Luger's body of work, especially when compared to inductees like Ultimate Warrior & Scott Hall is certainly HOF Worthy.
Luger was a Phenom with his look and speed in Florida in 1986 and his initial debut in the NWA in 1987 (when he was basically begging The Four Horsemen to take him in) was an extremely over angle. Luger gave The Horsemen some much needed youth and also allowed Arn Anderson, the former "junior member of the group", to grow and be a more vital and important character, similar to what Batista did for Randy Orton in the early days of Evolution. You could see Luger was still somewhat raw in his work but he was very good that year in tag team matches pitting him & Flair (The Dream Team) against The Rock & Roll Express, and he held his own late in the year against Dusty Rhodes. For me personally this was my favorite version of The Horsemen and 1987 was their best year.
Luger actually was the first guy, not Sting, the make it to #1A opposite Flair in 1988. Luger had arrived earlier and had a head start although I think Sting was a better all around talent. That doesn't take away from the fact that Luger was extremely popular, like Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage and Dusty Rhodes popular, in 1988. A large part of that was how well Flair worked with him, literally making Luger look like an un stoppable machine and carrying him to some of his all time best matches (Watch Flair-Luger from Starrcade 88, excellent match and probably Luger's best on TV). Luger might have gotten the belt then if not for WCW signing Ricky Steamboat and wanting to re - do the Flair-Steamboat angle from years earlier, now with Steamboat's added cred from being so prominently featured in WWE.
Luger remained very over with fans through the next few years, which included a lengthy run with US Title and eventually another heel turn. Luger stepped in and carried the ball with Flair big time in 1990 when Sting was injured just before he was to win the belt at SuperBrawl PPV in Feb (another great Luger match, but a bit more repetitive than Starracde 88), similar to how hard & how successful Luger was basically carrying the company on his back in 1997 when Sting in storyline dictated exile and Flair was off re habbing from major shoulder surgery. People forget that Luger was the face of the company against the initial NWO Invasion for a long time because Sting & Flair were both MIA for long stretches, that angle gained steam and WCW gained popularity in large part due to Luger's work.
Luger does get criticized for his ring work, which wasn't great over all but was above average. He had very good matches with Brett Hart in both WWE & WCW along with his classics with Flair and also wrestled well against Steamboat in 1989. You can argue that those three performers were among the all time best in the ring and carried Luger but that is only goes so far.....Does anyone really think Hogan could have duplicated those performances, even with those other performers ? Certainly Ultimate Warrior never could have duplicated what Luger did in those bouts. Not everyone is a candidate for "Greatest All Time In Ring Performer" but it's The Total Package (pardon the pun) that makes one great in this industry. Im not sure Id say Luger was great but he was certainly very good.
Luger has also been criticized for WCW basically falling off the planet when they made him champ in 1991. This wasn't his fault, the company had been so horribly mismanaged the entire year and firing Ric Flair may have been their biggest mistake, especially when Flair was willing and offered to keep working under the terms of his previous deal long enough to put Luger over at the next PPV. There were local radio stations that actually encouraged fans to boycott WCW in their core towns over this along with long, sustained chants from fans in attendance yelling "we Want Flair" during Luger's entire match. This In no way was Luger's fault, he had nothing to do with Flair with leaving the way he did and in fact had been pinpointed as the next champ for several months before this happened. It was no surprise that Jim Herd, the man running WCW during this, was fired a short time later and never worked in wrestling again. The WCW roster was decimated with talent leaving left & right. Luger had no one of substance to wrestle against. From a booking standpoint while Harley Race as Luger's manager did a fine job, this only served to make Luger a strict heel, like WCW was trying to recreate Flair in Luger. Luger didn't have the charisma to pull that off and the timing was horrible with fans in a furor over Flair's termination, it also made little sense since the WCW roster at that time had hardly any main event caliber faces worth opposing Luger outside of Sting, but did have Vader, Rick Rude, Barry Whyndam, and an up and coming pure heel Stunning Steve Austin, all of which would have made good opponents for a fan fave Luger as champ. This was a booking disaster from the get go but not Luger's fault.
