What they don't mention here is that Owen got a clean pinfall victory against Bret in one of the earlier (non-title) matches at that same Wrestlemania. After Bret beats Yokozuna and while he is celebrating in the ring, Owen comes out and stares at Bret disdainfully with his hands on his hips. I thought that was a good finish. It became clear that Owen was the #1 contender for the belt now. No visible return match for Yokozuna was in the offing. Maybe Yoko had some return matches with Bret at house shows afterward, but as far as the dramatized story went, it was going to be Owen challenging Bret.
Very ironic how WWF was really pushing the "New Generation" while trying to duplicate Hulkamania with every single detail.. (Hogan being Bob Backlund Yokozuna being the Iron Shiek and Luger being Hulk Hogan himself)
Thats why Hogan never shouldve won the title at Wm 9 Bret couldve been Backlund, Yoko as the Iron Sheik, and Luger as the new Hogan Luger and Hogan were too similar for the transition to work
The biggest problem with Luger's All-American gimmick was that it basically limited him to only being work programs with evil foreigners. Hogan could do the patriotic American vs evil foreigner thing but he could also do basically any other face angle, and did
Bruce, just like Bischoff and Russo, is such a sore hater towards Meltzer, and never wants to give him credit. lol Meltzer said he thought they didn't give Lex the belt so that Lex would win the Rumble in order to face Yoko for the title at Wrestlemania - well that's pretty much what happened if you count Bret's part in it. He won the Rumble (with Bret) and then faced Yoko even when he lost.
Possibly but at the same time neither truly pulled the trigger on him at what would be perceived as opportune times. It’s hard to fairly judge how fans would have reacted to him as champion with how he was handled. In 1988 it would’ve been a good time to give him a chance after he’d been in the horsemen, left the horsemen, and then feuded with them the entire year up to his match with Flair. Instead when he’s about to win they use a lame finish with the athletic commission thing which is a fart in church. Then he lost in the rematch in 1988. Then they delayed his world title win for a few years as he feuded with flair and when he did win flair was gone and he was seen as the undeserving champion. Or times like the WWF where he was leading into a title match and he never won. Fans can only care to a certain point before they stop believing. Compare it to when he was in a good spot and beat Hogan that people didn’t expect. It was only a week but the crowd erupted. Maybe he would’ve flopped but it’s hard to assure it if the dude never has the trigger pulled and the company truly go with him. There’s always something to be said about giving the dude a true chance to succeed.
I don't get how Bruce keeps saying Yoko was over. My friends and I hated him but not in a "good heat" way. King Kong Bundy and André were scary. Yoko and Earthquake were just fat and lame
@@GameTime-yj6qv It was almost like they knew Earthquake was lame, unable to inspire awe or fear and they leaned in to that. Why else would they let his scraggly thinning hair go long? Hogan's blond on tan looked way better than Earthquake's dark brown on pasty white. Earthquake just needed to cut it short if he wasn't going to fully shave for fear of looking like a King Kong Bundy retread. And then the flexing bicep pose. He had no biceps at all. It just looked ridiculous. The only impressive move he had was a delayed powerslam where he'd carry a guy around for a while horizontally across his fat belly
@@IrishCarney back then balding guys would just stay balding, and long hair was common, hence the bald head but long hair. Today Earthquake would either have his hair Super short or shaven off. As far as his double biceps pose, often Earthquake wouldn't even flex when he did that pose. It was mostly to get heat from the crowd. His powerslam was indeed good. But I liked his running vertical splash too along with the stomps he did before running the ropes.
@@GameTime-yj6qv Frankly I didn't like the prevalence of long hair in wrestling then anyway. It was way too common and dated the wrestlers, since by then it was a 70s or late 60s hairstyle. But setting that aside, he just looked bad with it. And that tiger tattoo that had nothing to do with his gimmick. And his dumb nickname. I always hated WWF's habit of just using a nickname only. John "The Earthquake" Tenta would have been fine, but "Earthquake" was just silly. And when they at first had him be "Canadian Earthquake" - why?? And his first music was "Le Marseillaise" - the French national anthem even though he was from Vancouver and not a French Canadian. So much dumbery
Yes Lex didn't throw himself 100% into the bus tour and meet & greets with the fans. But maybe it was because he knew he wasn't going to win the title! How's he going to look that kid in the eye and emotionally connect when he knows the kid is going to get a letdown? No wonder he just wanted to hide in a hotel room
He didn’t know he was going to lose until a short time before the event. And the truth was the fans just weren’t that into Luger, which the count out finish didn’t help.
My Yokozuna going to eat all the donuts in the bakery hahaha!!!
-Mr. Fuji 1993
Reality-based wrestling.
What they don't mention here is that Owen got a clean pinfall victory against Bret in one of the earlier (non-title) matches at that same Wrestlemania. After Bret beats Yokozuna and while he is celebrating in the ring, Owen comes out and stares at Bret disdainfully with his hands on his hips. I thought that was a good finish. It became clear that Owen was the #1 contender for the belt now. No visible return match for Yokozuna was in the offing. Maybe Yoko had some return matches with Bret at house shows afterward, but as far as the dramatized story went, it was going to be Owen challenging Bret.
