Match of the Day - It's not Slater time.

Heath Slater vs. Vader - Monday Night Raw (2012)

Despite the constant plugging of Raw's 1000th episode last year, we did get to see Heath Slater, the super jobber of the WWE get squashed for a few by returning legends who actually looked in good shape for their age. Albeit there were some segments of rookie Heath Slater versus veteran superstars from the past that weren't all too great (sorry Lauper), but for the most part this was a relatively good concept.

On this particular Heath Slater squashing, the "One Man Band" would take on the returning big man, the man they call Vader - no stranger to this blog. But not only was this Vader's first match on Raw since 2005, no no no, this was Vader's first time seen on TV since before being in a coma for 30 something days in Japan, causing him to lose 112 pounds and to subsequently turn his life around. And while Vader has had countless surgeries on his knees and the rest of his body, he still could move in the ring with the lightweight rookie of Heath Slater.

Theme Results

Returner: Vader to WWE.

Match of the Day - It's Time! It's Time! It's... Paul Bearer Time!?!

Kane vs. Vader - Mask vs. Mask - WWF Over The Edge (1998)

Kane and Vader go mask to mask in this match that marks Vader's decline into jobber status. After losing to Kane even after using that wrench that came with a lot of Kane action figures back in the day to wear the big red monster down, Vader gives a very unforgettable speech about making the biggest mistake of his life and then proceeded to call himself "a big fat piece of shit" before storming off into the back.

Since Kane had previous destroyed Vader's face with that very same wrench we see make its return in this match, Vader had to get surgery on his face, therefore giving this who mask versus mask stipulation a little more believability considering Vader usually ditched his mask halfway through every match anyways.

After Vader loses his classic face mask to Kane's tombstone piledriver, Paul Bearer puts the sweaty jockstrap looking face wear and announces into the camera that, "It's Time! It's Time! It's Paul Bearer Time!" after The King jokingly says Paul Bearer's line moments beforehand. The mask was never seen again on Paul Bearer's ugly complexion known as a face again and neither was Paul Bearer Time.

Vader did however reappear wearing his signature face mask again after this match but the lose at the hands of Kane here at Over The Edge 1998 was really a metaphor for losing his career, since, like I mentioned above, this was really Vader's last match before becoming a glorified jobber and losing to all the young up-and-comers from Mark Henry to Bradshaw to Edge on Sunday Night Heat (his last televised match in the WWF).