Lex Luger

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

I wondered why didn't they put him over at SS 93? He won, and they put so much into him, and they had a big celebration, but he didn't even get the title. I think to myself that normally the DQ ending is a bullshit one, but in this case they all celebrated and the crowd didn't know any better. Why didn't he ever get the title after that?

 

Also, why do people call him a choker in a worked business? Sounds stupid to me.

[Guest BDC]

Perception in kayfabe: he chokes every time he gets near the title.

[jester 0]

What I heard was that Vince wanted the big money on a WM rematch, which is why Luger didn't win the belt at Summer Slam.

 

But since the stipulation was that this was supposed to be Luger's only shot at the belt, he looked like a complete idiot for not getting the job done, which was only re--enforced by the balloons and the celebration. It killed his momentum.

 

Apparently there are incidents in WCW where the logical booking said that he should get the title and didn't, which also made him look like a complete chump. Hence the choker label.

[Guest LooneyTune]

Lex Lugers Challenging for World Title records from 1987-1993: 0-494934 (the 1 time he won he didn't even beat the champion)

 

In terms of Kayfabe, and in the eyes of fans when wrestling was still "not entirely fake" (when it wasn't shoved down fans throats "this isn't real"), he was a choker.

[Guest Loss]

The reason given at the time was that house show business was seeing a small increase with Luger chasing the title and Vince wanted to milk that as long as he could. He was afraid he'd be killing the storyline too soon if they put the belt on Luger at Summerslam.

 

Oddly enough, Vince thought Luger/Yoko was the reason for the house show boost at the time, but Luger and Yoko weren't even headlining any house shows against each other at that point. Bret/Lawler was the big draw.

 

Flair should have dropped the title to Luger in 1988, even if only to give him a short run with the belt. I don't think Luger could have worked as a long-term champion just because the match quality on top would be down anytime he worked anyone outside of Flair, but the crowd response necessitated Flair putting him over at some point in the year.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

So was Luger actually looked upon as a choker? I wasn't into WCW before like the late nineties since Canada was all about the WWF at that time.

 

Did he ever become over in WCW? Or did he lose credibility along with never winning a title? I'm referring to pre-WWF days. Speaking of which, can someone explain the whole WBF thing to me, and if it was solely made for a pro wrestler?

 

Was he ever a solid worker? I've heard of injuries slowing him down...

[Guest LooneyTune]

Re: WBF

 

Luger had "Retired" from wrestling, so WWF signed him as their man spokes-person, since he was a wrestler, and it would attract wrestling fans who weren't into Bodybuilding. When WBF folded, Vince still had him under contract, so he convinced him to wrestle again (for the right money of course). That's how I understand it, but I might be missing something.

[Guest Loss]

Yes, Luger was looked upon as a choker. He had several matches with Ric Flair where he'd have him beaten and everyone would think this was the night it would finally happen, only for something stupid and overbooked to result in Flair keeping his belt. It eventually became sort of a running gag.

 

He remained very over in WCW, but was better as a heel. 1988 was probably his peak as a babyface and he was the hottest heel in probably all of wrestling in the last half of 1989.

 

He was never really a good worker, but he was at one time capable of being carried. All of his good matches came against guys like Flair, Steamboat and Barry Windham.

[Frankie Williams 0]

What a waste of balloons his SS 93 "celebration" was.

[Guest LooneyTune]

They probably cost $1.49 for a 50 pack.

[Only The Strong Survive 0]

The only interesting thing Luger ever did in the modern era was jump to WCW after touring with WWF the week prior (and even running in during the WWF Title match between Diesel and Mabel at SummerSlam '95).

 

Luger is merely a small footnote in the volumes of wrestling history.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Luger's last WWF match was the day before he showed up on Nitro. You can see why Vince wasn't pleased with the guy.

[Guest Trivia247]

Well thats the thing, they really centered whole ball of wax around Lex Luger vs Yokozuna. That whole Ceramony at Smackdown with the singing of both National Anthems and it ends up a DQ that was a waste. that was cause of some definate Last minute booking changes by someone in the back.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

Well thats the thing, they really centered whole ball of wax around Lex Luger vs Yokozuna. That whole Ceramony at Smackdown with the singing of both National Anthems and it ends up a DQ that was a waste. that was cause of some definate Last minute booking changes by someone in the back.

What event was that again?

[Guest Kimaster1976]

I think Luger was actually signed to compete in the WBF, however a month or so before the event he was withdrawn. I believe they gave an excuse of a motorcycle accident as the reason, although I am not too sure whether that was fact or it was realized Luger was not on the same level as the actual bodybuilders competing.

 

He certainly did look huge during his interview at WrestleMania VIII.

[Guest LooneyTune]

Definitely was true (the accident), hence the steel plate in his forearm (which I believe was taken out sometime during 1994, when they started to forget about it).

[Shanghai Kid 0]

One thing I think people understimate is how over Luger was in WCW in 96-97. Before the whole Sting thing it was basically the NWO vs Luger and Luger was getting huge face heat every week.

[MDH257 0]

Luger never "retired", he and Vince always intended for him to wrestle for the WWF. I remember reading that he got out of his WCW deal early by signing a non-compete clause promising not to "wrestle" for the WWF or officially work for them for about a year.

The plan was for Luger to sign with Vince as a "WBF Bodybuilder" and still appear on tv like he did in April/May '92 and talk trash about the WWF guys to build up his coming back to "wrestling" in '93. He was never going to compete for the WBF. They only had one event a year and they said Luger would be a "Special Guest Poser" and not a competitor. Luger got into his motorcycle accident before the ppv and wasn't there.

Instead of appearing on WWF tv as a "WBF star" he simply satyed off tv and rehabed his injury and debuted for the WWF around the time he likely would have anyway.

 

I always thought his choker image was among the fans, it was never liked the announcers pushed that he couldn't win the big one.

[Guest Loss]

The Apter mags pushed it hard, and they had a fairly strong amount of influence at the time.

[Guest LooneyTune]

Oh well, thats the last time I trust internet rumors. I still liked the Narcissist gimmick though.

[Betty Houle 0]

Well thats the thing, they really centered whole ball of wax around Lex Luger vs Yokozuna. That whole Ceramony at Smackdown with the singing of both National Anthems and it ends up a DQ that was a waste. that was cause of some definate Last minute booking changes by someone in the back.

Hardly "last minute" if you meant that literally.

[Guest LooneyTune]

The plan was intended to stretch it to Wrestlemania the whole time, but when they did the crowd testing at the Rumble, Brets responses made Lugers their bitch, and the plan was changed to have Bret win the title. It most definitely wasn't a last minute change.