The Rise and Fall of Lex Luger in the WWF (wrestling documentary)

[@StunnedByWrestling]

Was anyone really a fan of Luger during his babyface run? Who here was on board the Lex Express? As always, if you enjoyed this one a 👍 thumbs up is appreciated. Next week we're looking at how Vince managed to F up Bam Bam's career 🤟

[@mrsrex]

I was definitely a fan!! I was legit shocked that he never won the belt from Yoko 😮

[@smiththers2]

I liked him in WWF because he was a beast with yokozuna

[@chocolatedaddy2094]

I just turned 30 so I missed it but I did my research and he was a wish version of Hogan but without the mic work or charisma 😂😂😂

[@BrianJamesShanley]

Many mistakes were made by the WWF in 1993, and I think NOT having Luger win here was the largest mistake.

[@wesleywarsmith1113]

I was moderately. By 96 he was really cool in WCW.

[@olmedaproductions2346]

As we have seen with Roman Reigns, and even The Rock, when the baby face gimmick doesn’t work you need to let him be a heel! The Narcissist was an awesome gimmick and you can see he is showing more charisma when he’s in that character

[@dukes1993724]

You need more views on your videos bruh. Great production and narration as always 👌🏾

[@StunnedByWrestling]

I appreciate thanks man 🙏

[@fro-zone2k]

I've always believed that Lex Luger was destined to be a main event player in the federation and even a world champion but making him a Hulk Hogan clone ruined his credibility in the federation before even given a chance to get over with the WWF audience.

[@lexkanyima2195]

4:38 had unexpected reasons why Vince never didn't learn lesson. Warrior did work. But he didn't have solid opponents as Hogan

[@douglaspaterson5269]

​@@lexkanyima2195 Just imagine if they made Luger and Warrior a tag team, That would have been EPIC!

[@lexkanyima2195]

@@douglaspaterson5269 i doubt it because of ego's

[@C-mac_in_the_6ix]

The real problem was this.... Hulk Hogan became super popular because wrestling itself was completely different in the 80's and so was it's audience. Majority of the audience in the 80's was kids that were looking for a hero. When the 90's rolled around and wrestling became more adult orientated, "The All American Hero" wasn't what people wanted to see. The audience now liked heels more then the "good guys". Yeah there might have been some kids out there that found that appealing, but wrestling was no longer on at Saturday afternoon at 12:00pm with 10 year old's watching. It was on Monday nights and such with 20 year olds drinking beer at a bar watching. You gotta know your audience.

[@lexkanyima2195]

So why it has bad timing in 1993 ?

[@GlassTarantulah]

The Narcissist was such a good fit for Lex at the time.. They should of put the belt on him as a heel with that gimmick. At least the intercontinental title.

[@fro-zone2k]

Facts, it was perfect gimmick for him

[@lexkanyima2195]

But against who ?

[@DaveAndBeth1978]

​@lexkanyima2195 if Michaels had dropped the title to Mr Perfect after WMIX then Luger could have won the IC Title in 1993? They already had a history by then, and their WMIX match ended controversially as Perfects feet were in the ropes... It was a disappointing match because Perfect, by his own admission, had a bad day at the office so it would have been a logical follow-on - Perfect and Luger were both capable of putting on a better match than the one for WMIX

[@lexkanyima2195]

@@DaveAndBeth1978 a bad day at the office ? Because the match was a letdown

[@DaveAndBeth1978]

​@lexkanyima2195 - Curt Hennig was always known for being very reliable in the ring, but - by his own admission - he had a brain fart in the WMIX match with Luger and couldn't remember some of the scripting...

[@omisan771]

The Allied Powers tag team was a cool idea.

[@NoneofYabiz-rx3zi]

Actually, Lex wasn't fed up with the WWF. He was negotiating a new contract and in the meantime was working on a per appearance deal. Once the opportunity presented itself to come back "home" and work with his best friend, Sting, he made the decision to leave. Also he felt bad about leaving and not informing Vince, but understood why Eric wanted him to be a surprise.

[@Joeelkins.]

