Tatanka's heel turn (1994)

[DiBiase is Good]

I've heard quite a few wrestling fans say about being really surprised when Tatanka turned on Luger and joined the Million Dollar Corporation.
It may be because by that time I had already been watching wrestling for about 8 years or so...
But am I the only one who saw it coming a mile off?

[Samoa Kenny]

I was crushed

[mysterydriver]

Well...I didn't see it coming...but, in my defense, I was 7.

[The Genesis of KoOS]

I was disenchanted with the angle.

[The Summer of Muskrat XVII]

I was pretty shocked, and pissed off, but I was 8 when it happened so I usually got caught with every turn they pulled back then

[YouStayClassy]

I didn't see it coming, because it was pretty nonsensical.

But more importantly, I didn't CARE because Tatanka's window had passed at least a year and a half previously and he was completely irrelevant by then.

[Joekishi]

It's probably one of the most memorable of my childhood. I liked how it was played out, because i still really didn't trust Luger that much. He set precedent in WCW for turning on you should it benefit him.

I always thought they missed the boat on not running Tatanka/Luger after this...

I also think WWE missed the boat on Luger in general

[jordenisgood]

I was nine, had watched wrestling for 5 years and still didn't see it a mile away. It was one of the first big angles of that era that really caught me off guard. The Warrior/Jake stuff caught me off guard but that was another era.

[Cranjis McBasketball]

I was caught off guard. I was 11 and had been watching wrestling for a good 6 years or so at that point.....but I didn't care. I was surprized and liked it, but really didn't affect me since all I cared about was what Bret Hart was doing.

[Voldemar H. "Brak" Guerta]

A memorable angle from my childhood. I was totally believing Tatanka leading up to the match that it was Luger that joined the MDC, and when the s*** hit the fan at Summerslam or Survivor Series (I forget which), I was shocked to see Tatanka go heel.

[Ben Wyatt]

youstayclassy said:

I didn't see it coming, because it was pretty nonsensical.

But more importantly, I didn't CARE because Tatanka's window had passed at least a year and a half previously and he was completely irrelevant by then.

Agreed, especially on the second part.

When Borga beat Tatanka, you could hear his career coming to a screeching halt

[krazysane]

I remember I wanted him to win the Royal Rumble in 1993. Then when he didnt, I just didnt care about him anymore. he ruined it!

[dannyrctv]

I talked to Tatanka about this when he wrestled for us last March.He was really proud of that because of the heat he got.He said the crowd really wanted to kill him when it happened.

I'm a lot older than most of you guys and have been watching wrestling since the mid 70's.I thought the angle was really well done.I don't recall any native American heel wrestlers before this.Luger had a history of turning heel and Tatanka seemed very trusting with his accusations.They even had a viewers poll asking if Luger did in deed sell out to the million dollar corp and it was an overwhelming "yes" vote.
I'm usually pretty sharp at catching these things a mile a way but I didn't figure it out until durring the match as I watched it on PPV, that this was going to happen.

[stevierichardsfan]

i was four when it happend but looking back on it you kinda see it happend as tatanka push had fizzled out

[Professor Chaos]

I was agast at the vile treachery that the once unbeaten but by then often defeated native american Tatanka would do such a thing. I can't believe that Luger never turned heel again after bodyslamming Yokozuna on the U.S.S. intrepid, so at the time was expecting to Luger to turn here and not Tatanka. Luger should've been WWF champion instead of Bret Hart and Diesel during the New Generation Era

[Celgress]

I didn't care, after all man it was Tatanka.

[Voldemar H. "Brak" Guerta]

divalover said:

Luger should've been WWF champion instead of Bret Hart and Diesel during the New Generation Era

Hmm, I do believe that Bret Hart deserved every title he ever held. Say what you want about the man personally, but he's one of the all-time greats in the ring. Luger should have held the WWF title once; I'd have to do some research to pinpoint the exact time he was the most over with fans, though. Sometime after his Narcissist days and before his last few months in the WWF when nobody gave a crap about him anymore.

[simongr81]

I've read Lex Luger was supposed to win the WWF title at Wrestlemania X, but got drunk at a bar and revealed this to people. It got printed in a New York paper, WWF officials found out about it and the plan was changed.
www.wrestleview.com/info/faq/luger.shtml

[Garee]

I never saw it coming, mainly because I was 10 years old and a huge mark

[Cranjis McBasketball]

simongr81 said:

I've read Lex Luger was supposed to win the WWF title at Wrestlemania X, but got drunk at a bar and revealed this to people. It got printed in a New York paper, WWF officials found out about it and the plan was changed.
www.wrestleview.com/info/faq/luger.shtml

I have absolutely no idea what this all means

Yes. It is generally considered that Bret Hart's WWF title win as actually a swerve and not meant to be until the actual day or week of Wrestlemania. At a WWF television taping before Wrestlemania X, Lex Luger stole the WWF title from Yokozuna and went to the ring to celebrate for the audience. Since this was to air after Wrestlemania it was thought that it would be used after Wrestlemania and that Lex Luger would win the title. Apparently Bret Hart was going to originally walk out of Wrestlemania X though and the whole Lex Luger tv taping was a swerve from the start. However, Lex Luger was also going to win the title at the event.