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WCW witnessed Lex Luger becoming a huge part of the company in the early and late ‘90s each. Luger joined the promotion with plans for a massive push and received just that. Even his move to WWE failed and caused him to return to WCW for more success. Luger did become a big star for WCW, but he wasn’t always used in his ideal role.
Both the face and heel characters were used by Lex during his lengthy WCW career. However, it became apparent that he was better on the heel side of things. Luger just found more natural character tendencies when tasked with playing a heel. The WCW career of Lex deserves another look at what caused his babyface time to not work as effectively.
Lex Luger's WCW Beginnings
Lex Luger starting off saw him getting over as a heel partially due to the natural heel persona. The Four Horsemen was still the most successful faction ever when Luger joined the group. Ric Flair has admitted that he wasn’t completely convinced about adding a new unproven member when tasked with it, but he ended up loving Lex as one of his favorite people from WCW.
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The main reason Luger worked as a young heel and as a Four Horsemen member was his natural ability to get heat. Lex having a great look added to the arrogance shown towards other wrestlers like Dusty Rhodes due to his size or Brian Pillman due to his height. WCW trying to turn Luger face after developing tension with Flair and others turned out to be a bad call.
Any face for WCW in the late ‘80s or early ‘90s hoped to reach that Sting-tier of beloved stars. Luger couldn’t reach anywhere near that level when playing a face character. The WCW Championship and United States Championship reigns of Lex during this time worked well for his heel character in between the changes. WCW fans enjoyed booing Luger more than cheering him, and it wasn’t close.
His Failed WWE Run
Vince McMahon was ecstatic about adding Lex Luger to the WWE roster in the early ‘90s since they needed new younger talents as Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage grew older. Lex actually did well early on with his Narcissist gimmick playing into what worked in WCW. The problem came when Vince wanted to find a new top face to replace Hulk Hogan as he started the New Generation Era.
Luger received a massive push with a new face character touring the country on his Lex Express bus. WWE added patriotism as a huge part of his gimmick since it was what helped Hogan get over in the ‘80s. The face run felt like a lazy recycling of Hogan’s success, but a full decade had passed since Hulk’s WWE push started.
Fans did support Luger during his feud with Yokozuna for the WWE Championship, but he never had the connection that Bret Hart did. WWE missed a few chances to elevate Lex and fans continued to lose interest. Luger’s momentum completely disappeared by the WrestleMania 10 event where he was originally planned to win the title. McMahon realized what the audience wanted and changed plans for Bret to win instead.
Lex Had An Awkward Return To WCW
Lex Luger never felt as important in WWE as he did in WCW when making the move. This led to Luger reaching out to Eric Bischoff via his best friend Sting about coming back when his contract ended. WWE was blindsided when Lex showed up on the first episode of Nitro just days after his contract ended since they expected him to return on a new deal.
The return to WCW saw Luger entering an odd storyline when he went back and forth between the heel and face roles. Hulk Hogan didn’t trust Lex despite Sting vouching for him, and it led to the suspense of who would be right. Luger came off horrible when trying to play a face and eventually turned heel to join the Dungeon of Doom.
WCW was hot and cold with the character of Lex as they turned him face shortly afterward. The face run worked best for Luger when the New World Order formed and needed top names to feud with. Hogan turning heel to join the group, Sting pivoting to the Crow character, and Ric Flair also being a heel all left the door open for Lex to step up. Outside that chapter, he unfortunately never did well as a face at all. Luger proved that some wrestlers should play a heel for most of their careers.
