While most heel champions end up retaining their titles and extending their reigns through chicanery and cowardly actions, that's not the case with "monster heels" - bad guys pushed as big and scary because, well, they're big and scary. Monster heels, especially those who can really work, occupy a very valuable niche in pro wrestling, and in the history of the sport, none have ever been as great as Big Van Vader. Vader, who played in the NFL prior to becoming a wrestler, debuted for New Japan in 1987. He took the company by storm, capturing the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and the attention of WCW. After Vader's third IWGP Title reign ended, he jumped to the states full-time. Paired with Harley Race as his manager, Vader quickly defeated Sting for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. Again, it was the first of three. Vader's journeys brought him to WWE, where he failed to make the same impact. Some feared that his career was over, but he headed back to Japan - this time for All Japan Pro Wrestling - and found the old fire once more, winning the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship twice and engaging in classic battles with Mitsuharu Misawa and Kenta Kobashi. In his career, Vader also captured a number of smaller "world" titles, including those of Japan's UWFi, Mexico's UWA, and Germany's CWA. All in all, the fearsome monster became one of wrestling's most decorated champions ever.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
