Viscera (wrestler)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For any other use, see Viscera (disambiguation).

Viscera
Viscera in 2005
Birth nameNelson Frazier Jr.
BornFebruary 14, 1971
Goldsboro, North Carolina, U.S.
DiedFebruary 18, 2014(2014-02-18) (aged 43)
Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
Cause of deathHeart attack
Spouse(s)Cassandra Frazier[1]
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Big Daddy
Big Daddy V[2]
Big Daddy Voodoo
Mabel Doink
King Mabel
Mabel[2]
Nelson Knight
Vis[3]
Viscera[2]
Billed height6 ft 9 in (206 cm)[2]
Billed weight487 lb (221 kg)[2]
Billed fromHarlem, New York[2]
Trained byGene Anderson
Mo
Debut1991

Nelson Frazier Jr. (February 14, 1971 – February 18, 2014) was an American professional wrestler, best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Entertainment (WWF/WWE) in the 1990s and 2000s under the ring names Mabel, King Mabel, Viscera, Vis, and Big Daddy V. A former WWF World Tag Team Champion and WWF Hardcore Champion, he won the 1995 King of the Ring tournament and consequently challenged for the WWF Championship in the main event of that year's SummerSlam.

Professional wrestling career

Early career (1991–1993)

See also:
Harlem Knights

Frazier began his professional wrestling career under the ring name "Nelson Knight", one half of tag team the "Harlem Knights" with his partner and storyline brother, Bobby (Robert Horne).[4] They wrestled in the United States Wrestling Association (USWA) and the Pro Wrestling Federation (PWF), twice winning the PWF Tag Team Championship in 1992,[5] before signing with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in July 1993.[4][2]

World Wrestling Federation (1993–1996)

Debut, Tag Team Champion (1993–1994)

Main article: Men on a Mission

Upon coming to the WWF, The Harlem Knights were given a new

Pierre of the Quebecers in the qualifying round before losing to IRS in the quarterfinals.[9] He then had a match that pit "Rap vs. Country" against Jeff Jarrett at Summerslam, which Jarrett won.[10]

King of the Ring, departure (1995–1996)

Frazier as Mabel (center) with Mo (left) and Oscar (right) as Men on a Mission

In March of 1995, Men on a Mission lost a title match against the reigning tag team champions

The Allied Powers. Luger was not at the event, so Smith convinced Diesel to be his partner. Smith then attacked Diesel during the match and joined King Mabel and Sir Mo in assaulting him. The attack was called the "Royal Plan" and at least for a period it appeared that Smith, Mabel, Mo, and Jim Cornette
were going to be aligned in the future. This never came to pass.

The reason for Frazier's sudden removal from the top of the card was never explained, but Kevin Nash (Diesel) implied it had something to do with his wrestling style. Nash said in an interview with Kayfabe Commentaries that Frazier's style was very reckless and he had little regard for the safety of his fellow wrestlers. Nash said that entering the match at SummerSlam, Frazier had already injured "six or eight" of his colleagues in the ring. Nash said that one of the injuries was to one of the Samoans on the roster (

sitdown splash. Most wrestlers who perform this move, like Frazier, tend to be super heavyweights, such as the aforementioned Fatu (who adopted the move later in his career), Yokozuna, and Earthquake. These wrestlers usually do so without incident, as they perform it in such a manner that very little of their body weight actually comes in contact with the opponent's body, which usually results in the wrestler landing on the opponent's chest. Frazier kicked his legs out while performing the move and thus did not allow himself to stop before impact. Nash said that this caused all of Frazier's 500-plus pound mass to shift to his rear end and thus he would drop onto the opponent full force. With this in mind Nash told Frazier to leave the move out of the match, knowing full well the potential for serious injury. Frazier disregarded the request and performed the sitdown splash on Nash anyway, crashing into his lower back with enough force to cause Nash's spine to compress and his core muscles to stretch out. Nash later was diagnosed with a badly strained abdomen that affected his performance the rest of the match, as he could barely feel his legs, and he believed that he had suffered some sort of permanent damage to his spine. Backstage, Nash recounted that a furious Vince McMahon
was ready to fire Frazier immediately after the match and was about to hand him his release papers, but Nash stepped in and convinced McMahon otherwise as he did not feel Frazier should lose his job over the incident.

