Lex Luger believes there could have been money in him turning heel and working with Bret Hart following WrestleMania X.
Lex Luger came into WWE as a heel and even began a program with Bret Hart on the weekend of WrestleMania IX, knocking him out with the steel plate in his forearm at a special WrestleMania breakfast. Ultimately, the departure of Hulk Hogan and WWE's need for a power-centric, All-American babyface led to Luger abruptly turning and becoming the company's top good guy from the summer of 1993 until WrestleMania X, where Hart would ultimately defeat Yokozuna and capture his second WWE Championship.
Lex Luger, on the most recent Lex Expressed podcast, believes there was a missed opportunity for him to turn heel and work with Bret Hart. He expresses bitterness and frustration over not being able to win the title when he had the opportunity earlier in the night at WrestleMania X.
"That was the plan all along for me at WrestleMania. I even thought of the option that, if they went with Bret out of WrestleMania, I could even, at some point down the line, have a heel turn. Which is kind of tied into when I was negotiating to stay at WWE instead of walking out on that first Nitro, right? I wanted to stay with WWE, and I was hoping and talking about maybe down the line switching heel and going after Bret. I hit him at WrestleMania IX that time. So Bret and I had some unfinished business with Bret as a babyface and me as the heel.
"So I thought Bret if had a good run as a baby, this is just me talking, that I can maybe go heel out of the out of the disappointment of being bitter about SummerSlam [1993] and the whole thing, almost made it kind of a shoot, which I wasn't bitter, but I mean the controversy over the countout and the ballons dropping, I could have, man, I could have done some great heel interviews and all that. I had a great run with Bret, and I loved-- working with Bret because he is one of the best ever. So that's kind of where I was at on all that."
Bret Hart was lifted onto Lex Luger and Razor Ramon's shoulders at the end of WrestleMania X. When Lex was asked if he didn't have the most positive look on his face because he was trying to plant the seed for that heel turn he wanted, he claimed that was the move.
"Oh yeah, definitely. Almost like the John Cena face when he hugged Cody. Yeah, I had to kind of look, 'Hey, I'm celebrating with you, Bret. But...' If you look at it, everyone is smiling and happy. I was kind of just looking at Bret, holding him up on our shoulders, I think with Scott Hall... We could've had a blast with that angle."
Instead, it was Owen Hart who was bitter at the end of WrestleMania X, watching everyone celebrate his brother's victory after he had just defeated Bret Hart earlier in the evening.
Lex Luger would never turn heel in his WWE run again and never reemerged on WWE programming after returning to WCW in 1995 as part of the first episode of WCW Nitro. Now, Lex will take his rightful place in the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2025. Learn more about that here.
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