10 Times WWE Totally Dropped The Ball On Something Hot

7. The Lex Express Stalls At SummerSlam '93

WWE Elimination Chamber 2023 Sami Zayn
WWE

The finish to the main event of SummerSlam 1993 remains one of the most bizarre decisions in WWE history.

Having been presented as the second coming of Hulk Hogan ahead of this PPV, Lex Luger's big moment ended up being a countout win over WWF Champion Yokozuna. The more bizarre nature of this, though, is that Luger had a full flag-waving celebration in-ring post-match, complete with being hoisted up onto the shoulders of several notable babyfaces of the day.

Would Lex Luger have made for a genuine money-drawing babyface for the then-World Wrestling Federation? At a time when a section of fans were longing to see Bret Hart return to the top of the WWF mountain, who knows? The problem is, Luger wasn't given the chance to fail.

With Hogan on his way out of the company, Independence Day '93 saw the previously-heel Lex become positioned as WWF's top babyface after slamming Mr. Fuji's Yokozuna on the USS Intrepid. From there, the WWF marketing machine went into overdrive to present Luger as the ultimate baby-kissing, granny-hugging American hero who literally toured the country in order to get a groundswell of support behind him as he geared to go up against Fuji's foreign menace at SummerSlam.

Upon watching that PPV back, the near-24,000 fans in attendance at Michigan's Palace of Auburn Hills are actually passionately behind Lex Luger. Adding to the atmosphere, the US national anthem was played before the match, and Luger even got an in-ring introduction from Randy Savage where the Macho Man declared Lex as the next WWF Champion.

By Luger being so cheery in celebrating ultimately coming up short in his quest to dethrone Yoko, the bloom was off the rose on the Lex Luger experiment. Another nail in the coffin would be the response to Bret Hart when the Hitman and Lex were co-winners of the Royal Rumble the following January, and it would then be Hart who got the nod to finally topple Yokozuna at WrestleMania X.

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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 dayjob, 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, Jamie Hayer, 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.