Lex Luger's Best Match

[FlairFan2003]

Lex Luger is kind of enigma. He was extremely popular, was a part of the end of the first real boom period in wrestling, coming into his own as main eventer in the late 80's, and remained a top atraction through the next boom period in the mid to late 90's. He is not as well regarded as many of his comtemporaries, either in the ring or on the mic, but unlike other wrestlers who have been criticized in the same way (guys like Brutus Beefcake, Ultimate Warrior, Sid Justice, etc) he not only was a top attraction and main event star but he maintained that status for a decade, between two companies. He's pretty far down on my list of all time favs, but his longevity as a top star deserves some props. It got me thinking, what was his best match ?

- Great American Bash 1987: US Title vs Nikita Kolloff (first big title win in the Big Two companies)

- Starrcade 87 - US Title vs Dusty Rhodes (Luger loses, but this is an entertaining match, big muscled up stud vs ageing icon set up)

- Great American Bash 88: NWA Title vs Ric Flair - First shot at NWA Title, screw job finish when he has Flair in Torture Rack and ref stops the match due to bleeding

- Starrcade 88 - NWA Title vs Ric Flair - Fast paced, 30 plus minute match in which Luger actually does a SuperPlex and a drop kick - Flair goes over by pin after Luger's knee gives out when he has Flair in the Torture Rack and Flair lands on top for the pin.

- WrestleWar 90 NWA Title vs Ric Flair: The longest match I ever remember him wrestling, over 38 minutes, huge late rally by Luger puts him in position to win before he gets counted out, leaving the ring to stop a Horsemen beatdown on an injured Sting

- WrestleWar 92 WCW Title vs Sting: Luger does the job on his way to WWE.

- 100th episode Monday Nitro - WCW Title vs Hollywood Hogan: If not his greatest match then easily his greatest victory, main eventing Nitro and cleanly beating Hogan for the World Title - even more shocking, it was by submission in Torture Rack

I honestly cant think of any WWE matches to include, I remember him having some good bouts with Brett Hart, his SummerSlam main event vs YokoZuna was a huge moment for him but he didnt win.

So what do you think - enigma or not, what was "The Total Package" Lex Luger's best career match ?

 

[The Brain]

I haven’t seen a lot of NWA/WCW so I may not be best qualified to answer this question. In fact I haven’t seen any of the matches you listed. Of the Luger matches I have seen I’d say the best was when he teamed with Sting against the Steiner Brothers at SuperBrawl 91. They were all face and the match just seemed like a clash of the titans. It was a fast paced match full of power moves. I can’t comment too much because I only saw it once but I remember it being a solid match. It was voted match of the year by PWI fans and was the last time a WWF/E match didn’t win. I actually thought Bret Hart vs. Mr. Perfect should have won but that’s another story. I’d like to list something from WWF for Luger but he was pretty much an underachiever there.

 

[Roland Thompson Gunner]

Hey badnewzxl, you suck. Keep sucking, troll. Don't comment on things you don't have the ability to talk about. Ya know?

Lex wasn't bad, even good from about 88-92ish, when he still cared. After that it seemed like he sorta phoned in most major matches. Although around 1999-2000, he gained a pretty entertaining parodying personality of himself, even though he still didn't give a fuck in the ring.

I'd say his best match of those you listed was his WrestleWar 90 title match against Flair.

 

[The Eighties]

I'll preface this by saying I have never seen his Superbrawl II match with Sting.

For me the best match he was ever in is the Superbrawl I match where he tagged with Sting against the Steiners, that was a fantastic tag match full of explosive offense.

The best singles match I've seen of Luger's would have to be the one with Ricky Steamboat at Great American Bash 89.

His most significant match was definitely the 100th Nitro in 97 where he beat Hogan for the WCW title.

 

[badnewzxl]

Hey badnewzxl, you suck. Keep sucking, troll. Don't comment on things you don't have the ability to talk about. Ya know?

Lex wasn't bad, even good from about 88-92ish, when he still cared. After that it seemed like he sorta phoned in most major matches. Although around 1999-2000, he gained a pretty entertaining parodying personality of himself, even though he still didn't give a fuck in the ring.

I'd say his best match of those you listed was his WrestleWar 90 title match against Flair.

you're a real tough guy, whoeverthefuckyouare, but my point still stands: Luger Sucks. Throughout the 90's all he was in WCW was the face who got beat down a nd his partner had to defend him (Giant, Sting) or a douche bag heel. either way, he never did a SINGLE thing cool in his entire career. Sure, he slammed Yokozuna, but so did Ahmed Johnson and that guy sucked dix too

 

[obamartins]

Lex Luger is underrated, he was at the top or near the top of the card from basicallly the start of his career until the very end, it annoys me when idiot sterotypical smarks bash him...look what he accomplished...enough said.

As for the person above me...Id say being a member of the Four Horsemen & nWo Wolfpac was pretty cool, beating Hogan for strap was pretty cool, going 30 minutes with Ric Flair is pretty cool, giving the torture rack to The Giant was pretty cool, winning the Royal Rumble(with Bret Hart) was pretty cool, participating in arguably the best beatdown in pro wrestling history (Finger Poke of Doom) was pretty cool, his entrance in 1999/2000 was pretty cool, slamming Yokozuna was pretty cool, being in an angle/match with Dennis Rodman in 1997 was pretty cool...

