Lex Luger was the guest interview on Matt Koon‘s second episode of MLW Radio’s Total Engagement. In the final 30 minutes of the interview, Lex goes into detail about his transition from The Narcissist to the red, white and blue All-American, how he wasn’t trying to be the next Hulk Hogan, and how he would have handled his leave from WWE differently. Quotes are below (Transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo of WrestleZone):
Lex Luger on transitioning from The Narcissist to the “All-American”:
I was in shock when I heard it. I was like ‘I’m gonna go from The Narcissist and posing in front of the mirrors to like Yankee Doodle Dandy?’
I thought things were going great as The Narcissist and I was having fun. I remember saying to him, ‘You think that will work?’ He goes ‘I guarantee it will work.’ So we were off and running. Couple weeks later I cut my hair shorter, and got a bunch of red, white & blue stuff and showed up on the USS Intrepid and the rest is history.
On if there was pressure to be the next Hulk Hogan and if he was trying to be the next Hogan:
I always had the the feeling, ‘how did I feel about that?’ It was a compliment, but I always felt and to this day, there was always going to be one ‘red & yellow’ and one Hulk Hogan. I was never trying to be another Hulk Hogan.
I never felt pressure or felt like I was going to be the next Hulk Hogan.
On if he felt comfortable in his patriotic role:
I was a little uncomfortable with that role. Talked to you about earlier when we first opened our talk was my personality, but I did the best I could with it at the time and I knew it was a great opportunity so I definitely was happy about that. I didn’t feel the weight of the world on my shoulders cause I figured I am what I am and I was always very confident they’ll do what they can with me so I didn’t feel a lot of pressure.
I think and I wouldn’t be the one to ask this cause I never got involved with office stuff really or booking, but Vince originally I think kind of felt that the reason that they didn’t want to do it at Summer Slam was he felt like if I was going to be his guy as like a top babyface…Vince always had a very special feeling towards Madison Square Garden and WrestleMania X was going to be that following spring.
He felt like if he was going to put the belt on me (he never promised me the belt) if he was, I had heard that would have been the time he would have done it.
Lex Luger on his surprise exit from WWE to WCW:
Definitely, the person I am now, looking back then I definitely would have left differently. Yes, I was not under contract anymore, I was a free agent. I could leave whenever I wanted to, but I definitely would have sat down ahead of time and let Vince who had always been good to me, had treated me like family and brought me to his home many times to hang out, we worked out together and we were friends outside of wrestling.
He [Eric Bischoff] wanted to be a complete surprise if he brought me in. That was the stipulation and I was, even then I’m very uncomfortable with that. Now if I had done it over again, if I lost the opportunity to go to WCW cause I couldn’t let Vince McMahon know that I was assigned to leave and not sit down with him to explain myself and give him the proper notice, so be it. Looking back now, I would have wanted to be a man of character and integrity and I definitely didn’t do it that way so definitely, looking back in time, I would had done that differently for sure.
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