I LOVED him when I was a kid. I loved Star Wars and Darth Vader so thought Big Van Vader was awesome. I followed his career pretty closely growing up and he and Sting were my favorites. (WCW fan) RIP big man.
Him and Bam Bam Bigelow were some of the most agile big men in wrestling when I was growing up. Was a great monster heel during his WCW days, his WWF/WWE run wasn't that special but still performed at a very high level. Sucks that he said 2 years ago that doctors told him he only had 2 years left, sadly he saw the writing on the wall RIP
I said to someone on Monday that of all that wrestling guys gone too soon, I'm surprised he wasn't one. Monday. I feel bad about myself.
Vader is one of those wrestlers whose best days were largely behind him by the time he got his shot in the national promotions, and until I randomly dove down a Wikipedia wormhole on his career several months back, that really colored how I remembered him. I mostly just remember his WWE (then WWF) days, when he had put on some extra weight, would only occasionally do something like go for the moonsault that would show flashes of what he once was, and his reputation as a stiff worker hurt his chances of getting any real push. But if you go back further, he was basically a legend in Japan before even getting to WCW, and even during his time in WCW, he was an upper-card stalwart with some classic matches to his name.
Because I'm an A-hole. FFB moniker has been banned here for years, but I would occasionally create new monikers to get back on and screw around. I guess Clutch either found the Roscoe Arbuckle name amusing enough or he felt I had served my time.
