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[1992-04-05-WWF-Wrestlemania VIII] Interview: Lex Luger


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Odly (well, not that odly since it wasn't broadcasted in France), I had never seen any WCW at this point, but I had seen tons of Luger and Flair toys when I went to England the previous years, so I knew this guy was a big star from "the other company", and I couldn't wait to see him. I didn't get the WBF deal at all though. Oh, Vince and you stupid business ventures ideas...

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Probably not. Luger said in his shoot his WCW contact stipulated he wouldn't be able to wrestle anywhere else for the rest of the year. If true, it was likely common knowledge among the boys.

In general, wasn't Luger sort of revered for the boys since, as the first guy to really come in with lawyers/agents, he opened the doors for contracts to get better for all of them.*

 

*I MAY have heard that in a Luger interview so it's probably suspect but I kind of believe it.

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Luger was a businessman, but he got heat for it sometimes too.

 

My favorite story regarding that: In 1991, he was supposed to work the Starrcade in Tokyo show against Riki Choshu. However, he cited a clause he had put in his contract that no one else thought to do, which was that the company could not require him to work outside the U.S. However, if he agreed to work outside the U.S., they would have to reimburse all of his travel expenses, give him a substantial markup on his usual rate, and he would be free to separately negotiate a price with the home promotion, in that case New Japan. That would be IN ADDITION TO what WCW had to pay him. Needless to say, WCW ended up not sending him on the tour.

 

That is so genius that I'm surprised no one else ever thought of it before him.

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The thing with Luger is that it's obvious he wasn't a wrestling guy. You listen to Arn Anderson talk and he grew up with wrestling. He wanted badly to do it, and yeah, it helps him in the ring, but it also means it's harder to think out of the box when it comes to traditions and what not.

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Luger has gotten even bigger than at SuperBrawl, if that's possible. I didn't know anything about Luger's contract situation with WCW or his inactivity, so seeing this live almost knocked me off of my couch. This is a very good promo, that rather presciently foreshadows the Narcissist gimmick.

 

"You've found somebody more conceited than YOU are!" Bobby: "Thank you!"

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Great introductory heel promo from Luger, and I'm sure we would have heard more from him had the WBF really hit it big. I love the paring of Luger and Heenan, and I can't help but wonder what might have been had Bobby actually been able to manage him from ringside when he debuted. It's amazing; even though he was out of managing, when Vince really wanted to get a heel over as a big deal, he still associated that heel with Heenan in some way (except for Sarge in '91; even though Heenan wasn't directly involved with Taker, Brother Love was a known associate of his, so you could say that Taker got the Heenan rub once removed.)

 

I loved Gino taking exception to Luger calling him "the fat guy"; it almost seemed for a second that Gino wanted to teleport himself to Atlanta and get right in Luger's face.

 

The woman who served Luger the milk at the end almost had to be his wife or girlfriend du jour; I don't think Vince would fly someone to Atlanta for a mere five-second cameo.

 

Did Luger ever actually compete in a WBF event? I read an article about the WBF once, and I seem to remember it saying that one of the established bodybuilders won the next competition, whenever it was. I would have thought Vince would have had Luger win in order to justify the expense of signing him in the first place.

 

I guess "The Narcissist" nickname and character hadn't been thought of yet, although it would certainly apply here. But why nor just stay with "The Total Package"? Did WCW claim a trademark on it, or was this just Vince wanting to own his guys body and soul as usual?

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  • GSR changed the title to [1992-04-05-WWF-Wrestlemania VII] Interview: Lex Luger
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  • GSR changed the title to [1992-04-05-WWF-Wrestlemania VIII] Interview: Lex Luger

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