Tatanka vs luger

[hulksmash87]

Should they have turned Luger instead of tatanka? It seemed tatanka was more over at the time and after mania 10 Luger really did nothing in the wwf. Had he turned heel with Dibiase it could have done wonders for him.

[camphor #BLM]

...perhaps Luger needed as low-effort a theme song as Tatanka:

"LUGER! (dun dun dun dun dun...) KIND OF GUN!"

[chronocross]

I remember being surprised by the heel turn, and it was odd that the feud ended on the "March to Wrestlemania" Show in a cage match instead of the blowoff at the PPV.

[Captain Stud Muffin (BLM)]

Tatanka as a heel could have worked if they actually had him change everything about him. He already dropped the accent by then, have him start coming out in suits and diff ring gear

The case for a Luger heel turn is simple, they f***ed up his babyface run. He wasn't getting the title off Bret as a face but as a heel he had been done so bad he needed a reset

[hassanchop]

I feel Tatanka should've been given a push for his heel turn. Especially after Lex left, have him fill the void.

[jason1980s]

Tatanka is such a nice guy in real life that he just couldn't work well as a heel. I always defend Lex in threads were people claim he was a jerk but maybe he did have an ego back then and he was much better in the heel role in WCW. I think the heel turn really hurt Tatanka on screen but maybe also personally because it seems like his head and heart weren't much in it after that.

[thecrusherwi]

The thing I remember most about this feud is the riveting Tatanka promos. "You sold out Lex. Admit you sold out. You sold out. I know you sold out. You know you sold out. All these people know you sold out. You sold out to the Million Dollar Man. You sold out Lex. Lex you sold out. I can't believe you sold out Lex. At Summerslam, I'll show everyone that you sold out and you're a sell out."

[thecrusherwi]

Oct 16, 2020 7:56:05 GMT -5 chronocross said:

I remember being surprised by the heel turn, and it was odd that the feud ended on the "March to Wrestlemania" Show in a cage match instead of the blowoff at the PPV.

They did that for several of the winter 1994/95 feuds. Bull Nakano/Alundra Blayze and Bret Hart/Owen Hart all had blowoffs on TV too instead of at Wrestlemania. Maybe they wanted a ratings bump or thought these feuds had run their course. But if you put the Bret/Owen No Holds Barred Match from the 3/27 Raw, the Alundra/Bull match from the 4/3 Raw, and Luger vs Tatanka Steel Cage Match from 3/26 Sunday Night Slam, and swap out some of the other filler, I think Wrestlemania XI might actually be a pretty good show.

[Deleted]

Oct 16, 2020 8:09:01 GMT -5 hassanchop said:

I feel Tatanka should've been given a push for his heel turn. Especially after Lex left, have him fill the void.

Tatanka got into some..........trouble after Lex left, though. Something shady in real life, but a thing he was ultimately cleared of because IIRC he was assumed to have be involved completely in error, but he was off TV for like half of 95 and when he came back in Jan 1996 whatever energy they had for him was gone.

[agent817]

Oct 16, 2020 8:08:17 GMT -5 Captain Stud Muffin (BLM) said:

Tatanka as a heel could have worked if they actually had him change everything about him. He already dropped the accent by then, have him start coming out in suits and diff ring gear

The case for a Luger heel turn is simple, they f***ed up his babyface run. He wasn't getting the title off Bret as a face but as a heel he had been done so bad he needed a reset

That should have been the case for the Million Dollar Corporation as a whole. I know that heel factions were somewhat of a novel concept at that point, especially with the Heenan Family having been out of the picture for a long time before that. But if creative wanted to make the Million Dollar Corporation believable, they could have had some of them dress in suits and such. For example, you had King Kong Bundy and Bam Bam Bigelow in it. They could have been portrayed as the muscle for the group.

Then again, the Corporation from later on hardly had people dress in suits. I even remember in promos, Ken Shamrock came out in his ring gear. At least The Rock had those expensive clothes to show that he had sold out.

[BlackoutCreature]

Tatanka's turn made more sense storyline wise, but man, did Luger need the heel turn more. I just never got behind him as a face.