Although he was no longer the main villain in the WWF, the company moved Frazier to another high-profile

In Your House 5: Seasons Beatings.[16] After this match, Frazier's push came to an end and within several weeks both he and Horne were fired. His last three matches were on the New Year's Day edition of Raw when he was buried in an eight-second loss to Diesel, on the January 6, 1996 edition of WWF Superstars when he lost a rematch to The Undertaker in a casket match, and in the 1996 Royal Rumble match
where he was the third wrestler eliminated by his former rival Yokozuna.

Various promotions (1995–1998)

Frazier then wrestled for the

Full Blooded Italians member with Ulf Herman, attacking Tommy Rogers and Chris Chetti until Spike Dudley made the save. He later divulged that ECW had "the best locker room of all time" and said he was paid several thousand dollars for his appearance.[20]

Return to WWF (1998–2000)

Ministry of Darkness and Corporate Ministry (1998–1999)

See also: Ministry of Darkness and Corporate Ministry

On July 6, 1998, Mabel made a one-night-only surprise return to the WWF to unsuccessfully challenge the new King of the Ring,

Mideon.[22] The next night on RAW, he was reintroduced as Viscera,[4] he began acting as the Ministry of Darkness' enforcer, adopting a gothic look in the process, including white-out contact lenses, a bleached mohawk and a black bodysuit.[23]

Hardcore Champion and departure (1999–2000)

The Ministry of Darkness would break up in July 1999, and Viscera floated around the mid-card, frequently teaming with fellow former Ministry member Mideon and becoming part of the burgeoning hardcore division, winning the WWF Hardcore Championship on April 2, 2000 at WrestleMania 2000, and losing it minutes later, in the same Battle Royal-style match.[24] He also feuded with Mark Henry after body splashing Henry's girlfriend, Mae Young in February 2000. He was taken off the WWF main roster in April and was sent to the development territory Memphis Championship Wrestling before he was released from his WWF contract in August 2000.

Independent circuit (2000–2004)

Following his release from the WWF, Frazier returned to the independent circuit. He wrestled in the United Kingdom for a while. He then started working for Memphis Wrestling in 2003, and feuded with Jerry Lawler once again. He would later lose to Rocky Johnson in a boxing match on November 29, 2003. On Valentine's Day 2004, he won a 15 man battle royal.

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2003)

In March 2003, Frazier, as Nelson Knight, made a surprise appearance at a monthly

Ron Killings.[25] He appeared once more the next week.[26]

Second return to WWE (2004–2008)

World's Largest Love Machine (2004–2007)

Viscera in August 2005

Frazier, as Viscera, returned to the former WWF (by then renamed World Wrestling Entertainment) as a surprise in September 2004, attacking former

Lita and Lita's husband, Kane.[29] While working together, Viscera and Stratus appeared in a segment in which he attempted to seduce her, only to be rebuffed. Stratus implied he would first need to "take care" of Kane.[30] That segment began a gimmick change for Viscera, who transformed into "The World's Largest Love Machine". After losing to Kane at Backlash
, he injured Stratus with his Big Splash finishing move, angry about her constant belittling of him, turning face in the process for the first time since 1995.

Viscera began wrestling in

The World's Greatest Tag Team
.

