WWE Legend Vader Dies at 63 Due to Heart Failure
Former WWE superstar Vader, known to friends and family as Leon White, has passed away on Monday night, June 18, at the age of 63. His son broke the news on social media as he passed on the sad news that Big Van Vader has succumbed to heart complications.
Vader has been very ill for some time now, as his son revealed while using the pro wrestler's own Twitter handle on Wednesday, June 20.
"Around a month ago my father was diagnosed with a severe case of Pneumonia. He fought extremely hard and clinically was making progress," White's son wrote, before breaking the news of his passing.
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"Unfortunately, on Monday night his heart had enough and it was his time," he added, to go with a black and white photo of Big Van Vader sitting at a table with his World Heavyweight Wrestling Championship belt in front of him.
Vader has been diagnosed with congestive heart failure earlier in 2016, and at the time, doctors had said to him that he only had about two years left, according to TMZ. He and his family has resorted to an open heart surgery for the former wrestling superstar, which looked to be successful at the time.
"They had me but I KICKED out 2," Vader quipped back then, adding that "The surgeon confessed he had A few to many that's why the scar is off centerer I OWE THAT MAN MY LIFE THANK U JESUS."
He seemed to be doing well after that, until recently when his health suddenly took a turn for the worse, when his heart finally gave out on him just at the start of this week.
Vader had a long and fruitful career that spanned almost four decades, rising to wrestling superstardom first via New Japan Pro-Wrestling, then a three-time WCW Heavyweight Champion and a one-time WCW United States Champion before finally heading to the WWF, which is now WWE.
