6 WWE Superstars who were told to lose weight

Superstars of all shapes and sizes have appeared on WWE television over the years, from cruiserweights like Rey Mysterio and Kalisto to super heavyweights like Yokozuna and The Big Show.

Although WWE was once viewed as “The Land of the Giants”, where only the largest Superstars would succeed and contend for the company’s top title, that mindset has changed drastically over the last two decades.

Vince McMahon has encouraged several Superstars to improve their lifestyles by losing weight, while one former NXT performer was even asked if he could stop weight training to avoid looking too similar to a character that he previously portrayed.

In this article, let’s take a look at five WWE Superstars who were told to lose weight to improve their health, as well as one who lost weight to debut a new gimmick.

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#6 WWE veteran The Big Show

The Big Show revealed on WWE Network special Rebuilding Big Show that his weight loss in recent years came about after John Cena inadvertently challenged him to grow abs.

“I was making a joke about, 'Oh yeah, I'm going to go out and get me some abs and be a bodybuilder.' I said, 'Who would want to see a giant with abs?' John just looked at me deadpan and goes, 'Yeah, a giant with abs, who would want to see that?'”

The seven-foot Superstar said that comment “lit a fire” and prompted him to change his lifestyle, which is something that WWE Chairman Vince McMahon wanted from him back in the year 2000.

Speaking on his Something to Wrestle With podcast, WWE director Bruce Prichard recalled that Big Show was sent to the Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) developmental territory earlier in his career because he needed to lose weight and get in ring shape.

“Vince had just had it [with Big Show] and it wasn’t one match, one night or anything like that. It was a culmination of Show not being able to perform at the level we were looking at him to perform at.” [H/T Still Real To Us]

Prichard said it was not uncommon for Big Show to have four burgers, 40 chicken nuggets and a milkshake in the same meal during that period of his WWE career.

#5 Former WWE Superstar Gangrel

Gangrel’s most memorable run in the wrestling business came between 1998-2000 when he portrayed a blood-drinking vampire in WWE.

Prior to his full-time spell with the company, the former Brood member appeared on WWE television under a different name – The Black Phantom – as an enhancement talent in 1994-95, while he also lost a match against Big Boss Man at a Wrestling Challenge taping in 1988.

Speaking to Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp in 2018, Gangrel reflected on his 30 years in wrestling and recalled that he was told to lose weight during his time as an enhancement talent.

“They flew me into all the TVs and did all the house shows. I was never under contract. They were telling me to lose weight, grow my hair. I had fangs bonded in permanently and they were like, ‘You gotta get rid of the fangs.’”

Despite losing weight and doing everything else that had been asked, Edge and Christian's former on-screen ally said WWE officials had a change of heart and they wanted him to have fangs again and shorter hair.

He agreed with the vampire idea but he did not want to cut his hair again after previously being told to grow it.

#4 Former WWE Superstar Adam Rose

Adam Rose's physical transformation

As you can see in the pictures above, Adam Rose put on a lot of muscle and transformed his body after leaving WWE in 2016.

Writing in a since-deleted Instagram post in October 2019, the former Social Outcasts member revealed that he was asked to refrain from weight training in WWE NXT so he could lose weight and look completely different to the Leo Kruger character that he played before becoming Adam Rose.

“My weight as Adam was around 201 lbs.. unfortunately as everyone now knows while in the WWE I developed a drug addiction which lead [sic] to me losing considerable weight and getting sick. At my worst I weighed in at 176 lbs in the WWE.. I was living on a smoothie a day and barely ate.. After a long stint in rehab, thanks to the WWE, I was able to clean up and get my life back together.” [H/T Wrestling Inc.]

At the time of the Instagram post, Rose said he weighed 258 lbs, which means he gained 82 lbs following his departure from WWE.

He added that he weight trains religiously and probably eats too much food, but he is unlikely to stop because he enjoys his new lifestyle.

#3 Former WWE Superstar The Blue Meanie

The Blue Meanie in WWE (left); Blue Boy and Jasmin St. Claire in ECW (right)

Speaking to Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp in 2020, The Blue Meanie reminisced about the time that he received a message on his answering machine from then-WWE Superstar Al Snow following an independent show in Pittsburgh in 1998.

Snow asked him whether he would be interested in joining WWE, to which the ECW star instantly replied, “Yeah!” before Snow had even finished his sentence.

Within two hours, Bruce Prichard called Meanie and it did not take long for a WWE deal to come to fruition.

The veteran wrestler also told Sapp that he was encouraged to lose weight during his initial one-year run in WWE, so he drastically altered his diet and ended up dropping 160 lbs in a short space of time.

“When I was with WWE they had asked me to lose weight. So, I went and lost 160 pounds. And I was seeing Headbanger Mosh’s brother John, who’s a nutritionist. Through him I lost 160 pounds in a couple of months.”

When Meanie returned to ECW after his spell with WWE, he debuted a new character – Blue Boy (w/Jasmin St. Claire) – who made fun of people for being ugly and overweight.

#2 and #1 WWE legends Vader and Yokozuna

Vader and Yokozuna were two of the largest WWE Superstars in the 1990s.

Speaking to POST Wrestling in 2018, former WWE executive Jim Ross spoke about the time that the two Superstars were sent to the same clinic in an attempt to help them both lose weight.

The plan backfired, though, as the heavyweights went against orders by leaving the clinic at night to eat more food.

“I remember sending Leon [Vader] and Yokozuna to the Duke Weight Loss Clinic at Duke University in North Carolina. I got the first report and they had only been there a week and they had gained weight. We found out they were sneaking out at night and going to get chicken.”

Bruce Prichard said on his Something to Wrestle With podcast (listen above) in 2019 that Yokozuna lost around 100 lbs after taking time off from WWE in the summer of 1996.

However, despite his attempts to lose weight, the former WWE Champion was unable to satisfy Vince McMahon and the New York State Athletic Commission, and he was no longer deemed healthy enough to compete for WWE following his appearance in an eight-man tag team match at Survivor Series 1996.