The Evil Genius Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 I'm pretty sure that the WWE still employs Lex to speak as part of their wellness program. He counsels on nutrition and evils of steroids, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lombardi's_kid_brother Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 I'm pretty sure that the WWE still employs Lex to speak as part of their wellness program. He counsels on nutrition and evils of steroids, etc. I think he qualifies as the most shocking wrestling train wreck. One of the things that held him back in his career, I thought, was that he was known for caring more about his contract than anything else. And he had a reputation for being extremely careful with his money. Combine that with his look and I figured he was one of the few guys disciplined enough to leave wrestling and retire rich and happy. Instead within a few years, he is basically a junkie with a long rap sheet and a dead girlfriend and that leads to him nearly dying, totally losing his health, and becoming one of those manic born-again types. (I'm not putting down born-again Christians. He just seems that in the last few years a lot of former wrestlers have hit rock bottom, then gone through the bottom, and then suddenly became traveling evangelists. It's hard to totally trust junkie carnies about their commitment to their ministries. These guys are trained from age 18 to separate marks from their dollars. So, seeing Tully Blanchard pass around a collection plate gives one pause). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lombardi's_kid_brother Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 (edited) Speaking of Luger, I think he takes a lot of undeserved flack. I never thought he was all that bad in the ring. He could be great with the right opponent. Yes, Flair had great matches with a lot of people, but I've always thought Luger was his #2 all time opponent (behind Steamboat). Luger played his role perfectly in all those matches and despite being a musclehead, he never really got blown up in his matches. He also had really good chemistry with Sting and Steamboat. Luger's problem almost always had to do with booking and timing and backstage nonsense. When he was in Florida in the 80s, the Apter mags (which mattered then) were treating him like the next Hulk Hogan and were expecting him to be NWA champ within a year. Then he comes to Crockett as basically the fifth Four Horsemen. Ole gets turfed, he becomes a Horseman, does okay there, leaves the Horsemen, challenges Flair....and then doesn't get the title due to a really stupid angle where the Maryland Athletic Commission stopped a match with Flair due to a papercut. NWA fans were used to Dusty and Flair bleeding all over the arena so to see a match stopped due to blood made Luger look like a huge ****. He hung around, and NWA/WCW was all set to put the company on his shoulders in '91 and he got caught in that famous pissing match between Flair and Jim Herd. His advertised match with Flair turned into an unadvertised disaster with Barry Windham that had the fans dumping on both guys the entire match. Luger wins and then for no apparent reason turns heel after the match. The plan was for face Luger to finally get the clean win over heel Flair and get the big gold belt. It turned into face Luger turning heel on Windham and getting a tag team belt because Flair had left the territory with the actual title belt. Luger - who was a natural ****y heel but had trouble when straying from that - ended up in a really distasteful angle with Ron Simmons that had all kinds of ugly racial overtones. That angle could have worked in 1978 but not 1992. Instead of Luger becoming a big time heel, the fans were just sort of disgusted with him. He had a ridiculous contract with WCW (like so many people did then) and barely worked as champ. So he just sort of faded away. Then WWF hires him. Vince will know what to do with this young phyiscal specimen who had pretty much never been without a major title for his entire 7-year career. He's bigger than the Ultimate Warrior. He's more professional than the Ultimate Warrior. He can wrestle better than the Ultimate Warrior. This is going to be a match made in heaven. So Vince puts him in the WBF. Yea. Made him a professional bodybuilder. And then Luger gets injured in a motorcycle wreck. Vince finally lets him wrestle after the WBF gets turfed and gives him a pretty good gimmick - The Narcissist. And they gave him Heenan as a manager. This seems really good. And it kind of goes nowhere because that gimmick started right as Vince's drug trial started. Nothing really got over in the WWF at this point, and everything was a mess. Bill Watts was certainly not the man to push Lex Luger. So, sad trombone. Vince comes back and is ready to rebuild his empire. And he wants the new Hulk Hogan. He looks around his company and for reasons known only to him decides that Lex Luger - who has been on tv weekly for the past 8 years as either a ****y face or super arrogant heel - is the All-American hero that people want. Well, people don't buy it. Lex never played a face well. And he never looked comfortable in that WWF superhero role that Hogan mastered. Vince seemed to figure this out pretty quickly was committed to the concept and had Lex go over evil foreign heel Yokozuna....by countout. So, sad trombone again. At this point, Lex had lost a chance at the NWA title by papercut. Won the WCW title by default during a fan rebellion. And celebrated a countout win over the champ in a way that made him look like an idiot. He doesn't really do much during the rest of his tenure with Vince. And then walks out on the company, showing up at the first Nitro. Vince is apparently still pissed off over this, but - whatever - it was cool. So, Lex is back in a territory that fits him