Something many fans tend to forget about Brock Lesnar is that he wrestled in Japan after his football prospects fell through. While in Japan, Lesnar won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, one of the most prestigious wrestling championships on the planet. This proved that Lesnar could be a big draw anywhere, and, if it werent for what he called visa problems, he mightve stayed in Japan longer and enjoyed even more success. That said, however, Lesnars career in Japan was nowhere near as successful as Vaders. The best moments of Vaders career were in Japan. He was an incredible athlete in both New Japan and All Japan, and enjoyed long title runs and very memorable feuds against the best of the best of both companies. In fact, it was Vaders fantastic run as IWGP Heavyweight Champion that got him WCWs attention. Vader was one of the most successful gaijin wrestlers in Japanese history: he captured the IWGP Heavyweight Championship three times and the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship twice. Few wrestlers can say that they main-evented in both All Japan and New Japan during both companies peak years in the 1990s, but Vader is one who can. Lesnar, meanwhile, had a very brief run in Japan, but it still goes to show that big, muscular Americans can still draw in other parts of the world.
Alexander Podgorski is a writer for WhatCulture that has been a fan of professional wrestling since he was 8 years old. He loves all kinds of wrestling, from WWE and sports entertainment, to puroresu in Japan.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Queen's University in Political Studies and French, and a Master's Degree in Public Administration. He speaks English, French, Polish, a bit of German, and knows some odd words and phrases in half a dozen other languages.
