What's going on guys? Sorry for the delayed reaction, I got a giant savoury hot dog that's 180 pounds that'd knock me over trying to get out the door. (laughs)

How many pets have you got?

I just got the one right now. He really is, he's about 185 pounds, he's father-figured me, and just trying to keep him inside, his breathing. He wanted out and he got out, believe me. He knocked me over, bolted through the door. What time is it? Tell me what time it is? From the power of the Rocky Mountains in Boulder, Colorado, I bring you the Prince of Power, for it is Vader time.

Since retirement, what have you been up to?

Well, I'm self-employed, I have a , buy them, dress them up and sell them with my partner. Also I work for a company with a year-round contract. Pretty much, it's part-time work. An international, marketing firm in Japan, in Tokyo, international. Check this out, I got to know these people through my career in Japan, they do five billion gross dollars annually. Occasionally I do personal appearances, actually I have matches scheduled for November and January as we speak and that's something I'd like to continue doing at my age and in my condition. Between wrestling and football in the NFL and a long time wrestling with my size and what I did, doing the moonsaults and the dropkicking and all that stuff, I'm beat up, let's call it as it is.

Is there a guy wrestling right now that reminds you of yourself?

First of all the late, great Bam Bam Bigelow, what an athlete and what a huge man, he could do virtually anything. I would compare myself to him, not the other way around. Bam Bam was a great athlete, he did some phenomenal things in the ring for a man, what 430, 440 at times and at other times 410, 420. He went up and down that weight scale like I did.

I think right now, gentleman's in the WWE, the Samoan, I'm not up on all these names right now but I think you know who I'm talking about? Painted face...

Umaga?

Big, quick moving, gets across the ring extremely I really believe in the, there's a big difference between power and strength. Power is the ability to move over from point A to point B and deliver a blow, and that guy can do that. Now, I'm sure he's very strong in the gym. For example, Mark Henry. He can go in the gym and squat 1,000 pounds and bench press 1,000 pounds, but I believe the definition between power and strength, there's a major difference and I actually believe Mike Tyson was the most powerful man in the world. To be able to move and knock someone out, that's power.

I remember watching RAW two years ago when Vader came to ring. It came out of nowhere leading to Taboo Tuesday. Whose idea was it?

I have no idea whose conception it was but I saw it as an opportunity to give back a little bit. It goes back to Mr. Laurinaitis. We all know Joe the Animal, his younger brother John Laurinaitis and I, we worked together for All Japan Pro-Wrestling while Giant Baba was still alive. John and myself, we got along real good. And John is not only a very smart man, just being intelligent and very well spoken so I believe he wrestled under the name of Johnny Ace in Japan. And now John, Mr. Laurinaitis, he's one of the top honchos of the WWE and I got a call from him. He said "Leon, will you do me a favour?" And obviously when friends call you asking for favours, I did it. I was very sick at the time and hadn't been working out. I'd been sick the week prior and he called me a week before and I said "John, I'm not in shape. What have you got in mind?"

To make a long story short, it was a favour for a friend. Should I have done it? I don't know. But I had some fun, I saw some old friends. I visited Shawn Michaels and Hunter. I gotta see some young stars, John Cena, I'd never seen him. So for me it was a trip down memory lane. And again, should I have done it for my legacies sake or was it a a bad position to put me in? I really don't look at it that way, it was a favour to a friend and I was glad to do it.

You obviously had a good time in Japan...

In Japan I worked for Inoki, Giant Baba, and also a gentleman Mitsuharu Misawa, he's the one that broke away from Baba. Baba was ill, and then he passed away and I decided to go with Misawa. I decided to finish my career with Baba, then with his passing, a lot of verbal promises, handshakes, just didn't exist without his presence. So I went over to NOAH and had a good run with Misawa. I've been blessed. Between, I worked for Dusty Rhodes who was my booker in WCW, obviously Vince McMahon, the owner/booker, Giant Baba, Inoki and then Misawa, in Europe for Otto Wanz and in Mexico for Carlos Minez. I tried at one time to total up all the titles I've held around the world, I certainly I'm not about to encroach among Ric Flair's record, but single world titles, tag team world titles, it's right around 40. Again, I don't know whether they're recognised or not, but I've held a run around the world.

I've seen the video of the match in Japan with Stan Hansen, where he knocks your eye out and you finish the match. What was going through your mind?

Stan and I, I would say we were friends. We never hung out together or drank together but we were friends. That was way back in 1990. There was 77,000 people there and we were one of the main events. Inoki was one, and then Bam Bam and a newcomer, the big giant sumo wrestler, you remember his name?

Akebono?

No, not Akebono, it was before him. 6 foot 8, grand champion. Yellow boots on, he trained. Anyway, him and Bam Bam and me and Stan. We were one of 3 or 4 main events. Then again, 77,000 people, we were obviously getting great pay days, and he didn't knock it out, he thumbed it out. It was a misunderstanding, I was told Stan would be introduced first as the All Japan champion and I would be introduced second. There was no discussion between Stan and I who would be introduced second. I don't think anyone really gives a shit, but that's the way we were told. So Stan went out in the ring.

Stan (laughs), he couldn't see very good back then with his glasses off. And the crowd, light, smokes, the laser lights that the Japanese are famous for. I was told get in the ring with that big old cumbersome Vader mask and blow out the smoke you know? I said that's gonna be a chore as I'm not sure Stan'll let me do that. He could take the belt and crack the shit out of it. They said they didn't care, that's what I was there to do. So, I was standing near the ropes attempting to get up the steps with this 60 pound object in my hand and he came over the top with that cow bell and hit me right on the nose and he wasn't aware of it. But suddenly I couldn't hear, 77,000 people were going crazy and I couldn't hear a thing and my nose was pouring out blood and my ears were seeping out fluid, I don't know if it was blood, I couldn't hear a damn thing.

And I stood there for about a minute, the late Cornetto, he was one of the late wrestlers who passed not too long ago said "Hey, what's going on? Get in the ring." And I couldn't move, so when I heard the crowd again and when I came to, I sat down the big mask and got into the ring, walked up to Stan like we were gonna face off and I just slapped him in the ear, the face as hard as I could, twice. The bell rang, I was trying to get into the corner and say "Hey look man, the whole face is bleeding." The nose needed about 10 stitches after that and we were in the corner. He started flinging and I started flinging, and I grabbed him, turned him around and put him in the corner and it was his right hand that tore the eye out of it's socket and it came out on my cheek.

Just instinctively I shoved it back in it's socket and ended up having three surgeries on that and I had around three orbitals around the eye and the glands are like a piece of spaghetti that holds your eye and it stretched when it came out on my cheek and I shoved it back in so when we fixed the eye and put it back in, I would look to the left and the right eyes was large, I looked to the right and he right eye was lad. so we had to go back in and do it again. holding the eye and there was a lot of nerve damage and I lost some vision in that eye, and just recently, excuse me, that's my dinner...

Spaghetti?

(laughs) I went back in and they said "This was a big trauma you received back in 1990." So I went to the doctor using my insurance, they said the back half of my eye structure was built like an ice cream cone a few years ago and you can imagine an ice cream cone with the ice being the eye? And the structure of the ice cream going to a small point, like a waffle. It's like an ice cream zone, you know what I'm saying? It gets narrower, the back two thirds of the structure of the eye has disintegrated and it's causing my eye to recede. That's why it's getting blurry. They said, well, I could go blind. If the eye recedes too much I'll lose a nerve and I'll go blind in that eye.

Rest of the interview coming soon...