15 Things We Learned From Dark Side Of The Ring: Vader
2. His Infamous Promo Was All Vince McMahon
You might not be too surprised to learn this one.
At Over The Edge 1998, Vader lost a bang average 'Mask vs. Mask' match to Kane. Post-match, Michael Cole caught a word with the distraught big man. That's when Leon said the following: “Maybe Vader Time’s over. I’m just a big piece of sh**. A big fat piece of sh**.
Gerald Brisco, who was another talking head on this week's 'Dark Side', said that skit was largely Vince McMahon's wording. It’s what the WWF boss really thought of Leon by ’98. Cornette thinks it “killed the character of Vader” completely, and Foley asked VICE's cameras what could’ve been had White been able to recapture the magic of his stints in Japan and WCW.
Being fair, Brisco outright says that McMahon asked Leon to "be honest" and tell people that he's "just a big piece of sh**" - he didn't necessarily add in the word "fat". That's splitting hairs to the extreme, but it's worth pointing out. Regardless, the promo exposed that Vader was going nowhere in the WWF. Well, nowhere but further down the card.
VICE ran clips of Leon staring at the lights for everyone from Al Snow and Bradshaw to a young Edge. His entire career hit the skids, and that had a tremendously negative impact on Leon's personal life. Both Jesse and Debra noticed a change in him around then. His confidence had been shot to pieces, and he started to believe that he was just a waster who had nothing left to offer.
There's something incredibly sad about that.