better than WWF, where he has a great history, and is really over after a shocking debut. And WCW decides to align him with Kevin Sullivan's band of misfits. Because Lex Luger fits in with Abdullah the Butcher, John Tenta, and Kamala. Never forget that WCW was always run by very stupid people. So, Luger is nothing again. Somehow, Luger builds himself up during the NWO stuff and gets super-over as a babyface. Seriously, he was more popular in 1997 than he had ever been. WCW actually recognizes this and for once in its history, pulls the trigger. Luger goes over Hogan clean and wins the title. He's finally done it. He's over as a babyface, he's the champ without any controversy, the people and the company are united. And he drops the belt five days later at the annual disaster that is Road Wild. After that, the company started focusing on Goldberg - who was basically the 1988 version of Lex Luger if Luger won all the time cleanly. And Luger's career just kind of faded away. The moral of the story - booking is important. Edited January 31, 2014 by Lombardi's_kid_brother 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HailGalvatron Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 While you're at it. Bring back the LWO No body beats EL DANDY!!!!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DM72 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 That was a great read LKB. It's nice to run into people that knows NWA/WCW history. You think the Miss Elizabeth situation will forever keep Luger out of the WWE Hall of Fame? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forehead Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Work Big Poppa Pump into it and I'm all aboard!! We also need more guys with pun nicknames. Bring back Adam Bomb from Three Mile Island. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lombardi's_kid_brother Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 (edited) That was a great read LKB. It's nice to run into people that knows NWA/WCW history. You think the Miss Elizabeth situation will forever keep Luger out of the WWE Hall of Fame? I dunno. It depends on whether Vince thinks he can make any money off Luger. They put the Von Erichs in so seedy tragedies are not a disqualifier apparently. You could a really interesting documentary about Luger's career. Because he was one of the most successful wrestlers ever who always seemed to have the worst timing. His whole career was a series of awesome builds with no payoffs. And he always left companies on really down notes. It didn't hurt him, but he left Florida Championship Wrestling with that bizarre shoot match with Bruiser Brody where Brody sold nothing. Anyway....Speculating about the WWE Hall of Fame is really just trying to psychoanalyze Vince. Edited January 31, 2014 by Lombardi's_kid_brother Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Sinister Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 That was a great read LKB. It's nice to run into people that knows NWA/WCW history. I'm telling you. I read every post in a God voice. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G.A.C.O.L.B. Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Holy ****, talk about an insane coincidence. In the car right now, listening to 980, the Sports Fix. They're up in NY on media row or whatever. Interviewing folks as they come by. So they just interviewed ex-Giant Jim Burt. Interviewing ending and Thom Loverro asks him one last question: "Is it true your teammate in high school was...LEX LUGER?" Burt confirms it's true. Said he was the definition of a knucklehead. Not sure he said what position he played but I got o-line in my head for some reason. Anyway, said he had a scholarship to Penn State and got tossed. Then he got a scholarship down in Miami with him but got tossed there too. And that's when he went into wrestling. So yeah, almost spit my coffee out all over my car when I heard his name. Can't believe we're in here talking about him and that happens . just thought I'd share. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeesburgSkinFan Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Pretty sure Luger played in the USFL before he took up pro wrestling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lombardi's_kid_brother Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Assuming Wikipedia is accurate, Burt is a) telling the truth about playing with him in high school (both are from Orchard Park) and college and downplaying his professional career a little bit. Luger kicked around the CFL, NFL, and USFL for about five years after getting tossed from Miami. He got into wrestling in '85 in Florida. I remember WCW doing a big piece on Luger being in the Packers' Hall of Fame - which meant that the Packers displayed his jersey for a week to help promote a show in Madison or something. Luger never played a game for them, but was on IR for a year. This is off the subject a bit, but I think the biggest problem in wrestling right now is that in the old days, the young wrestlers were college athletes who hit their ceiling or got injured and decided to give wrestling a shot. Today, it's all backyard wrestlers who've wanted to be in the business from age 10 or the kids of wrestlers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@DCGoldPants Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Was watching a little TNA last night. They kept hinting at this secret investor who was coming to take charge. I don't know their storylines. Dixie Carter stinks as a Heel. Fell asleep....when I woke up today I looked online. Its freaking MVP? Really? That was their big get? I thought it was going to be a real person like Billy Corgan with the rumors he wanted to buy the company. That would have been interesting and real. