The bear is here.
"The only way I can describe Sylvester Terkay is with the words inhumanly strong. He is the biggest, toughest, strongest guy I've ever wrestled."
Sylvester Terkay (born December 4, 1970) is an American Professional Wrestler and Mixed Martial Arts fighter. He started his career on the mat as an amateur wrestler in North Carolina State University, where only Kurt Angle has gone into records as his nemesis, and then switched to professional wrestling as part of Ultimate Pro Wrestling, a popular developmental territory with ties to WWE. After wandering UPW and Ohio Valley Wrestling, his arrival to Japan as part of UPW's invasion of Pro Wrestling ZERO1 proved to be his chance: his large size, mean face and legit background turned him into an evil foreign sensation, receiving a gimmick inspired by the legendary Bruiser Brody. Around this time he also tasted mixed martial arts and Kickboxing for the K-1 whenever promoters were brave enough to book him. In 2006, he finally reached WWE as part of a team with Elijah Burke, but he was discarded when executives found no way to get content with him. After some more wrestling for Inoki Genome Federation, he retired from his active career.
"The Bear Tropes"
- Acrofatic: More barrel-chested than fat, but was still a superheavyweight, yet he did spinning heel kicks and top rope attacks with ease.
- Animal Motifs: Was associated with bears for his hairiness and size. His Predator character also contained unspecified predatory motifs.
- Anti-Hero: Surprisingly, even although The Predator had been summoned by Nobuhiko Takada as part of his anti-puroresu forces in Fighting Opera HUSTLE, Terkay broke free and instead played against them. His true alignement was officially a sort of wild card that chose to help his former ZERO-ONE enemies for unknown reasons.
- Bash Brothers: With Tom Howard and the rest of his stable. He also formed the Team Kong with Kevin Randleman in HUSTLE.
- Bears Are Bad News: He was touted as a man-bear and has been a heel for most of his career.
- Beat Them at Their Own Game:
- Terkay was mostly a freestyle wrestler with some minor boxing titles, but when he fought kickboxing expert Mauricio da Silva, he chose to go with punches - and won. This backfired on him, though, as he attempted to do the same with Gary Goodridge and fell the same way when he underestimated Goodridge's KO power. Terkay wised up for his next bout, against another kickboxer, so he went for a wrestling hold as soon as he could.
- Subverted in that he didn't actually win his kickboxing bouts against Remy Bonjasky or Choi Hong-man, but he did so well that he made his opponents look bad by comparison and had the audiences of both bouts believing he was the real victor. The fight with Bonjasky was literally called a wrong decision even by the K-1 chairman himself.
- The Brute:
- For Tom Howard during the UPW invasion of ZERO-ONE. There were several brutes in their army, but he was a poignant example.
- Subverted in HUSTLE, as Nobuhiko Takada initially used him as a hired gun against Ogawa's friends, but Terkay didn't join them.
- Chain Pain: Carried an iron chain to the ring to attack his opponents, wrapping it around his arm before clobbering them or choking them with it.
- Death from Above: His finisher, the King Kong Kneedrop, was sometimes done from the freaking top rope.
- The Dreaded: MMA promotions were wary of booking him, as although Terkay was an unheralded pro wrestler, he was a legitimately dangerous fighter, so he could easily mar the record of some established star. Kickboxing promotions were more optimistic, as they thought a wrestler like Terkay would be less dangerous in striking exchanges, but again Terkay proved them wrong when he humiliated Remy Bonjasky on his very debut and made Choi Hong-man look bad in his second fight. At the end, Terkay left fighting altogether and sticked to professional wrestling, the only place in which being The Dreaded played in his favor.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Wrestled in UFO as "UFO Big Van Vader" before he became more well known as The Predato in ZERO-ONE.
- Enemy Mine: He teamed up with Naoya Ogawa from the ZERO-ONE native army to take on Goldust and Giant Silva, who had invaded the promotion by Nobuhiko Takada's orders.
- Expy/Homage:
- His gimmick was esentially a Bruiser Brody clone.
- His gimmick in UFO was blatantly one to Big Van Vader
- In MMA and kickboxing, he was in all senses the second coming of Tom Erikson.
- Genius Bruiser: Has a degree in criminal justice.
- Graceful Loser: Despite the crowds believing he won both his kickboxing bouts, he didn't challenge the decisions and hugged his opponents afterwards.
- The Giant: Not a particularly large one by American standards, but a veritable example among Japanese wrestlers.
- Heel–Face Turn: At the beginning of HUSTLE, he was part of the anti-pro wrestling forces summoned by Takada, but he never joined the Takada Monster Army; instead, he aligned himself with the HUSTLE Army for his brief time in the promotion.
- Hero Killer: What fighting promoters feared Terkay might be. Indeed, he defeated young star Mu Bae Choi in a MMA fight, as well as his trainer Kristof Midoux.
- I Can Still Fight!: After getting knocked to the ground and seemingly knocked out by Gary Goodridge, Terkay got back up a few seconds later asking why the fight stopped.
- I Have Many Names: Has wrestled as Sylvester Terkay (his real name), Sly Scraper, The Collector, The Escapee, The Predator, and UFO Big Van Vader.
- I Know Amateur Wrestling: A multiple wrestling champion who once finished second behind Kurt Angle. He also won some boxing championships.
- The Juggernaut: Was portrayed this way in pro wrestling, and judging for how ungodly dangerous he was in MMA and kickboxing, he could have perfectly been it in real life as well with just a bit more training.
- Made of Iron: His best attribute in kickboxing was that he could take a beating, shrug it off, and keep fighting.
- Master of None: Failed at making an impact in WWE, according to Dave Melzer, because he was not large enough to play a monster heel yet not skilled enough to play a technical wrestler.
- Meaningless Villain Victory: Lost his K-1 match with Choi Hong-man, but when the match ended Terkay seemed fresh and ready for another round, while Choi looked like he would collapse in any moment.
- Mighty Glacier: Was a Lightning Bruiser for a man of size in real life, but he preferred to play a slow, meditated powerhouse in pro wrestling, possibly due to injuries or age wear.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: A wrestler named "The Predator" is likely not someone to have a peaceful tea party with.
- Real Men Love Jesus: Was an active member of several Christian athletic organizations like Athletes In Action, the Fellowship of Christian Atheletes, and Cru (originally the Campus Crusade for Christ International) in his university days.
- Red Baron: "Bear", which he earned in his amateur wrestling days. In pro wrestling it was tweaked to "The Man Bear".
- Screaming Warrior
- The Un-Favourite: To K-1 judges, apparently. With veteran Remy Bonjasky as his opponent at his very first kickboxing match, Terkay performed so well that the normally polite Japanese crowds booed loudly when the judges gave Bonjasky a split decision win, and the controversy was so sound that the K-1 president had to publicly apologize for it. A similar reaction was made by the Las Vegas crowd after his bout with Choi Hong-man.
- Unskilled, but Strong: He was fired from OVW because they thought he wasn't picking up pro wrestling fast enough, but even with those modest skills he found success in Japan thanks to his look and size.
- Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object: His kickboxing matches against Remy Bonjasky, a guy who was well known for his flying kicks and knees, and Choi Hong-man, a literal giant.
- Ur-Example: Was the first UPW Heavyweight Champion.
