Random question but do you remember the thought process behind not repacking Vader when he came to WWF in 1996? Around that same time WWF acquired Foley, Simmons and Austin and repackareged them all.
Vader and Pillman were the only two WCW guys who got to keep their gimmicks more or less. Pillman makes sense because he had a lot of buzz with the whole "loose cannon" worked shoot he was doing but I'm surprised Vader didn't get a Vince inspired name change. Do you think his fate might have been different had he been given a more WWF-esque gimmick?
Thanks as always (especially for reviewing mind numbing 3 hour Raws) and keep up the great work on the blog.
I don't know the specifics on the answer, but if I was to guess I'd think that Vader didn't want to jeopardize his name value in Japan by becoming Chesty Laroux: Fat Male Stripper or whatever they would have come up with for him, and probably demanded to stay Vader (or as close as they could get without getting sued by WCW or Lucasfilm).