The Lex Express.....

The biggest flop in Pro Wrestling history.... Discuss

Why would you say that?
Care to elaborate on some reasons?

It was a serious question....What was it all about? Ok so they were trying to make Luger the next big babyface 'Hogan Mark 2' but the best way they could thinking of getting him over was show him sleeping in a big bus to cheesy music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKFyI7pqqLg&feature=related

What was the point? After all this they didn't even put the title on him???

best. angle. ever.

While I agree it was pretty big flop I would see that and raise you the Austin heel turn

The thing with Lex was Vince was paying him $$$$$ from the WBF and with the departure of Hogan Luger clearly had the physic to impress, In the WWF's defence Luger was apparently voted most popular wrestler 93 by the readers of PWI and when they never pushed the button on giving him the title and gave it to Hart instead

It was a total flop, what was the reason behind it? Vince wanted to keep him out of the ring on free TV like he did with Hogan and he also wanted to sell the fact Luger was a man of the people, the Lex Express helped him do both

Austin heel turn wasn't anywhere near as bad as The Lex Express... His character was stale & it was an obvious way to freshen him up. I don't think there was anyway for them todo it other than side with Vince... Some of the backstage stuff with Angle was hillarious.

Lex Express was dire

The Lex Express was awesome!

"Here's Lex Luger sitting in his bus, looking thoughtful. See? He thinks! LOVE HIM DAMN YOU!"

"Here's Lex Luger standing outside his bus with a bunch of kids, all flexing their muscles, how sweet! How could you not love this man?"

"Here's Lex Luger sleeping in his bus! He's just like you & me, he sleeps! What a man! A man of the people! A REAL AMERICAN HERO!"

"There's Lex Luger on his Lex Express! The Lex Express is taking him all the way to Summerslam! ALL THE WAY TO BEAT YOKOZUNA BY COUNT-OUT! YEAH! COUNT-OUT! IT'S HOW WE WON THE WAR DAMMIT! NOW LOVE LEX LUGER WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT YOU SONSABITCHES! LOVE HIM!"

Looking back, how the hell didn't it work? You've got a man on a bus. That's money right there. They should do the same thing with Randy Orton and his bus.

The Austin heel turn was a much bigger flop and Austin the character never recovered from it

The funny thing about the Lex Express was that Lex Luger was actually a really good wrestler and talker in the late 80s. It wasn't like Vince just took a complete stiff and decided to build around him.

The problem was that Lex had lost interest in wrestling around the time he got the WCW title in 1991. He'd clearly lost passion for it. Although I still don't think it was a bad idea to build around him in 1993 and try to get that passion back.

Obviously it failed, for multiple reasons. The WWF was in such deep doo-doo that maybe nobody could have succeeded at that time. They eventually went with the best option, Bret Hart, but Vince was so alien to the concept of promoting a wrestler as a wrestler that it's no surprise he tried Lex first.

Whether it was the biggest flop in wrestling, I'm not sure. It wasn't like the WWF was a hot company at the time. Austin's heel turn came at the peak of the best run of business any company has ever had, and that company entered a downward spiral soon afterwards from which it still hasn't recovered 10 years later. In that regard, I'd say the Austin heel turn, though not the only factor in that downward spiral, was a bigger flop.

In hindsight Austin's heel turn was a monumental flop but at the time I felt it was a good move, simply because Stone Cold was growing stale. I think the turn would have had a better chance of working if:

a) It hadn't happened in Texas.

b) The Rock had stuck around afterwards.

c) They hadn't flip flopped his character from vicious heel to cowardly, hug-giving, 'Kumbaya My Lord' singing heel.

d) There were other top level faces to work with. Austin/Taker had been done to death, Kane wasn't a viable opponent, Triple H was supposed to become #1 babyface but got injured, Benoit OR Jericho could have worked in a 1 on 1 feud but pairing them both against Austin confused the issue.

e) The Invasion angle hadn't bombed therefore needing Austin to join the Alliance to make them more credible.

all true Y2D2.

I think 2001-2002 was the most damaging period in the history of the WWF/WWE.

They had so much talent all at the top of their game they just didnt know who to put where and it all became a mish mash

Good points undisputed.... So you guys saying Austins heel turn was a massive flop how could you keep churning out the same character? Would you never have turned him?
Any ideas on a better way to get Luger over?

Were not just saying it, the proof was in the pudding, Austin himself said it

Best way to get Luger over would have been him going over Yoko clean at SummerSlam maybe even kicking out the Banzai Drop

The best way to get Luger over would have been to have him beat Yoko at Summerslam for the title. The whole Lex Express deal was friggin' awful but for him then to show up at Summerslam and NOT win the title (yet celebrate as if he had) made him look like a giant tool.

Apparently they were saving his big title win for Wrestlemania 10, but if they wanted him to win the big one at the big one, why bother with the Summerslam match?

After the 'slam heard round the world' Luger should have challenged Yoko with Yoko, Fuji & Cornette refusing to face him and ducking him at every turn. They could have wheeled out Jack Tunney and have him say Yoko was threatening to run back to Japan with the belt if he was made to face Luger (or some other shenanigans) before Lex gets a slot in the Rumble as his 'one and only opportunity' to face Yoko. He then goes on to beat the big Samoan.....Japanese at Wrestlemania 10 and so begins the era of Lexamania!

Then again, even with all that build up it might not have worked because Luger by this point in his career was clearly phoning it in so he probably wouldn't have been able to connect with the fans or put on decent matches in the ring.

Yeah i thought about holding it off until Mania 10 but for me it had to be at SummerSlam 93 when he was at his hottest in the WWF