The Star-Spangled Saga of Lex Luger in WWE
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.ค. 2023
- 30 years ago, Lex Luger body slammed Yokozuna and kicked off the LEX EXPRESS! I take a closer look at Lex's run in the WWF and try to figure out why it's gone down as one of wrestling's biggest busts!
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Luger has said he was always afraid of being seen as a Hulk Hogan clone. This led right into this.
I do not care who disagrees with me. Lex Luger should have won the WWF Championship at SummerSlam 1993!
I think it could've been saved with a more organic face turn. He could've shown up for the Yokozuna slam contest as his narcissist character and shock everyone by successfully slamming Yokozuna. Mr. Fuji could still run him down about the slam being ugly, and Lex would agree. Lex starts to be hard on himself for what he thought was an ultimately poor showing before realizing that he did technically slam Yokozuna and proved that he might be able to beat him. He adopts a more humble attitude and starts campaigning for a title shot, if only for a chance to prove that he can be better. No all-American gimmick. No tour bus. Just a guy who has been humbled and who wants to reassure himself of his own worth.
The main reason why Lex luger failed in the WWF is because vinny mac was too focused on finding the next Hulk Hogan and didn't allow lex to be himself. It didn't help that lex was given two bad gimmicks in one of the worst eras in the history of wrestling. This might sound silly to say but had lex came around during the attitude/Ruthless aggression era I truly believe lex would've thrived and became a champion.
Brett has talked about how Luger was never a great wrestler but he was aware of his limits, making it much easier to work with him. He seemed to feel kind of sorry for how Luger got stuck with bad gimmicks and being unprepared for the top position.
Luger in the WWF had no charisma as a babyface. he should have just stayed a heel and gone with Mr. Perfect as the new Champ. Perfect had won over the fans and he had earned his place among the WWF greats. Vince didn't make the right choices.
The bonus footage of Luger in the Call to Action Tour is hilarious in a rather depressing way as you see an insular man being forced into a role where he must be bombastic and outgoing with perfect strangers and it just does not work at all for someone who wants to run to the hotel room the instant his match is over. Especially when you know he's not winning the belt.
Get on the Lex Express! Or don't, because that Bus didn't work out at all!
Fun fact, Luger still has the longest US title runs in history.
To give Lex's side of the bus tour. He says he didn't fly home that often just occasionally to see family and rode the bus most of the time. He also says he was cranky because he was basically living and sleeping on the bus and had trouble finding good gyms and food to eat. So that's why he looked so miserable. I still can't believe they took a guy not known for his charisma or talking skills and sent him around the country for basically no reason. If they insisted on doing it just give him the belt at summer slam then do a victory tour and make it a big thing of "meet the WWF champion"
The best part of Lex vs. Yokozuna at SummerSlam 1993 was, easily, Bobby Heenan going apoplectic & losing his mind over all of the celebration being given to Lex for winning via count out. You have Vince touting how awesome this win just was, all while Heenan is about to have a heart attack pointing out that Lex didn't actually become champion, yet he's being treated as though he saved the entire world, or something. It's amazing that Heenan didn't just pass out cold from shock once the balloons fell.
6:50
Everybody: Lex why are you a good guy now, when you was just a bad guy yesterday?
Honestly, Roman (early baby face) and Luger have always shared similarities to me. From having the look to pretty dire forced promos, its amazing how Vince actually kept at it with Roman and Lex was as good as gone in less then a year.
Ok, I’ll admit the Lex Express theme (I’ll be your hero) is a banger to this day and no one will convince me otherwise.
This has been a long time coming- been waiting for this ever since Brian mentioned him in another video saying “but that’s a story for another time”. This is gonna be fucking awesome!
I genuinely keep thinking the WBF was a fever dream I hallucinated when I was sick as hell as a kid
Luger’s win over Hogan for the WCW belt was so much better and more organic. The Nitro crowd went absolutely ballistic when he won the title. And even though he only held the belt for a week, he was the first guy to pin Hollywood Hogan.
I loved the lex express gimmick. It was apparent that this guy was being positioned as a "main event guy". For me, what messed it up was him not winning the belt at summerslam. If you would had given him the belt and had him lose it to yoko at mania via shenanigans, which would have given him a ready-made program with yoko and bret for the remainder of the year. If sid had multiple reigns as champ I see no reason why luger couldn't do the same.
Prichard told a story on his podcast it took all day, like 5 hours or more, to get a decent take of Luger saying "From my family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving".