Eric Bischoff Recalls Giving Lex Luger A Second Chance In WCW
On the latest episode of his “83 Weeks” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff reflected on Lex Luger’s WCW run in 1998, his work rate, and offering him a second chance.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On Lex Luger’s work: “What stood out to me about Lex is that when he shifted into a gear and he knew he was gonna wrestle and he had a match. It didn’t matter if you were downshifting him and ask him to put somebody over or if you put them in 5th gear and put the pedal to the metal with them. He was equally as enthusiastic about either situation. And that’s a very valuable asset in and of itself. When you’ve got somebody that you know is going to draw, you know is going to get attention, you know you can plug them into a store, you know you’re going to get what you want out of them, but you can also just you know as again utility players. Not the right way to say it, but he is great. And versatile mentally and physically and technically. Being as versatile as Lex was, I think made him one of the more valuable talents on the roster in that respect.
On giving Luger a second chance: “I think it was one of the better decisions that I made during that period of time actually, without doubt when it comes to talent. But even even overall that was such a great idea and I was hoping that that would come up and we don’t want to revisit things that we’ve already covered in detail in the past, but. I think for me when I look at that. For lack of a better term, that timeline between. Lex coming in for the very first time under the circumstances that we’ve documented to death. But the transition as a professional and just as a person. That Lex made. Just you know some of the other issues aside with addiction and things like that, but just in terms of the way Lex conducted business and the way he interacted. With everybody backstage, the way he reacted responded to creative, which sometimes put him in a great light. As you pointed out, we had Hulk Hogan 100th anniversary or 100th, episode but when you look at the transition that Lex Luger made in that relatively short period of time. He was so dependable. He was and when I say utility player that that sounds almost a little. Derisive or derogatory, But you could put Lex at the very. You could put him up at the top, but I’m in the main event and it’s going to work well. Be semi-main event as you pointed out, maybe that number two position understanding no matter what or just putting people over because he understood that in order to build viable competition on the roster and have matches that made sense, you can’t do it with the same six guys over and over and over again. You got to keep you know getting people over and elevating and let’s. Never batted an eye.”
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