25 Years ago: Lex Luger wins the WCW title on Nitro

[Ben Wyatt]

Sweet lord, what a pop that was.   Luger busted his ass from the second he came back in Spetember 95 and by that Summer, was the most  over babyface in the company and arguably, all of wrestling.

He *really* deserved more than a 6 day run. 



www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEuQRggqU7A&t=246s"]

[thecrusherwi]

Maybe THE greatest moment in Nitro history. Even above Goldberg winning the Title. I have said that if Sting was the Batman in the WCW vs NWO feud, Luger was Commissioner Gordon. He busted his ass in that run and was legitimately one of the most over people in wrestling. In moments like this, I can see why so many promoters over the years thought Lex could be the top guy. It's a shame that once he was ready to be, he got tossed aside for Sting.

Also, I love Randy Anderson's reaction to Hogan submitting. And while Hogan would do everything he could to not do a clean job, once he agreed to it, he always gave it his all.

[chronocross]

One of my favorite moments as a WCW fan, Luger was leading the charge vs. the NWO while Sting was in the rafters and was chasing after Hogan for months. He deserved that win even if it was for five days.

[Slingshot Suplay]

Luger choked every time that he had a world title match as a face, so it was quite a surprise especially during a time where Hogan had a stranglehold on the title. Luger was better and over more than people give him credit for. I agree he should have gotten more than a week with the belt.

[Ben Wyatt]

The part that bothers me about this and the rematch was that absolutely *nobody* in the WCW camp saw the nWo interference and thought to themself "Huh, maybe I oughta shoot on down there and back him up"

[Milkman Norm]

Luger was such a great babyface during the first year or so of the nWo angle. He really deserved a run but much like 1990 Sting was supposed to be the guy.

[HMARK Center]

Seeing the celebration afterwards, it's just jarring how they could've messed up basically everything after this point.

Like, there's the Steiners! ...Oh yeah, but Scotty's just a few months away from joining the nWo. There's the Giant! ...Oh, he's going back to them, too. The fans are ecstatic that Luger overcame the interference and won clean! ...Better give Starrcade '97 a screwy finish.

I sometimes disagree with people's general takes on the nWo; like, I'm ok with the fact it got so big (at least for awhile, it's supposed to be an "army", after all), I'm ok that it lasted into '98 and had the Hollywood vs. Wolfpac angle, etc. But man, they just flubbed *all* the small details and often larger climatic story beats that would've made it the greatest angle of all time.

[Ben Wyatt]

Aug 4, 2022 10:56:20 GMT -5 HMARK Center said:

Seeing the celebration afterwards, it's just jarring how they could've messed up basically everything after this point.

Like, there's the Steiners! ...Oh yeah, but Scotty's just a few months away from joining the nWo. There's the Giant! ...Oh, he's going back to them, too. The fans are ecstatic that Luger overcame the interference and won clean! ...Better give Starrcade '97 a screwy finish.

I sometimes disagree with people's general takes on the nWo; like, I'm ok with the fact it got so big (at least for awhile, it's supposed to be an "army", after all), I'm ok that it lasted into '98 and had the Hollywood vs. Wolfpac angle, etc. But man, they just flubbed *all* the small details and often larger climatic story beats that would've made it the greatest angle of all time.

Ever worse is Luger drops the title and his reaction the next Nitro is basically shrugging and going "eh, oh well"

[tafkaga]

I thought Luger was a really good heel champ. I wish we'd had an opportunity to see how he would carry it as a babyface.

[Heeltown, USA]

Seeing the ref (Hildebrand?) lose his shit and calling for the bell like “OMFG He tapped! He really tapped!” is what always sticks with me. Makes me wonder if he wasn’t in on the finish

[tafkaga]

Aug 4, 2022 13:00:20 GMT -5 Heeltown, USA said:

Seeing the ref (Hildebrand?) lose his shit and calling for the bell like “OMFG He tapped! He really tapped!” is what always sticks with me. Makes me wonder if he wasn’t in on the finish

That's Randy Anderson.

[Heeltown, USA]

Aug 4, 2022 13:03:16 GMT -5 tafkaga said:

Aug 4, 2022 13:00:20 GMT -5 Heeltown, USA said:

Seeing the ref (Hildebrand?) lose his shit and calling for the bell like “OMFG He tapped! He really tapped!” is what always sticks with me. Makes me wonder if he wasn’t in on the finish

That's Randy Anderson.

There it is. Anderson’s reaction is priceless

[eJm]

"LUGER WON THE TITLE! LUGER WON THE TITLE!" is a ridiculously underrated wrestling call from Mr. Schiavone. The fact he lost it on Sunday is just one of many incredibly stupid decisions WCW made that, as mentioned, was one of the small things that grew to a bigger thing.

Here's a big irony of this, the very next year, almost to the day, Lex Luger won the US title from Bret in almost the exact same way, got the exact same mega reaction from the crowd and it was treated like a big deal. Instead of learning from the mistake, he lost it three days later on Thunder back to Bret. So not only did they make the mistake once, they literally did it again in 1998.

