Exposing The Myth: Vince McMahon Buried WCW Talent
Diving deep on the idea that Vinny Mac ruined the careers of so many WCW stars.
Vince McMahon has so often been accused of many things. Rightly or wrongly, plentiful shots have been fired Vinny Mac's way by wrestlers, journalists, and fans for as long as we can all remember.
One of the common accusations made about McMahon, of course, is that his grudge against Ted Turner and World Championship Wrestling has led to him burying anyone ever associated with WCW. But when looking at the evidence, that is largely untrue.
Your writer here, trust me, I'm no Vince superfan. The WWE head honcho has so many blots on his copybook, and he has so often been rightfully spotlighted for his misdemeanours in and out of the wrestling world. But those claims of forever burying talents who had a spell in WCW, that's something that McMahon can largely have a clean conscience about.
What may well end up being a recurring series designed to break down some of wrestling's greatest myths, then, here's why Vince McMahon - despite all of his flaws - really didn't bury WCW talents as much as the online scuttbletbutt would like you to believe.
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.