Nelson Lee Frazier Jr. (February 14, 1971 - February 18, 2014) was an American professional wrestler, renowned for his time with the World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Entertainment (WWF/WWE) in the 1990s and 2000s. He was known under various ring names, including Mabel, Viscera, and Big Daddy V.
Throughout his career, Frazier captured multiple championships and etched his name in wrestling history. He won the WWF Tag Team Championship, the WWF Hardcore Championship, and the 1995 King of the Ring tournament. Let's delve into the details of his remarkable journey in professional wrestling.
Early Career
Big Daddy V began his wrestling career under the name Nelson Knight as part of the Knight Brothers along with Bobby Knight in the USWA and PWF. They became tag team champs along the way.
World Wrestling Federation (1993-1996)
He signed with the WWF in 1993 with his partner as they came in as faces and won the tag team championship under their new name 'Men on a Mission'.
Upon entering 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.
Read also: Inside Kane's Wrestling Career
At WrestleMania X, Men on a Mission defeated the WWF Tag Team champions, The Quebecers, by countout, 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 mid-1994, Mabel began wrestling more singles matches; he was seen as the spectacle of Men on a Mission due to his size, the “special attraction” that got used to make rising stars look good. He competed in the 1994 King of the Ring tournament, defeating Pierre of the Quebecers in the qualifying round before losing to IRS in the quarterfinals.
He then had a match that pit "Rap vs. Country" against Jeff Jarrett at Summerslam, which Jarrett won. 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 and followed that attack up by turning on Oscar and beating him up, 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.
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 the WWF made a decision to turn Davey Boy Smith, one of the company's more popular wrestlers, against the fans and replace Mabel as the company's top villain.
Read also: Steve Keirn: Wrestling Icon
Frazier was instead inserted in the ongoing feud between Yokozuna and The Undertaker, which saw Mabel help 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.
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: Seasons 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.
The Life and Career of King Mabel
Independent circuit (1996-1998)
Frazier then wrestled for the Puerto Rico-based World Wrestling Council (WWC). There, he feuded with Carlos Colón. The 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 Heavweight 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.
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.
Read also: "Pretty Boy" Larry Sharpe's impact on wrestling
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.
Return to the independent circuit (2000-2004)
Following his release from the WWF, Frazier returned to the independent circuit.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2003)
In March 2003, Frazier, as Nelson Knight, made a surprise appearance at a weekly Total Nonstop Action Wrestling pay-per-view, at the side of Ron Killings. He appeared once more the next week.
Second return to WWE (2004-2008)
Frazier, as Viscera, returned to the WWF - by then renamed World Wrestling Entertainment - 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.
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.
Second return to the independent circuit (2008-2014)
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 (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.
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 August 12, he was in a battle royal at...
Championships and Accomplishments
Throughout his career, Nelson Frazier Jr. achieved the following:
- WWF Tag Team Championship (1 time)
- WWF Hardcore Championship (1 time)
- King of the Ring (1995)
- WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- OMW North American Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- MCW North American Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- AJPW All Asia Tag Team Championship (1 time)
Death
Nelson Frazier Jr. passed away on February 18, 2014, at the age of 43. His contributions to the world of professional wrestling will always be remembered.
| Promotion | Championship/Achievement | Year |
|---|---|---|
| WWF/WWE | WWF Tag Team Championship | 1994 |
| WWF/WWE | King of the Ring | 1995 |
| WWF/WWE | WWF Hardcore Championship | 2000 |
| WWC | Universal Heavyweight Championship | 1996 |
| OMW | North American Heavyweight Championship | 1998 |
| MCW | North American Heavyweight Championship | 1998 |
| AJPW | All Asia Tag Team Championship | 2010 |