Remembering Mabel's Unlikely Rise as WWE Main Eventer

At the peak of Mabel's fleeting stay as one of WWE's main eventers, he and Diesel collided at SummerSlam 1995. Purple-and-gold baggy pants hung off his massive thighs as he prepared to go against a fellow big man in what would end up being as close as he would get to being the company's top champion.

It was meant to be a meeting of behemoths a la Godzilla vs. Mothra but ended up being the butt of jokes more than anything. 

Looking back, a Hall of Famer facing off against a C-level wrestler is an odd sight. Mabel didn't belong on center stage. He was a low-rung star treated like a marquee attraction, an experiment that ended in a hurry.

The late Nelson Frazier, Jr. would later go on to other roles, from a sex-obsessed, rope-wearing playboy to an intimidating, black-clad monster for hire. It was as King Mabel, though, that he enjoyed his highest position on the WWE card.

A midcarder for the majority of his career, his brief journey to the marquee is a testament to how much size aids one in the world of pro wrestling.

The 6'9'' Frazier hovered near the 500-pound mark for much of his time in the business. In that way, he fit right into a circus-like world that so often showcased the massive.

Credit: WWE.com

He wasn't as adept in the ring as some of his fellow giants. He didn't particularly do well when handed a microphone. During the stretch of his run where he was known as  "The World's Largest Love Machine," he showed off the personality that would make him a cult favorite of sorts.

When WWE chose to push him to the top, however, he hadn't blossomed in that department yet.

To understand why the company chose to elevate him to world title contention, one has to reflect back on the state of the roster at that point. WWE was well into its post-Hulk Hogan period, but the Attitude Era had yet to commence.

The ring was a conveyor belt of outlandish, cartoonish characters. WWE trotted out an actual clown, a man said to be the victim of a nuclear meltdown, a whooping Native American, a race-car-driver-turned-wrestler in Bob "Spark Plugg" Holly and Irwin R. Shyster, a taxman who wrestled on the side.

Credit: WWE.com

True top stars were hard to find at the time.

Steve Austin was still being underappreciated over at WCW. WWE had ousted Ultimate Warrior. It was up to Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels to serve as the company's cornerstones, although WWE proved hesitant to do so, continually trying to replace them with larger, more monstrous men from Yokozuna to Diesel.

Up to this point, Mabel had been half of the rapping tag team, Men on a Mission.

The duo was clearly a goofy sideshow act, like so much of the roster at the time. The spotlight flickered off their purple getups but never stayed pointed at either Mabel or Mo.

At WrestleMania X, Men on a Mission unsuccessfully challenged The Quebecers for the tag titles. The bout failed to make much of an impact. Fans remember Owen Hart vs. Bret Hart from that night and the trailblazing Ladder match between Michaels and Razor Ramon, but memories of the tag contest quickly fell away.

Mabel and Mo did end up dethroning The Quebecers shortly after WrestleMania at a house show but only held the tag titles for two days.

The duo turned heel, trading their bleached-blond Mohawks for black ones. The shift eventually led to Mabel's climb up the ranks. They focused less on rap and more on pounding good guys into the mat.

Still, the gimmick lacked depth. As David Shoemaker wrote in The Squared Circle: Life, Death and Professional Wrestling, Mabel's character "was basically of a threatening, electric-color-clothing-wearing, fat black man."

Nuanced character or not, the journey upward from that point was a rapid one. 

In March of 1995, Mabel failed to even make the WrestleMania card. Just a few months later, he was pegged to win the King of the Ring Tournament. To make it clear to the audience early on that Mabel was no pushover at the event, WWE had him knock off Undertaker in the first round.

A draw between Kama and Michaels allowed Mabel to coast into the finals with no resistance. A short victory over Savio Vega saw the big man become the eighth man to be named King of the Ring.

Mabel's victory felt forced. The list of winners preceding him in that spot includes Hall of Famers Harley Race, Randy Savage and Ted DiBiase. Mabel didn't belong in that group.

WWE hadn't let him develop a top-star aura; it painted one on for him.

His gimmick now boasted a kingly element. A cape added to his MC Hammer-like ring gear and several props came along with the new package. When he entered the ring now, a band of unknown wrestlers hoisted the crowned powerhouse up.

The next step was a shot at WWE's other crown: the world title that Diesel carried on his large shoulders.

To propel him toward that meeting, the company had Mabel beat up on a host of tomato cans before taking down Bam Bam Bigelow. The victories weren't enough to make the regal giant feel like a serious contender. The process of building him up was too hurried.

Combine that with a lack of chemistry between champion and challenger, and the result was an underwhelming main event.

SummerSlam 1995 ended on a low with a match that couldn't outdo Ramon and Michaels' fabulous second ladder match against each other, or even the entertaining opener between 1-2-3 Kid and Habushi. 

In an interview with Arda Ocal on The Score (h/t Wrestle Zone), Frazier contended that Vince McMahon had it in his mind to crown Mabel the world champ. He said,"Vince was leaning towards me (to win the WWE title), but if anyone knows about The Clique they can change things around, and that's what happened."

Was it backstage politics preventing him from taking the next step, or did WWE realize that Mabel was out of his element?

Kevin Nash, who then wrestled as Diesel, painted a picture of his SummerSlam opponent as reckless. In a shoot interview (contains lots of NSFW language), Nash talks about how rough and sometimes careless Frazier was during his Mabel days.

Mabel's smashing Undertaker's face to the point that he had to a wear a Phantom of the Opera-like mask afterward only makes Nash's claims seem more accurate. As Jason Clevett and Greg Oliver wrote in Slam! Sports, "he legitimately broke Taker's orbital bone with a leg drop" later that year.

Scott Hall, who took on Mabel in 1995 alongside Vega, had kinder things to say about the late big man:

Whatever part backstage politics had in making that Mabel's only appearance on the marquee of a major event, one also to factor in results. Diesel vs. Mabel stunk. It was the emerging star's chance to make an emphatic statement in the ring, but he stuttered instead.

This is a match fans often mock today. It's often listed as one of SummerSlam's worst offerings. Even when WWE recapped the event years later, it positioned Michaels vs. Ramon at the end of the clip, making it feel like the pay-per-views' signature contest rather than the WWE title bout.

Mabel went on to help Yokozuna against Undertaker, but his time with WWE would soon come to an end. The Mabel character ran its course, and he surfaced again in 1999 as the darker Viscera. The top of the card was never an option going forward.

When Undertaker defeated Mabel at Season's Beatings and shut the casket on him, in a way it signified the end of Mabel's time as a prominent part of the show.

Frazier went on to add some intriguing highlights to his career. He didn't get close to the card position that he enjoyed as Mabel, though. 

Maybe WWE just pushed him too early. As Hall notes, Mabel was green at the time. He'd only been wrestling for a few years when handed that chance.

His girth garnered him added attention and a fast track to the top. He couldn't hold his spot near WWE's peak. SummerSlam 1995 was his brief taste of top billing, a reminder of how ephemeral wrestling success can be.