[SmashTV]

Oct 16, 2020 9:55:01 GMT -5 thecrusherwi said:

The thing I remember most about this feud is the riveting Tatanka promos. "You sold out Lex. Admit you sold out. You sold out. I know you sold out. You know you sold out. All these people know you sold out. You sold out to the Million Dollar Man. You sold out Lex. Lex you sold out. I can't believe you sold out Lex. At Summerslam, I'll show everyone that you sold out and you're a sell out."

You can imagine the backstage instruction:

Bruce Prichard: ‘Okay, Tatanka. Make sure the people know that you think Lex has sold out.’

Tatatanka: ‘Gotcha!’

Tatanka just didn’t work as a heel; his swagger and scowl was forced and comical, and having the same gear and look did him no favours at all. I think it derailed any momentum he had, whereas if Lex had turned it could, and should, have done wonders for him. A series of missed opportunities all round.

[auph10imitated]

Luger was always a natural heel so it should have been him, and I feel like a Million Dollar Corporation headed up by Luger as "the guy" would have given it legitimacy. I would have kept the Nikolai Volkoff joke running until Summerslam, Luger turns heel and then batters Volkoff out of the WWF on that following RAW and then he introduces his newest members Bam Bam Bigelow and King Kong Bundy as a tag team and challengers for The Headshrinkers (who keep the belts as Shawn and Diesel dont need them) from there the Tatanka (babyface) and Luger (heel) angle continues through the year, I would have kept the belt on Bret and Wrestlmania 10 would eventually be Bret vs Luger (Title) and Diesel vs Shawm (didnt need the title) In the meantime have Tatanka continue as a face and fued with Owen Hart over the IC Title who beats Razor Ramon at Wrestlemania 11 for it.

[Mozenrath]

After the Ludvig Borga loss, it's not like it would have made a lot of difference. I think Lex might have given DiBiase's group a bit more credibility, but that group was a lost cause, anyhow, unfortunately.

[5count5count]

Oct 16, 2020 6:39:23 GMT -5 hulksmash87 said:

Should they have turned Luger instead of tatanka? It seemed tatanka was more over at the time and after mania 10 Luger really did nothing in the wwf. Had he turned heel with Dibiase it could have done wonders for him.

Luger turned baby face not too long before this so it would've been a dumb idea to turn him heel so soon after. Plus the angle was suppose to make it like he sold out only to surprise the audience with Tatanka being the sell out instead.

[auph10imitated]

Both Tatanka and Luger floundered in 1994, Luger lost momentum post Royal Rumble when Bret out popped him, he then had that stinker of a match with Yoko at Mania, he was then put into an angle with the returning heel Mr Perfect which would have been a high mid card run, but Perfect left, Perfect was replaced by Crush and that feud lasted 5 minutes as Crush left, then he went into the Tatanka feud.

Meanwhile Tatanka had just as crappy luck as his blow off with Ludvig Borga was nixed due to Borga leaving, he was lumped into a 10 man tag at Mania that was cut from the card, he then git programmed with dull as dishwater IRS which went no where before being put into the Luger feud.

Pretty crappy for two workers who had a strong 1993.

In all fairness Luger should have turned heel straight after Wrestlemania 10 and been the first guy to join the Million Dollar Corp. With Tatanka confronting him for selling out to set up thier angle through the summer and set up Luger as Brets heel challenger post Summerslam

[jason1980s]

Oct 20, 2020 9:44:04 GMT -5 auph10imitated said:

In all fairness Luger should have turned heel straight after Wrestlemania 10 and been the first guy to join the Million Dollar Corp. With Tatanka confronting him for selling out to set up thier angle through the summer and set up Luger as Brets heel challenger post Summerslam

That is the most logical time period in which it would have worked. 1994 was just a bad time period for WWF overall.
I always note when a Million Dollar Corp thread comes up that all the members were famous at one point, just not with the corporation. Sid, Austin, Kama all saw their fame rise a year or more later. Nikolai, Bundy and Bam Bam were most famous in the 1980s. Kid was most popular two years earlier as was Tatanka. It would have been an amazing group if you could mesh the mid to late 80s with the mid 1990s versions of each guy.

[Barry Jobber 81]

Turning Luger heel was predictable. When he was in WCW, he turned heel and babyface frequently. If Luger betrayed Tatanka at Summer Slam '94, you could see the it coming a mile away. A Tatanka heel run had more shock value, given the Native American was a clean-cut babyface for over two years. Not many fans could've seen it coming.