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Thread: R.I.P. Vader

  1. #1

    R.I.P. Vader

    It's been announced that Leon White, known better to most of us as Vader or Big Van Vader, passed away Monday night at the age of 63.

    Vader had been battling heart issues for the past couple of years. In November of 2016, White revealed on Twitter that he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure due to his football and wrestling careers. He said that he had visited two heart doctors, who told him that he only has two years left to live. Vader's son, Jesse White, made the announcement earlier today and mentioned his father was diagnosed with a severe case of pneumonia last month. He said that while his father fought hard and was making progress, "on Monday night his heart had enough and it was his time."

    To be perfectly honest, part of me thought he was bullshitting when he said he'd been told he only had two years to live. I'm suspicious of a lot of things I hear about on Twitter in the first place, but wrestlers are professional bullshitters so I thought that maybe it was setting something up as far as maybe him going on some sort of retirement tour or something and then he'd just sort of miraculously be alright after two years had gone by and he was still around.

    Vader is probably the of the genuinely great superheavyweights in pro wrestling history and was such a believable badass, was freakishly strong and pretty damn athletic for a man well north of 400 lb . Maybe Braun Strowman will be in his own time but that will take time. Big Show could have been but, in my eyes, a lot of damage was done to him in WWE over the years with ridiculous gimmicks, booking and storylines that it made you forget just how much of a threat he could've been made to anyone. Vader was a major player just about everywhere he went but he was especially dominant in Japan. In New Japan Pro-Wrestling, he was a 3 time IWGP Heavyweight Champion and Tag Team Champion once with Bam Bam Bigelow before eventually making his way to WCW in the early 90s where he captured the WCW World Heavyweight Championship 3 times. When it came to dominating big men, nobody could touch Vader from around the late 80s through the mid 90s. Even later in his career, he won All Japan's Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship twice.

    So long Vader, thanks for the greatness.
    "What Do I Know Of Cultured Ways, The Gilt, The Craft And The Lie?
    I, Who Was Born In A Naked Land And Bred In The Open Sky.
    The Subtle Tongue, The Sophist Guile, They Fail When The Broadswords Sing.
    Rush In And Die Dogs - I Was A Man Before I Was King."


    Conan Of Cimmeria

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  3. #2
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    It was Vader's time.

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    Vader is literally my earliest childhood memory when it comes to wrestling. First heel I've ever marked for.

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  6. #4
    Junior Member nightmare's Avatar

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    Somewhere on Earth, an Irish Canadian shed a tear....

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