[1995-10-29-WCW-Halloween Havoc] Lex Luger vs Meng

[Superstar Sleeze]

Lex Luger vs Meng - WCW Halloween Havoc 1995

Unfortunately I watched this about 2 hours ago, but couldnt get to the review until now due to a couple work emergencies. Which is too bad because I had a lot of thoughts about this match. I will be lead with the most interesting: Lex Luger's individual performance. 

Coming watching a lot of WWF Lex Luger in the past 6 months, it is night and day watching the Total Package here. I dont think anyone would dispute that the quality of Lex Luger performance is significantly better than pretty much any of his WWF work. Only 3-4 months prior to this match, he was having sub-par matches with Yokozuna in singles and in tags. It is not like all of sudden Lex Luger just got better. We know his work prior to his WWF run was better than his WWF run as well. There are two possible options in my opinion:

1. Lex Luger dogged it in WWF. Either he didnt like working there, he fell out of love with wrestling and was just cashing a paycheck, who knows. One theory would be his low effort level. Effort level definitely would explain why his WWF 1995 work would suck. Why suck in 1993? The rocket was strapped to his back, but he just was not having good matches at all. You could say his effort level rose in WCW because he was back amongst his friends or that he knew with his bridge burned with WWF, this was it, and he needed this to work out or he was fucked. 

2. An institutional difference between WWF and WCW. We all know the house style between WCW and WWF is different. This match here is not a great match per se. No one would confuse it with Luger/ Flair or Luger/Steamboat but it was so much more dynamic than anything Luger in WWF expect maybe his match with Nash. There were so many wrinkles and things that kept you off-beat. There were more hope spots and cutoffs. It is not like all of sudden it was a workrate marvel, but there was more struggle and urgency than anything in WWF. The question becomes was the WWF hamstringing him. Were they giving him direction and he was simply following it? That being said it was clear the Kliq and Bret Hart were still having great, workrate-centric matches at the same time. Were the Kliq & Bret flouting WWF direction? Did the WWF seem them as workers but Luger was a "power" guy like Hogan should wrestle in a way different than Bret and Shawn? Why couldnt Luger be like fuck that, I used to go 40+ minutes with Flair, I can work too, pal. 

It is hard to say why, but it is easy to say there is a significant difference IMMEDIATELY with Luger retuning to WCW. 

As for the body of the match, I enjoyed Luger's shine. Luger worked primarily as a babyface in WWF and dont remember a shine this good. He was showing his ability to out-power and out-think the Monster Meng. There was a great catapult to Meng and he worked the arm well shoving him into a post. Both these high spots while not revolutionary you would not see in the WWF. I thought the transition to Meng's heat segment was a bit lame. I thought we would get more arm work. Sullivan seemed to distract Luger a little. I liked how they built up the heat segment. Luger misses a charged hard into the corner. Meng follows up with a great shoulderbreaker. Meng works the arm. Meng is really giving the full court press. Smothering him in the corner. Great piledriver by Meng. There was another good cutoff, but unfortunately I forget. I remember he hoists him up for a belly to back suplex, but Meng falls on top for a cover. The noisy verbal selling of Luger is back in full force. He just feels like he cares. Luger gets a great crossbody. Strong vertical suplex back into the ring. The finish stretch was a series of Luger clotheslines that Meng registered for pitch perfect. Powerslam to set up the Rack. Meng spikes with the Golden Thumb Ring, Asiatic Spike. It shocks me because I was 100% certain won and I was like I cant believe Luger would kick out. Sullivan comes in and kicks Luger at 2 to trigger the DQ. 

So whats going on here? I am a big proponent of late 1995 WCW booking. I think it is a paradigm that could be followed to great success. A lot of people try to recreate the NWO or Austin vs McMahon, but that is much more difficult in my opinion than trying to replicate 1995 WCW. The others rely more on the charisma and unique nature of the people involved. WCW 1995 booking model is something you could plug 4-6 main eventers in and would result in interesting stories. The crux is that no one trusts anyone and there is seeds of doubt sown weekly. The popular game show "Traitors" which my wife got me to watch all three seasons of is a great example of this style of storytelling. Luger shows back up in WCW at the first Nitro. Great return. He immediately wants a shot at Hogan and the World Title, but is he friend or foe. Of course, people like Sting would vouch for him, but he does NOT have an impeccable record, he is a known asshole. Then you got the Dungeon of Doom and Kevin Sullivan playing these mind games by not attacking Luger on Nitros. Is Luger DOD 4 Life? Or are they framing him, playing on the natural suspicions of Hogan and Savage to isolate Sting/Luger from Hogan/Savage. United the stand, but Divided They Fall strategy by Dungeon of Doom? There are all sort of off-shoots here: Luger proves his worth to the babyfaces, or he is DOD 4 Life or he becomes radicalized like Sting did in 1996 and so pissed that no one trusts him that strikes it out on his own. To me this is the pinnacle of pro wrestling booking. It is a matrix-style booking where you leverage these 6-15 interpersonal relationships to feed individual motivations that create organic storylines. As a huge history buff and fan of soap operas, to me this is the optimal way to present pro wrestling so that it is intriguing. Now even though I like the paradigm of late 1995 WCW booking, I will be first to admit it somewhat lacks in execution and it is nowhere near as good as say 86 Crockett or 96-97 WCW/NWO, but it is is a template that could be used for great success.

Sorry, I never explained Sullivan's rationale. If Luger won this match, he has to wrestle Savage. Savage defeated the Zodiac in less than two minutes earlier in the show. A fan rushed the ring, but never made contact with the wrestlers. Zodiac missed a move off the top. Savage dropped the elbow. This looks like penultimate appearance by Zodiac before he transforms into the Booty Man in February 1996 (World War III is the last). This was near the end of Meng's push which would officially end with a job to who else but the Hulkster before he became Barbarian's tag team partner in late January 1996. 

So Sullivan's motivation could be twofold, one is that Luger vs Savage means that both men take more punishment and also it furthers this discord between Luger and Savage which in turn furthers the discord between Luger and Hogan. Overall, I really liked the finish and I enjoyed the body of the match. I liked Meng getting up in Sullivan's face demonstrating that not even Meng was in on the plan all along. Very cool booking here. *** 1/4