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Post by horsemen4ever on Apr 15, 2014 16:42:22 GMT -5
Watching the Monday Night Raw reruns on the network, and going though Luger big face push as made in the U.S.A. gimmick, and I am watching it seemed the WWF were trying to sell us a bill of goods, make Luger the next Hulk Hogan, the next superhero, and it just didn't work, that wasn't Lex.
The contract signing for Summerslam they had Luger wear a red, white, and blue tie, looking back on it now, it just seemed so fourced, so insensere, so I know this is wrestling so fake. And the WWF fans told Vince we see through this and picked Bret over Luger as the face of the company. But Luger did have momentum going into Summerslam, they should have struck with the iron was hot, the fans were buying it at first, but you couldn't fool the fans forever, Vince not pulling the trigger on that holding out till Wrestlemania was a major mistake, and Luger stock slowly went down.
Wrestlemania X could have had Luger as WWF champion vs Bret, face vs face, maybe Luger already being the champion, maybe they wouldn't have choosen Bret over Luger, though maybe not, it was Madison Square Garden, that was Bret's house, so who knows.
I think obviously Luger was a better heel than a face, but that doesn't mean he couldn't work as face, it has worked in the past. His 1988 face run was very successful, but that worked because he was being himself, he was a face, but they didn't try to package him as milk drinking patiotic goodie goodie just because he had a falling out with the horsemen. His 1996-pre wolfpack run was successful, he worked fine as WCW volunable superman trying to keep the Nwo at bay until Sting was ready to take them down. So while he was a better heel than a face, didn't mean he was incapable.
So what do you think, why did it fail?
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Post by rnrk supports BLM on Apr 15, 2014 17:07:52 GMT -5
He was a second-rate Hulk Hogan cover band coming in immediately after Hulk Hogan left. A lot of extremely uncomfortable "you people" comments about Yoko's nationality didn't help matters for me, though I'm sure plenty of wrasslin' fans then and now eat that stuff up.
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DragonMasterP
King Koopa
Wait, I turned 30? How'd that happen?
Posts: 11,981
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Post by DragonMasterP on Apr 15, 2014 17:14:32 GMT -5
He was a second-rate Hulk Hogan cover band coming in immediately after Hulk Hogan left. A lot of extremely uncomfortable "you people" comments about Yoko's nationality didn't help matters for me, though I'm sure plenty of wrasslin' fans then and now eat that stuff up. This, pretty much. A crippling lack of charisma didn't help.
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Post by horsemen4ever on Apr 15, 2014 17:15:54 GMT -5
Speaking of which at the Summmerslam contract signing, he said he would beat Yoko and bring the WWF title back to the U.S.A. where it belong. Well going by that logic when Bret won the title at Wrestlemania X it still wasn't back where it belong, that didn't happen till Backland finally returned the WWF title back to U.S. soil.
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Crappler El 0 M
Dalek
Never Forgets an Octagon
I'm a good R-Truth.
Posts: 58,479
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Post by Crappler El 0 M on Apr 15, 2014 17:19:21 GMT -5
Because WWE didn't give him the title at SummerSlam definitively and then book him in a strong way. Revisionist history says the audience just didn't take to him. I think most of the fans wanted to see him win the title at WrestleMania, even over Bret. Looking back, Bret Hart may have been better, but we'll never know what Lex might have done.
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Post by Tiger Millionaire on Apr 15, 2014 17:26:16 GMT -5
Because he's not Hulk Hogan.
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Post by horsemen4ever on Apr 15, 2014 17:31:07 GMT -5
Because WWE didn't give him the title at SummerSlam definitively and then book him in a strong way. Revisionist history says the audience just didn't take to him. I think most of the fans wanted to see him win the title at WrestleMania, even over Bret. Looking back, Bret Hart may have been better, but we'll never know what Lex might have done. Well watch the end of Royal Rumble 1994 and say that again, when Finkel announced as the winniner there were boos.