I count that as Owen headlining a Wrestlemania since he closed the show
To be fair the whole "rematch clause" wasn't around back then.
Very ironic how WWF was really pushing the "New Generation" while trying to duplicate Hulkamania with every single detail.. (Hogan being Bob Backlund Yokozuna being the Iron Shiek and Luger being Hulk Hogan himself)
Thats why Hogan never shouldve won the title at Wm 9
Bret couldve been Backlund, Yoko as the Iron Sheik, and Luger as the new Hogan
Luger and Hogan were too similar for the transition to work
The biggest problem with Luger's All-American gimmick was that it basically limited him to only being work programs with evil foreigners. Hogan could do the patriotic American vs evil foreigner thing but he could also do basically any other face angle, and did
I think Lex was missing his ICO-PRO at SummerSlam.
Lugar. For the hof. Long overdue 👋
Bruce, just like Bischoff and Russo, is such a sore hater towards Meltzer, and never wants to give him credit. lol Meltzer said he thought they didn't give Lex the belt so that Lex would win the Rumble in order to face Yoko for the title at Wrestlemania - well that's pretty much what happened if you count Bret's part in it. He won the Rumble (with Bret) and then faced Yoko even when he lost.
Lex never had the charisma to get people behind him no matter how hard Mid Atlantic/WCW or WWF pushed him he never could get the fans to pop for him
Possibly but at the same time neither truly pulled the trigger on him at what would be perceived as opportune times. It’s hard to fairly judge how fans would have reacted to him as champion with how he was handled. In 1988 it would’ve been a good time to give him a chance after he’d been in the horsemen, left the horsemen, and then feuded with them the entire year up to his match with Flair. Instead when he’s about to win they use a lame finish with the athletic commission thing which is a fart in church. Then he lost in the rematch in 1988. Then they delayed his world title win for a few years as he feuded with flair and when he did win flair was gone and he was seen as the undeserving champion. Or times like the WWF where he was leading into a title match and he never won. Fans can only care to a certain point before they stop believing. Compare it to when he was in a good spot and beat Hogan that people didn’t expect. It was only a week but the crowd erupted. Maybe he would’ve flopped but it’s hard to assure it if the dude never has the trigger pulled and the company truly go with him. There’s always something to be said about giving the dude a true chance to succeed.
Vince wasted a lot of money on lex
I do think it was best for everyone for Vince to cut his losses.
He tried. No shame in that
Vince screwed Vince
Lex wasted a lot of muscle mass on the Lex Express.
I don't get how Bruce keeps saying Yoko was over. My friends and I hated him but not in a "good heat" way. King Kong Bundy and André were scary. Yoko and Earthquake were just fat and lame
You're in the minority. Yokozuna was booked and seen as a monster. Plus he was incredibly agile for his size. Earthquake was very underrated.
@@GameTime-yj6qv It was almost like they knew Earthquake was lame, unable to inspire awe or fear and they leaned in to that. Why else would they let his scraggly thinning hair go long? Hogan's blond on tan looked way better than Earthquake's dark brown on pasty white. Earthquake just needed to cut it short if he wasn't going to fully shave for fear of looking like a King Kong Bundy retread. And then the flexing bicep pose. He had no biceps at all. It just looked ridiculous. The only impressive move he had was a delayed powerslam where he'd carry a guy around for a while horizontally across his fat belly
@@IrishCarney back then balding guys would just stay balding, and long hair was common, hence the bald head but long hair. Today Earthquake would either have his hair Super short or shaven off. As far as his double biceps pose, often Earthquake wouldn't even flex when he did that pose. It was mostly to get heat from the crowd. His powerslam was indeed good. But I liked his running vertical splash too along with the stomps he did before running the ropes.
@@GameTime-yj6qv I know he posed for heat but it was bad heat, Honky Tonk Man heat, "you're annoying and lame" heat, not "you're a scary monster" heat
@@GameTime-yj6qv Frankly I didn't like the prevalence of long hair in wrestling then anyway. It was way too common and dated the wrestlers, since by then it was a 70s or late 60s hairstyle. But setting that aside, he just looked bad with it. And that tiger tattoo that had nothing to do with his gimmick. And his dumb nickname. I always hated WWF's habit of just using a nickname only. John "The Earthquake" Tenta would have been fine, but "Earthquake" was just silly. And when they at first had him be "Canadian Earthquake" - why?? And his first music was "Le Marseillaise" - the French national anthem even though he was from Vancouver and not a French Canadian. So much dumbery
Yes Lex didn't throw himself 100% into the bus tour and meet & greets with the fans. But maybe it was because he knew he wasn't going to win the title! How's he going to look that kid in the eye and emotionally connect when he knows the kid is going to get a letdown? No wonder he just wanted to hide in a hotel room
He didn’t know he was going to lose until a short time before the event.
And the truth was the fans just weren’t that into Luger, which the count out finish didn’t help.
What a terrible idea to celebrate a count out win and bury any credibility lex might have still had.
It was a really bad look for Lex to celebrate like he won the title when it was just a count out win
Lex didn't impress Vince enough to get to win the title. Bottom line.
Hulk screwed up their plans with yoko by doing what he wanted to do at wrestlemania 9
I wonder if I can get in the first comment