Summer Rae's New Gig & Two Cases Of 'Hammer Time' - Ten Things You May Have Missed In Wrestling This Week

8. Lex Luger Is Back On His Feet

Some nice news now to report about Lex Luger, who has been wheelchair-bound or unable to stand without the help of a cane for years after suffering a spinal stroke. 

Missy Hyatt - who worked with Luger in WCW - tweeted a picture of her standing next to the Total Package at a fan convention, writing "I'm glad @GenuineLexLuger is now able to stand up. Super gentleman with me in recent years".

Given everything Lex has been through in recent times, it's great to see his physical condition is improving.

Speaking of Luger, he was also in the news this week, discussing his WrestleMania IX match with Mr. Perfect and his failure to win the WWE Title (as many expected he would) at SummerSlam 1993. 

The guest of Sean 'X-Pac' Waltman on the Pro Wrestling 4-Life podcast, Luger explained that his match with Perfect was a letdown because Curt Hennig completely blanked at the start of the match: 

"Once in a while, too much caffeine or whatever, and he would get in there and be like, ‘What are we doing?  What are we doing?’. Man, I was sitting around that day, my WrestleMania debut, Caesar’s Palace. I was back there with my legs crossed. I got Curt Hennig to lead me through this match. He’s going to make me look like a million bucks.  

I got in the ring. I didn’t really think about anything we talked about in the back because Curt is going to talk me through this. He’s going to lead me right through. He got in there and locked up. I knew he was a guy that did a lot of ribs. I thought when we locked up initially that he was ribbing me. He did that, ‘What are we going to do? What are we doing?’. I thought, oh, come on. I had to try to call the match.

I didn’t put the time and energy that I normally would have if I was playing more of a role in either leading the match or knowing a lot of the spots, because I thought Curt was going to call everything, because in the back, he said, ‘I got this. Don’t worry. I’ll lead you right through it’. He completely blanked out. He was totally apologetic afterwards. He said, ‘Man, I’m so sorry.’ We probably didn’t have as good a match as you would have if Curt was where we normally would be at as far as knowing all the spots. 

I was calling it on the fly. I wasn’t the greatest. I learned how to call a match from Ricky Steamboat before I came to WWF. I was always led by Flair and told everything to do in the ring. Lex, just do this and flex a lot and bounce those pecs. That was nerve wracking in my debut at WrestleMania with Mr. Perfect and I had to call the match. But, Curt was such a great guy. He was such a talent and such a fun guy to be around. He was totally apologetic. I said, ‘Don’t apologise. We got through it just fine Curt'". 

On his famous countout win (that felt like a loss) over Yokozuna at SummerSlam '93, Luger explained that Vince McMahon wanted him to be crowned WWE Champion at WrestleMania X instead, something that also didn't end up happening: 

"With that big a buildup, as a babyface, you almost have to come through or it let’s all the air out of your tires, literally, on The Lex Express. I enjoyed the opportunity, obviously, and it was a great promotion, but a lot of people thought it might have been more beneficial that if you still go with Yoko, you have the babyface win and have Yoko win it right back or something might have been good.  

In defense of Vince and the decision makers at the time, you know how much the Garden meant to Vince?  Madison Square Garden. He used to stand at the curtain the whole time. Vince told me, and he never promised me the title, and Vince and I had a great relationship, but Vince said, ‘If I want to put the title on you, rather than do it at SummerSlam, I would rather wait and do it at WrestleMania X at Madison Square Garden'. He had that in his head, that if you’re going to be my guy and I’m going to put the belt on you as a babyface and give you a run with it, I would rather do it in the Garden.  

Then things happened after that and they put it on Bret, who was a great champion at the time, so it didn’t work out. But, why did they not give me the belt? That really was Vince’s thinking that he will get everything revved back up for WrestleMania and what a way to coronate Lex as my champion if that’s the way we decide to go in WrestleMania X".