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Lex Luger On His Reaction When WWE Bought WCW In 2001, Dusty Rhodes Giving Him Torture Rack Finisher

October 23, 2021 | Posted by Blake Lovell
Lex Luger 1997 WCW Title Image Credit: WWE/Peacock

In a recent interview on Macho Mecca, Lex Luger discussed Dusty Rhodes giving him the Torture Rack as his finisher, his reaction when WWE bought WCW in 2001, and much more. You can read his comments below.

Lex Luger on Dusty Rhodes giving him the Torture Rack as his finisher: “Ric Flair to a minor, but ‘The Dream’ Dusty Rhodes, he said, ‘Hey kid, you got those abs and that body. You think you could use a backbreaker?’ It ended up being called the Torture Rack. My first match on TBS, the old standardized 6:05 show was our main stage show, and you had to go out there and do it. I came back and Dusty said, ‘That’s it. That’s the finish.’ And the rest is history. So, Dusty Rhodes, the American Dream, gave me that finish.”

On his reaction when WWE bought WCW in 2001 and Time Warner’s stance on wrestling: “From my perspective, I always had a foreboding. I went to an event back in 1997 when the [Atlanta] Braves’ stadium was opening. All the big wheels for TBS, Time Warner – all the advertisers and major companies were at this. The baseball stadium hadn’t opened yet, and we were overlooking it. They invited me as a conversation piece as a wrestler. But they talked to all these big ad executives and money guys – the top people at Time Warner. They talked about the future of TBS and TNT, and this was 1997 during the peak of the Monday Night Wars. They loved our ratings, and we were kind of like their ratings monster black sheep. But when they went over their 10-15 year ivory tower projections of TNT and TBS and what type of programming they were gonna have, those executives did not mention wrestling one time. I went home to my wife at the time, and I said, ‘The first chance those executives can unload wrestling if our ratings ever drop, we won’t be wrestling anymore.’

“Ted Turner always said, ‘You’re my rasslers, and we’ll always have wrestling.’ For the first time, he lost power as the majority shareholder. He was our ace in the hole. I knew eventually, if the ratings dropped, they were looking to unload us. Sure enough, they did. I believe the competition was good and we may have been able to make a comeback. We were killing them in ratings and then they started killing us. I think if they were behind wrestling and wanted us to stay, the companies might have stayed separate a lot longer and we might have thrived again. There was shock the night of when it happened because it was so sudden. Big picture-wise, I wasn’t surprised.” 

If using any of the above quotes, please credit Macho Mecca with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.

article topics :

Dusty Rhodes, Lex Luger, WCW, WWE, Blake Lovell