Full Career Retrospective and Greatest Moments for Lex Luger

Professional wrestling history is littered with competitors who never lived up to their potential.

Whether it was due to injury, poor booking, ego or a lack of passion, some extremely talented individuals failed to make the sort of impact many expected of them.

Lex Luger, a former Green Bay Packer who arrived in wrestling with a chiseled physique, carried himself with the presence of a Superstar and had decent charisma. His nickname "The Total Package" was the perfect way to describe the physical specimen.

Throughout his career, he amassed 17 different championships, won eight Pro Wrestling Illustrated year-end awards (including 1997 Wrestler of the Year) and was one of the top stars during the wrestling boom in the mid-to-late '90s.

For all of his accolades and all of his success during his near 20-year career, one cannot help but think that Luger never quite lived up to the potential he exhibited early in his ring days.

He was given the opportunity to run with the proverbial ball a number of times but, more often than not, was overshadowed by a harder working star who fans gravitated to more than Luger.

Plans for him to be the industry's top star, to guide either the National Wrestling Alliance, the World Wrestling Federation or World Championship Wrestling in the way that Hulk Hogan or Ric Flair did may never have fully materialized but Luger was still a valuable asset to any company that he worked for.

In celebration of his career, one that certainly deserves recognition in the WWE Hall of Fame one day, here is a look back at some of Luger's greatest matches and moments.

Florida, the NWA and the Four Horsemen

Luger's first national exposure came while working in Florida, where he gained recognition for his impressive physique and athleticism.

It was not long before he had the opportunity to debut with the National Wrestling Alliance, where he quickly impressed both fans and management alike. He was given a chance to partner with the great Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson and Ric Flair in the most elite faction of wrestlers in the sport's long and illustrious history, the Four Horsemen.

Before long, however, it became clear that Luger had heavyweight championship aspirations that did not include wasting away as a part of a whole.

He split from the Horsemen during a Bunkhouse Stampede match and wasted little time becoming the top contender to "Nature Boy" Ric Flair's NWA World Heavyweight title.

At Great American Bash in 1988, Luger was the heavy favorite to defeat Flair and capture the coveted prize. Unfortunately, an angle was devised that saw the referee stop the match due to blood loss on the part of the challenger. 

A rematch was made for Starrcade in December. Flair would win that match, creating a huge missed opportunity for the NWA to establish a hot new babyface star.

WCW champion

At Great American Bash 1991, Lex Luger finally captured the WCW Championship. Unfortunately, it came in a terrible match against Barry Windham at one of the worst pay-per-view events of all time. Throughout the match, fans chanted "we want Flair" in response to Flair's departure from the promotion.

Making matters worse was that Luger was inexplicably turned heel following the match, robbing the company of a top babyface at a time when Sting was sidelined with an injury.

Luger's highest-profile match as champion came in February of 1992 when he met the aforementioned Sting, who had been portrayed as his friend at one point, at SuperBrawl II.

The match was rather anti-climatic and thoroughly disappointing as Luger was simply finishing out his contract after a series of intense negotiations with WCW and was on his way out. He lost the title to Sting and departed the company immediately afterwards.

The WBF, the WWF, Narcissus and the American hero

Upon leaving WCW, Luger signed with Vince McMahon's World Bodybuilding Federation. The WBF was McMahon's attempt to promote bodybuilding with the same success that he did professional wrestling. It failed, as many expected, and Luger was introduced to the World Wrestling Federation fans in 1993 at the Royal Rumble.

Adopting the "Narcissist" character, Luger became a top heel for the company for the first half of 1993.

He wrestled Bret Hart across the country in the weeks leading into, and coming out of, WrestleMania IX. He feuded with Mr. Perfect and Tatanka and was one of the more hated competitors in the company.

Then came the July 4th weekend.

Aboard the U.S.S. Intrepid, Luger shocked the wrestling world by doing something no one else could: slamming the massive Yokozuna.

That moment started a babyface run for Luger, who traveled the country in a bus known as the Lex Express. He met fans, signed autographed and promoted his huge championship match against Yokozuna at August's SummerSlam.

In that match, Luger came very close to capturing the WWE Championship but fell just short when the champion was counted out.

The All-American hero would become a co-winner of the Royal Rumble in January of 1994, earning another shot at Yokozuna at WrestleMania X.

Again, he would fail to capture the title, this time losing by disqualification when special referee and former Luger rival Mr. Perfect controversially called for the bell.

It would be the last time that Luger ever competed for the title in a high-profile situation. He would spend the remainder of his time with WWE as a very popular midcard performer, feuding with the likes of corporate sellout Tatanka and teaming with the British Bulldog in a popular tandem known as the Allied Powers.

He would appear at the 1995 SummerSlam event but would be gone from the company shortly thereafter.

Return to WCW

Luger returned to World Championship Wrestling on September 5, 1995 as part of the company's first Monday Nitro broadcast. 

He would skate the line between face and heel during his first six months back but by the summer of '96, he was firmly established as one of WCW's top good guys.

The Total Package would be a key member in the war between WCW and the New World Order. Representing the organization that made him a star, Luger often found himself in wars with the likes of Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, the Giant, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall.

On August 4, 1997, Luger defeated Hogan to capture the WCW Championship, ending the villain's nearly year-long reign. The victory received a huge pop from the fans in attendance but his run with the big gold belt would be short-lived. He lost the title back to Hogan six days later at Road Wild.

This is the end

From 1998 until the death of WCW in 2001, Luger continued to collect championships and was involved in some relatively high-profile storylines, but his work fell off significantly and he never quite got back to the level of success he enjoyed in the summer of 1997.

On March 18, 2001, at the final WCW pay-per-view entitled Greed, Luger and partner Buff Bagwell embarrassingly lost a tag team championship match to Chuck Palumbo and Sean O'Haire in less than one minute.

Luger would go on to suffer from drug abuse and would have personal issues that have been well-documented over the last decade.

In the years that followed, he became a Born Again Christian and set out to change his life for the better.

Unfortunately, in 2007, a spinal stroke left him nearly paralyzed.

Since then, he has improved physically day by day and has made appearances at conventions across the country.

Conclusion

Yes, Lex Luger was a Superstar who never quite lived up to his immense potential. To say he was a terrible worker or simply did not care about professional wrestling, however, would be wrong. 

Luger was an above-average wrestler who could deliver solid in-ring work when paired with the right opponent. Matches against Ric Flair, Bret Hart, Sting, Brian Pillman, Ricky Steamboat and Curt Hennig were very good and demonstrated what Luger was capable of when he was motivated.

While he was not always motivated, he was a big star for every promotion he ever appeared in and helped draw money at every stop.

Named one of the biggest "heat seekers" in wrestling history during a round table discussion aired on WWE's Classics on Demand, Luger has left behind a legacy full of controversy for himself.