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“It’s Vader Time – The story of a modern-day gladiator” is a new book out by Leon White (Vader) and Kenny Casanova chronicling the life of Vader both in and out of the ring. The book includes a short, but quite relevant forward by Mick Foley and an epilogue by White’s son Jesse. Unfortunately, the book had to be published posthumously as Leon White passed away on June 18, 2018.
The first thing you will notice about this book once reading, is that it is from the heart. No matter if it’s Foley’s magnificent forward, Jessie’s parting thoughts, Casanova’s gap filling, or the words coming straight from the “Baby Bull” himself, the words ooze reality and thoughtfulness. As I have watched many an interview with Vader, while also heartfelt, the book has more time to dive deep into the soul of the man as well as the greatness of his in-ring character.
It essentially goes in chronological order from his birth to his end in an easy to read fashion. Touching on subjects that fans may already know such as his stint with the Rams of the NFL, his rivalries with “Cactus Jack” and “Bruiser Brody, and his mostly positive time in Japan with Inoki. But it also dives into more not so well known times of his life like that of the night Jesse was born, where he had swore to be by the side of his wife yet was being called to “Save the show” in a pre-booked main event the same evening. (Spoiler – he got to do both!).
Not all the great matches and feuds with fellow wrestlers get as much time as say Brody or Cactus but he does go into minor detail about his stint with the Undertaker, Paul Orndorff, Ric Flair and of course his world title win from Sting. Recently I re-watched an episode of “Table for 3” on the WWE Network that included Vader, Sting and Diamond Dallas page as the panel. While Sting, seems to infer regularly that Ric Flair was his favorite batch of matches, he almost always seconds that with Vader. Both in that program, and in the book, it is obvious the respect he had for Sting throughout his career and life.
There seems to be a lot of love between Jesse and his dad as well that goes both ways in their relationship. Jesse wrestled in Florida Championship Wrestling as well as NXT under the moniker Jake Carter, but it was short lived. Vader explains he felt his son could have done more but also was a very proud dad for what Jesse ended up doing in his career, health care sales. Just like his dad during football, Jesse was injured in NXT and decided after having conversations with his father that this was a better route to go. There is obvious respect between the two, that gushes in the last few pages of both Leon’s book and Jesse’s epilogue.
For those die-hard WWF/E fans, there is a chapter dedicated to his time in “New York”. He had good moments but also other times that while not bad, they weren’t where he wanted them to be. He states many a time that he left on good terms. He also discusses pinning Heath Slater in 2012 on the 1000th episode of RAW and how much he enjoyed it.
If I was pressed to gripe about any part of the book it is the physical book itself. It is published by WOHW.com an outlet opened by Kenny Casanova that mainly deals with wrestling books not being published by other companies and some of his own fictional work. Recently, he and fans raised 20,000 to fundraise a book about Kamala which I applaud him for, it isn’t ever easy to do something like that. The book’s physical issues are in the editing and printing of the book.
The book is larger than most paperbacks and fits a lot of words to the page, I generally can read a page of most novels in under a minute – this sometimes took me two minutes to read a single page just because of how much there is to read. There are also several typo’s that made me go back and read again to make sure I read it correctly. Understand this is not a writer issue, the meat of the book is right there dripping steak sauce of the page, but an editor should have caught these things, and a printer should have also, not to mention fitting the pages in a better fashion.
The thing is, that did not detour me from the greatness of the book, nor to continue reading and it is a credit to those writers. I would have a lot to say about the production of a studio album by a great musician as well. Metallica had great songs on “St. Anger” but the production is awful – how many reviews written about that album said, “I couldn’t continue to listen”. I am not that listener, St. Anger to this day still gets a spin yearly on my turntable because the songs were phenomenal.
In the end, this is well worth the time of any wrestling fan, young or old. I wouldn’t suggest it for someone under say 13 as there are some words here or there and scenarios maybe a little adult for that age, but it is a solid read. The best parts of the book, as it seems to be with any biography of a pro-wrestler, are the moments not between the ropes. Leon White’s out of ring experiences from living in Compton, to being a supportive dad are just as important, if not more important than the destruction Vader ever brought. 4.5/5 Vader Bombs.
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