[1996-05-13-WCW-Nitro] Lex Luger vs The Giant

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

The last few minutes. Giant chokeslams Luger through Ric Flair's VIP table. For whatever reason, these two had really good chemistry in the ring. Flair, Woman and Liz freak out over it. The announcers are in a hush and play up that Luger has proven himself as a standup guy, which spells the end of the whole face/heel at the same time thing Luger had been doing for severa months. Luger has to be helped up. Cool to see a table spot actually sold.

[Victator]

I loved every Luger/Giant match. They had a good dynamic. I think maybe because if against a big guy Lex was good at playing an underdog. While being strong enough and credible enough to toss Giant around when he needed to.

[Tim Evans]

This was the time where Luger missed two matches with The Giant and got replaced by Sting each time before finally making this match. I agree with Vic about Giant/Luger having great chemistry. I even liked the tag team they had in 97.

[NitroFan]

Agree with Loss that it's good to see a table spot sold. Luger barely moved for the rest of the segment.

 

And I loved Flair's reaction to The Giant that you see in the replay, and how he's sitting on the guadrail ready to run if Giant comes toward him.

[El-P]

Hey remember when being put through a table was a BIG SPOT that was sold as lethal ? Luger did a good job with Giant here, much better than Flair or Hogan ever did. I love Flair's VIP table, the whole build toward the Horsemen vs the football players was terrific. They did a really good job building up the Giant in a realistic way now that Hogan was away.

[PeteF3]

We come in with Luger throwing everything at the Giant trying to knock him off the ring apron, in a cool-building spot. Giant says "fuck this" after getting knocked off and drags Luger to Flair's VIP table and chokeslams him through it. Sting saves, but it's too late--Luger and the announcers all sell this big, as Lex's babyface turn is cemented.

[soup23]

Watched this in full on the network and It was a ton of fun. Luger being dominated puts over the Giant as menacing. The spot to build to him getting knocked off the apron was well done. The table bump looked nasty with Luger's head bouncing off of it and him selling it like death. Flair running scared and Sting helping his friend provides a lot of good layered storytelling going on right now with Giant looking like a monster. I think the first half of WCW in 96 is better than it usually gets credit for so far besides the Hogan/DOD stuff.

[tim]

Table spot looked good and they really got it over as a big deal. I agree there's been some good stuff this first half year of WCW TV, if you subtract Hulk Hogan.

[dawho5]

Full match was great with Luger really putting the Giant over as a beast.  The chokeslam through the table was a great setup of the Giant as a wild, untamed force of nature.  More booking like this please?