10 Greatest WCW Champions Ever
3. Big Van Vader
Big Van Vader would happily have kicked the f*cking sh*t out of you, all your heroes and even their mates if he wanted to. There were few arguments as convincing for making him kingpin in a fictitious sport, and it's all the more astonishing Vince McMahon didn't make millions from him after finally bagging his signature in 1996.
Though never better than when he had a deeply sympathetic babyface across from him, Vader could elicit empathy for any old scrub with the sheer joy he took in pulverising those too weak to do anything about it.
Alongside grizzled manager Harley Race, Vader was a raging bull and seething bully in equal measure, ramping up the intensity for WCW's top babyfaces whenever they'd dare come for his title. Dominant displays against Cactus Jack and Sting were particularly jarring considering the perceived toughness of both, but few commanded feared respect by virtue of their victims' fates quite like the Rocky Mountains monster.