I also felt Luger suffered from some bad booking in WWE. When he arrived in WWE Luger got very over very quickly in his "Narcissist" heel role, which was basically the same character he had been playing in WCW for the past two years, which made sense. It was literally out of nowhere, with no suitable explanation or foreshadowing of any kind, that Luger, this self absorbed morally corrupt cheater that we had been watching in both WWE & WCW for the last three years suddenly decides to adopt a strict moral code of decency and become Mr America to face Yokozuna. Why would the Narcissist care at all about USA Pride and why all of the sudden would he drape himself in the flag and start signing autographs for kids and acting with such humility. It made no sense what so ever and fans had a hard time with it. WWE wasn't happy with Brett Hart and wanted someone else playing the Hulk Hogan "Say Your Prayers. Take Your Vitamins...." etc character, someone who actually looked the part of a super hero style character, unlike Hart who lacked the size and height. This could have worked if done more slowly and with more build. In fact....
The NWA did a similar thing with Flair in 1985 when Nikita Kolloff was the company's new red hot heel, disparaging America at every turn and threatening to win all of our titles and take them back to Russia. Flair had been pretty much his classic womanizing, drinking, live to the excess heel character since early in 1984 but the NWA thought it would be good money to have him face the monster Kolloff, plus he could help train the young star how to better work in the ring. Flair started slowly mentioning Kolloff in promos, making it clear that despite his own foibles he didn't like hearing people mock his country or his company. Things escalated over time and finally Flair made it clear in his promos that a full scale feud was on. The Kolloffs attacked and brutalized him, he fought back, pretty basic Wrestling 101. Flair didn't completely change his character though, he just in a very subtle way nuanced his presentation to fit the storyline and fans ate it up. The matches were sell outs, including a stadium show in Flair's hometown of Charlotte, and after the run wrapped up the NWA hadn't changed Flair so dramatically so quick that fans couldn't buy it, they also hadn't changed him enough that they couldn't go back, he was effectively believable at this stage being a full force face or going back to his villainous ways, and thus the groundwork for Starrcade 85 and Dusty's Broken Leg angle was born.
WWE could have slowly had Luger interact with Yokozuna, show his upset over Yokozuna disparaging the US and the WWE, and worked the fans into urging him to change to the hero to oppose him. Instead WWE spent almost a year pushing Luger as the The Narcissist (again very similar to how he was booked his last year plus in WCW before coming over) and over night wrapped him in flag and thought fans would embrace him as Hulk Hogan #2. Luger did become popular, he did well, but really only got as high or near abouts as Hart did playing a similar role, which wasn't what WWE had hopped. Still, WWE had every intention of keeping Luger on the roster in a prominent top tier role when he left for WCW in 1995, surprising everyone in WWE who thought it was a foregone conclusion Luger was staying with the company. Again, you can only play what you are given and Luger wasn't given great material here but he somehow still managed to get over with fans and remain relevant. That's impressive.
At the end of the day, I think it's Luger's cursory involvement in Elizabeth's death that keeps him out of the HOF. There was a lot of negative media attention surrounding her overdose, drugs in wrestling, etc when she died. I personally thought Luger should have entered the HOF as part of The Horsemen contingent with Ole Anderson, but Ole refused to make piece with Vince or the other H-Men and not having him there made it easier for WWE to exclude Luger, basically inducting just one version of The Group instead members from multiple versions (they certainly were not going to enshrine Benoit, though a string case can be made the later members like Benoit, McMichael, and Dean Malenko did so little and contributed so little they don't merit consideration in the first place)..
Luger was rookie sensation, a multi time World, US, and tag Team Champion, he main evented against Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Sting, Brett Hart, and Randy Savage, he was an integral part Of The Four Horsemen at the height of that angle's popularity and profitability and was the veritable MVP as face of WCW against the NWO Invasion, kickstarting the early days, and some would say the best days, of that angle, covering for the absences of Flair & Sting from TV turning the tide in the Monday Night Wars. I definitely think he deserves some HOF cred, but alas the Liz Passing and negative attention will probably prevent that from ever happening.
