6 Ups & 4 Downs From Vader's Legendary Wrestling Career
2. The Champ Is Here
WCW Heavyweight Champion 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 when watching his Atlanta back catalogue.
It's a formula not bettered since Brock Lesnar returned to WWE in 2011. Like 'The Beast', Vader was never better than when he had a deeply sympathetic babyface across from him, but the masked monster could elicit empathy for just about anybody on the roster 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. Fierce and dominant displays against Cactus Jack, Sting and Ron Simmons were particularly jarring considering the perceived toughness of the trio, but few commanded respect by virtue of their victims' fates quite like the Rocky Mountains monster.