Debate Of The Day

Remember this old gem from the original 606? I thought we could try and ressurect it. We used to get some decent debate going, and if i remember rightly the person who creates the article then nominates the next person to create their own debate the following day, right?

I'll go first anyway, and hopefully bring up something which hasnt been discussed at great length before.

Lex Luger. What went wrong?

July 4th 1993 was the beginning of one of the biggest pushes ever given to a WWE Superstar when Lex Luger arrive via helicopter onto the USS Intrepid and bodyslammed the 500+ pound Yokozuna. From this began the Lex Express tour where Luger toured the States in his Red, White & Blue bus to campaign for a WWF Title shot at Yokozuna. Luger faced Yokozuna at Summerslam, he won the match but only via countout so he didnt win the title.

Luger then captained a team called The All Americans at Survivor Series where again he went over Yokozuna and his team won the match. He then co-won the Royal Rumble with Bret Hart when they both landed on the floor at exactly the same time (I still dont know how they managed to pull that off). Both men were given title shots at Wrestlemania 10 where Luger was DQd in his match against Yokozuna, but Bret Hart beat the champion later in the night to win the gold.

From here it all went downhill for Luger, if my memory serves me correctly i think he fueded with Tatanka before forming the Allied Powers with The British Bulldog.

So my question is - in 1993-4 when the WWF seriously lacked star power in the Main Event scene, and after such a big push from July 93 to March 94 including the huge celebration and balloons at the end of Summerslam 93, why was Lex Luger not given an opportunity to hold the WWF Championship?

Can you think of any other superstar who has received such a big main event push but not given the strap?

Do you think Lex Luger could have drawn as WWF Champion?

It was all very odd.

I will nominate someone soon to create tomorrows Debate of the Day.

good question - you actually jogged my memory about Luger's time in the WWF - I mostly remembered his joint rumble win. I'm not sure, maybe they felt Hart was the safer option as a draw, maybe they wanted more of an 'underdog' feel to Hart beating Yokozuna? Maybe Luger just wasn't liked by the powers that be and in the same way some stars struggle now to breakthrough into the inner circle, Luger never made it either?

I think that he actually was due to win the title. Was it at Wrestlemania 10? Or SummerSlam 93? I can't remember which.

Anyway, I think he ended up blabbing about winning the title before the event, it got out to the dirtsheets, then Vince changed his mind last minute, changing the result of the match.

Is that true liverbnz? I genuinely didnt know that. Im guessing it must have been Summerslam. If it was, then you have to ask why did Vince give him another huge push but not follow it up with a title run? They obviously couldnt decide if they wanted Luger or Hart to be the 'face of the summer' which is why they done the whole joint Rumble win. Looking back at it now, it was terrible and indecisive booking.

By late 91 the fans where sick of Hogan, by the 92 Rumble they where booing the crap out of him, he got a decent send off at Mania mainly because the WWF done a sad story with him saying it could be the final goodbye blah blah blah

He was back by Mania IX and won the title in about 30 seconds, the fans popped but they always do for a shock (see Cena's 08 Rumble appearence as proof) and after that those same fans got pretty sick of him pretty quickly again, check out the KotR93 for the pop for Yoko's win and Hogan was gone again, after that Yoko was crapping on America, killing Jim Duggan and Bonzai Dropping guys with the stars and stripes draped over them, no one was gonna slam him him, onto the 4th of July, Luger showed up and done it, like Hogan before him and Cena after him, the fans popped because of the shock, when it was all said and done though like Hogan in 93 and Cena in 08, no-one really wanted to see it

He headlined SummerSlam 93 (and was rumoured that he was to win the belt) but by that time the fans barely cared, his heavily promoted tour bus was gaining little reaction and the SS buy rate sucked, I think it was the lowest ever SS buy rate

The fans didn't want Hogan and they definitely didn't want someome that was clearly viewed as the poor mans Hulk Hogan either.

Vince not wanting to simply disregard the time, effort and cash they ploughed into Luger kept it going all the way to the Rumble, even then Vince still felt he could turn it aroun but Bret was clearly the guy fans wanted and definitely not Luger, they pushed this for a while until about two wees before WrestleMania, they had two plans from what I read,

Plan A - to pan out exactly as it went
Plan B - For Luger to beat Yoko then for him to turn heel on Bret and retain the title in the Main Event with help from Perfect

I think they choose the right option

Bottom line was no one gave a damn about Luger, at least not enough people to justify the spot he had

Mr H wrote:Is that true liverbnz? I genuinely didnt know that. Im guessing it must have been Summerslam. If it was, then you have to ask why did Vince give him another huge push but not follow it up with a title run? They obviously couldnt decide if they wanted Luger or Hart to be the 'face of the summer' which is why they done the whole joint Rumble win. Looking back at it now, it was terrible and indecisive booking.

Did a wee bit searching around and came across an interview with Luger where he denies it. The 'myth' was actually supposed to be about Wrestlemania X, but Luger claims that Vince had told in months in advance that he wouldn't be winning the big one. He also claimed politics was the reason for him not winning at SS93. He didn't elaborate though.

I think as gaffer says, he was Hogan mark II. People were sick of the All-American do gooder with the bodybuilder physique so he was unlucky in that respect. He also wasn't great on the stick, quite dull in fact an therefore had little character beyond the look. He'd have been much better served remaining the heel 'narcissist' gimmick.

I nominate liverbnz for tomorrows Debate of the Day...

Will get the thinking cap on!

Excellent little discussion some good insight I hadn't heard before always wondered why they never completely pulled the trigger on Luger, thought Lex-Express would have been primed to answer this

Do you wanna nominate someone else for today Mr H?

I don't have a lot of time on my hands this morning and I don't wanna put my topic up after lunch and lose half the day with it. I can put up mine tomorrow if you wish.

Ok, today's Debate of the Day goes to Electric Demon!

By the way - the debate of the day was my idea to counteract the banility of Lionbloods 5 threads a day.

King Beer was my wing man in setting it up.