[1991-11-09-WCW-Saturday Night] Lex Luger and Rick Steiner

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Clip from Worldwide of Rick Steiner being interviewed. He casually says he can beat Luger and that he has beaten him before. Luger and his entourage are out. Luger is in a suit and is incredibly condescending, patting Rick on the head and telling him just to think about tag team wrestling. Rick brings up some locker room incident where Rick beat Luger. Luger says he needs some respect and they have an impromptu match. Luger should have slapped him the face! I was waiting for it and it was weird that it didn't happen.

 

Luger is in slacks having his match, and they are trying way too hard to make him Flair-lite. Rick gives Luger a belly-to-belly after laying out Race and Hughes, then pins Luger, earning him a title shot at the Clash. Rick announces that Scott will be in his corner to watch Race and Hughes. I know Flair vs tag wrestlers worked in the past, but Rick Steiner is not Ricky Morton, and Lex Luger is not Ric Flair.

[Kevin Ridge]

Lex dressing up like the terrorist security guard from Die Hard. Rick thinks he can beat everyone. Yep, Luger taking a corner backdrop while wearing slacks did remind me of Flair. Steiner has suplexes for everyone including getting the “pinfall” over Lex in the ring.

[PeteF3]

Luger does project "arrogant douchebag" very well, and the impromptu match is fairly hot. Rick takes out Luger, Hughes, and Race in successive fashion before forcing the referee into counting a pin. An interview with Ross follows as Rick displays the value of a University of Michigan education. As a way to quickly thrust Rick into an unlikely title match this was good for what it was, but Rick seems less prepared for a World title match than Scott was earlier in the year.

[soup23]

Tony seems as shocked as anyone that Rick thinks he can beat Lex. Rick's voice drives me up the fn wall in this promo and Luger talking down to him doesn't work at all. Sad as Luger was looking good coming off the Simmons program.

[PhilTLL]

I thought this was shockingly okay considering what and who it was. The whole weekend after Havoc was a minor miracle of sudden watchability*: Windham/Arn match on Pro, hot old-fashioned six man on SN (Hayes/Windham/Rhodes vs Austin/Zbyszko/Anderson), Windham/Zbyszko, this, and the first submit or surrender (Badd/Eaton) on Worldwide, the six man title match on Main Event...the mind boggles. WCW is such a starts and fits company at this point, but things are looking way up this month.

 

* In the ring. Some angles have been fun for awhile.

[garretta]

Luger actually looked better here than he did against Simmons at Havoc, both in and out of the ring. I like how he still actually considered Rick a friend when he came out, then treated him like a child and expected him to stand for it simply because Luger is the champion. He was a lot crisper once the match got started too, though he didn't get a lot of offense. For whatever reason, he seemed motivated here.

 

Rick, on the other hand, seemed especially dippy even by his standards. We all know that the Dogfaced Gremlin gimmick is basically George Steele with the ability to speak in complete sentences, but even so, watching him greet Lex like it was the old days when they were all part of the Dudes with Attitudes in the light of all Lex has done to guys like Simmons and Windham was a bit tough to take.

 

Even tougher was what we saw afterward. "I thought he was gonna show me some secret new moves he's learned while he's been champ." Really, Rick? Really? Did it ever occur to you to ask your buddy Lex why guys like Harley Race and Curtis Hughes are hanging around him when he's never needed them before? Did you not see the three of them jump from behind and beat up guys like Simmons and Windham? What's it going to take to convince you that Lex isn't your friend anymore?

 

The sad part is that Rick's cut quite a few promos where he's at least had enough on the ball to realize who his true friends and enemies are. Yes, the Dogface Gremlin is supposed to be a little goofy and slow upstairs, but he's not supposed to be completely without a lick of sense in his head. Why he was portrayed here not just as childlike and simple, but actively stupid I have no clue. It certainly doesn't make me more confident that he can prevail at the Clash. The shock will come if Luger, Race, and Hughes don't find a way to outsmart and confuse him as often as they need to during the bout, regardless of Scotty's presence at ringside.

 

Loss, do you have any better suggestions for what they could have done with Luger at the Clash under the circumstances? I understand why Rick's mot exactly dream match material for Lex, especially with the belt at stake, but Simmons has been put down, Windham's out of action, and Sting's busy with Rude. Who else would you rather have seen in Rick's place here?

[Loss]

There wasn't a better option.

[dawho5]

I liked Luger being condescending, he pulled it off pretty well. Steiner was way over the top as a simpleton to the point where you wonder how that guy could have gotten past tying his shoe if it didn't work the first time. Steiner going over in the ring is a nice way to set up a challenger when you truly don't have a good one in line. I would agree that Luger is starting to become Flair-lite.