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JoeDirt

Lex Luger's babyface run in 1993

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I was watching an old RAW from early August 1993 after Lex Express Mania was running wild. Anyways, it was one of the "Who is Lex Luger?" interviews that are just extremely sappy. I thought a funny line from it was something to the effect of:

 

"Back in high school if you were shy, and you excelled in something, people took it that you were arrogant, and it's like a vicious circle. It was really strange, and sometimes I think that I fight that to this very day in my career."

 

Well duh, no shit. You came to the ring and stared at yourself in a mirror...no arrogance there, right Lex?

 

I mean come on...did people really buy this shit? Did the marks love Lex at the time, and the smart marks despise him?

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Well, according what I saw from SummerSlam 93 and RR 94, the crowd went apeshit over him although they did boo Lex's ass right when the co-winner announcement was made because a majority of the crowd were for Bret.

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Guest Man Of 1,004 Modes

Lex Luger was crazy over, but couldn't touch Bret Hart.

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Luger was over, but not over enough, and certainly not 'crazy over'.

 

That's why his babyface run fell flat on its face.

 

He failed.

 

UYI

Explain his reactions @ Summerslam, Survivor Series, and the Royal Rumble since his face run "flopped"? It flopped the second they jobbed him to Yoko and sent him packing to mid-carder hell.

 

Edit: I said he was jobbed to himself for some reason.

 

<---Crack-head.

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Luger was super over, no question. His pops were on Bret's level if not a LITTLE below. As a Bret fan at the time, when I heard Luger's pop at the Rumble I was certain that he would get the Mania title shot one way or another.

 

Savage was getting nostalgia pops, nothing more. Luger was easily the #1 or #2 face in the company for several months ... at least until he jobbed to Tatanka.

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Luger was over. Early 90's marks + USA gimmick = instant overness. It was after Mania when he lost to Yoko and got involved in that feud with Perfect which went nowhere that he started losing overness really.

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Speaking of the feud with Perfect, what the hell happend? One week Perfect is pimping their house show program on T.V., the next Crush is Luger's substitute opponent for the next 2 months. Did Perfect not get clearence to wrestle, or did he just back out?

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I guess I just don't understand why it worked so well. I understand the whole pro U.S.A and early 90's marks thing, but there was no backlash against a non-sensical turn and never explaining the Narcissist gimmick? Everything was suddenly hunky dory? I mean were there ever any other turns in history where the people were suddenly supposed to love a guy so fast?

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I mean were there ever any other turns in history where the people were suddenly supposed to love a guy so fast?

Savage's first turn after losing the Intercontinental Championship?

 

Not exactly sure about that, so correct me if I'm wrong.

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I mean were there ever any other turns in history where the people were suddenly supposed to love a guy so fast?

Happens all the time. All you need is a really evil bad guy to make it work. In this case it was Yoko.

 

In Piper's case it was Adonis. In Savage's case it was Honky. In Hercules, Bossman, and Virgil's case it was Dibiase ... and so on.

 

You hate the heel so much that you'll cheer the other guy twice as much, regardless of his past.

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Speaking of the feud with Perfect, what the hell happend? One week Perfect is pimping their house show program on T.V., the next Crush is Luger's substitute opponent for the next 2 months. Did Perfect not get clearence to wrestle, or did he just back out?

Think it had something to do with his insurance through Lloyds of London ... forget the specifics. But basically he wasn't able to wrestle.

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Basically, Luger was just WWF's lame attempt at replacing Hulk Hogan and while I was never a fan of his, I'm still a mark for SSeries 93 since The Undertaker turned out to be Tatanka's replacement. :)

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Basically, Luger was just WWF's lame attempt at replacing Hulk Hogan and while I was never a fan of his, I'm still a mark for SSeries 93 since The Undertaker turned out to be Tatanka's replacement. :)

I've always had a soft spot for the old Survivor Series Elimination Matches. The 1993 version is the only one I haven't seen in years, so I don't remember much about who pinned who.

 

Santa Claus though, made a special appearence, like he did @ Survivor Series 1992. I always wondered though how Borga/Luger Wrestlemania Main Event would've panned out as originally planned. It probably wouldn't effect the work-rate, because the 2 TItle Matches that did happen sucked (although I marked out for Brets win). Luger as World Champion was the right thing to do, but sadly he had a big mouth and blabbed.

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Santa Claus though, made a special appearence, like he did @ Survivor Series 1992. I always wondered though how Borga/Luger Wrestlemania Main Event would've panned out as originally planned. It probably wouldn't effect the work-rate, because the 2 TItle Matches that did happen sucked (although I marked out for Brets win). Luger as World Champion was the right thing to do, but sadly he had a big mouth and blabbed.

 

I felt Bret getting it back was the best thing to happen seeing as he had gotten fucked out of the title the year prior in, all of places, my hometown. Which was made it even better seeing that he did defeat the unstoppable monster Yokozuna which led to the other wrestlers coming out to congratulate him. ^_^

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Speaking of the feud with Perfect, what the hell happend? One week Perfect is pimping their house show program on T.V., the next Crush is Luger's substitute opponent for the next 2 months. Did Perfect not get clearence to wrestle, or did he just back out?

Think it had something to do with his insurance through Lloyds of London ... forget the specifics. But basically he wasn't able to wrestle.

I think it was that he wasn't able to collect the money if he went back, so he opted to collect the money instead of busting his ass for the same or less. I cannot verify that 100% either though.

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Although I did mark out for Luger bodyslamming Yokozuna on the U.S.S. Intrepid on the 4th of July, that got a big "WOAH!" out of me especially after Crush of all people couldn't do it. :P

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Basically, Luger was just WWF's lame attempt at replacing Hulk Hogan and while I was never a fan of his, I'm still a mark for SSeries 93 since The Undertaker turned out to be Tatanka's replacement. :)

I remember marking out when UT opened his trench coat and the American flag was embroidered inside the coat. That was awesome.

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