Nelson Frazier, Jr.

Nelson Frazier, Jr. (February 14, 1971 – February 18, 2014) was an American professional wrestler. Frazier was 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, Viscera and Big Daddy V. As Mabel, he won the WWF World Tag Team Championship once in 1994 with Mo, as half of Men on a Mission. He went on to become the 1995 King of the Ring, which earned him a WWF Championship match in the main event of SummerSlam 1995.
==Professional wrestling career==
===Early career (1993)===
Frazier began his professional wrestling career under the ring name Nelson Knight, one half of the team "The Harlem Knights" with his partner and storyline brother, Bobby. They wrestled in the United States Wrestling Association (USWA) and the Pro Wrestling Federation (PWF), twice winning the PWF Tag Team Championship before signing with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in July 1993.
===World Wrestling Federation (1993–96)===
Upon coming to the WWF, The Harlem Knights were given a new gimmick: Nelson became Mabel, Bobby became Mo, and they were given a rapping manager named Oscar. The new team, dubbed Men on a Mission, was introduced to the WWF audience through vignettes portraying them as three African American men trying to make a positive change in inner city neighborhoods. Clad in purple and yellow, they debuted as solid faces.
At WrestleMania X, Men on a Mission defeated the WWF Tag Team champions, The Quebecers, by count out, but did not win the belts. On April 29, 1994, they won the title at a house show in London, England. The Quebecers regained the title two days later in Sheffield, England.
In 1995, after losing a match against the reigning tag team champion-Smoking Gunns, Mabel and Mo brutally attacked them. Shortly thereafter they did it again as well as turning on Oscar, turning them both heel. Mabel dropped his fun-loving, positive personality in favor of adopting a more thuggish image and received push as a singles wrestler, winning the King of the Ring tournament in June, After that, Mabel became known as King Mabel, with Mo becoming "Sir Mo", his manager. Mabel was awarded a championship belt, designed and created by belt maker Reggie Parks. The belt, engraved with "King of the Ring", is one of a kind, as the World Wrestling Federation had not before or since created a belt for the King of the Ring. This belt was never seen on WWF TV.
After his victory King Mabel became the top heel in the company and challenged WWF Champion Diesel at August's SummerSlam. However, just before SummerSlam a decision was made to turn Davey Boy Smith into a heel. The turn occurred on the August 22, 1995 edition of Monday Night Raw, where Men on a Mission were to wrestle Smith and Lex Luger, who were then known as The Allied Powers. Luger was not at the event, however, and 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. King Mabel lost his match to Diesel at SummerSlam, however, and afterward he lost his spot as the top bad guy to Smith who began feuding with Diesel afterwards. Frazier almost lost his job as a result as well. Kevin Nash, the man who portrayed Diesel, 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, including injuring at least six of them prior to SummerSlam. During the match a spot involving King Mabel doing a sitdown splash on Diesel resulted in Nash's lower back nearly breaking and him suffering a severe abdominal strain that adversely affected him the rest of the match. The next night at the Raw taping Nash angrily confronted Frazier about what happened, and Vince McMahon was ready to terminate him. Nash convinced McMahon to keep him, however.
Following SummerSlam King Mabel got involved in the ongoing feud between Yokozuna and The Undertaker, helping Yokozuna attack a downed Undertaker. During the course of the attack, Mabel hit several leg drops to Undertaker's face, legitimately fracturing his orbital bone and putting him out of action for two months. Although King Mabel was to wrestle The Undertaker once he returned, Frazier's days in the WWF were numbered after this incident as the company was not happy with him injuring yet another of its top stars.
The Undertaker returned wearing a Phantom of the Opera-style mask and, a month later, defeated King Mabel in a Casket match at In Your House 5: Season's Beatings. 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 at the hands of his former rival Yokozuna.
===Independent circuit (1996–98)===
Frazier then wrestled for the Puerto Rico-based World Wrestling Council (WWC). There, he feuded with Carlos Colón. The WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship was held up after a match between the two. Mabel soon after won the championship and held it for a month.
He also returned to Tennessee to wrestle for the United States Wrestling Association, which went through a number of administration changes during his stay, and was rebranded Memphis Championship Wrestling and Memphis Wrestling. He captured the USWA Heavyweight Championship in March 1996 and the North American Heavyweight Championship in February 1998. These were each the top title in the promotion at the time.
