That means Lex challenging for the title, did better business than anything the following year with Flair vs. That ends up being the last PPV for JCP, but WCW doesnвЂ™t top that number for two years until Sting finally wins the world title from Flair at Bash вЂ™90, and thatвЂ™s nine PPVs down the road. The Great American Bash вЂ™88 in Baltimore on July 10th was the infamous match where they did the old Dusty finish with Luger eventually losing the title on blood stoppage. LetвЂ™s start with his first main event program against Ric Flair for the NWA title in 1988. Whenever Lex heated up, booking ran him into the ground to where he couldnвЂ™t succeed, which is so fucking odd because both major companies wanted and needed him to be вЂњThe GuyвЂќ at different points. One of my biggest gripes with a longstanding, incorrect wrestling narrative is the notion that Lex Luger didnвЂ™t draw. The promotion did quite a job of keeping things under wraps for as long as possible and the shock was quite genuine when Lex went on to provide wrestling fans with what should be as memorable a moment as they can call upon.вЂњFuck, just drop the title!вЂќ Luger could be heard screaming at Flair.

Luger would eventually join nWo after being one of the favorite babyfaces for an extended period.Д«eating Hogan for the title is one of the WCW moments that stick out and will remain in the memory of older fans. He had just about everything one needed to be successful as a wrestler but his win over Hogan on the night in question was truly a shocker - even to him. His time with WCW saw him become World Heavyweight Champion twice, while he won the United States Heavyweight Championship on five occasions. Luger was one of wrestling's biggest stars in the 80s and 90s. So, you had people stooging stuff out to dirt sheet writers so they could stay in favor, but kind of used to that. But we kept this pretty close to the vest because we wanted to keep the surprise intact as best we could. 'Pretty sure we couldвЂ™ve told him 20 minutes before the match that he was going to go over, and heвЂ™d have been just fine. PREVIOUSLY: Cody Rhodes Says AEW has Only Revealed 40 Percent Of Its Roster And this isnвЂ™t - weвЂ™re not going to go to Lex and go, вЂOK Lex,вЂ™ go to him a week beforehand because we wanted to make sure he was good with it.

'Unless it was absolutely necessary to share it, we didnвЂ™t until the day of. вЂњProbably not for sure until day of and thatвЂ™s not because we werenвЂ™t thinking ahead or because we didnвЂ™t trust Lex or for any other reason than as a general because it was live and because we wanted to surprise the audience as best we could, most of that stuff we kept pretty close to the vest,' Bischoff explained on his 83 Weeks podcast (h/t 411Mania). But, according to Bischoff, WCW kept the intended result 'close to the vest' in order to maintain a surprise factor, and Luger wasn't aware until the very day.

Lex would defeat Hulk Hogan to become World Champion in what was considered a win for the company, given nWo's iron grip on things. Eric Bischoff has revealed that former WCW and WWF star Lex Luger had no idea he would win the World Title on WCW's 100th episode of Monday Nitro.

Lex luger making a beat