I saw Vader in WCW way before WWF. Vader was the reason I initially checked out WWF because he went there from WCW. And the reason I shortly stopped watching it again.
Vader was booked shitty in WWF, but does it really matter? He's still had the kind of career very, very, very few wrestlers wouldn't be jealous of. Vader was also already in his 40s when he showed up in WWF.
• A lot of people forget, but Vader was super big in the early 90s. Which was quite the feat in WCW before they started beating WWF in ratings. He was parodied/featured in video games, comic books, toy lines, talk shows, and so on.
• He had a deal with WCW where he could work WCW shows and NJPW shows, and NJPW paid him very well as did WCW. The guy made a ton of money in the late 80s and early 90s. A lot of wrestlers weren't allowed to do that back then, especially world champions. Hell, a lot of wrestlers didn't HAVE contracts back then.
• Huge star in NJPW. Held wins over legends who would rarely put anyone over at the time. First ever Gaijin IWGP champion and one of the longest reigning IWGP champions of all time. Keep in mind, this was also when Japan was still making big money according to both Vader and Bam Bam in their shoots. Not just NJPW either. Everyone.
• Huge star in WCW. For most of early 90s WCW, the faces of WCW were Sting and Vader. Not Flair. TV guide would always mention Sting and Vader every week, I remember that. Even if they weren't wrestling each other, they'd mention who they were wrestling. Steiners and Luger were fine too, but they were the centerpieces of the company and were one of the few reasons people watched.
• Second most successful big man wrestler of all time behind Andre. Not just in championships but in tv ratings, money earned, and just being seen as a valuable commodity.
The only reason Vader isn't as well remembered is because none of his success was in WWF. With the Network, with him being on the 'best big man' DVD box with Andre and Bam Bam, he'll likely get a little more remembered, but the dude was a megastar in the states and in Japan in the late 80s and early 90s. So I'm not going to be bothered that Shawn didn't want him to be a star in WWF.
Did Vader and Scott Norton ever trade haymakers for 30 minutes?
IF they did, there's no footage of it. There's also no footage of Vader vs Quake. They did tag team a few times though.
Good guy Chono;
That match was so ridiculous.
Much different outcome than Onita vs Sasaki
Definitely going to check this out, I haven't seen enough of Brisco and sounds like he meshed well with Inoki. Have you seen the Billy Robinson match? It's a long one, but well worth a watch.
Only 70s stuff I've checked out so far has been Andre/Hogan stuff and Brisco vs Inoki. There's more Wes Brisco matches than Jack Brisco matches. Ain't that fucked? Makes sense though, Jack worked more AJPW than NJPW. I think even the Inoki match was a 'special event' match. I'd say it starts slow like most matches of that type, but I don't think it does. Like as soon as you see the match start you realize it's a Jack Brisco match and it's gonna go a certain way. And it does. The most 'big spot' moments are at the end, and they're all at the hands of Inoki.