I generally thought he was the villain from Superman 4 as a kid 😅

[@martynhawthorne7294]

Luger should off been a heel his whole career. His narcissist character was amazing

[@DarthDread-oh2ne]

They made an mistake by turning him into A Babyface.

[@isaiahwinbrone]

I agree

[@lexkanyima2195]

Out of nowhere

[@karenstarr]

Luger was about as charismatic as plain toast.

[@RolfWrenWalsh]

I know that there are still rumors to this day that Luger was booked to win the belt at Mania, but he supposedly admitted to it either the night before in a bar, or that morning on a radio show, so they changed the finish. I still say to this day, that while it wasn't WWE's style back then (unlike now. Mysterio/Cena 2011 for example), I feel as though Luger should have won the belt from Yoko, and then drop it to Bret an hour or so later. Though thinking it back as I type this, that probably would have been worse for Luger in general. As a WCW guy, and the fact that Vince actually wanted to push Luger (unlike other WCW guys), I'm still bummed to this day he never held a title in WWE. I still wish the Allied Powers had won the Tag Belts, even if only for a day or a week. WCW For Life.

[@citizenbeeswax7985]

I agree but I took satisfaction that Luger beat hulk for the world title by submission with the torture rack, resulting in the biggest pop in wcw history that I could remember, fans throwing trash in the ring in celebration and the ref manicly signaling for the bell just added to the chaos. I couldn’t believe what I saw, Luger is my favorite all time wrestler. I didn’t even mind when he lost it 5 days later,

[@cs8062]

Luger should have stayed as a heel with Jim Cornette as his manager and feuded with Bret Hart for the belt. He did get a lot of support for his 'Lex Express' gimmick by the fans, but I prefered him as a heel.

[@robertormond2629]

Or Ted DiBiase, he could've been in the Million Dollars Corporation.

[@cathallynch1]

"Can you afford to pay me to wrestle, Ron? I DUNNO!!!'

[@PlatinumRoseLady]

I've said it before, and I'm gonna say it again. Luger's attempted WWF push is proof that wrapping someone in the US flag will not automatically turn that someone into Captain America.

[@dazpearce2096]

if anyone ever needed a manager it was 'face' Luger. Heel Luger was fine, although Heenan would have enhanced him massively...

[@hendrix7948]

Mcmachon fell in love with with diesel in the 94 Royal rumble which left Luger the odd man out

[@kevindaniels5425]

He should of been in hall of fame already

[@mneri84]

Murdered miss Elizabeth. Wasn’t clean and was handled almost as badly as Vader was in the wwe.

[@DarkScorpionPete98]

@@mneri84Luger never murdered Liz (she died after mixing pills with vodka herself). Plus, not being clean doesn’t bar you from entering the HoF (otherwise, it would’ve been nearly empty by this point).

[@khanthevideogamehunter2946]

Can we do a video of the headshinker amd why samoo left

[@MichaelSpikes-pv6kl]

Great video

[@alexmendez4606]

For the tour, from what has been reported, he actually didn’t do the entire bus tour. Luger would take flights to wherever he was scheduled to appear and meet the bus at the airport, which made the bus tour even more worthless.

[@pepehabichuela1004]

😂😂😂

[@michaelbirch5270]

I highly recommend the article ESPN wrote about him in 2007. In an industry rampant with drug use at the time, he was one prolific drug user.

[@mattderby4243]

Well done mate another great upload. 👍

[@DaveAndBeth1978]

A few different reasons why he didn't get over - a rushed face turn that was simply unrealistic and lacked believability; relative lack of charisma; lacklustre matches (not really his fault there, WWF was in a period of transition at the time); poor mic skills; didn't always give 100%, poor work ethic and laziness (by his own admission - but given how many decisions didn't go his way perhaps that could be put down to him simply becoming disillusioned and unmotivated); Vince was once quoted as saying he realised after WMIX that putting over lazy performers is ineffective when there are other performers on the card who are actually willing to work their asses off... But ultimately, I think the timing and direction of the push was largely at fault - Vince pushed him to the moon and back as another All American Hero in the vein of Hogan, when fans were bored and fed up of that gimmick by 1993...

