Fast forward a couple months. A big man, White was hired onto All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), but after heavy thought, Giant Baba traded White's contract over to New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) in late 1987. This is where White honed his monster craft, gaining the monicker (of which most of us know him by) "Big Van Vader." It was during this time that White began wearing a patented mask (though nothing like his vintage mask, of which he is famous for). Big Van Vader was a character and gimmick fashioned after a strong warrior of Japanese mythology. A couple months later, White was crowned IWGP Champion, sadly only to lose it to Salman Hashimikov (Russian Suplex Machine) one month after. But don't cry, dear children; White was crowned IWGP champion once again in August. Around this time, White traveled Europe, using the name "Bull Power" and faced the CWA WHC Otto Wanz, ultimately winning the match; crowning him a WHC in two very different promotions. White would continue traveling between Europe and Japan to succesfully defend BOTH of his titles whenever he needed to.

*FUN FACT*

Did you know?

Leon White (Vader) was once considered one of the top singles wrestlers in the world? PWI named him the 27th best singles competitor (out of 500) in 2003.

In February 1990, Vader faced (once again) Stan Hansen in a New Japan/All Japan supercard. Their match consisted of hard, stiff shots and even resulting in a legit injury where White's eye popped out of it's socket (although not leaving the body, due to eyelid swelling). But being the class-act White is, he simply took a dive to the outside of the ring, removed his mask, popped his eye back in, and finished the match as planned.

After 5 years of wrestling, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) took a notice of Mr. White and convinced White to start wrestling for them, even though he was IWGP Champion and an active Japanese wrestler.

*FUN FACT*

Did you know?

Vader, being a mountain of a man, is one of only FEW super heavyweights to use a top rope moonsault as a finisher (named the "Vadersault"). Another popular big man to utilize this move is the late Scott Bigelow (Bam Bam Bigelow)

Ride along with me to the summer of 1992. After losing (due to DQ) a match with Sting in April ('92) for the WCW WHC, Vader captured the title at the Great American Bash. Sadly, this reign was cut drastically by a re-injured knee. He later dropped the title 3 weeks later to Ron Simmons (FAROOQ!). Vader later returned to the WCW at their Halloween Havoc PPV event, in which he ended the careers of Nikita Koloff and Joe Thurman (even paralyzing Thurman for a couple hours).

You remember how Vader dropped the belt to Simmons when he injured his knee? Well, he regained the WCW WHC 2 days after a hard-fought loss to Sting at Starrcade. The first half of 1993 was hot-potato with the WCW WHC, as he lost it to Sting, and then regained it some days later. He successfully defended the title against the late Davey Boy Smith, Sting, and Dustin Rhodes.

*FUN FACT*

Did you know?

Vader was the man in the ring with Mick Foley (Cactus Jack/Dude Love/Mankind) when he lost part of his right ear? Munich, Germany in 1994. Vader and Foley were having a match, when Foley had his head caught in the ropes, and his right ear partially got tore off. Vader has apologized profusely, but Foley has never blamed Vader (White)

Take a HUGE leap with me and fast forward to 1996. Weeks and weeks before the WWF Royal Rumble PPV event, WWF showed promos for Vader. These promos were punctuated by the phrase; "The Man They Call Vader." Vader's big debut was at the Rumble, eliminating 4 men and fighting off and on with Yokozuna. White was eliminated by Shawn Michaels, and later came back to the ring and caused more havoc. Not all was lost for Vader, though. He defeated Savio Vega the FOLLOWING night on Monday Night Raw (thus pushing his singles match W/L to a perfect 1.000, haha). Vader was shown as a monster, and went on to attack WWF officials, even ending up being "suspended" after giving WWF President Gorilla Monsoon a Vader Splash.

Vader had a major feud with The Undertaker in the beginning of 1997. This started as a one-vs-one match at the Royal Rumble, beating Undertaker with the help of Paul Bearer. Paul Bearer took managerial status of Vader and helped Vader get many one-falls over The Undertaker in the coming weeks. However, ultimately getting the short end of the feud and losing a one-vs-one match at In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede. In the following weeks, the stage was set for a USA vs. Canada match at Survivor Series (after Vader turned face, showing his patriotic side and feuding with Bret Hart). Vader headed Team USA (Goldust, Marc Mero, and Steve Blackman) as they faced Team Canada (The British Bulldog, Jim Neidhart, Doug Furnas, and Phil LaFon). Team USA ended up losing the match after Goldust walked out on the match, and British Bulldog used the illegal ring-bell to pick up the win for Team Canada. This resulted in a match between Goldust and Vader at the 1998 Royal Rumble, in which Vader won (but being eliminated by Goldust in the actual Rumble match).

Vader used the next months to start a feud with Kane. They began this feud at No Way Out Of Texas, losing the match after a vicious mix of finishers from Kane. Vader, then, was taken out by Kane after the match after being assualted with a large wrench, resulting in Vader being taken out of the ring by a stretcher. Vader got his revenge when he came back at the Unforgiven PPV where it was Undertaker vs. Kane in the first ever Inferno Match, resulting in Vader keeping Kane in the ring, ultimately seeing Kane's arm being set ablaze. . This sparked (no pun intended) a match between Kane and Vader at Over the Edge in a Mask vs. Mask match, with Vader losing and losing his mask.

Did you know?

Vader took his son Jesse under his wing to begin him in a life of wrestling? Even going as far as to teaming with him and Scorpio to defeat Makoto Hashi, Tamon Honda, and Tatsumi Fujinami at Vader Time 5 - Return of the Emperor

In almost 20 years of wrestling, Vader was more or less known overseas and with the European crowd than the US fans. We, however, in the US, do remember Big Van Vader as a monster. A monster of truly unadulterated strength and might.