Sting Comforted Vader In His Final Days

The wrestling world lost Leon White earlier this week. The wrestler better known as Big Van Vader touched a lot of people in his 63 years. Wrestling legends and personalities, such as Mick Foley and Jim Ross, have paid tribute to Vader in the days since his death. His memory was honored at the NJPW shows this weekend as well.

TMZ has published an interview with Vader’s son, former NXT wrestler Jesse White. White wrestled under the name Jake Carter in WWE developmental from 2011 to 2013. According to Jesse, Sting was a big help to the family in Vader’s final days.

“Dallas Diamond Page, [Stone Cold Steve] Austin, Mick Foley,” White mentioned as having helped but one of Vader’s old friends made an extra special impression. “I do have to send a big thank-you out to Sting, Steve Borden.”

“Sting has been a huge blessing,” White said, also noting they had grown closer since Vader’s health began to decline.  “My father was a God-fearing man and so was Sting, and they would sit down and read the bible together. Go over the Bible, just talk about life and good time stories and, yeah, Stings been a huge blessing throughout this process.”

Sting and Vader were rivals in the ring. Vader won his first WCW World Championship from Sting in 1992, simultaneously ending Sting’s first run with the belt. Vader would lose the belt to Ron Simmons but gain it back just 5 months later. In 1993, Sting defeated Vader to win his 2nd WCW World Championship. He would drop the title back to Vader just 6 days later, however. All throughout 1992 and 1993, Sting and Vader would wrestle each other on WCW house shows as well.

Big Van Vader

 

The legendary wrestler, Big Van Vader passed away today from complications from pneumonia.

Vader was considered one of the greatest super-heavyweight wrestlers of all times.  It was amazing to watch him use his size and weight to make his moves look more painful than when performed by someone half his size.

I first saw Vader at WCW's Great American Bash in 1990.  He came out to the ring wearing the mastodon mask that spouted smoke once he took it off.  I was scared of him.  He wasn't like the big, lovable El Gigante.  Vader was a massive man that scared the crap out of me.

Watching Vader in the ring, I was amazed at what he could do.  His speed was that of a man half of his weight.  Watching him do a moonsault off the top rope, my jaw dropped.  I never thought a man of his size could be able to do a move like that.

I was never lucky enough to watch Vader in New Japan, except for the WCW/New Japan Supershow cards.  So I missed out on his matches with Antonio Inoki and Riki Choshu.  I also missed out on the legendary match with Stan Hansen, when Vader's eye popped out of it's socket after Hansen accidentally poked his thumb in Vader's eye.

However, I was lucky enough to see Vader have amazing matches in WCW with Sting and Ric Flair.  But it was his matches with Cactus Jack (Mick Foley) that I remember the most.  Those matches were so physical and makes me cringe just thinking about them.  Especially the match in Germany, where Cactus Jack lost his ear when he got tangled up in the ropes.

Most fans will remember him for his run in WWF, but I try to forget it.  When he came to WWF, he was paired up with Jim Cornette, and to me it never worked.  WCW paired him up with Harley Race and it worked.  Harley had that rough voice and was known for being a tough man himself.  Cornette had the high pitched voice and looked like he was he was AWOL from an accounting firm.

I don't remember Vader having any memorable matches in his WWF run.  While he did have matches against people like Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, Goldust and Kane, it made me sick at my stomach to see Vince McMahon turn the man I once feared, into a glorified jobber.

I will always remember Big Van Vader as the power house monster that made a kid want to cry as he squashed his heroes.

My thoughts and prayers go out to his family.  He was 63 years old.