Viscera performing the Viscagra on Trevor Murdoch

Big Daddy V (2007–2008)

On June 17, 2007, Viscera was sent from the Raw brand to

2008 Royal Rumble where he was eliminated by Triple H. His last PPV appearance was when he participated in the SmackDown Elimination Chamber match at No Way Out, but was eliminated first. He wrestled his last WWE match on March 11, 2008, for an episode of ECW, losing to CM Punk in a Money in the Bank qualifying match. In the 2008 WWE Supplemental Draft, he was drafted to the SmackDown brand.[43] Frazier was released from his WWE contract on August 8, 2008.[44]

Later career (2008–2013)

Tiger Ali Singh delivering a bulldog to Frazier in 2012

After leaving WWE for the final time, Frazier joined the National Wrestling Alliance, as King V. On October 3, 2008 defeated Rob Conway in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The next night in Corpus Christi, Texas, King V defeated Andy Dalton and Joey Spector in a handicap match.[45][46] On August 8, 2009, at Juggalo Championship Wrestling (JCW)'s 10th Annual Gathering of the Juggalos, Viscera defeated 2 Tuff Tony in a "Loser Leaves JCW" match, with WWE Hall of Famer Terry Funk as special guest referee. After the match, Frazier, Funk, and Balls Mahoney (who had interfered earlier in the match) all attacked Tony. From this time he also wrestled in Mexico, Canada, and Germany. On March 31, 2012 he defeated Shad Gaspard at Wrestling In The Rest Of The World WrestleRama event in Georgetown, Guyana. In September 2012, Big Daddy V appeared for the Japanese promotion Inoki Genome Federation at their GENOME 22 event, losing to Atsushi Sawada. Frazier performed at three Family Wrestling Entertainment shows in 2012 as Big Daddy V, first defeating Malta the Damager in a tables match in February. Frazier's final match, as Big Daddy V, was a win over René Duprée on Qatar Pro Wrestling's inaugural tour, on October 5, 2013.[47]

All Japan Pro Wrestling (2010–2011)

Frazier wrestled for All Japan Pro Wrestling, as Big Daddy Voodoo (later just Big Daddy), and held the All Asia Tag Team Champion with TARU from April 29 to August 29, 2011. He was part of the Voodoo Murders stable. He left AJPW in late 2011, after competing in the World's Strongest Tag Determination League with Joe Doering.

Personal life

Frazier was married to Cassandra Frazier until his death in 2014.[1] Due to obesity, Frazier had high blood pressure and diabetes. His wife Cassandra stated that he had been planning on being more healthy before his death, as doctors told him his blood pressure was way too high, and it was affecting his type 2 diabetes. He reacted by removing salt and sugar from his diet, which resulted in him losing over 100 pounds, with his high blood pressure dropping to a healthy level.[48]

Death and lawsuit

On February 18, 2014, Frazier died of a heart attack, just four days after his 43rd birthday.[49][50][51] He was cremated, and his widow divided the ashes into 500 pendants as gifts for his loved ones.[1]

On the one-year anniversary of Viscera's death, his widow filed a wrongful death lawsuit against WWE, alleging that the company had concealed information, misrepresented research, and misinformed Viscera and other wrestlers on performance risks relating to concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which the suit claimed left him with severe short-term memory loss, migraines, and depression, which contributed to his death.[52] WWE attorney Jerry McDevitt responded in an interview with the Boston Herald, explaining that the company was considering pursuing action against Cassandra Frazier's attorney, Konstantine Kyros, who has been involved in other lawsuits against WWE. McDevitt called Viscera's death "tragic", but added: "It's ridiculous that someone can ... try to blame someone because a gentleman with a weight problem died of a heart attack in the shower eight years after he last performed."[53] The lawsuit was dismissed by US District Judge Vanessa Lynne Bryant, who ruled that they failed to show that his death was linked to CTE.[54]

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
2009
National Lampoon's 301: The Legend of Awesomest Maximus
 		Ginormous[55]
2010 Wrong Side of Town Animal[56]

Championships and accomplishments

Men on a Mission celebrating their WWF Tag Team championship victory

See also

References

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External links

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