Fat Friday.

Welcome to the first edition of Fat Friday. On Fat Friday I will either spotlight an awesome Fat Guy or post a section from my (still in progress) book F.A.T.R. Following All the Rules: A Guide to Being A Big Bad Man. F.A.T.R. is a mix between a rule book and self help book for fat guys. It teaches you how to be better, look better and live better. In the most superficial ways.

So on to the first Awesome Fat Guy of the Week.




For my first Awesome Fat Guy of the Week I looked to the world of Professional Wrestling. Or as I like to call it the most dangerous form of Theater. I used to love wrestling. I also used to love Pokemon. I grew out of both of those things. But I never completely left wrestling behind. Every couple of months I would try to get caught up on the ongoings both in front of and behind the camera.

Wrestling is a business that destroys. It takes a hard man or woman to survive a career in the square circle. Which brings me to Leon "Big Van Vader" White.

Vader was the classic monster. He was big, strong and intimidating. As a wrestler he worked all over the world, becoming a legend in Japan. He had great success in America as well. He was a multiple time WCW heavy weight champion. The title of champion was something he claimed in more than one promotion.

I won't go in to much detail because this isn't about the man's wrestling career. No this is about the man himself. Or at least what he was capable of.

The reason Vader is awesome to me is that while he was strong, powerful, and tough; he was also quick, agile and able to do things no man his size should be able to do.

The man was also tough as nails. Like most wrestlers he worked through injuries and pain. The best example of this was in February 1990. In a fight with Stan Hansen Vader's right eye popped out of it's socket. Now the normal thing to do would be scream and flail about like a little girl with a spider on her back. Vader did not do that. No, he shoved the eye back into his head and kept on going. He did that because fuck that eye, he had another.

I don't know much about his personal life. What I do know is that he could be a very sensitive man. Jim Cornette, who once managed Vader, described him as a big Teddy Bear.

I can see it. As the video above shows he is father who isn't afraid of showing his pride and love for his son.
So we have a big, tough, strong, agile, quick, sensitive, successful and loving man. That is an Awesome Fat Guy.

If you want to know more about Leon "Big Van Vader" White, and you should, please check out his Wikipedia page. Or his IMDB page. You may be surprised to learn where he has turned up in the past.

So that is my first Fatter Friday and my first Awesome Fat Guy of the week. I hope you enjoyed that. It was just a little spotlight on an awesome man. I didn't do him justice but few can.