Does anyone remember when they paired Vader with The Patriot? What was that all about?
I'm going to address this in my following post.
As the self proclaimed resident biggest Vader fan on the boards, here's my opinion on why Vader was misused in the WWF, if you call it that (And I do.)
Vader debuted decently enough (Although he appeared to be wearing his ring attire on backwards. Hmm.) at the 1996 Rumble, but they made a big mistake, IMO, by allowing HBK to eliminate him ONE ARMED (while doing the same to Yokozuna with the other arm. You tell me how 235 pounds > 1,000+ pounds.) while Vader was struggling with Yokozuna. This would lead to Yokozuna's face turn shortly thereafter, as Vader, upon his debut, was being wasted in a feud with an out of shape, past his prime, and not terribly over by this point Yokozuna.
This is NOT how Vader should have debuted. Does anyone remember what happened right before The Big Show debuted? All of The Oddities were released, and I believe John Tenta (Golga) speculated that this was because Vince McMahon didn't want any other 'giants' on screen when Paul Wight came in. This "battle of the titans" between Yoko and Vader might've sounded good on paper, but their matches were fairly lackluster. Instead of being in a high profile singles match at his first WrestleMania where he could showcase his brand of destruction, Vader took part in the opener, a forgetable tag where he led his team of Owen and Bulldog to victory over Yokozuna (between 600-700 pounds with half the mobility he came into WWF with), Jake The Snake Roberts (40+, past his prime as well, but still over) and Ahmed Johnson (One of the only original characters to become a success in 1995-1996 along with Goldust and Mankind, though Ahmed's was very brief.)
After that, Vader's booking became even more confusing, as he seemed content to be Camp Cornette's dumb hired muscle. VERY weak booking saw him DQed in his King of the Ring quarter-finals match vs Jake the Snake (Not that I minded Jake winning, I'm a huge Roberts fan, but why would the fearless Mastadon Vader try and grab/shove the ref to block a DDT?). I can't complain TOO much on this, as Vader's loss eventually gave rise to the Austin 3:16 era by allowing Steve Austin to slaughter an injured Roberts. Would "Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your ass" have been born after a victory over Vader (Which would've likely been a better match in terms of quality, but, the crowd wouldn't have cared about two heels slugging it out)? Highly unlikely.
Things then seemed to be looking up, however, as with Bret Hart, Razor Ramon and Diesel out of the picture, the Undertaker a face, the Ultimate Warrior having already nosedived back into "Parts Unknown", and Steve Austin not QUITE having reached certified main event status, Vader was poised to face Shawn Michaels for the WWF title at SummerSlam 1996.
By all rights, Vader SHOULD have won that match.
I believe at one point he was, in fact, booked TO win the title.
As much as I love Shawn Michaels....I'll forever hate how he acted in this match, as he refused to job to Vader and thus had the entire match built around him "overcoming the odds" (Gee where does that sound familiar from?).
HBK also became pissed at Vader DURING the match (As he was very much prone to during this time.) because Vader was calling the match, and it was pissing Shawn off. Everything broke down when Shawn climbed the turnbuckles and looked to be going for his flying elbow drop. Apparently Shawn wanted Vader to roll out of the way and avoid the move, but Vader didn't move, and Shawn changed the move in mid air, landing on his feet instead, and then leaning down at Vader and very audibily screaming "MOVE!!!!!!!!!!!' at him, kicking him twice in the head as hard as he can. Vader was then pinned by a weak looking moonsault of all things shortly afterwards.
(Here's a little bit of extra info, taken from http://www.bigvanvader.com:
Summerslam '96 saw Shawn Michaels throw a tantrum at Vader in the middle of the ring due to Vader calling the spots (the traditional heel role) in their match-up. Vader told Shawn to "F***ing relax, I'm working." Later, when Vader pulled the Heartbreak Kid up off the canvas, Shawn told Leon' "You jerk me around one more time in the ring, I'm gonna call Vince, and you're fat ass will be home quicker..." "Are you serious?" Vader replied, "We're f***ing tearing down the house, right?"
Backstage in the hallway, after the match, Shawn screamed "Get over here right now." "Yeah, when I get done," came the reply. "No, I said RIGHT NOW." "Go f*** yourself." Vader bit his lip, later admitting that he could quite easily have broken Michaels' nose and said "Okay, I'm fired.")
Vince's eternal hard-on for all things HBK put Vader in job-town for a while after this, as Vader came up on the losing end of several matches vs Sycho Sid (Including a horrible "Battle of the Powerbombs" match on PPV which Sid won - with a chokeslam.)
1997 looked to perhaps be poised to jumpstart Vader's career, as he headlined "In Your House: Final Four" along with Bret Hart, Steve Austin and the Undertaker, not exactly bad company to be in. Vader gained even more "tough guy cred" for the blood he shed in that match, even if he was not victorious. However, he was once again stuck in a tag match at Wrestlemania this year, as he joined forces with Paul Bearer and Mankind in an attempt to defeat former partners Owen Hart and the British Bulldog in just another match on a generally-disliked WrestleMania card.
Vader was never truly dominant after this, not the way he should be. He had a victory or two over The Undertaker, then found some "pride in his country" as he joined forces with The Patriot against the Hart Foundation.
A lot of people point to this as killing Vader's career. I don't think so. Vader COULD work as a face! If a foul mouthed, beer drinking redneck, a gold painted freak who acts like a transvestite and an undead mortician can be fan favorites, so can an atheltic big man with a mean streak.
Anyhow, to address why Vader was turned face and allied with the Patriot...I'm assuming it would have been Sycho Sid in this role, had he not left the WWF earlier in 1997, but thats purely my own speculation.
Vader's last hurrah was probably a pinfall victory over Goldust at the 1998 Royal Rumble, before his infamous losses to Kane and eventual jobbing out of the company.
As for why he WASN'T pushed...my theories
1 - His stiff style didn't mesh well with WWF, the pioneers of "safe style"
2 - He rubbed Shawn Michaels the wrong way, and just ask Shane Douglas, Chris Candido or others about getting on the Kliq's bad side.
3 - He did get some backstage heat over his hygine, or lack thereof. Specifically, Vader was very superstitious, and one of the things he picked up in Japan is to avoid washing his ring attire, as this would ensure he would continue to have good matches.
4 - The good old Vince McMahon standby of "If I didn't create it, I won't push it". Vader was the most impressive WCW star of the early 90's, short of Ric Flair and Sting, and Vince quickly bought out the two other names, Vader and Ron Simmons.
And, yeah, I'm not even mentioning his 2005 "return".