Thoughts on Lex Luger

[The Blue Nova]

What is everyones opinion on Lex Luger? I know a lot of people thought he was overrated, sure he wasn't a ring general in the ring but he great a great look and I loved his 89 to 92 especially when he was in NWA/WCW. He had great matches with Flair,Steamboat,Sting at this time and even Stan Hansen as well as a over 450 day run as US Champion. I even liked the Narcisist gimmick in WWF and thought it had potential and could of done more with it till the made in the USA Gimmick with them trying to replace Hogan with Luger which sadly was a hard task as No one at the time could replace Hogan and the fact Lugers face turn felt extremely rushed. and the fact WWF was never the best at pushing NWA WCW guys (think even the Steiners. Fast foward to when he returns to WCW at the very first Nitro. I find 1995 to 1997 Luger awesome. The Initial run at being a heel but sting being a face was fun and they were a fun team, and Luger was massively over in 1997 as well. I find Luger was thought to be overrated for so long now he is underrated.

[David-Arquette was in WCW 2000]

I really like watching his work from '89-'92. Great look, decent enough in the ring, good charisma.

[XIII]

I always thought that Lex was missing something to be THE guy, he had an amazing look, decent charisma, and was pretty good for a power guy but just something about him never 100% clicked.

[tirtefaa]

Didn't care for him during his wrestling days, really didn't like him as Made in the USA Lex Luger.

That being said, revisiting a lot of his work, and he wasn't that bad, I'd even argue he was pretty underrated. I'd go as far as to say, I really enjoy a lot of his 'green' work, and his mid 90's WCW run is insanely fun.

For a guy with his looks and charisma, it is amazing that he wasn't given the World title more often, as I think he was more than competent when it came to being the top guy, and it really sucks that Flair refused to put him over for the title.

In retrospect, he's a guy who should have been bigger than he was, but still a big name.

[ThankGodForSidJustice]

As mentioned 89-92 in WCW was the height of his powers as he was one of their better all around performers during that stretch. After that his in ring work really declined. However he could still be an effective from a character standpoint if booked properly which was evident when he came back to WCW. He was great in that weird tweener role where he was a heel but yet teaming with babyface Sting and it was ambiguous as to whether he had his best interests or if he was just using him.

[fw91]

I don't know.

[eJm]

From seeing more of mid 90s WCW, it’s insane to me not only how over Luger was in an age of guys like Hogan, Savage, Nash, Hall etc being around but how many times they dropped the ball on him during that time.

In the space of one year, they had him in a title (World in 97, US in 98) practically on the same week to MASSIVE pops and follow that up with a title loss less than a week later to their respective champions. I’m not even going to say he should have been a long term champion but I’ll say that if it happened in 2022 in any company, we wouldn’t hear the end of it because it’d be so stupid.

[Mozenrath]

Lex Luger is maybe the only wrestler outside of John Cena who is legitimately both underrated and overrated at the same time.

[Captain Stud Muffin (BLM)]

Dec 20, 2022 20:18:58 GMT -5 eJm said:

From seeing more of mid 90s WCW, it’s insane to me not only how over Luger was in an age of guys like Hogan, Savage, Nash, Hall etc being around but how many times they dropped the ball on him during that time.

In the space of one year, they had him in a title (World in 97, US in 98) practically on the same week to MASSIVE pops and follow that up with a title loss less than a week later to their respective champions. I’m not even going to say he should have been a long term champion but I’ll say that if it happened in 2022 in any company, we wouldn’t hear the end of it because it’d be so stupid.

On the flip side I still felt like that was always a big f** you to Sting 

Yes, Luger was white hot and couldn't be ignored but Hogan knew how to play the game and taking that L helped ease some pressure off the boys on his neck while also making Sting finally beat him have less weight on it. Of course after the Starrcade situation, if we didn't have the Luger moment to look on, it would been so much worse 

[chronocross]

I think he should be in the Hall of Fame, not the greatest in the ring but I always liked him.

His WCW run as #1b babyface while Sting was in the rafters made me a fan of his, even if he had the World Title for 5 days.

[eJm]

Dec 20, 2022 20:34:33 GMT -5 Captain Stud Muffin (BLM) said:

Dec 20, 2022 20:18:58 GMT -5 eJm said:

From seeing more of mid 90s WCW, it’s insane to me not only how over Luger was in an age of guys like Hogan, Savage, Nash, Hall etc being around but how many times they dropped the ball on him during that time.

