Was Lex Luger The Most Misused Talent That Vince Had??

I don't know about most misused, but he has to be up there. I really think Vince wanted Lex to be his next Hogan, he had a good look and could work an okay/good match in the ring. From everything I've heard/read, he was supposed to win the title at Summer Slam 1993 and become the new face of the company. However, at the last minute, Vince said that he wanted Lex to win the title at WrestleMania, instead of Summer Slam, to give him a grander start. So, just before Summer Slam he changed the finish to a count-out victory. He was going to use the time between Summer Slam and WrestleMania 10 to really build Lex as the next face. However, this backfired, as the fans kind-of soured on Lex and backed Bret. Apparently, house show attendance showed this as well, as Bret's shows consistently drew better than Lex's shows. I believe Vince was still big on Lex until the 1994 Royal Rumble, after the shared victory in the rumble match, Vince felt that the cheers for Bret when he was announced the winner were louder than when Lex was announced the winner, so he decided to go with Bret at WM10 instead of Lex.

Luger was supposed to go into a feud with Mr. Perfect after WM10, keeping him as the #2 babyface in the company for a while, but then Mr. Perfect go injured, or couldn't compete because of his Lloyd's of London policy, so that feud was dropped, and he went into a feud with Tatanka and the Million Dollar Corporation. After this, he seemed to slowly move down the card. Vince was now behind Bret, and you had Taker coming back, then Diesel turned face in late 1994, HBK in early 1995, and you still had Razor and Davey Boy, Luger was now like the 5th or 6th babyface on the roster.

Like you, I thought the tag team of him and Davey Boy made a lot of sense. The Tag Team division was really weak at this time, and they needed a monster babyface team. Not only that, it looked like Luger and Davey Boy were just out of the top echelon for singles titles. So teaming them made sense. But then for some reason, nothing really became of them. I believe at this time Luger's contract had ended and he was working on a handshake agreement, meaning he wasn't technically under WWF employment, maybe that's why Vince never gave the Allied Powers the tag titles - he didn't want to put the title on someone who wasn't under contract. This situation continued up to Summer Slam 1995, I think the reason why they didn't have Davey Boy vs Lex at the PPV was because they wanted to use Lex as a decoy, to see who else would turn on Diesel. Honestly, with the way they used Luger, I wouldn't be surprised if they were going to use him to get Bulldog over as a monster heel, basically having Luger lose to Bulldog at the next PPV.

I think all of this is probably why Luger had Sting ask Bischoff about returning to WCW. He probably saw the writing on the wall and knew he wasn't ever going to be the top guy in the company. From all accounts I've heard, Luger took a very low offer from WCW, much lower than what he was still earning in the WWF, I guess he felt there was nothing left for him there.

Personally, I feel that after WM10, they should have turned in back into his Narcissist/Total Package heel persona and made him the top heel in the company. After not getting a feud with Mr. Perfect, put him in a match with Bret on Raw for the WWF title, have him lose outright, then have him snap and attack Bret (in pretty much the same manner as Backlund did). On the next Raw have him cut a promo saying that he never wanted the fans, never needed the fans, then have him introduce his new manager, Ted DiBiase. The announcers could tell the story that after failing to win the title from Yokozuna, twice, then not being able to beat Bret, that Lex finally showed his true colors. Put Lex in the match at Survivor Series against Bret (same stipulations), have Lex win the belt. Then you start building Diesel as the next big star. Bret and Luger have their rematch at RR95, with Lex winning by DQ (Owen interferes). Diesel wins the Royal Rumble match, last eliminating HBK. This sets up Diesel vs. Lex for the WWF title at WM11, Diesel wins the belt here ending Luger's reign. At the next PPV (the first IYH), Bret faces Luger and gets his win back. Diesel faces HBK, and the next night on RAW they do the Sid attacking HBK angle. This would pretty much end Luger's run with the WWF as he would slide down the card, but at least he would have gotten one run with the title.

Taz was definitely misused. I was really looking forward to him coming into the WWF, he was my favorite ECW wrestler. I thought he could have been great. I think injuries really hurt him, but they buried him pretty quickly. Not sure why.

I think Kurt Angle burying him after his match to Vince and other officials killed him. Kurt even has talked about on his podcast that he talked to officials about Tazz being dangerous after the match and he can’t go around throwing guys on their heads.

Luger suffered the same fate that Diesel and HBK also suffered in the mid-90s: Vince trying to make the next Hogan.

Luger was introduced as the “Narcissist” and was getting over well as a heel. Having Heenan fawn all over him was great too as Lex didn’t need to speak; he had others doing for him and he could just look like a cocky heel who could rip your head off.

But then Hogan left and Vince was panicking to find his next top star. Since Hogan had been so successful for years, Vince wanted to create another “Hogan” rather than try to understand what fans wanted at that time. Bret already fit the “boy-scout” babyface role, so really Vince had his star right there. But he wanted a larger than life character like Hogan, and tried forcing Lex into that role. When it bombed, Vince seemed to simply not care anymore after WM10 and Lex was just-there for the next year and a half until going back to Atlanta.

Was Lex the most misused talent? He’s up there for sure, but there’s other blunders as well. Lex worked best as a heel, and if you wanted him as a face, make him a tweener like WCW did in 1995/1996. He was getting crazy huge reactions during that time.

Don't really understand where the notion the crowd didn't buy into Lex came from, because he was getting massive pops all the way up to Mania X and beyond. Even in the 95 Rumble after a whole year of being misused he still got the biggest pop of the night.

I also don't think the KOTR draw with Tatanka was anything more than both guys being undefeated at that time and Vince wanting to keep it that way, while also making Bret's eventual win over Bam Bam all the more significant as Bam Bam got the bye.

Summerslam 93 on no belt was the BIG downfall! All was great until then!

"Then at KOTR he wrestles to a draw with Tatanka, this showing his heel push seemed dead"

i thought this was good for both as both were undefeated

I love me some Lex so I love seeing Lex discussions.

As for most misused...I don't know. I think Dusty and DDP should be up there. I'm not a huge Dusty or DDP fan but even I think they should have gotten better use. Luger at least got a push to the mainevent

And I just want to put a quote here from Bret Harts book:
"Lex controlled how we went over, and it was a testament to his skill and professionalism that it came off so well."


As for the King of the Ring match with Tatanka...after a draw the HEEL asks for more time. How does that make sense?

I am probably in the minority but I feel like Dusty was used quite well for his age at the time. One of the top babyfaces, and he got over as hell. He never got the title but at the time there was no way he was going to get that over Hulk or Warrior.

DDP I certainly agree with though. DDP, Booker and Buff (another contender for most misused talent) should have been leading the alliance.