Bruce Prichard on Why Lex Luger Didn’t Win WWF Title at SummerSlam 1993, How the Match Was Booked

– On the latest Something to Wrestle With, Bruce Prichard discussed the decision not to put Lex Luger over Yokozuna at SummerSlam 1993. Luger had just turned babyface as the “All-American” gimmick and was in the middle of his “All-American” gimmick, running the “Lex Express” tour as he feuded with Yokozuna on the way to SummerSlam. The match is remembered as one of the more disappointing main events in SummerSlam history as Luger defeated Yokozuna by countout and he celebrated with the other company babyfaces as if he had won the championship (played off with a patriotic angle of the “All-American” defeating the Japanese heel), but he in fact didn’t win the championship.

Luger would end up never getting a run with the top WWE title, or with any title in the company for that matter, and Prichard recalled why they decided not to put the belt on him. Highlights from the discussion, and the full podcast, are below:

On the decision not to put the title on Luger: “Yeah, Vince wasn’t sold. He just wasn’t 100% sold on Lex. There was, you know, when you originally start on this journey, I think we all kind of started it with the end result being, ‘Okay, Lex beats him and that’s your guy! Okay, let’s go!’ But along the way, Lex stumbled. And he wasn’t drawing, and he wasn’t really connecting with the audience the way that we thought he should connect with the audience. And Yoko was. People were believing in Yoko. So Yoko wasn’t the, coming off the heels of WrestleMania and Hulk beating him, Yoko wasn’t the undefeated monster at this point. So we also had to rebuild Yoko. But I think the biggest, probably the biggest thing was, Vince wasn’t sold on Lex 100%. He wanted to build Lex more, and see if Lex could withstand the test of time. So his idea was, ‘Well, we’ll just keep going with Lex, we’re gonna keep pushing him. And if they’re gonna get behind him, they’ll get behind him on the chase.’ And that decision was made well ahead of you know, the show taking place.”

On the booking of the Luger vs. Yokozuna match: “So we knew what we were doing, but it just — I don’t know. I just didn’t feel it, you know what I mean? You know how sometimes, you get there and it just — there was nothing there. It was kissing your sister. He won, yay. It was a f**king count-out. And I think that’s the way the audience felt. I think the audience felt deflated, and they were like, ‘Okay, they’re holding him up on their shoulders. He’s a hero, but he didn’t win the belt.'”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Something to Wrestle with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.