Did some searching through Observers and found these:
11/25/91: "There was serious consideration given last week to putting the WCW belt on Rick Steiner at the Clash. Apparently Lex Luger’s contract (running from March-to-March) specifies a certain number of live dates and he’d been booked so heavily over the first eight months of the year that at his present pace, whatever the number is, he’d reach it just about by the end of the year. So in order to keep him working the major towns until the new fiscal year of the contract, Luger is being pulled from all smaller shows. I’m not sure if this relates to that same clause, or the clause regarding his contract being valid only for the U.S. and Canada (which allowed him to skip the March show at the Tokyo Egg Dome because his contract didn’t specifically cover Japan), but he also refused to work the England tour since it wasn’t covered by his contract and there was heat regarding that."
12/2/91: "Nearly an ultimate disaster on Monday as Lex Luger quit the promotion as a protest because WCW fired Harley Race. The last word I heard is that everything has been worked out, although Luger did miss the 11/25 television tapings in Macon, GA because it wasn’t resolved in time."
12/9/91: "Still not certain what the status is regarding Harley Race stemming from last week’s news. Race was given notice, as was every manager except Paul E. Dangerously, Madusa (who doubles as a wrestler) and Teddy Long (who won’t be managing anyone but since he’s still under contract, they’ll use him on television but he won’t be traveling). Over the past week I’ve been told every story under the sun regarding Race’s future, from everything is staying the way it was before he was given notice and he’ll work full-time to he’ll just work television and not work road shows anymore. Lex Luger is clearly staying (he’s under contract for a long time) and will be working the England tour as well. Luger’s quitting last week, apparently because of the decision to drop Race, lasted maybe an hour or two"
12/16/91: "Harley Race is staying although he may be pulled from Lex Luger. Race will manage Vader & Mr. Hughes who will work a January program with Rick & Scott Steiner. Also, expect some Luger vs. Scott Steiner matches in early 1992."
1/6/92: "Lex Luger has the entire month of January off, including the Clash at this point, with the exception of the Tokyo Dome show on Saturday afternoon...There is an awful lot of speculation that Luger won’t be around much longer but it’s hard to imagine anyone walking out on that kind of a contract."
1/10/92: "Lex Luger officially gave notice to WCW that he’d be finishing up on the 2/29 PPV show. Luger’s three-year contract with WCW expires in March of 1993, but he’s expected to be given a limited release which would allow him to wrestle during the final year of his contract in Japan (which he may not even choose to do), but not in the United States, which would legally put a block on his going to the WWF until the spring of ’93. Luger isn’t scheduled to work any house shows or television tapings for the remainder of this month. I don’t have details on February scheduling although it was expected Luger wouldn’t work any house shows except Milwaukee, but would work some television tapings for shows that would air prior to the pay-per-view. This leads to the rumor (which was emphatically denied by Vince McMahon) that Luger was quitting his contract estimated at $600,000 per year in base salary and $25,000 per pay-per-view event to join the World Bodybuilding Federation for one year, and then have a wrestling angle shot and segue into the WWF. The most reliable story seems to be that Luger, who apparently has saved his money and certainly has made his money, is simply taking a year off to open up a new gym (one equipment company has confirmed to us that Luger is purchasing new equipment for a new gym), attempt to market and merchandise himself and tend to his family. If Luger, who is said not to enjoy either the lifestyle (because it makes it difficult to pursue his main hobby, bodybuilding because of the problem following a strict diet on the road, traveling interfering with training time and bumps keeping him from training at 100 percent efficiency) or wrestling itself and was said to be only doing it because he was making good money from the start, does want to return, he may be able to strike himself an excellent deal in 1993. Clearly, the WWF needs a top babyface to carry the load and Hogan’s days seem to be numbered working even the partial schedule he does now. Neither Randy Savage or Roddy Piper will be the replacements both because of age and size. While The Undertaker is young enough and his long-term future, strange as it sounds, is as a face, he’s not the type to be the promotional flagship. Putting Bret Hart in the role would require a major change in promotional conception that just isn’t coming, and he’s been in the middle so long that it would be an exceedingly hard sell building the company around him. Sid the Second Coming has enough strikes against him that even though he’s the front-runner, there have to be major qualms. A turned Ric Flair isn’t a long-term answer, and probably not short-term either. Actually of the names on the current roster, Curt Hennig comes the closest to fitting the bill for talent, look, charisma and he’s young enough (he’s now 33) for a long run. But the ring name Mr. Perfect as a babyface world champion in a merchandise company doesn’t fit, and he’s also had a history of both knee and back problems. By March 1993, Luger, who wouldn’t be stale because he’d be off television for one year, would look awfully good."
1/27/92: "Lex Luger has pretty well been confirmed as joining the WBF by several sources. Apparently they’ll be running an angle with Luger entering a bodybuilding contest and will get blown away by the big bodybuilding names, lose his temper and somehow segue that into becoming a wrestler. Using Luger is as much an attempt to get wrestling fans interested in bodybuilding as anything else."
EDIT:
Putting Bret Hart in the role would require a major change in promotional conception that just isn’t coming, and he’s been in the middle so long that it would be an exceedingly hard sell building the company around him.
Someone alert the podcasters about this one