[@lexkanyima2195]

Vince didn't learn his lesson.

[@DaveAndBeth1978]

@lexkanyima2195 no he didn't... His stubbornness was completely detached from reality

[@lexkanyima2195]

​@@DaveAndBeth1978i'm happy that it worked out

[@MJ-27]

Its pretty obvious Luger was meant to be the top heel like triple h during the reign of terror or randy orton 2009. Plus he would've made a good anti hero face like stone cold steve austin in 1997

[@TONYGILLEY]

Thanks to OSW review, I've retroactively become a fan of Lex. As a talent, Luger is serviceable in the ring; the guy can hold his own with other skilled performers but is often mis-cast in terms of role within the company. As I see it, he is an upper-mid-card heel who can work the occasional main event program with the World Champion from time to time but never wins the title, if anything he's holding the secondary championship or he's the top card heel who IS very difficult to defeat that an up-&-coming babyface needs to overcome to move up the next level. The problem with Lex is that he never developed a true charisma connection to the fans that a main event babyface or heel wrestler needs to get mega-over. Bret Hart may not have been larger than life like Hogan, but he had that connection with the fans, and he was genuine; The Narcissist suddenly becoming the All-American Hero just reeked of over-night phony. However, I do think that by SummerSlam'93 Lex did win the fans over and they were ready for him to be the WWF Champion, but Vince not pulling the trigger and then having him celebrate not winning the championship really did damage to Luger in the fan's eyes. Another bungling job is not turning Lex heel at SummerSlam'94 instead going with Tatanka. Given his behavior at the end of WrestleMania X when he congratulated Hart on winning the title, you can see a potential seed planted for a future heel turn where they could have built Luger up to where he's taking the title off Bret at Survivor Series instead of Bob Backlund; Owen Hart's shenanigans could still play a part, while you properly build up Diesel to the WWF title at WrestleMania XI. Unless Triple Threat matches existed in '95, HBK can p*ss right off.

[@bsnhbksan]

Brilliantly said.

[@00ghostcobra]

I remember all of this very well and Luger was always just a look.. He should have just come into WWE/F as hired muscle/bodyguard for Hennig or something.. Very similar to what Diesel was for Shawn Michaels back during this time..

[@rdesi78]

Shouldve had him win the belt at SummerSlam

[@davebowen5773]

Baby face or heal I think at the end of the day he just didn't have the larger than life personality needed to really get over with the fans.

[@fro-zone2k]

Heel*

[@ajbahus]

Luger was over huge with the WCW in 96-97. That's why they had him go over Hogan on Nitro.

[@BrianJamesShanley]

1993 is not the mid 90s, it is the early 90s.

[@jasons1688]

With the positive changes Lex has made in recent years this should be called the “Rise,Fall and Rise”

[@thedragonchaser]

"SuperBrawl Saturday?!"

[@pladampa]

These shirts are too tight Billy.

[@thedragonchaser]

"I don't know!"

[@alexmendez4606]

“Door’s locked too!!!”

[@pladampa]

The numbers don't lie and they spell disaster for you at sacrifice.

[@josephlong6634]

Should have kept Bobby Henan maybe he might have gone further

[@nathanbowers6364]

I remember watching him as The Narcissist and his pre match posing was quite amusing. I remember my parents finding him quite funny but the "Lex Express" etc was cringeworthy.

[@tomasztomek105]

Lex was superstar of my childhood

[@BrianJamesShanley]

Summer Slam 93 was literally the final pay per view I ever cared about, and I left wrestling as a super-fan at that moment.

[@mrg8581]

Was awesome when Luger showed up on Nitro.

[@ohlord3650]

WM X definitely should have headlined with a triple threat, and Bret winning.

[@Bmoney88x]

They didn't even have triple threat matches yet lol. I could be wrong but I think ECW were the first ones to do triple threats around this time

[@MrVryant]

He looks like MacGyver

[@barrymichaels2663]

Constant use of steroids mess this guy's body up

[@guru77771]

Thanks!

