The Magnificent Seven: The Top 7 Monster Heels

I started watching wrestling in the era of monster heels.

Before the preponderance of heel authority figures, before the chicken shit heel had really come into vogue in the WWF, monster heels like King Kong Bundy, Big John Studd, Kamala, and Earthquake were the main event villains de jour, posing a threat via sheer height, girth, and power. While oversized, and at least vaguely insane monsters no longer have the spotlight they once did, they do persist to this very day.

Some monster heels have been lackluster. Guys like Zeus, the Giant Gonzales and, to a lesser extent, Sid Vicious had the look and the aura but not the in-ring game to be all that entertaining. Mid-1990s monsters like Bastion Booger and the short-lived Mantaur ended up more comedic than menacing, and would-be contemporary beast Brodus Clay got his wings clipped via the Funkasaurus gimmick (not to mentioned that he dragged poor Tensai along with him—though, to be fair, he was floundering as a pseudo-foreigner heel monster anyway…).

The definition of a monster heel is, admittedly, a bit ambiguous, but I’m going by the loose criteria of having at some point been billed at over three hundred pounds and/or seven feet tall (thus, characters like The Boogie Man and Kevin Sullivan are not eligibile). In addition, I’m looking for some dimension of abnormality in the gimmick—mysticism, an aura of complete and violent dominance, competing with a mission to not just defeat but injure others, portrayed to be psychotic, etc.

In ranking these monsters, some of the dimensions include kayfabe success, commitment to and accomplishment within the monster gimmick, legacy from a critical perspective, and, as always, my personal opinion.

Without further ado, I give yo my top seven monster heels.

#7. Mark Henry

As a four-hundred pounder with a legit record as a championship weightlifter, it’s sort of shocking to think that took over fourteen years to really give Mark Henry a shot as a monster heel. Fortunately, the opportunity did arise in the summer of 2011 as Henry mowed down Big Show, Kane, and Sheamus en route to dominating Randy Orton to win his first (not counting WWECW) world title. The monster push would carry through to around the end of the year, and a bit into 2012 as Daniel Bryan briefcased his way into the World Heavyweight Championship picture, and Henry and Show gave chase.

Henry’s work as a monster heel was uneven after that six-to-seven month run, recovering pieces of himself to battle Ryback and John Cena, but never fully recapturing that magic, and falling subject—like he had been for most of his career—to up-and-down booking. Just the same, when he was slamming upper card talent after upper card talent into the Hall of Pain, he settled into his gimmick as a dominant menace—the essence of modern day monster.

6. Yokozuna

Yokozuna marks the nexus point between monster heel and heel foreigner act—a five-hundred pounder who ostensibly represented Japan. The WWF introduced Yoko to the masses in late 1992, and he was an instant force to be reckoned with—heavy, yes, but also powerful and alarmingly fast. He progressed from squashing jobbers to squashing lower-to-mid-card acts, to winning the Royal Rumble, last eliminating Randy Savage, before graduating to the largely depleted main event scene. Along the way, his Banzaii Drop signature move was cemented as not only a definitive finisher, but a move that always held the believable prospect of injuring an opponent.

Yokozuna lost some of his monster aura when he got to the world title, as Bret Hart gave him all he could handle at WrestleMania 9 (requiring Mr. Fuji to bail him out to steal the win), and then he promptly dropped the title to Hulk Hogan. He’d reestablish himself to an extent that summer, regaining the WWF Championship and making a spectacle of his gargantuan physique via a bodyslam challenge on the 4th of July. He’d go on to spend the rest of his main event days feuding with Lex Luger and The Undertaker, before settling into the tag ranks where was re-established as a more minor monster of the mid-card alongside Owen Hart. This act ultimately gave way to a face turn and Yokozuna feuding with, and ultimately putting over a newer monster (to the WWF audience) in Big Van Vader.

#5. The Undertaker

As so many critics have already articulated, The Undertaker became a legend on account of longevity and a shocking propensity for adaptation as he progressed from a cartoon-ish monster to a cult leader to a motorcycle riding badass, to a vaguely mystical big man veteran. That said, the roots of the character are pure camp—the very definition of a monster in pro wrestling as an oversized man who portrayed a zombie, who, in the span of a year, rampaged all the way to the world title.

From no selling opponents’ offense, to a well-defined arsenal of cleanly executed power moves, to the supernatural skill of walking the top rope for what would come to be known as Old School, ‘Taker provided a menacing force on the WWF main event scene. To say that he over-achieved in this gimmick is a massive understatement, as The Dead Man emerged as one of the most recognizable icons of the last twenty five years in wrestling, perhaps best remembered for his other worldly persona.

#4. Kane

This is one of the very few instances in which I will rank Kane ahead of The Undertaker for anything. Just the same, while The Undertaker was good in his intial monster run, he didn’t really seem to find himself until he worked face, then heel again, then all the more so as a face once more.

Conversely, Kane was at his very best on his initial run as a heel. After being saddled with lousy gimmicks as an evil dentist and a knock-off Diesel, Glenn Jacobs came into his own as a masked monster who moved as if he were part machine. With a built-in storyline as Undertaker’s long lost brother, he garnered instant credibility and and physically dominated guys like Vader and ‘Taker himself, on the way to his first official match with his kayfabe brother at WrestleMania 14—another great moment when Kane lost but nonetheless came off as unstoppable when he just barely missed kicking out after he was hit with a third Tombstone.