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lombardi's_kid_brother Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 So in TNA's universe, if you go to the WWE and work in the mid-card for a few years, you can make enough money to buy TNA. That's an interesting message to send. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovetoaster Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Was watching a little TNA last night. They kept hinting at this secret investor who was coming to take charge. I don't know their storylines. Dixie Carter stinks as a Heel. Fell asleep....when I woke up today I looked online. Its freaking MVP? Really? That was their big get? I thought it was going to be a real person like Billy Corgan with the rumors he wanted to buy the company. That would have been interesting and real. No kidding. I am one of the dozen or so people that actually watch TNA fairly regularly. And that was the definition of anticlimactic. Corgan would have been at least interesting. I can't imagine this being very good. LKB nailed essentially what I was thinking. I was expecting it to be a former wrestler or personality and I was thinking the whole show that "I am going to punch somebody if its Bischoff." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lombardi's_kid_brother Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 No kidding. I am one of the dozen or so people that actually watch TNA fairly regularly. And that was the definition of anticlimactic. Corgan would have been at least interesting. I can't imagine this being very good. LKB nailed essentially what I was thinking. I was expecting it to be a former wrestler or personality and I was thinking the whole show that "I am going to punch somebody if its Bischoff." I hardly ever watch TNA. But I like MVP. And at least he's a change of pace as an "Authority Figure," though I wish the authority figure character would just vanish in general. But I just love the way TNA always makes itself look so bush-league. Any WWE midcarder they sign is immediately pushed to the heavens. If you had the second match on a Wrestlemania once, TNA will immediately push you as the top heel in the company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@DCGoldPants Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 MVP was ok on the mic....but enough to be a main character? Everybody in TNA needs to go work at various improvs and learn how to not sound like they're trying to remember what to say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Sinister Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 (edited) I watch TNA every now and then, and part of me still can't process the fact that Bubba Ray is like one of the top heels there. I just never thought he was anything special as a singles guy. Edited January 31, 2014 by Mr. Sinister Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovetoaster Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 I watch TNA every now and then, and part of me still can't process the fact that Bubba Ray is like one of the top heels there. I just never thought he was anything special as a singles guy. I honestly thought he has been great until recently. He is in much better shape and has always been great on the mic. But I am not really on board with what they are doing with him now. TNA tends to confuse people sometimes. Maybe that's why I watch, just to try and figure out what the hell is going on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DM72 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Speaking of TNA, they're extremely popular in the UK. They can pack em in over there, where over here they're lucky draw over 1,000 people. I don't understand why they can't catch fire in the US. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovetoaster Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Speaking of TNA, they're extremely popular in the UK. They can pack em in over there, where over here they're lucky draw over 1,000 people. I don't understand why they can't catch fire in the US. I was thinking that same thing last night. They pack arenas of that size over there, but I can't think of many places that they could draw like that in the States. I guess it is just probably because they do not get "major" wrestling shows that come through the UK very often. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lombardi's_kid_brother Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 I don't understand why they can't catch fire in the US. Because they come across as a knock-off, watered down WWE. And WWE is not exactly on fire here. If you like wrestling and TNA comes to your town, you are probably thinking, "I'll just wait three months and see WWE." UK seems pretty wrestling starved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forehead Posted February 1, 2014 Share Posted February 1, 2014 Not related to the current discussion, but I think I could listen to hours of Jim Cornette shoot interviews and never get bored. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrypticVillain Posted February 1, 2014 Share Posted February 1, 2014 Not related to the current discussion, but I think I could listen to hours of Jim Cornette shoot interviews and never get bored. I love when he shoots on Johnny Ace (Laurinaitis) NSFW Language... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovetoaster Posted February 1, 2014 Share Posted February 1, 2014 I love when he shoots on Johnny Ace (Laurinaitis) That was outstanding. And now I have a feeling I will be wasting some of my day watching more of those. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spjunkies Posted February 1, 2014 Share Posted February 1, 2014 That was outstanding. And now I have a feeling I will be wasting some of my day watching more of those. Bwen there, done that with Cornette shoots Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now