Nelson Frazier Jr.
1972-2014
FORMER WWE STAR NELSON 'BIG DADDY V' FRAZIER JR. PASSES AWAY
by Mike Johnson @ 12:09 AM on 2/19/2014
Former WWE star Nelson Frazier Jr. who performed under the ring names Big Daddy, Viscera and Mabel during different eras of his career passed away Tuesday 2/18. Frazier, who had just turned 43 on 2/14, is believed to have passed away following a heart attack.
Frazier, billed at 6'9" and weighing well over 450 lbs, first broke into the wrestling business as a huge monster in the Memphis territory, billed as Nelson Knight. He and Bobby Horne, billed as brothers as The Harlem Knights worked the territory, capturing the Tag Team belts several times.
The duo came to the attention of the WWF in the early 1990s and were hired and rechristened Mabel and Mo under the hip hop tag team name Men on A Mission. They were put together with a manager named Oscar, who legend has it earned himself a job by sneaking into an elevator with Vince McMahon and Pat Patterson following Wrestlemania IX in Las Vegas and rapping freestyle about WWF talents.
The trio were given a huge push as a babyface tag team in WWF, with Oscar rapping them as they came to the ring and pushed for fans to wave their arms in the air. It was a clean-cut WWF 1990s version of the hip hop culture - safe and easy for any audience to get behind. The pair received a strong push from WWF,
including rapping a "Wrestlemania" song in honor of Wrestlemania X and challenging The Quebecers for the WWF Tag Team belts at the PPV, winning via countout.
Vince McMahon and the WWF always liked their giant monster villains and everyone assumed it was just a matter of time before Mabel got his chance. In 1995, he received it and with it came a massive push from the company. He and Mo attacked Oscar and turned heel just prior to Wrestlemania XI. That began a push that saw Mabel win the 1995 King of the Ring tournament in Philadelphia, which upset the Philly audience so much that they began throwing trash during the coronation. He was now King Mabel and Mo was now, Sir Mo, his royal assistant.
This led to Mabel challenging Diesel for the WWF championship at Summerslam 1995. He was later programmed with Undertaker but unfortunately broke his orbital bone during an angle where he laid Taker out with several legdrops. Undertaker would be out of the ring for some time and would return to defeat Mabel in a casket match. As a main eventer, that was pretty much it was Frazier, with some believing that his work being too rough in the ring and the injury to Taker being the downfall there. Frazier left the WWF shortly after and made a run around the independent scene, including a cameo on a 1998 ECW PPV, where he popped up as, of all things, a member of the Full Blooded Italians.
Frazier was brought back to WWF for a few appearances in 1998, paving the way for a full-time return under a new persona, Viscera, with the storyline being that he had fallen under the cult-like power of The Undertaker's Ministry of Darkness. It was the height of the attitude era where all stories and characters were pushed to excess and Viscera was no different, wearing eerie colored contact lenses, black lipstick and brightly dyed hair. He worked the company through August 2000, ending up with a Hardcore title win (just about everyone had a turn with that belt under its 24/7 title defense rule, which saw the championship changed multiple times on house shows) and returned to the independent scene.
In 2004, Viscera returned to WWE, attacking Undertaker alongside Gangrel under the orders of JBL, who was feuding with Taker at the time. Viscera ended up working the mid-card on WWE TV eventually morphing into "The World's Largest Love Machine", which allowed him, for the first time, to add some comedy and personality into his usual role as a monster in the ring. He attempted to seduce Trish Stratus and was rebuffed, setting up an angle where he destroyed her with big splashes.
He eventually ended up in a storyline with WWE ring announcer Lilian Garcia. Lots of comedy in that odd pairing, as you would suspect. This led to Garcia actually proposing to him in the ring, only to be left heartbroken after The Godfather arrived with a parade of Hos to show Viscera that he didn't need to be tied down to one woman. He worked several undercard feuds and at one point, was teaming regularly with Val Venis.
When the WWE version of ECW was believed to have needed some veteran talent, Viscera was drafted to that upstart brand and re-named again, this time as Big Daddy V. His character in ECW was pretty much a badass for hire and he worked with all of the WWE ECW babyfaces at the time, including CM Punk and Tommy Dreamer. He was eventually moved to Smackdown but the creative team didn't have anything for him and he was eventually released.
Frazier returned to the indy scene and worked for All Japan in recent years as well as dabbled in acting, appearing in several independent features. He was well liked among the wrestlers he worked with and there were a lot of upset talents expressing their condolences since the news began to make the rounds this evening.
Our deepest condolences to Frazier's family, friends and fans during this sad time.
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