Lex Luger Regrets The Way He Left WWE For WCW In 1995

Lex Luger opens up about his regrets concerning his decision to leave WWE to appear on the inaugural WCW Monday Nitro in 1995.

The 30th anniversary of WCW Monday Nitro just passed. On September 4, 1995, the wrestling world changed forever when WCW aired its first prime-time Monday night TV show from the Mall of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota. One of the main talking points from that show was Lex Luger’s return to the promotion. Luger’s return was significant not only because he was a former WCW World Champion, but also because he had been under contract with WWE and had just wrestled for them the night before.

As part of Eric Bischoff’s vision of creating shocking television, Luger did not inform anyone in the WWE that he was leaving the company. He had been working on a handshake agreement with Vince McMahon, and he now says that he regrets the way he left the then-WWF.

Lex Luger spoke about his regrets during the most recent episode of the Lex Expressed podcast.

“Vince McMahon always treated me very well. We had a great personal relationship. We both sincerely wanted to work it out, but I think his concerns were legit. As the owner of the company, ‘So, if I let you sign an agreement with an addendum on it that you can do outside stuff, even though it’s fitness nutrition, what if WWE wants to bring out their own supplement line or fitness stuff? What if other guys want to do outside stuff other than fitness and nutrition? What if they want to do this or that?’ I understood that he would have been opening a Pandora’s box as the owner and CEO of WWE. So I understood. There were no hard feelings… So yeah, if there was a regret, it was definitely at the time. I had very mixed emotions on that. I went home and told my wife, ‘They want me to come in. I think it’s a long-term, not short-term, money-wise, but it could be a great opportunity for me to go back to WCW, but they want me to leave, not give any notice.’ Yeah, it was hard for me back then to get my arms around doing that.”

Lex Luger also reflected on bumping into Vince McMahon about a year later and said that McMahon was gracious to him at the time. However, he admits that there was lingering hurt on his end.

“I bumped him into an airport about a year and a half later, and the wars were up full board. Vince was gracious, smiled, and came up and shook my hand. Outwardly, at least, he didn’t seem like he had any hard feelings about it. It hurt me doing it, so my guess was, and only he can answer that, that it definitely was hurtful. So yeah, that was a definite regret. As good as things were going, it hurt a little bit, for sure.”

Lex Luger would never return to WWE as a television character. He did, however, just get inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2025. Still, Vince McMahon is no longer working for the company. He stepped down from WWE after being named in a sexual misconduct lawsuit by a former WWE employee.

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