Mick Foley makes the case for Lex Luger to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
Undoubtedly, Lex Luger is one of the biggest professional wrestling names during two of the boom periods of pro wrestling. In the late 80s, he was a member of The Four Horsemen before moving on to singles success in WCW.
Later, he would join the World Wrestling Federation at the 1993 Royal Rumble and go on to receive a major push going into the 1993 SummerSlam. Despite never win gold in WWE, Lex Luger would be a major catalyst in the Monday Night War shenanigans as his defection from WWE to WCW during the first episode of Monday Nitro set the pace for what was to come over the next five-and-a-half years.
Because of the way Lex left WWE, he has often been viewed as blacklisted by the promotion. Now, Mick Foley, a major WWE superstar in his own right, is making the case for Lex to be included in the WWE Hall of Fame via a blog on Chris Jericho's Web Is Jericho website.
“With the exception of Vader, whose absence from the Hall is also baffling, Lex is the only true perennial superstar of his era not to be honored with an induction into the WWE Hall of Fame,” said Mick Foley.
“For comparison’s sake, I consider myself a pretty solid choice for the WWE Hall of Fame. I certainly don’t remember any type of outcry coming from people who did not think I deserved induction. My career covered the same general era as Luger’s – give or take a few years. I headlined 10 PPV main events in my career – about half as many as Lex. I appeared on the cover of PWI twice. And I was a pretty darn important guy in the business. But so was Lex – and unlike me, he had the pressure of carrying his promotion for months on end.
“It’s easy to knock Luger as being just a great physique guy. That was the major knock on him early in his career. Certainly, he had one of the finest physiques ever to grace the ring. His look certainly opened doors and provided opportunities that others of his era were never afforded. His rapid ascent meant that he did not have the luxury of making rookie mistakes in obscurity – and for a few years, maybe his push outweighed his talent. But by the time he became a member of the Four Horseman in 1987 (in my opinion, the lineup of Flair, Arn, Tully, and Lex was every bit as good as any Horseman lineup), he had become a solid worker and a certifiable drawing card.”
Mick would later add, “Lex Luger deserves to be the WWE Hall of Fame. The magnitude of his star power necessitates his inclusion, and I will argue the sooner, the better. He’s had some tough times, both emotionally and physically. Decades of heavy lifting, the physical trauma of playing college and professional football, and year after year traveling the world and bumping in the ring took their toll on Luger’s in the most severe of ways. In November 2007, a nerve impingement in his neck left Luger with no feeling in his arms or legs for weeks on end. Thankfully, he regained much of his range of motion, but he no longer looks like the “Total Package” of old. But to see the Luger of today is to see a kind and humble man, devoted to God, full of positivity, and grateful for his fans.”
Lex Luger reacted to this blog via his official Twitter.
Lex Luger is set to be featured in a WWE Network documentary as part of the Icons series. A release date for that documentary has yet to be named.
This year's WWE Hall of Fame class will feature a man who worked very close with Lex Luger in WCW, Eric Bischoff. Learn more here.