Cover art by Iron Skull Productions. Title Page Art by Tye Harris.
There were certain wrestlers who I just did not like in professional wrestling, regardless of how they were portrayed by the different leagues. A few of them were The Fabulous Freebirds (especially the WCW era with Jimmy Garvin and Michael Hayes), Bam Bam Bigelow, Stan Hansen, The Ultimate Warrior, and most of the ECW roster were some of the names I never got behind. Another one was Vader (also known as Big Van Vader).
I remember following him in the AWA as “Baby Bull” Leon White, and just couldn’t get behind the character; he seemed over pushed to me at the time fighting for the AWA title a few times against Stan Hansen. I was a big Nick Bockwinkel and Curt Hennig fan in the AWA, so whenever White started getting a bigger push in the league, I longed to see Hennig or Bockwinkel in a classic match instead of the “Awe Shucks” persona with a trucker hat in title matches, which was what “Baby Bull” came off as at the time (along with it was hard to get behind a 300 pound man with the nickname “Baby,” thanks to promoter Verne Gagne). Of course, when White signed WCW in the 1990s, Vader was put against my favorite wrestler Sting, who was one of the top stars of the league. Vader came in so strong against Sting as the unstoppable monster, even beating him for the WCW title, really ticked me off as a young teenager. I cheered for some heels (bad guys) in wrestling, but having someone dismantle Sting as Vader did, was just too much for my taste, making Sting not as tough as he originally was in my eyes at the time.
It’s Vader Time: The Story of a Modern Day Gladiator by White, along with Kenny Casanova (WOHW Publishers, 2019), tells how White became an international wrestling star, along with his life outside the ring, with tremendous health struggles along the way. Casanova , who was mentioned at the 2019 WWE Hall of Fame (thanks to Brutus Beefcake), also helped write books by Kamala, Brutus Beefcake, and ECW’s Sabu (You can read my review of Beefcake’s book, along with a Q&A with Casanova, on the Slam Sports Wrestling site).
After the Foreword from Mick Foley that starts the pages off, the book grabs the reader immediately with White telling the story about the match in Japan against Hansen, where Vader’s eye popped out of its socket (among other injuries during the brawl). The hardcore matches pile up from there, along with the many injuries from his college and pro football and wrestling careers. Tales such as knee and shoulder injuries, along with concussions, are all detailed in the book.
White discusses how he started training in the AWA after walking into the locker room one day as a fan straight into the locker room, coming face to face with Bruiser Brody, along with how being trained by Brad Rheigans led him to the world of wrestling to avoid going back to his life of small crimes in Compton, CA which he lived in his youth. After several football injuries, (including a gruesome story where a college teammate had to have a doctor’s assistance with making a hole in his head with a power drill) White learns his stiff style of wrestling by working with some of the toughest wrestlers at the time, including Brody, Hansen, and Otto Wantz in Germany.
White , after leaving the AWA, goes to Japan where he receives the Vader gimmick from promoter Antonio Inoki. This part was informative in the reading, due to the detailed description of how the character was created from a Japanese comic book, to how the horned headgear that he wore to the ring was created. The back story about the helmet headgear and its symbolism in culture was more than just a gimmick that was given to him; details on how the helmet’s steam blowing out of it worked , and the other wrestlers who were originally considered to be the Vader character was also insightful.
The book covers Vader’s WCW and WWE careers as well, including great behind the scenes stories about Sting, Dusty Rhodes, Harley Race, Ron Simmons, and Mick Foley. There are signature events in his career that are covered too , such as The White Castle of Fear, the 1993 Beach Blast mini movie (where the executives at Turner Home Entertainment decided that wrestling heels blowing up a boat with a spy little person was a great idea), the WCW title reigns, Foley losing his ear in a match with him, and the time he injured preliminary wrestler Joe Thurman, which ended Thurman’s career. Tales about backstage politics by Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, Eric Bischoff, and Hulk Hogan are also discussed in the writing. Vader’s take on the 1997 Montreal Screw job between Bret Hart and Michaels, from his point of view, to his appearances on the TV show Boy Meets World are also featured.
