8 Unfairly Maligned Wrestlers From The Monday Night Wars

Lazy? At times, yes. Boring? He certainly could be. Egotistical? Absolutely - but that was the point.

Lex Luger is a classic example of a narrative being very hard to shake off once it has been crafted, as well as the assumptions and views expressed within it. A generation of wrestling fans have grown up predisposed to dislike and dismiss Lex Luger as the archetypal big man whose success is almost solely attributed to his Herculean physique. This conclusion is often reached without Luger being given his due diligence as a worker.

In the late eighties through to the very early nineties, there is a strong case to be made that Luger performed the upstart babyface role better than his close friend Sting did during the same period. Luger’s match with Ric Flair at Wrestle War 1990 eclipses any that Sting would have with the same opponent, despite Sting/Flair matches being mythologised to an excessive degree.

WWE revisionism would also have people believe that Sting was the only babyface of 1997 who mattered. While it was the intrigue surrounding his character that shaped the company’s creative direction in the year, Sting was largely absent from television during that year.

For much of the year, it was Lex Luger who assumed responsibility as the main foil to the NWO. His dethroning of Hogan on the 100th episode of Nitro remains one of the programme's most iconic moments.