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Post by rnrk supports BLM on Apr 15, 2014 17:33:38 GMT -5
Revisionist history says the audience just didn't take to him. I think most of the fans wanted to see him win the title at WrestleMania, even over Bret. I was a kid just getting into wrestling at the time. Bret Hart has never been one of my favorites. I was still far, far more invested in seeing Bret win the title than in Luger, and thought Lex really came across as lame.
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Post by thegame415 on Apr 15, 2014 17:37:56 GMT -5
Because it was 1993, not 1986, and culture was changing.
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Post by horsemen4ever on Apr 15, 2014 18:15:19 GMT -5
I think Kurt Angle's gimmick was a parody or twist on this type of character. Unlike Luger we weren't suppose to take him seriously as a face, he was suppose to be a lame dork.
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Professor Chaos
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
Bringer of Destruction and Maker of Doom
Posts: 16,332
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Post by Professor Chaos on Apr 15, 2014 18:19:34 GMT -5
Lex Luger was always my favorite wrestler since 1987 until Stone Cold came along a decade later. I was pissed that Bret got to be the guy instead. Made it more satisfying to watch Austin beat the hell out of Bret down the line though.
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Post by Bob Schlapowitz on Apr 15, 2014 18:24:19 GMT -5
Having him celebrate a countout win over Yokozuna as though he had single-handedly won World War II didn't help matters at all.
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Post by Kevin Hamilton on Apr 15, 2014 19:39:19 GMT -5
Among all the other problems listed, Lex just was never that charismatic or interesting beyond being a physical specimen. He was never gonna work as the face of the company or the main hero.
And as has been said, people choosing Bret over Lex or people just not caring about Lex that much isn't revisionist. It's totally accurate.
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Post by thegame415 on Apr 15, 2014 20:08:41 GMT -5
Having him celebrate a countout win over Yokozuna as though he had single-handedly won World War II didn't help matters at all. A revisionist character who claims to have done all these amazing feats, like ending the streak (he snuck in a pin before Brock, shows a photoshop photo) or headlining the first WrestleMania would be awesome.
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Cranjis McBasketball☝🏻
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Knew what the hell that thing was supposed to be
Peace Love and Nothing But
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Post by Cranjis McBasketball☝🏻 on Apr 15, 2014 23:18:21 GMT -5
Having him celebrate a countout win over Yokozuna as though he had single-handedly won World War II didn't help matters at all. Plus landing on the moon. Also raising the flag at Iwo Jima. And curing polio. He just looked like a big dumb idiot.
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Post by molson5 on Apr 15, 2014 23:36:28 GMT -5
Patriotic underpants.
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Post by "Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik on Apr 15, 2014 23:54:37 GMT -5
They could have given him some time to develop into a face. Hogan literally just left one month ago before Luger turns face via slamming Yoko to become the All-American hero going against the Jap Yokozuna (because of the tensions existing between the two countries?). Have Yoko become more anti-American over time. Have Luger turn slowly or have him chase for the title. Hot shotting that feud did him no favors.
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Post by HMARK Center on Apr 15, 2014 23:58:47 GMT -5
Yeah, I was only 8 years old at the time but I didn't buy into "Made in the USA" Luger at all. I was too much of a Hogan fan, and even as a grade schooler it just came off as "Hogan Lite".
Not surprising that I really gravitated toward Bret around this point.
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Post by Wolf Hawkfield no1 NZ poster on Apr 17, 2014 2:08:28 GMT -5
Largely due to the fact that he came across as a poor mans Hulk Hogan.
That and not winning the title at Summerslam 93 didn't help matters either.
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Professor Chaos
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
Bringer of Destruction and Maker of Doom
Posts: 16,332
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Post by Professor Chaos on Apr 17, 2014 2:56:48 GMT -5
A Luger-Bret feud would've been great. Even more amazing would've been 97 Anti-USA Bret vs 93 Made in the USA Lex.
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