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Luger as Bash Victim



Hi Scott, hope you are well.
 
Your recent Bash review and the resulting discussions got me thinking about about who, and what, came out of that show taking it on the chin. The fans, WCW, the fans, the World Title, the fans, Flair & Herd, and the fans. But I would argue that there was another victim in all of that, which would send him into a bad headspace which would last far too long. I speak of the guy who got the title itself, Lex Luger.
 
Throughout the 90s, Luger received the reputation for being lazy, untalented, and unmotivated (outside the gym), an assertion I'm not going to argue. However, from 1988 to mid-1991, Luger delivered the goods in a lot of big match situations. He was a part of many good to great matches with numerous different opponents, not all of them world-beaters, which doesn't happen by accident.
 
Flair is the obvious first pick (Bash '88, Starrcade '88, Wrestlewar '90, Capitol Combat '90, Clash XII), but he also had fine matches with Steamboat (Bash '89), Pillman (Havoc '89, Clash IX), Windham (Chi-Town Rumble), Dan Spivey (Wrestlewar '91), good tag matches such as Luger & Windham vs. Tully & Arn (Clash I), Luger & Sting vs. Tully & Arn (Crockett Cup '88), Luger & Sting vs. Steiners (Superbrawl I), and even a solid singles bout with Tommy Rich (Clash VIII)! There were probably some good TV matches during that period as well (the six-man on the WCW DVD comes to mind).
 
During that period, Lex was very over, moved up the ladder, and displayed some patience for his time to come (he didn't flee). Though not highly skilled or a big ring general, Luger certainly gave it the good old college try in his big matches, and found a good heel persona. Admittedly, he was never a great face, but at least he found one side that could work for him.
 
And then, after years of Flair being on top, and Sting having an opportunity that didn't do good business, it was clearly Luger's time to be given a chance. So what happens? Flair, the guy who had been THE man in the company for years, who Luger had jobbed for more than once, refuses to do the same, in effect saying that Luger wasn't worthy. Rather disillusioning I'd say. And Luger must have known that there was no way the fans were going to accept him given the situation. No wonder his motivation went in the toilet.
 
I'm not saying he would have become one of the greats of the decade, but to look at his work before the Bash debacle, and what he did after, it's not hard to see that there was a big change. He got to see the ugly side of business politics, and probably figured there was no point in doing more than necessary, since it was obviously other factors which could make one a top guy. Sometimes, it can only take one big thing at one important time to make a huge difference.
 
Thoughts?
 
Take care,
 
Jon
 

Oh, Bash 91 destroyed him for good, no doubt.  That was supposed to be where Flair put him over once and for all and made him into a superstar, and of course it just didn't happen.  Then the giant limited date contract killed his motivation to improve, and the motorcycle accident was probably the finishing touches.  Ironic that his biggest victory would be what cemented his reputation in the business as an also-ran, but unfortunately that's what it amounts to.  

Comments

  1. I know it's in vogue to blame Flair more often nowadays but in regards to Flair not dropping the title to Luger in 1990 I can't say I blame him since he did promise Sting the run instead.  So I'd say Sting's knee injury did more to damage Luger and WCW as a whole.  Had he NOT gotten that injury, that's a very interesting proposition although I think the same problems would have applied (mostly a lack of decent heel challengers).

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  2. Luger was a huge superstar when he came back to WCW in 96. Hogan should be more to blame for Road Wild 97' than anything Flair did. 

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  3. Luger occupies a curious place in my wrestling memory. As a kid I have a distinct memory of him body-slamming Yokozuna, but since I was super young I don't remember a lot of the details surrounding it. From there I remember his appearences in various wrestling games like WWE Wrestlemania etc etc etc where he was the narccisist, and then the next time I remembered him was I think during a run with Buff Bagwell when they were half naked all the time and covered in oil.

    I think he was ultimately a missed opportunity that reached the cuff of greatness and ultimately got chewed up and spit out for a variety of reasons.

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  4. Cuff of greatness, eh? Perhaps he was collared by failure.

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  5. I love Flair, but he should have dropped the title to Luger in 1991.  Sting had his chance on top and Luger never got his opportunity.  It's just too bad that both Jim Herd and Ric Flair let their egos get in the way of what was best for the organization.

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  6. I still can't believe it even came to that.  Wasn't Ted Turner a huge Flair fan?  Couldn't he have offered him more money to stay or at least show up to lose to Luger?  They actually thought stripping Flair of the title then immediately giving it to Luger via BARRY WINDHAM was a smart idea.

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  7. What is interesting about Luger is that none of it really seems to bother him. 

    I've listened to a few interview and he doesn't seem to begrudge Flair or Jim Herd at all.  You'd hear rumors all the time back in the old Observers and such of guys complaining or unhappy with their payoffs or lack of title runs, but you never heard a peep out of Luger.