On November 1, 1998, Mabel made a one-night-only surprise appearance at Extreme Championship Wrestling's November to Remember, as a Full Blooded Italians member with Ulf Herman, attacking Tommy Rogers and Chris Chetti until Spike Dudley made the save.
===Return to WWF (1998–2000)===
On July 6, 1998, Mabel made a one-night-only surprise return to the WWF to unsuccessfully challenge the new King of the Ring, Ken Shamrock.
He made his full-time return in 1999, first appearing at the pre-show for the Royal Rumble, then on the show itself, where he was kidnapped by The Undertaker, his Acolytes (Bradshaw and Faarooq) and Mideon. The next night on RAW, he was reintroduced as Viscera, and 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.
After the July 1999 break up of the Ministry, 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, and losing it minutes later, in the same Battle Royal-style match. He also feuded with Mark Henry after body splashing Henry's girlfriend, Mae Young, before he was released from his WWF contract in August 2000.
===TNA and return to independent circuit (2003–04)===
In March 2003, Frazier, as Nelson Knight, made a surprise appearance at a weekly NWA: Total Nonstop Action pay-per-view, at the side of Ron Killings. He appeared once more the next week.
He made a number of other independent appearances, including a return to Memphis Championship Wrestling, where he won the Southern Heavyweight Championship on March 6, 2004.
===World Wrestling Entertainment (2004–08)===
Frazier, as Viscera, returned to the WWF, by then renamed World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in September 2004, surprise attacking former Ministry of Darkness leader, The Undertaker, with fellow former Ministry member Gangrel, at the command of former Ministry Acolyte, John "Bradshaw" Layfield. After two weeks on SmackDown!, he was moved to the Raw brand.
In his first three months on the Raw brand, Viscera mainly wrestled on Raw's sister show Heat, only making sporadic appearances on Raw. His first major storyline there started in April 2005, when he aligned with Trish Stratus as part of her feud with Lita and Lita's husband, Kane. 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. That segment began a gimmick change for Viscera, who transformed into "The World's Largest Love Machine". After losing to Kane at Backlash 2005, he injured Stratus with his Big Splash finishing move, angry about her constant belittling of him, turning face in the process.
Viscera began wrestling in pajamas and making overtly sexual gestures in the ring. He became smitten with Raw ring announcer Lilian Garcia and tried different tactics to seduce her every week. At Vengeance in June, Garcia finally reciprocated, proposing to him in the center of the ring, only to be turned down and left crying in the ring when The Godfather arrived with many of his prostitutes to show Viscera what he would be leaving behind if he got married.
Viscera then teamed with Val Venis to form V–Squared. They teamed together for nearly nine months, mainly on Heat. They challenged for the World Tag Team Championship on several occasions, but never held the title. When Venis was sidelined with a legitimate injury in April 2006, Viscera returned to singles wrestling. He attempted to reconcile with Garcia, but was interrupted and attacked by Umaga during his proposal. Two weeks later, when Garcia was legitimately and accidentally knocked from the ring apron by Charlie Haas and sprained her wrist, the incident was worked into a storyline of Haas and Viscera fighting over Garcia. After Lillian declared she wanted to be just friends, Haas seemingly raked Viscera in the eye, with Viscera feigning to accidentally Samoan slam Lillian. After, both men laughed about the incident, in the process of turning Viscera heel once again. The team split up when Haas reunited with Shelton Benjamin to reform The World's Greatest Tag Team.
On June 17, 2007, Viscera was sent from the Raw brand to ECW in the supplemental section of WWE's draft. Three weeks later, he debuted on ECW on SyFy, repackaged as Big Daddy V, a "hired muscle" character in the employ of Matt Striker, arriving just in time to help Striker in his rivalry with The Boogeyman. After disposing of The Boogeyman, Big Daddy V defeated Tommy Dreamer in the ECW brand's Elimination Chase to become the number one contender for the ECW Championship at No Mercy. There, he lost to CM Punk by disqualification, when Striker interfered in the match. He then feuded with SmackDown's Kane. He participated in the No Way Out Elimination Chamber match, but was eliminated early.
He wrestled his last WWE match on March 11, 2008, for an episode of ECW on SyFy, losing to CM Punk in a Money in the Bank qualifier. In the 2008 WWE Supplemental Draft, he was drafted to the SmackDown brand. Frazier was released from his WWE contract on August 8, 2008, before ever wrestling for SmackDown.
