Steiners-Luger/Mr. Hughes exhibition match

[TEIWCSCSAATBHPHASP]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVg0DwZGsTg

Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner v. "The Total Package" Lex Luger & Mr. Hughes

Match Attires:
-1) Rick Steiner: Orange singlet
-2) Scott Steiner: Black and Lime Green singlet
-3) Lex Luger: Blue trunks
-4) Mr. Hughes: Bluish-White suit and Black pants

Date: November 23, 1991
Scene: WCW Saturday Night

After the infamous GAB '91 backstage debacle between Ric Flair (then the NWA World Heavyweight Champion at the time) & Jim Herd that led to Flair being infamously fired from the newly-renamed WCW before he was to drop it to Sting or Barry Windham but refusing to drop it to Luger, Dusty Rhodes was ordered to pull out an old Championship Belt from the Florida territory days as a temporary placeholder for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship Belt since Flair took the $2,500 deposit AND the NWA Big Gold Belt over to the WWF.

Meanwhile, Luger was given Windham instead, and Luger was supposed to beat Flair at The Great American Bash '91 main event for the Big Gold Belt, but due to Flair's firing and the crowd chanting 'We Want Flair' all night, Luger had a double-turn in which Luger turned heel and Windham went back to being a face, since Harley Race came out mid-match and ordered Luger to piledrive Windham. Luger abandoned the Torture Rack in favor of a generic piledriver called The Attitude Adjustment (John Cena would steal the name from Luger).

As the original plan for beating Flair with a believable win for the belt, Luger was supposed to have an epic championship coronation ceremony as a top face since Sting's first reign as the WCW World Heavyweight Champion and face of the NWA/WCW company was hindered by The Black Scorpion angle (at least that's what Flair stated in his book) in late 1990, and it was the reason why Flair chopped off his long hair/horse mullet look in favor of a mushroom cut. Some misinterpret Flair's late 1990 haircut as Jim Herd wanting Flair to change with the times and be Spartacus, some random Roman gladiator, which the gimmick was far behind the times even more. In reality, I think Flair turned down the change to Spartacus and move down the midcards, but I think in order for Flair to be unrecognizable under The Black Scorpion mask, his long locks needed to be cut so people wouldn't obviously assume that The Black Scorpion is really Ric Flair.

While all that had been happening behind the scenes in WCW in the Summer of 1991, Scott Steiner (meanwhile) was supposed to have a three-on-three match alongside Rick Steiner and Missy Hyatt vs. Barry Windham, Arn Anderson and Paul E. Dangerously (the future Paul Heyman), but due to Scott being sidelined with a torn left biceps from the bone, from winning a Bunkhouse battle royal, he needed to be written off via a two-on-one assault by the hands of The Hardliners (Dick Slater & Dick Murdoch). Thus, since Scott's injury and Windham's ascension to the main event picture, it was now reduced to two-on-two with Rick & Missy vs. Arn and Paul E. instead. Unfortunately, The Hardliners left before Scott Steiner even had a chance of coming back from his torn biceps in late 1991 so there was no revenge grudge feud between The Steiners and The Hardliners. And because while Scott was away, the newly-turned heel Luger was feuding with the likes of Rick Steiner, Ron Simmons and later Sting, so I suppose it would make sense that due to the Rick/Luger feud, Scott would be logically in the exhibition tag match, thus we have Mr. Hughes being the extra fill-in tag wrestler for Luger. Nice call from Jim Ross here, as he would hype up the fact that The Steiner Brothers are back together in tag team action.

 

[Makaveli31]

Thoroughly enjoyed that. The Steiners and Luger in their primes. Amazing to see these four close to 300 pound men execute the high-impact moves they did.

 

[TEIWCSCSAATBHPHASP]

@Makaveli31 And I thought Luger already lost his motivation in terms of his in-ring performance. But anyway, Luger was starting to be about the easy money more so than his in-ring performances. From 1985-1990/91, Luger did a few decent high-flying moves, though he was never known for in-ring performance.

Having said all that, I think Scott Steiner really carried everyone in the match in terms of being a ring general and for work effort. There's a reason why Sting/Luger v. Rick/Scott at SuperBrawl I on February 1991 was hailed as a technical wrestling masterpiece even though all four of them were faces at the time, and the wrestling pundits credit Scott Steiner as the guy who got them a five-star esque tag match, since he did most of the work than the other three.

 

[New Hot Fed]

Also Mr. Hughes was Luger's bodyguard. I liked that Luger-Hughes-Race faction.

 

[Makaveli31]

And I thought Luger already lost his motivation in terms of his in-ring performance. But anyway, Luger was starting to be about the easy money more so than his in-ring performances. From 1985-1990/91, Luger did a few decent high-flying moves, though he was never known for in-ring performance.

I think Luger get sa bad rap in terms of his "in-ring" performance or lack thereof. Was he going to be confused with Rick Steamboat? No. But I never saw a Lex Luger match and thought "That was a terrible match." It is what it is with guys like Luger, Warrior, Sid etc...but they made the most of their ring skills and were known for their look. I never viewed Luger as a "high-flyer" but to be able to toss around a couple guys like the Steiners is pretty impressive.

I agree Scott carried the match. Luger, Rick and Hughes were all about brawling and impact moves, Scotty brought out the full repertoire the belly to belly suplex, the pump handle slam. The only thing missing was the Frankensteiner. He also dictated the pac of the match. Perfect psychology. He knew when get heat on himself and then make the babyface comeback. Not hard to see why Scotty Steiner was viewed as the "next big thing" in WCW.

As far as Luger and his motivation, I agree. His defection to the WWF less than year later solidified that. Hard to blame his though. He was passed over by Dusty in 1988, his spot was given to Sting in 1990 and by 1991 he was viewed as just a place holder. Once Herd was relived of his duties Luger's days as champion were numbered.