Big Van Vader Shoot Interview

He is asked about is football career. He said that junior and senior year in high school, he was All-American and recruited by about 50 schools. He grew up in inner city Los Angeles and was attracted to Colorado for college due to the spacious setting. He was a four-year starter and drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in the 3rd round but ended rupturing his patella tendon in training camp. The Rams made the playoff that year and he was activated when the starting center got hurt and played a few snaps against the Steelers in the Super Bowl, said he has the ring. Vader got into wrestling when his football career finished and he came back to Colorado and got his license to be a broker in Colorado. He talks about how he built and sold houses and while making good money, was getting bored and out of shape and felt that he had a lot left in his body to use. When asked if he was a wrestling fan growing up, Vader said that he followed it a little bit. He then said that he watched Hogan as a kid, which makes no sense seeing as Vader was 28 years old when Hogan went back to the WWF in 1984. Vader said he was up to about 380 lbs when he went back to the gym. He went with a few friends to an AWA show and left midway through, saying the match quality was poor, and went to the hotel across the street. He saw the wrestlers hanging out there and was recognized by Gene Reed as a football player, who then introduced him to Greg Gagne. Reed told Vader to come back in a few weeks and he met Brad Rheingans, who was running a wrestling camp for Verne. Vader adds that Brad was the one who created stars from that camp, not Verne. Vader says that his real height is 6’4 ½ and in wrestling, got at low as 340 lbs and high as 440 lbs.He remembers his first match and it was against Bruiser Brody. He says it was one of the most painful things that ever happened to him. He did say that Brody tried to teach him. He then went on to wrestle with Jerry Blackwell then Stan Hansen. He said after working with those guys, who were very stiff in the ring, went to work with other guys and hit someone so hard in a match that they rolled out of the ring and complained to one of the Gagne’s. Vader said he thought you were supposed to hit that hard, because those guys hit him like that. When asked about why he left the AWA, Vader talks about the relationship between Verne Gagne and Otto Wanz. They had a partnership at the time. Vader goes off topic for a bit and forgot the question before saying that Verne told him to go over as he would learn a lot and get a lot of dates.He said that he wound up in New Japan after spending two seasons in Europe. One of the referee’s in New Japan approached him and said that Masa Saito remembered a six-man tag they had and was impressed by his power moves and wanted him to tour New Japan after finishing up with Otto in Europe. Vader said that he already had dates with Giant Baba and All Japan after he contacted Stan Hansen so he could wrestle between the tours of Europe. He said that New Japan offered a lot more than Baba. He said after speaking with his wife and just starting off in the business, he took the original offer. After that, Antonio Inoki paid a fee to Baba to get Vader for New Japan. In his first tour, he beat Inoki in four minutes. He compares the psychology between Japan and America at the time, saying the faces in America sold a lot more than they did in Japan. He compares guys like The Rock and Stone Cold today (this was filmed in 2001) and how they have done a 180 and they are selling like the Japanese did back then and Japan faces are selling like the American’s did at that time.Up next is his infamous match against Stan Hansen in which his eye wound up on his cheek. Vader said that he turned right into a punch by Stan and felt his eye on his cheek, half popped out. He remembered swearing at Stan then turned his back and popped it back in place before putting him in an armbar. He said...