Lex Luger discusses the origins of the Torture Rack as a finishing move.
A professional wrestler's finishing move is their bread and butter. Outside of aesthetics, a finishing move can be the biggest assist a wrestler has in helping establish their character.
One of the first wrestlers to introduce the importance of aesthetics on a regular basis was Lex Lex was has been touted by some as one of the first wrestlers to receive a major contract without any prior love of the game coming into professional wrestling from football and his look was always key to his character whether he was in WCW or WWE.
With a wrestler that looks like he was built for the industry, his finishing move, the Torture Rack was key when establishing his persona. Speaking on the Macho Mecca podcast, Lex Luger credits Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair with anointing him with the Torture Rack as a finishing old.
“Ric Flair to a minor, but ‘The Dream’ Dusty Rhodes he said, ‘Hey kid, you got those abs and that body. You think you could use a backbreaker?’ It ended up being called the Torture Rack. My first match on TBS, the old standardized 6:05, was our main stage show, and you had to go out there and do it and feel it. I came back and Dusty said, ‘That's it. That's the finish.’ The rest is history. So, Dusty Rhodes gave me that finish.”
Lex Luger has never been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame unlike Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair, but there was a documentary about Lex Luger slated to feature on the WWE Network earlier this year. It has yet to debut.
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