===Return to independent circuit (2008–14)===
Frazier joined the National Wrestling Alliance, as King V. On October 4, 2008, in Robstown, Texas, King V defeated Andy Dalton and Joey Spector in a handicap match.
On August 8, 2009, at Juggalo Championship Wrestling'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.
Frazier continued to compete elsewhere on the independent circuit, including National Wrestling Superstars and Pro Wrestling Xtreme. as both Viscera and Big Daddy V.
On July 15, 2011, Big Daddy V defeated "Prime Time" Ryan Miller in SCW. On September 13, he defeated Baron Von Kane in NPW. He then defeated Sal Sincere for the GCW World Heavyweight Championship.
Mabel reunited with Mo at Pro Wrestling All Stars on January 5, 2013.
In 2013, Frazier signed with the Italian promotion Nu-Wrestling Evolution, forming a team with Charlie Haas named Road Killers.
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.
===All Japan Pro Wrestling (2010-11)===
Frazier wrestled for All Japan Pro Wrestling, as Big Daddy Voodoo (later just Big Daddy), and held the AJPW 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.
==Acting career==
Frazier made his film debut in 2009, playing Ginormous in National Lampoon's 301: The Legend of Awesomest Maximus. He also appeared as Animal in Wrong Side of Town.
==Death==
On February 18, 2014, Frazier died of a heart attack, four days after turning 43.
==In wrestling==
*Finishing moves
**Big Daddy V Drop (Elbow drop, sometimes while running)
**Embalmer / Viscera Driver / Sex Drive (Chokebomb)
**Big Splash
* Signature moves
**Samoan Drop
**Spinning heel kick
**Whirlwind of Love
**Visagra (Amateur-style back riding position with pelvic thrusts) – 2005–07
*Managers and valets
**Oscar
**Mo / Sir Mo
**Matt Striker
**Trish Stratus
*Teams and stables
**Corporate Ministry
**Harlem Knights
**Men on a Mission
**Ministry of Darkness
**Voodoo Murders
*Nicknames
**"The World's Largest Love Machine"
**"Big Vis"
**"The Mastodon"
*Entrance music
**"Men On A Mission" by Jim Johnston (Mabel) (1993–95)
**"The Lyin' King" by Jim Johnston (Mabel/King Mabel) (1995–96)
**"Stayin' Alive" by N-Trance (Mabel, ECW) (1998)
**"Ministry" by Jim Johnston (Viscera) (1999)
**"Big Vis" by Jim Johnston (Viscera) (1999–2000)
**"Advance of the Zombies" by Jim Johnston (Viscera) (2004)
**"Another Way Out" by Jim Johnston (Viscera) (2004–05)
**"Love Machine" by Jim Johnston (Viscera / Big Daddy Voodoo / Big Daddy V) (WWE / AJPW; 2005–07; 2009–12)
**"Hello Ladies" by Jim Johnston (Used while Teaming with Val Venis)
**"Calling All Cars" by Jim Johnston (Big Daddy V / Big Daddy) (2007–08; 2011–12)
==Championships and accomplishments==
*All Japan Pro Wrestling
**AJPW All Asia Tag Team Championship (1 time) with TARU (1)
*Great Championship Wrestling
**GCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
*Memphis Wrestling
**Memphis Wrestling Southern Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
*Music City Wrestling
**MCW North American Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
*New England Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame
**Class of 2013
*Pro Wrestling Federation
**PWF Tag Team Championship (2 times) with Bobby Knight (1) and Mo (1)
*Pro Wrestling Illustrated
**PWI ranked him #49 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1995
*United States Wrestling Association
**USWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
*World Wrestling Council
**WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
*World Wrestling Federation
**WWF Hardcore Championship (1 time)
**WWF World Tag Team Championship (1 time) with Mo (1)
**King of the Ring (1995)
*Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
**Worst Feud of the Year (2007) vs. Kane
**Worst Tag Team (1999) with Mideon
**Worst Worked Match of the Year (1993) with Mo and The Bushwhackers vs. The Headshrinkers, Bastion Booger, and Bam Bam Bigelow at Survivor Series
==External links==
* Nelson Frazier, Jr. Profile at CAGEMATCH.net
* Profile
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