    I don't know, I am of the opinion that Lex Luger is a VERY easy-going guy, who really never gave two shits about whether or not he was champion as long as he got to compete and got paid.  Similar to Steamboat I think he invested his money well (I remember he owned several gyms in the 1990s). 

    I mean think about it -- the guy changed from heel to face a thousand times at the whim of the NWA and WCW, was passed over for the title in 1988 when he was incredibly over, had Flair walk out on him in 1991, got a huge WWF push that climaxed him him looking like an idiot, was passed over for the title in 1994 and shunted down the midcard, and took a lowball offer from Eric Bischoff after working without a contract for months in the WWF, who told him to his face that he didn't like him to jump to WCW.

    I think that attitude is maybe what has caused so many people to label
    him a primadonna -- he just never really *needed* wrestling like a lot
    of guys, but he wasn't a primadonna in the way most wrestlers are who are obsessed with being champion, being booked above everyone, etc.

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  8. WCW actually offered Flair a new contract several days before the Bash, that was quite a bit better but he didn't take it.

    Honestly, I think the story of how all that went down has become sort of muddled over the years actually, and  I don't believe Flair's story 100% personally given his history.

    I need to go through the old Observers and write out a timeline haha.  The Ric Flair interpretation of it is a little different than reality I think.

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  9. The problem for Luger in 1991 was there was no heel big enough for him to win the belt from. I would have tried to throw Vader enough money to do the job. But looking around, other than Windham the top heels were Nikita Koloff, One Man Gang, "Stunning" Steve Austin, Arn Anderson... no one to be bought as a serious guy have Luger win the belt and get his moment. 

    Anyway, now that I read the original question, I actually start to feel bad for Luger. Cause when he finally gets out of that and into WWF, first he's saddled with a lame gimmick. Then six months of mediocre matches later (against mediocre opponents...) he's told he's going to do a face turn and a big push to a title match at Summerslam... where he'll lose to dq cause they want to do the big win later. How does that NOT sound like his whole WCW career all over again? He saw how well it worked before. I wouldn't be motivated, either. And of course things came to pass the way they did (another title reign promised, not delivered because of some other guy who's been in the company longer) so he gets more lazy. 

    The more I think about it, the more I don't blame the guy. 

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  10.  You know it's sort of like Big Show, always guaranteed to be paid money, never complaining about not being the center piece..

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  11. It amazes me the amount of Luger related material has been brought up in this blog over the years. He had such an interesting career for a guy that bored the piss out of me for so many years.

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  12. I think in a perfect world Barry Windham would have beaten Flair for the title in 87 instead of Ronnie Garvin, so I think Luger beating a former world champion would have been better, though of course three years of storylines were trashed by Flair leaving. And I don't think Flair is blameless in that whole debacle, either.

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  13. THIS.  Why did they go with Garvin and not Barry then?  Better yet, why didn't they have Barry beat Flair at Starrcade?  Although that would have negated Flair/Sting in early 1988.

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  14. Yeah, I think that is an apt comparison actually.

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  15. Mark Henry too.  He redeemed himself though in 2011, 15 years after he debuted but better late than never I guess.

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  16. How did Flair always manage to come out of these situations looking like the good guy for so long?

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  17. It's safe to say that nobody looked good in that clusterfuck.  To be honest though I think Flair had a legit beef considering they were fucking around with his contract so much.

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  18. Yeah I think both sides had their share of fault for the fallout.

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  19. First, Luger came back in 95. Second, hogan is to blame because he got Luger a title run in 97?

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  20. And an hour after posting this, there's ANOTHER Luger topic posted!

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  21.  LOL. 

    You need a new segment on your videos -- "Everybody talks Luger too much"

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  22. Luger = RATINGS today.  I don't know why, but I don't argue with pageviews.

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  23. Has Ric Flair ever jobbed to Lex Luger clean?

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  24. It was already set in stone that Flair was regaining the title at Starcade '87, so nobody was willing to win the belt since they knew they were simply getting a lame duck reign.  I'm not sure if Garvin even defended the belt between winning it and losing it since nobody wanted to job to the lame duck champ.  

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  25. Yes, in 1990 when Luger was defending the US title against Flair on the house show circuit.  Pretty sure it happened in the Nitro era as well although I couldn't give you specifics.  I'll look it up and see if I can find anything.

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  26. On second look, the win over Flair in 90 was a DQ, so never mind that.  He beat him in tag matches, but that hardly counts either.  So maybe not, then!  

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  27. Probably fans of the DJ/producer Lex Luger, who surf onto the page by accident

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  28. Probably why people defend a lot of big stars- he delivered when it came to matches and promos.

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  29. fairly unilaterally acknowledged that the Narcissus gimmick was a winner. Hitman vs heel Luger wouldve been fantastic. WWF bookign i nthat period was really horrible in retrospect 

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  30.  Someone (may have been Scott) said once that Windham at that time really didn't want the title and all the responsibility that came with it.

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