As for matches i just wanted to point out a kind of obscure match, it happpened on WCW Monday Nitro in 1998 where a Wolfpac Lex Luger beat Bret Hart for the WCW US Heavyweight Championship...& it was a very good match. If i recall correctly Bret Hart beat Lex Luger to win the strap back in a rematch on WCW Thunder 3 days later.

& oh yeah wasn't Lex Luger/Sting vs. Steiner Brothers at SuperBrawl 1991 voted match of the year in Wrestling Observer that year?

Ive just been on Lance Storm's website where he reviewed Starrcade 1988 & this is what he said about Flair vs. Luger.

"Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger (World Title): Stip for this match was that if Flair gets disqualified the title will change hands. J.J. Dillon was in Flair's corner. I popped huge for Luger's music; I always thought it was great and still do. Commentary was awesome for this match; they talked about how Luger had actually dropped 13 lbs training for this match because he was focusing on cardio and conditioning because of Flair's rep for longer matches. Luger was shredded and actually looked to be a few pounds lighter than normal. Crowd was super into this and the announcers and everyone made this match and the Title mean so much; the crowd was into everything. Luger actually botched the opening spot, but Ric covered it well; Luger was quite green here. That said this match went over 30 minutes and Lex was quite good. All the criticism he gets for not being any good, his performance in this match was in many ways far better than much of what you see today. Luger's selling in particular was way better than many in the business today. They got the initial heat from Luger just missing an elbow drop. Luger just hooking a back slide in the heat got a bigger crowd reaction than most finishes today. After a comeback Dillon distracted the ref and Flair hit Luger in the knees with a chair garnering nuclear heat from the crowd, to start the second heat. Luger was extremely good here. Finish had Luger get Flair in the Torture Rack but his knee buckled and Flair landed on top of him and used his feet on the ropes to get the pin and retain his title. In his post match protest Luger completely stopped selling his knee which was bad, but on the whole he was very very good."

 

[Greg4WWE]

hmmm why was my post deleted that stayed within the Rules.. when badnew completely didn't and his post remains?? weird forum..

Anyway I said I thought Luger vs Perfect at WM 9 was a good match and I always prefered the Heel Luger myself.. His worst match was tagging with Buff when they lost in like 30 seconds on Nitro!!

 

[justtxyank]

Luger is an incredibly underrated performer. I liked his matches against Bret in WCW. To be honest with Luger it seemed like after he went to the WWF he quit putting forth any effort and got particularly big until about 1996. In late 96 through 98 he got lean instead of bulky and was looking sharp and quick again.

He and Bret never had a bad match against each other in my mind, and I've heard Bret say Lex was one of his favorite workers to work a match against.

The problem with Luger in my mind is he tanked hard twice in his career. The mid 90s was a total waste for him, largely due to his own lack of effort. 1999 on was pretty bad in the ring for him but was probably due to age. He had a couple of good runs in my mind. 1988-1991ish and 1996-1998ish.

 

[FlairFan2003]

I totally forgot about the 91 Tag match w/ Sting, thanks to those who brought that up as a worthy contender. I do find it amusing no one can come up with a specific match from his WWE run, even though he was heavily feautured, both as a heel ("The Narcisist" character which was just a take off of his Four Horsemen Character in NWA/WCW) and a fan favorite (the whole Yokozuna thing, the body slam, the corresponding massive autograph tour, etc, was one of the biggest things he did).

Ultimately, I think his greatest moment and greatest match are two different animals. I'll give him SuperBrawl 90 vs Flair as his greatest match, slightly ahead of Starrcade 88 vs Flair, The 91 Tag Match, and Great American Bash 89 vs Steamboat. I think his World Title Loss to Sting was a good match as well.

Best Moment has to be beating Hogan via submission with the Torture Rack on the 100the edition of Nitro in 97. The whole NWO vs WCW thing was red hot, and believe it or not submission wins in major televised main events were still pretty rare in 97. We did see Flair tap out to Hart to give HitMan his 1st World Title in WWE in 92, and a great match end with a submission for Hart over HBK at Survivor Series 92, but such wins were a rarity even in 97. Hogan meanwhile had lost only two matches via pinfall since joining WCW, one to Flair, so beating him was a huge deal. It was a great feel good moment, and WCW made sure Luger appeared to be "robbed" of the belt in the re match which both furthured the NWO as mega heels but protected Luger's character, not erasing the validity of his title win. Great Stuff

 

[justtxyank]

Flairfan, good point about how they handled Luger's title win, subsequent loss and the protection of his character going forward. 1996-1998 they did such a good job of making him relevant. He was big time over. As a face, he was never better.

 

[Tattooed Jesus]

I was a big fan of Luger from the moment he turned on the Horsemen in the Bunkhouse Stampede Match when he refused to eliminate himself and let JJ Dillion win. He did a lot of stupid shit after his career was over but so have a ton of other wrestlers so I will over look that.

I always though Lugers best matches were when he was facing off against Nikita Koloff or Ric Flair. He had a few decent matches in the WWF against Yokozuna but nothing that compared to his WCW battles. His best tag matches were with Sting for sure, and he even had some very memorable matches against Sting as well.

All said and done though I think making Hogan submit to the Torture and winning the title was the highlight of Lugers career.