Who chose "I'll Be Your Hero" to close WWF Summerslam 1993?

[Nadeem Ahmad]

Hey old timers, this is the first official thread I have made here, which is not in the section for reviewing older shows. I know a lot of people don't know me, but I hope they kind of understand the topic, and the significance of it to wrestling around the late part of the early nineties. Back then, kids were a huge target to get to watch the show, and though I didn't start watching until I was a teenager in 1999, I went back to older shows a lot, and saw all the episodes of WWF Monday Night Raw from 1993 last year on burned DVDs from January to about April.

Anyway, I put off watching Summerslam of that year with volume until this week, a whole year later after I watched it the first time. What I couldn't realize was why they had the song "I'll Be Your Hero" played, with highlights of the Lex Express tour or "Call to Action" campaign, whatever it was called. It easily was the saddest video and song I had ever seen and heard played on WWF programming, with clips behind it. I didn't mean sad in the way that the song was bad, but that it actually made me feel sad that Lex didn't get the title. I wasn't dissapointed, angry, upset or those kinds of feelings, just sad for some reason unrelated to how he wrestled. It's not even that he was extremely charismatic during that year. So, can anybody give some guesses as to why the creative team, or whoever chose that song might have played it at the end, after Luger celebrated? Wouldn't a more patriotic song have been better, or at least more appropriate?

P.S.: I am not a Lex Luger fan, nor am I implying that he should have been anywhere near the title, ever. I could have cared less about Yokozuna or Luger, but just felt that this song hurt any replay value of this PPV that it ever showed, not that it gave much in the first place.

Edit: Since I titled this thread, " 'Who' chose 'I'll Be Your Hero' to close WWF Summerslam 1993", I guess I would like to know educated guesses as to who really gave the idea. A side question would be, was this song popular at the time? I never really was into that kind of music, but the song sounded nice the first time I heard it.

 

[boozinjedi]

I guess the whole tour and video/song was someone's bright idea to drum support for Luger in a Hogan-esque type of way.

Sad thing about that phrase...this post was the first time since the summer of 1993 that I thought about that song and video,where as "Real American" is still used to this day.

I shit you not,I can not tell you the amount of politicians that use it when they launch their campaigns....I think I even heard it at a Gingrich rally/event that I caught parts of when I flipped through the channels and ended up on C-SPAN.

 

[EastCoastFan]

The WWF was pulling out all the stops to turn Lex Luger into their new Hulk Hogan. That's why they put him on the Lex Express, why they did the "you only get ONE shot at the title" angle, ... Luger was originally booked to win the WWF title at SummerSlam but when the big day came around, the powers that be decided Luger wasn't as over as they had expected he'd be and they changed the ending, giving Luger the win but not the title.

 

[mdj2010]

I don't know who decided to go ith that song. i can only speculate howeevr that it worked a treat. Persoanlly, I hated Luger as a kid and I can;t stand the guy now. I saw through his push more than today's marks see through John Cena. But, if you felt emotionally empty after he didn;t win the title, I would say that the track worked. Personally, at the time, I wanted to find the tape playing that song and ram it down Lex Luger's throat.

 

[Goldie]

I remember the song! ... and the clips of the video with Luger smiling, kissing babies, and falling asleep in the coach... which of course all made for enthralling television!

Luger only won the Summerslam match with Yoko by count out... so didn't win the title.
Wouldnt this make his win rather worthless?? not that anyone seemed to care as the red, white and blue baloons descended into the ring as Luger celebrated his worthless victory.

 

[HBKperfect23]

Luger only won the Summerslam match with Yoko by count out... so didn't win the title.
Wouldnt this make his win rather worthless?? not that anyone seemed to care as the red, white and blue baloons descended into the ring as Luger celebrated his worthless victory.

Agreed. Even though I was pretty young at the time I still found this to be odd. They should have had Luger win the belt. Even though Luger wasnt as over as they hoped (assuming thats the reason they changed their minds) they still built this for months and needed to give us the pay off.

As for the song, it would have made sense if Luger won the belt.

 

[HBsam31]

Not sure who came up with it, but I am sure it was just to build him up as a Hogan like character. They really wanted him to be a Hogan, but it just didn't work out that way. I am curious what would have happened if he would have won the title when it seemed to be planned for him to do so.