Best "Big Man" In History?

[ohtani's jacket]

One of the more underrated big men has to be Bomber Pat Roach. He was a huge man but could work the mat in the Euro style. You don't see too many big men with that sort of agility and co-ordination.

[PeteF3]

Splitting hairs a bit (or a lot), but where does Aja Kong fit into this conversation?

[Fantastic]

1. Vader

2. Akira Taue

3. The Undertaker

4. Andre The Giant

5. Bruiser Brody

[Mad Dog]

Has anyone here watched a lot of Don Leo Jonathan? He seems like a name that should at least be brought up and batted around, regardless of where he ends up. Just based on his rep, he seems like he was stylistically closer to Vader than Andre, but I don't know how accurate that is.

 

I've seen maybe 15ish matches of his. Really good. The only problem I've seen with him is I've never seen him go out there and carry someone to a great match. But as far as style goes, I've seen him do a very fast paced aerial match with Rocca, I've seen him do an all over the arena brawl with Abby and I've seen him work a technical match with Dory Funk Jr, He was great at getting in there with guys and working to their strengths while still making sure to show off his strength and agility to wow the crowd. I don't know if I would compare him to Vader but I think DLJ is a very unique wrestler.

[Childs]

Why are we calling Akira Taue a big man? Just because he was the biggest guy in his peer group doesn't mean he worked a "big man" style. Putting him in a group with Vader and Andre doesn't make a lot of sense.

[dawho5]

He was the "big man" for his promotion at the time among the natives. But I see your point, he wasn't overly large.

[Childs]

I wouldn't even say his size was a major factor in the way he worked against Misawa and Co. I mean, he was a rugged bomb thrower, sure. But we could say that about dozens of excellent workers who don't seem to fit this category. As others have said, "big man" isn't sharply defined. I guess for me, it's important that the guy's size be essential to his character. In Vader and Andre matches, for example, almost everything happened in reaction to their size and/or power. I actually don't think there have been a lot of great big men who fit that conception.

[Childs]

I would say Lesnar, at his best, is a great big man, though not with a large enough body of work to rank with the greatest ever.

[donsem43]

I'm not sure where he would fit all time wise, but Mark Henry has been the best big man since prime Vader.

[Dylan Waco]

As a star, drawing card and historical figure the answer is Andre. If you picked his best five matches and put them next to the best five matches of Vader you could make a case for him being better, but I'd still go with Vader over him as a worker based on what we have. Maybe if I watched more early 80's WWWF I'd feel differently (I like almost all the Andre I've seen from that period). I'd actually put Blackwell right there with those guys as a worker, and would listen to an argument that he's better, though I'm not sure I'd buy it. What hurts Blackwell more than anything was how he was pushed in MACW and the WWWF, but what can you do?

 

Taking this a different direction, in terms of kayfabe achievement, while I think most would take either Vader or Andre, you could make a reasonable case for Yokozuna. Two WWF title reigns (that weren't just drop in the bucket transitional reigns), was the first guy to "end" Hulkamania, relatively important tag title run w/Owen. If nothing else it's an underrated run, and Yoko is underrated in general as a worker/star/et.

[Troy]

Hogan winning at IX still pisses me off. Yoko could've held the belt for a year

[goc]

I would say Lesnar, at his best, is a great big man, though not with a large enough body of work to rank with the greatest ever.

I wanted to say Lesnar but it felt like some people were just dismissing the entire idea of Andre being a good worker so I thought I'd defend him. If Lesnar had stayed in wrestling the past 10 years I think he'd probably be the default answer to this question by now.

[Troy]

How's Lesnar considered a big man at 6'3", 286?

[DR Ackermann]

He wrestles like/plays the role of a big man.

[JaymeFuture]

Love the discussion so far, hope to do this topic justice on the podcast.

 

In terms of playing the role of the monster heel/bully, I think Lesnar is absolutely fantastic, as good as anybody ever.

[Al]

I know there's a different thread, but I would favor Andre over Vader. Personal preference, I admit I haven't seen much of Vader outside of the US.

 

Yokozuna is problematic because his peak was so short. I think staying in well enough shape to stay in the ring counts for something.

[Al]

Meaning that he has the advantage of being first so he's kind of considered the default best.

 

I really think a large part of Andre's legacy is smoke-and-mirrors stuff about drinking so many beers and not being very giving for guys he didn't like. I don't feel like anyone has really tried to make the case for him as an in-ring performer, or if they have, I haven't seen it. I think he was better than I gave him credit for at one time in my fandom for sure, but I haven't seen anyone try to tie all of his matches together and really compare him to other wrestlers that would make a good comparison, like Undertaker or Vader. So he becomes the best because he was the first and because "he's Andre".

I quibble a bit because I don't think Andre was the first. There was a wrestler named Kurt "Gargantuan" Zehe in the 1950s. Another wrestler billed as "Paul Bunyan" in the '50s, though I've never seen footage. Sky Hi Lee. Wrestling was always bringing in freak shows to try and pop crowds. Most of them were barely competent. There was clearly something about Andre that set him apart right from the beginning.

[Fantastic]

I admit I haven't seen much of Vader outside of the US.

 

You are missing out on so much!

 

Even when Vader was having the occasional shitty match following his post-WWF return to AJPW in the late 1990's, he was still pretty darn good!

[fxnj]

Vader's AJPW run is really underrated stuff. Even I kind of underrated it when I was first going through 90's AJPW, but on rewatch the CC 1999 final with Kobashi and Misawa dome match both came across not only as strong candidates for Vader's best match but for the best matches worked in a big man style period. It's easy to look at it on paper and see it as just another testament to the greatness of AJPW's 4 kings, but what really makes it impressive is how Vader still managed to put his own distinct touch on those matches and forced the AJPW guys to bring back some of the great subtleties that the style had slowly been moving away from.

[JaymeFuture]

Just to let you all know, the podcast on this subject is now up in the Publications and Podcasts subforum - http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/27746-squared-circle-gazette-radio-4-the-best-big-man-in-wrestling-history/

 

A lot of your comments were read on the show and discussed, so hopefully you enjoy...

[Bierschwale]

You know what? I'm going to throw in a wild card and completely disregard the wording of the thread title.

 

Aja Kong has a top five, at worst, case at playing the role of "best big man in history".

[jdw]

Aja was mentioned earlier. A little surprised that Bull wasn't, since her work that made the 1990-92 YB's was pretty strongly praised if I recall.

 

Hansen is something of a classical big man, but people in the business kept getting bigger in his time as a wrestler that by the 90s our minds probably think less of him as a big man. Perhaps one of the defining moments of that is his match with Hogan... where we tend to forget that Hogan was a Big Man early in his career when teaming with Stan, and over the decade transitioned into being "HOGAN" rather than someone who fit into any bucket of wrestlers. So Stan... hard him in a bucket.

 

Agree with Childs on Taue. He worked as "big man" against Kikuchi. He didn't against Misawa, Kawada, Kobashi... really didn't against Jun and instead just worked as "vet" to Jun's young guy. Treating Taue as a Big Man would force us to treat Jumbo as one, and Jumbo tended to fit into too many different buckets in his career to be classed as a big man.

[Timbo Slice]

Aja as monster heel might be the greatest ever. From a work standpoint, Bull might have the higher volume, though, thanks to her run from 1990-1994.

[kretzl]

Being a HUGE fan of all things NWA/WCW, I'm going to have to go with Vader. Incredible big man worker.