[@offthecouchwithjordan8128]

Yoko was from LA 🤦🏿‍♂️🤦🏿‍♂️

[@muntari82]

Luger was over but not Bret over, I think they should have turned Bret heel at survivor series to get Luger over

[@justinwood6407]

That’s not the foreign fanatics picture at 9:54

[@StunnedByWrestling]

Yes it is.

[@a-khanation5279]

That's good , keep it up , The voice / accent has gotten much much better, much clearer , If you want to reach worldwide audience you will need very clear English speaking accent voice . Not the Scotland , Wales, Ireland or Liverpool accent .

[@jerryjanik480]

If you went to high school with my brother's father-in-law in Orchard Park New York

[@Farmerb1985]

Lex Luger is a future hall famer

[@brettmajors69karaoke]

Bet wbf ppvs were the shit

[@RyDeezy1992]

My opinion; Lex Luger appealed to me better as a Heel. I personally think the timing, utilization, really hindered his potential to be more than he was perceived. Regardless, he would've naturally been loved by fans overtime for his stellar work, which I still regard to this day. Lex had great moments within his career, you just have to look for them *Exclude the whole Lex Express gimmick, it was horrible all together.*

[@thevoid99]

jim herd was the person that wanted luger to be nwa/wcw champion back in 1989/1990 but flair felt he wasn't ready and had made a promise to sting that he would drop the belt to him. yes, sting's first run as wcw champion wasn't great but it was a big deal when he won. then in 1991, herd wanted flair to drop the belt to luger once again but flair felt he wasn't ready and felt it was barry windham's time to be the champion. it was nothing against luger on a personal level but it was because of herd as he got flair to cut his hair and eventually be called "spartacus" as the last of which is what made flair quit wcw in 1991. herd got what he wanted in luger in being wcw champion but it was an underwhelming run considering that luger didn't wrestle much and the guys he was facing were largely mid-carders or guys who weren't exactly ready for the main event. it wasn't until herd got fired and kip frye came in as he made the decision for luger to drop the belt to sting.

[@Xavier-vo5fv]

I think luger should of turn heel after mania 10 and work his way to another championship match against Bret maybe at mania 11 but all things happen for a reason

[@hansjuker8296]

Even I noticed they were pushing him too hard. And I was pooping my pants at the time. Still am by the way, but I was back then as well.

[@Gazowen-qz5xy]

I still say bam bam should of got the main event then he wins gets a good run as champion then luger comes in 94 wins the rumble brett beats bam bam At the royal rumble then they have a genuine main event at wrestlemania 10 maybe he came a year too early

[@Gazowen-qz5xy]

Maybe in 93 vince should of made mr perfect the next Hogan give perfect the title run then bring luger in in 94 win at the rumble in 94 then beat mr perfect then lose to brett hart or sid justice in 95

[@forrestredd2706]

Never liked wrestlers like Luger. But always liked Luger.

[@Batman-q7m]

The fact is if bret hart was not their in wwf, lugar surely would be a next hogan but still not at hogan level but 2nd hogan

[@lexkanyima2195]

BS

[@MikeeTompkins]

The Lex Express was a great way to get him over.. I still remember clearly when he slammed Yoko...

[@KingBrahma-xw6mt]

that Lex express kind of hurt him a bit nobody asked for a hulk hogan bootleg

[@earlofdrumer1851]

I remember watching the Narcissist and thinking how great a gimmick it was and how Luger could springboard towards a main event spot. Next thing I see him dressed up like Mr USA, poorly acting like a patriot face, and obviously completely unbelievably he changed persona from arrogant self absorbed adonis, to some pound shop Hulk Hogan wannabe. I hated it. Absolutely hated it. I think I cheered when Tatanka turned on him and beat him up. The Narcissist with Bobby Heenan was the angle to run with, but for whatever reason this wasn't going to happen

[@leocorrea5935]

Luga!

[@robertcapone270]

Lex got screwed by Bret Hart and Vince McMahon!!!