In the space of one year, they had him in a title (World in 97, US in 98) practically on the same week to MASSIVE pops and follow that up with a title loss less than a week later to their respective champions. I’m not even going to say he should have been a long term champion but I’ll say that if it happened in 2022 in any company, we wouldn’t hear the end of it because it’d be so stupid.

On the flip side I still felt like that was always a big f** you to Sting 

Yes, Luger was white hot and couldn't be ignored but Hogan knew how to play the game and taking that L helped ease some pressure off the boys on his neck while also making Sting finally beat him have less weight on it. Of course after the Starrcade situation, if we didn't have the Luger moment to look on, it would been so much worse 

I mean, it was still the highest grossing PPV WCW had before they had to rely on two pieces of two great NBA teams of the 1998 NBA Finals to break that record so I don’t know if I agree that it made Sting’s win have less weight to it. And it wasn’t like fans suddenly stopped being keen on a Sting win because of it.

The argument I heard that made it that way to me is how Luger’s story was one of redemption for himself and the fact that, after Sting had his back for so many years even when he was a POS, Luger believed the nWo the first chance any distrust came in and had to build that trust back in his actions (Beating members of the Horseman, taking Giant back as a friend after he got kicked out of the nWo, prove he had what it took to be a contender) and it all lead to him winning against Hogan and frankly, you could still do what you did but he at least deserved to beat a Scott Hall or something on the way so you’d have something down the line. Instead…nothing.

[Push R Truth]

Can Billy Whatshisname even afford to pay him?

["Playboy" Don Douglas]

I think that, when motivated, he was criminally underrated and that if a prime Lex Luger came into the business today, he’d be an even bigger star than he actually was.

[chazraps]

I think people just now are finally revisiting his full career and how great he was. Same with Yokozuna.

I think Luger and Yoko being paired for like a year cast a pretty big cloud over both as they both has little if any chemistry with each other, especially compared to how they were with other opponents. Some guys just don't click together despite their best efforts, and there was so much insistence within the WWF at the time to make it a thing that I think people just held it over both their heads once it ended as fans couldn't wait for it to be done.

But yeah, Luger 95-97/98 is so much fun. I'll even say his promos as Narcissist in the character's original incarnation in 1993 could have really been something too - the build to the Mr Perfect match was pretty well done.

[MolotovMocktail]

What seemed to sour a lot of people on him was his WWF face run, but that was on creative thinking they could just give him Hulk Hogan's old gimmick and nobody would notice (he still was limited in-ring due to the arm injury as well). Had he stayed the Narcissist, his time with the company would probably be more fondly remembered. And if Hogan hadn't left, I'm sure they would've feuded eventually, which would've been fun.

[Ozman]

Luger was definitely underrated in hindsight. Not only was his 1987-1992 run solid, but his babyface run in 1997 against the NWO was epic!!!

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

Dec 20, 2022 20:33:17 GMT -5 Mozenrath said:

Lex Luger is maybe the only wrestler outside of John Cena who is legitimately both underrated and overrated at the same time.

Yes, this

It could be argued Luger was pushes too much for a guy of limited abilities

At the same time he often got unreasonably over somehow, and that was almost never properly capitalised on

[Fundertaker]

He's oneofthebiggestlegendsandstarseverinthis... GAH!

[H-Virus]

Lex may very well be the best example of "Right Guy at the Wrong Time" in all of pro wrestling. It seems like every single time he got pushed to the top of the card, something or someone was there to ruin it for him.


-Set to win the WCW World Title in 91? Flair leaves the company, the crowd spends the entire match booing and demanding Flair, and the booker decides Lex needs to immediately turn heel to fill Flair's shoes (which was not happening)

Set to win the WWF World Title in 93? Vince stupidly decides to hold off the title change until Mania and Lex is left celebrating a count-out win like a goober. Also, by the time Mania comes around it's obvious that everyone wants Bret instead.

Wins the WCW Title again in 97? Happens in the midst of the most important storyline in company history where STING is set to win the title, which means Lex drops the title six days after winning it, and he never gets another shot at the title for the rest of his career.


I loved him though. His "I'm a heel and he's a face but damnit we're still friends" storyline with Sting in 95-96 was great and something you never really saw before (or even after for the most part) and as a youngster one of the highlights of Nitro was watching Lex lift up huge opponents for the Rack. I still remember the crowd reaction when he failed twice to carry Roadblock only to finally get him on the third try.


And, of course, his weird almost anti-charisma when cutting promos was hilarious.

[James Fabiano]

Dammit everyone used up all the memes.

Liked him as a Horseman, 1989 heel run, then face 1990 US champ.