[Deleted]

One of my favorite moments! That pop was insane. And I agree about Schiavone's "Luger won the title!" call. So good.

[Ben Wyatt]

Aug 4, 2022 13:06:02 GMT -5 eJm said:

"LUGER WON THE TITLE! LUGER WON THE TITLE!" is a ridiculously underrated wrestling call from Mr. Schiavone. The fact he lost it on Sunday is just one of many incredibly stupid decisions WCW made that, as mentioned, was one of the small things that grew to a bigger thing.

Here's a big irony of this, the very next year, almost to the day, Lex Luger won the US title from Bret in almost the exact same way, got the exact same mega reaction from the crowd and it was treated like a big deal. Instead of learning from the mistake, he lost it three days later on Thunder back to Bret. So not only did they make the mistake once, they literally did it again in 1998.

Yeah, WCW had several chances to really take advantage of Luger getting far more over than anyone expected and not only failed to do so, but went out of their way to shoot the gift horse looking them right in the face

[eJm]

Aug 4, 2022 13:11:33 GMT -5 Ben Wyatt said:

Aug 4, 2022 13:06:02 GMT -5 eJm said:

"LUGER WON THE TITLE! LUGER WON THE TITLE!" is a ridiculously underrated wrestling call from Mr. Schiavone. The fact he lost it on Sunday is just one of many incredibly stupid decisions WCW made that, as mentioned, was one of the small things that grew to a bigger thing.

Here's a big irony of this, the very next year, almost to the day, Lex Luger won the US title from Bret in almost the exact same way, got the exact same mega reaction from the crowd and it was treated like a big deal. Instead of learning from the mistake, he lost it three days later on Thunder back to Bret. So not only did they make the mistake once, they literally did it again in 1998.

Yeah, WCW had several chances to really take advantage of Luger getting far more over than anyone expected and not only failed to do so, but went out of their way to shoot the gift horse looking them right in the face

And what makes that weirder is that they'd spend weeks having matches where Luger put people in the rack and it got mega pops every time. So you'd do that part but not follow up. It's extremely WCW.

EDIT: Along with the angle that got him there in the first place, the distrust in his friend Sting and basically going from the bottom back to the title itself.

[Ben Wyatt]

Aug 4, 2022 13:14:01 GMT -5 eJm said:

Aug 4, 2022 13:11:33 GMT -5 Ben Wyatt said:

Yeah, WCW had several chances to really take advantage of Luger getting far more over than anyone expected and not only failed to do so, but went out of their way to shoot the gift horse looking them right in the face

And what makes that weirder is that they'd spend weeks having matches where Luger put people in the rack and it got mega pops every time. So you'd do that part but not follow up. It's extremely WCW.

EDIT: Along with the angle that got him there in the first place, the distrust in his friend Sting and basically going from the bottom back to the title itself.

Luger worked his ass off, and got over. Every time they'd book him stronger/more heroic, the crowd absolutely bought in on it, all the way to the title....then because they had Starrcade in mind 4 months later they went "Naaaahh. Just playin'"

[eJm]

Aug 4, 2022 13:22:35 GMT -5 Ben Wyatt said:

Aug 4, 2022 13:14:01 GMT -5 eJm said:

And what makes that weirder is that they'd spend weeks having matches where Luger put people in the rack and it got mega pops every time. So you'd do that part but not follow up. It's extremely WCW.

EDIT: Along with the angle that got him there in the first place, the distrust in his friend Sting and basically going from the bottom back to the title itself.

Luger worked his ass off, and got over. Every time they'd book him stronger/more heroic, the crowd absolutely bought in on it, all the way to the title....then because they had Starrcade in mind 4 months later they went "Naaaahh. Just playin'"

And even with Starrcade looming, you could easily have Luger defend the title a couple of times against some WCW goons and give him some wins before losing to Hogan the next PPV and have that be the catalyst for Sting to confront Hogan and begin the full Starrcade build.

[DZ: WF Legacy]

I loved this era of Luger. It never gets the acclaim it deserves.

[Ben Wyatt]

Aug 4, 2022 13:24:32 GMT -5 eJm said:

Aug 4, 2022 13:22:35 GMT -5 Ben Wyatt said:

Luger worked his ass off, and got over. Every time they'd book him stronger/more heroic, the crowd absolutely bought in on it, all the way to the title....then because they had Starrcade in mind 4 months later they went "Naaaahh. Just playin'"

And even with Starrcade looming, you could easily have Luger defend the title a couple of times against some WCW goons and give him some wins before losing to Hogan the next PPV and have that be the catalyst for Sting to confront Hogan and begin the full Starrcade build.

Sure.  Hell, have him defend against and beat, say, Scott Hall during that. 


Again, Luger shrugging off the title loss and doing a big bucket of nothing for the rest of 97 was so goddamn stupid. Hell, he lost to Bagwell at Starrcade. Goes from Beating Hogan to losing to Buff f***ing Bagwelll in 4 months.  I know he had success with the Wolfpack, but he was never the same the second Hogan won back the title.