[@tomasztomek105]

I ever like lex but mcmahon was only ashole

[@jimmygialelis5708]

They tried making him a mega baby face in just 6 weeks. Not enough time to make that transition.

[@josephgana5746]

LEX ALWAYS IN MY TOP 12 OF ALL TIME, MORE LUGAR 86-91, IN THE NWA/WCW, I LIKED THE NARRICIST GIMMICK CUZ THATS WAS LEX, BUT VINCE SHOULD OF LET HIM BEEN LEX, B THE BABYFACE U KNO HOW TO B NOT KISSING BABIES N YANKEE DODDLE, IT WAS TERRIBLE BUT AS A LUGAR FAN I STOOD BEHIND HIM BUT WHEN HIM N BRET OR LEX N HBK, BRET/HBK MY 2 ALL TIME FAVORITES, LEX COULD OF WENT HEEL IN 95, JOINIG CAMP CORNETTE, THEN COME ATTITUDE ERA, LEX WOULD OF FIT PERFECT, IF NOT GONE BAK TO WCW WHICH I LIKED HOW LEX WAS BOOKED IN WCW BOTH TIMES LEX LUGAR HOF 2024!!!!!! THE TOTAL PACKAGE

[@stevenpagnani7005]

He's not the total package anymore. He's the small package.

[@barrymichaels2663]

All them steroids mess this guy's body up bloody

[@pricean]

Fans wanted him to be wwf champion. Wwf sabotaged him circa summerslam 93. After mania 10 fans realised luger wasnt a wwf champion in the making

[@lexkanyima2195]

So why it was spilled 8 months ?

[@user-vg5rv5xf4u]

LUGA!!! LUGA!!!

[@Chris-Rife]

Lex had the look, the body, the walk, but his charisma wasn't there. When he got on the mic, I usually lost interest fairly quickly back in his WCW days. I enjoyed Luger vs Sting days when Luger was the bad guy in that matchup.

[@naturboy]

woooooooooooooooooooooo!

[@beachgirl881]

Cringy at best

[@hansjuker8296]

The Lex Express era was a real life Rocky 5.

[@lexkanyima2195]

What do you mean by that ? He was not handpicked

[@patrickpitamber]

Lex could've been great but not a good character storykine

[@Darkdiamondking]

Most Hated-90s Paul heyman

[@TankCop]

Lex was meant to be the 2nd coming of Hulk Hogan. Such lost potential.

[@lexkanyima2195]

He doesn't look like Hogan at all

[@PSNTheSunsRay]

He was a NWA coke show and then hero man after being the narcissist

[@pladampa]

Narr siss iss

[@michaelbull4344]

They tried so hard to make Luger the new hogan and it never worked

[@A-Man79]

Lex Luger was a failure. It's *that* simple. He was a zero in every category. Somehow he was successful in WCW but he straight up failed in the WWF. He celebrated winning a match by count-out, had no ring skills and was just baffling on the mic. He was just another steroid brick who Vince thought could be a star without having any star qualities, and WCW were stupid for pushing him as well.

[@BoereViking]

Hahaha, tell us you know nothing about wrestling without using the words...

[@quarantinebored1427]

They should’ve done what they did to Roman reigns. Have him turn heel and havd jim cornette as his manager.

[@AzureSymbiote]

I didn't know about all this. I thought it was Luger's fault.

[@hansjuker8296]

Nothing is or ever was lugers fault.

[@Ngamer834]

I remember all the lex express boring segments each week as a kid and then not winning the title anyway. I found Lex luger boring as a character and boring in the ring. I never found him a convincing heel either tbh.

[@seanbrown453]

I never liked him to he seemed arrogant and a boring wrestler compared to the other WWF ristar arge time

[@crylittlesister6377]

Lex's biggest issue in the WWF was that he debuted in the New Generation Era. Fans were tired of seeing jacked up dudes get all the main event spots. They wanted more. It was bad timing more than anything.

[@lexkanyima2195]

He came at the right time

[@studbourbon798]

6:32 , The Rock ??