10 Worst Anticlimaxes In WWE History
4. The Lex Express (1993)
When Hulk Hogan walked out on the WWF in 1993, Vince McMahon’s pick for his replacement at the top of the card was Lex Luger, who’d been running a heel ‘narcissist’ gimmick since his arrival in the company the year before. You know the drill... oiling up, flexing, posing in front of mirrors, etc etc.
Despite the lukewarm reception given to his forgettable heel character, Luger received the Hogan/Cena push as a babyface, with nicknames like ‘The All-American’ and ‘Made In America’. On July 4th 1993, he confronted the company’s top heel at the time, WWF champion Yokozuna, onboard the USS Intrepid. The 600lb Yokozuna had challenged any WWF superstar to slam him, but none were strong enough: arriving via red helicopter, Luger was the only one with the right stuff to do the deed, setting up a feud with the champion.
Luger would travel the country in a red, white and blue tour bus nicknamed ‘the Lex Express’, campaigning like a grassroots politician for public support to get a title opportunity against the ‘foreign devil’. He received it at Summerslam 1993, in a bout billed as his one shot at glory. In the only memorable moment in the match, Luger knocked the bigger man out of the ring and won the match via count out, celebrating the win with the locker room and fans as if he’d won the gold… which, of course he hadn’t.
Lex Luger's last shot at the main event in the WWF came when he won the Royal Rumble the following year with Bret ‘the Hitman’ Hart (who genuinely was over), both men receiving title shots against Yokozuna at Wrestlemania X. Luger lost his match by disqualification; the Hitman didn’t. Despite all the hype, the Lex Express never really got out of second gear.