Lex Luger spoke with The Hannibal TV about his career, and was asked about his very first title run of his career. According to Luger, the run came right after Ric Flair had moved on to the WWE, and was a big deal for Luger.
When asked what his reaction was when he received his first world title run, Luger spoke about how much of a responsibility it was, noting a “huge void” that existed once Ric Flair left. “It was a big responsibility because Ric Flair had left for WWE” he said. “And he took the belt with him. There was a huge void in the company, I mean nobody can step in and take the place of Ric Flair, so overnight I stepped in as the World Champion against Barry Windham.”
Luger went on to say that the company scrambled a bit when it came to figuring out how to make Luger a champion, and eventually made him a heel. He did note, however, that it was a big challenge to deal with the title run. “It was definitely a big challenge at the time, that I did my very best with,” he said. “And it was still a great opportunity, who wouldn’t want to be World Champion? Lot of great wrestlers had their whole careers and never got to be World Champion, so it was a great opportunity, at the same time, but I felt a lot of pressure, because I felt that nobody could fill Ric Flair’s shoes, and here I was as like a transition champion when Ric had been the man all that time. I felt a lot of pressure not to be Ric Flair, but to fill that void at the time.”
Luger also touched on the fact that he had gone over his appearance limit due to how much they wrestled, so the company kept him from appearing too much as champion. Because of this, Luger requested to be compensated for being traveling out to Japan in order to defend the belt, something he said was done fairly.
