWE after signing with huge expectations. Quite a few stories came out about Vader and his various programs in wrestling throughout the years. The late legend had a noteworthy presence backstage in addition to stealing the show in the ring. However, not many fans know about the man known as Vader behind the scenes.
10 Bret Hart Felt He Was Dangerous
Bret Hart has spoken out about his feelings on the matches he worked with Vader in the past. Vader developed a reputation for working stiff and potentially providing danger to some of his opponents not used to his style.
Hart revealed he hated his matches with Vader, and it made him think less of WCW since Vader was the top star there before coming to WWE. The run of Vader in WWE was a bust due to top names like Bret and others feeling he was dangerous.
9 WCW Fired Him for Fight with Paul Orndorff
The end of Vader’s WCW run in the mid-90s caught fans by surprise. Hulk Hogan coming in completely changed the landscape, but Vader was not too far removed from being the most dominant WCW Champion.
WCW released Vader due to his actions in a backstage fight with fellow wrestler “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff. The longer tenure of Orndorff in the industry landed him more respect from his peers. Vader was the one blamed for the altercation and was fired from the company he helped get to the next level.
8 NJPW Almost Picked Ultimate Warrior or Sid For Vader Character
The character and name of Vader started in New Japan where he went by the Big Van Vader moniker. NJPW wanted to push an American wrestler with an unbeatable heel gimmick that Vader used to become a credible star in the industry.
Reports surfaced that Sid Vicious and Ultimate Warrior were each considered for the role due to preferring a traditional-looking American wrestler. Warrior signed with WWE and NJPW ended up choosing Vader over Sid due to preferring his wrestling style.
7 Received Backstage Heat for Not Washing Gear
Vader had a horrible WWE run that saw him failing to hit his potential following the success in NJPW and WCW. The locker room took exception to a few things about Vader from his in-ring style being reckless to the ridiculousness of him not washing his gear regularly.
Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart were the two obvious wrestlers who disliked having to wrestle Vader when having such a close smell of his unwashed gear. Many people in WWE venting about Vader ended up hurting his career.
6 Was Unhappy Heading Into Legendary Match with Ric Flair
Many fans believe that the best match in WCW history came at Starrcade 1993 between Ric Flair and Vader. The return of Flair following his WWE run saw Flair playing a face and putting his career on the line for a shot at Vader’s WCW Championship.
Flair revealed on his old podcast that Vader was upset that the original match against Sid Justice changed due to Sid getting fired for his fight with Arn Anderson. Vader knew he’d have to drop the belt to Flair in Flair’s hometown. The story from Flair claims that he had to fight for real during a short portion of the match due to Vader working stiffer than usual, but they never had issues afterwards.
5 Vince McMahon Wanted to Change His Name
Vader felt that he made a mistake in the early WWE days before even making his debut to upset Vince McMahon. The signing of Vader from WCW saw Vince suggesting a name change to completely revamp the monster as his own creation.
McMahon wanted to call Vader “The Mastodon” with conversations going back-and-forth for days. Vader talked Vince into keeping his name, but WWE still marketed him as The Mastodon for a nickname. The belief of Vader years after WWE was that he’d have had a better chance with the new name knowing that McMahon prefers to push his own creations.
4 WCW Wanted Him on Face Dream Team for War Games
The end of Vader’s WCW career in 1995 saw him missing out on one of the biggest matches of his career. WCW wanted to have the dream team of Vader aligning with super faces Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, and Sting for a War Games team against the Dungeon of Doom.
Hogan cut a promo trying to recruit Vader to the team before the angle was completely dropped. Vader was fired around this time for the fight with Paul Orndorff. WCW ended up replacing him with Lex Luger who was on the path to once again becoming a top-tier face for the dream team in the War Games attraction.
3 Refused to Lose to Will Ospreay
The last rivalry of Vader’s wrestling career came against Will Ospreay of all people. Vader made controversial comments burying both Ospreay and Ricochet following their polarizing match in NJPW with many acrobatic moves.
Ospreay started trolling Vader by doing the VaderBomb finisher to fuel the fire. Vader received a match out of the social media beef when defeating Ospreay at a Revolution Pro event in the United Kingdom. Ospreay claimed that Vader won due to demanding the finish change as he didn’t want to put over the smaller wrestler.
2 Issues With Shawn Michaels Ruined His Biggest WWE Push
"HBK" Shawn Michaels was considered a headache to deal with in the mid-90s during his WWE Championship reign. The opponents to get on his good side like Mankind and Diesel had classic matches with him.
However, someone like Vader to receive Michaels’ anger would see his career suffer for it. Reports indicated that WWE wanted Vader to end Michaels’ WWE Championship reign at SummerSlam 1996 and drop it back to him at Royal Rumble 1997. Michaels’ disdain of working with Vader saw those plans change with Sycho Sid getting that title reign a few months later instead.
1 Missed Out on Starrcade Match Due to Hogan Wanting to Wrestle Friend
Hulk Hogan changed WCW from the day he signed a contract to become the new face of the company. Many of Hogan’s best friends were hired as Hulk believed WCW needed to enhance the supporting cast behind him to pass WCW.
Vader was one of the wrestlers to suffer from the changes. Pitched ideas from 1994 would have seen Vader facing Hogan on WCW’s biggest show Starrcade. Hogan instead faced his best friend The Butcher in a terrible match not worthy of such a stage. Vader feuded with Hogan a few months later in 1995.