Exposing The Myth: Vince McMahon Buried WCW Talent

9. The Lex Luger Experiment

Celebrating a countout win in your big title challenge? That kinda sums up Lex Luger's spell in the then-WWF.

During the formative years of WCW, the three names most synonymous with the promotion were Sting, Ric Flair, and Lex Luger. Was Luger that great in the ring? Nope. Was Luger a great mic man? The opposite. But Lex became a huge star based on his incredible physique and his all-round great look.

If ever the purported pettiness of Vince McMahon was on the table and ready to go into action, it was with with a former WCW World Heavyweight Champion at his disposal. Instead, McMahon disregarded Luger's WCW ties, his NWA lineage, and his limited in-ring skills, and pushed him to the moon.

Did Lex Luger reach that proverbial moon? Famously, no he didn't - with fans resenting the Hogan-lite American hero gimmick that Lex would be handed as McMahon looked to create his new headline act.

For fans, the natural new poster boy of the company was Bret Hart. But regardless of that, Luger was positioned as the biggest babyface on offer from Titan, with McMahon lazily falling back on patriotism as a way to make Lex the guy.

Despite all of Lex Luger's failings, Vince McMahon powered on regardless with pushing Lex as hard as he possibly could - regardless of Luger's association with WCW.

Authored by Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.

First Posted On: 16th Jun 2020

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