10 Wrestlers Who Should Never Have Signed With WWE
4. Vader
Leon ‘Vader’ White was booked as an absolute monster in WCW and NJPW. Famously, Stan Hansen knocked his eye right from its socket mid-match, only for Vader to pop it back in and keep fighting. His powerbomb gave Sting internal bleeding. His moonsaults looked legitimately terrifying.
He should have been a top heel in WWF in his day, especially given the relatively thin roster at the time.
Instead he fell victim to backstage politicking. Shawn Michaels was apparently less than enamoured of Vader’s stiff working style. He also upset Vince McMahon by refusing to rebrand his character from Vader to 'The Mastodon'.
Booked to lose more often than not, Vader wasn’t simply under-utilised or overlooked by WWE. He was actively mishandled. His nadir came when he was booked to lose to Kane and then describe himself on camera as a “big fat piece of sh*t.”
It couldn’t be said that Vader wasn’t trying. He briefly wound up in jail in Kuwait after a misjudged but well meaning attempt to defend the legitimacy of the wrestling business.
He left WWE for All Japan Pro Wrestling and was given one more heavyweight title run. The contrast between champion and piece of s**t couldn’t have been more stark.