While the Kane character lost some of its aura when he turned face and slid from there, he recaptured a lot of that old magic six years after the character’s debut, when he was forced to unmask and went insane, annihilating old allies, Tombstoning Linda McMahon, and setting Jim Ross on fire.

When it came to producing a pure campy and yet credible monster, the WWF may have never done any finer work than the creation of Kane.

#3. Big Van Vader

Though he achieved some success in the WWF, Vader lands in the number three spot for this countdown based far more on his work in WCW.

Vader exploded onto the WCW main event scene in the early 1990s, pummeling Sting to win his first world championship not only cleanly, but in dominant fashion. In the years to follow he would provide an intimidating face at the top of the card, his second-rope Vader Bomb one of the most daunting big man splashes ever, his powerbomb an irresistible power move. His resume included sidelining Cactus Jack with a powerbomb to the concrete floor and beating Ric Flair bloody in the main event of Starrcade 1993 (albeit the fact that he ultimately lost the match). His agility proved even more unsettling as he more than once proved himself willing and able to execute a moonsault off the top rope.

Vader had an aura of monstrosity, compounded by an ability to go in the ring, producing deceptively good matches over and over again throughout his time on top of WCW. He carried some of this mystique into his WWF run—brutalizing then-president Gorilla Monsoon, and posing a hugely over threat to Shawn Michaels’s world title reign, before Vader ultimately devolved into a jobber to bigger stars.

#2. Andre the Giant

There are monsters. Then there’s the Giant.

In an age when super heavyweights were in vogue, Andre was six inches-to-a-foot taller, and a hundred or so pounds heavier than most of his contemporaries—among big men, the biggest man. And though he worked the majority of his career as a traveling face who would serve as a spectacle and the cavalry for overwhelmed local faces, it was when he turned heel on the WWF’s national stage that achieved the work he is best remembered for today.

Andre went bad to challenge Hulk Hogan for his world title at WrestleMania 3, a collosal collision in which only a star of Andre’s physical size and star magnitude could really rival a hero as over as Hogan was. The match itself may not be a classic, but there’s little question that it was the primary draw to get 93,000-ish into the Silverdome.

Andre’s monster heel run continued as a persistent antagonist to Hogan and then Randy Savage before The Mega Powers exploded. He was the guy who was both legitimately too big, and booked too shrewdly to ever be laughed—a constant menace and threat to the world title, and a suitable mountain of a man for The Ultimate Warrior to overcome en route to the top of the card. In the years to follow, the WWF formally moved him to the upper mid-card to feud with Jake Roberts and then tag with Haku before his final face turn to cap off his career.

There are some elements of the monster heel that promoters can’t concoct and workers can’t negotiate. Between his size and the gravity with which he carried himself, Andre was the stuff of legend as a monster heel, and it’s perfectly reasonable to argue that he should be number one on this list. I, however, had one name to place over his.

#1. Brock Lesnar

A part of what made Andre the Giant so successful as a monster heel was the very reasonable suspicion fans had that if he wanted to, he could legitimately destroy anyone he was in the ring with. Indeed, as an increasing number of fans recognized that sports entertainment was a work, part of the intrigue was that a guy like Andre probably could very literally squash anyone who really pissed him off if he decided to go off script.

I would argue that only one man has encapsulated that mode of thinking even better than Andre—the sense that, were he so inclined, he could probably very literally kill any other wrestler he wanted to in that squared circle. That man is Brock Lesnar.

Upon his WWF debut in 2002, Lesnar arrived as a monster heel, single-handedly destroying acts like The Hardy Boys with style and panache, before graduating to bearhug Hulk Hogan into unconsciousness, run through the field in the King of the Ring Tournament, annihilate The Rock to win his first world title, and quite decisively get the best of The Undertaker in their program. Lesnar would bounce between face and heel for the remainder of that first WWF run, losing a bit of monster steam along the way, but remaining a physical spectacle and darn solid worker in the ring for his time there and a run in Japan.

As we all know, Lesnar left the wrestling world for a run at pro football that didn’t quite pan out. Then he switched gears to mixed martial arts and completely redefined himself. Combining his champion amateur wrestling background, pro wrestling trash talk skills, and newly developed skills as a striker, Lesnar became an MMA force.

Then he came back to wrestling. It has been three years now, so we wrestling fans are starting to take that return for granted, but if you rewind to a 2010 mindset, Lesnar returning to the wrestling ring was mind-blowing. His comeback match was an uneven tale—remarkable in how different his working style was, resulting a remarkable match with John Cena, disappointing in the odd choice for WWE to book Cena as the winner for that outing. Lesnar would go on to an uneven program with Triple H, and then a forgotten gem of a one-off program with CM Punk. Then he ended The Streak.

Once Lesnar became the first man in twenty-two outings to beat The Undertaker at WrestleMania, his monster cred was instantly re-established. The fact that he went on to positively squash Cena at that year’s SummerSlam to take the world title reinforced his unique aura, and working as a part-time act helped preserve that special quality for months to follow.

Monster heels are the ones that are not only skilled or formidable—they’re the ones that justifiably strike fear in the hearts of face characters and the fans who are willing to lose themselves in the dream of pro wrestling. I would argue that Lesnar, more than any other performer in pro wrestling history, encapsulates that frightening, dominant persona. Hence, he’s my number one monster heel.

Which monster heels would you add to this list? Kamala? King Kong Bundy? One Man Gang? Abdullah the Buchter? Let us know what you think in the comments section.

Read more from Mike Chin at his website and follow him on Twitter @miketchin.