What was the point of Luger winning the belt in 97?

[Shazam]

He won it in a big to do, only to drop it 2 weeks later and then the world kept moving towards Hogan/Sting.

Why even give him the belit in the first place? Is there some sort of story here?

[Rumble McSkirmish]

The only concrete reason was that it was the first ever 3 hour edition of Monday Nitro and they wanted to do something special to pop a huge rating for it.

[Mozenrath]

Dec 27, 2013 8:14:22 GMT -5 Rumble McSkirmish said:

The only concrete reason was that it was the first ever 3 hour edition of Monday Nitro and they wanted to do something special to pop a huge rating for it.

That was part of it.

Also, they were contractually obligated to give Luger a title reign within a certain time frame, I have heard, and WCW was often plagued by contract promises committing them to certain events or precluding them. If they did not make him World Champion within the time period, they would be in breach of contract.

[BlackoutCreature]

officialfan.proboards.com/thread/487173/luger-winning-world-title-before

[SOR]

I posted in the thread from a couple weeks ago but basically it was a special 3 hour Nitro which was celebrating their 100th Nitro. I believe they wanted a big surprise on the show so Luger beating Hogan did that since Hogan was basically unbeatable at that point.

Bradley brings up an interesting point. I could see Eric saying something along the lines of "You won't make as much here as you do in the WWF but we'll make you a star and promise you that by guaranteeing you a World Title run" and I could see Luger seeing dollar signs on PPV bonus and merchandise and going for it.

[hassanchop]

Luger explains at 35:39.

[Deleted]

Hmm, Sting's "frenemy" shows the guy that Hogan is not unbeatable. Sounds like a good story that flew under the radar.