The book isn’t all about his wrestling career in the American, Mexican, German, and Japanese leagues. The publication covers the emotional tales about the injuries White accumulated throughout his career, which made for serious health problems toward the end of his life, from his battles with sleep apnea, arthritis, breathing problems, and being in a coma. The emotional diagnosis of his heart and the last year of his life is covered by his son, which gives another aspect of the events. One meeting with a doctor discussing his health issues gives a special meaning to the subtitle of the book , using the term “gladiator”, which ties the cover to the theme of the book, gives the complete package its fullness (no spoilers here, but the title wasn’t just randomly chosen).
Vader, along with Casanova, combines humor with the inner workings of wrestling on top of an emotional backdrop which many wrestling fans should enjoy. Usually self-published books are filled with grammar errors and unchecked facts, which sometimes makes it hard for me to review. Although editors sometimes miss errors here and there, it should not be so evident to distract from the overall book. The writing here does just that, by keeping the story going, in which I kept reading page after page, because the tone kept me wanting to read more.
After reading this book, I started to go back and watch some of the highlighted matches that are available online to re-watch Vader’s matches. I think one reason I disliked him so much against Sting (looking at it now, knowing more about how wrestling is presented) was that White was just that good at being the monster heel, which was his job. Dusty Rhodes’ booking of him as unstoppable worked big time, and also made his WCW title loss to Ron Simmons more shocking because no one could beat Vader at the time, even the top star Sting. By the time he got to the WWF, he was not only injured (as told in the book), but , in my opinion, was limited in what he could do, which weakened him after the dominate years in WCW and international tours that made him outshine everyone on the rosters (with help from the boost of the wrestling magazines, like the ones owned by Stanley Weston). I did get to see him live in 1997 in Youngstown , Ohio verses Kane at a live event with the WWF (he was scheduled another time, but wasn’t there).
I was hoping for a part about Vader returning to the WWE as a part of the Table For 3 show, where he was with Sting, and Diamond Dallas Page, or maybe why he agreed to do it. The only part he discusses here is his brief returns in matches against Heath Slater, and inducting Stan Hansen in the WWE Hall of Fame. Being a Sting fan, many wrestling books briefly mention him in passing, so the more stories about him I can get is good with me , and this book is one of the books with several stories about The Stinger, especially how much he helped Vader in his WCW matches (which as a Sting fan, I figured it was the office making him look bad by getting destroyed in matches at times- this book dispels that myth, by stating how Sting helped plan out the matches and took Vader under his wing to teach him a different style of wrestling that he wasn’t used to). At almost 400 pages, the book does a great job covering Vader’s life, without missing much.
This was a very enjoyable book, especially since I was not a huge Vader fan. The cover of the book is amazing , with Vader standing in front of the Rocky Mountains with the helmet and skulls below his feet. When the book came in the mail, and I opened the package, I was in awe of how well done the packaging covers (both front and back) were designed, which again, sometimes self published books tend to ignore. Don’t let not being a Vader fan prevent you from checking this book out (if you weren’t a fan of his gimmick), because there are great tales about the AWA (which tends to get overlooked in books), WCW, WWF, and the Japanese leagues and stars. Being not a huge fan of Japanese wrestling, I thought the extended tales about his time in Japan would drag and lose my interest, however this was not the case.
Along with the touching tales of forgiveness throughout the book, from White’s problems with certain wrestlers to reconnecting with his son (after years of being on the road) before Vader’s 2018 death, the book gives a new look on the person who was a dominate monster in front of the audiences, yet a different man when he was away from the cameras.
This review copy was sent courtesy of Kenny Casanova and WOHW Publishers.
It’s Vader Time : The Story of a Modern Day Gladiator (WOHW Publishers, 2019) by Leon White and Kenny Casanova (ISBN: 978-1-941356-08-1) can be ordered at http://www.wohw.com. You can also find out more about the author at :www.kennycasanova.com
The Overall:
Pages: 397
Language: Moderate
Geared For: Ages 12 and up
For Fans Of: 1980s-1990s Pro Wrestling, Autobiographies.
lancewrites: Reviews By Lance Lumley 