Chat! culturecrossfire.slack.com

What was better? Bret Hart in WCW or Lex Luger in WWF?

What was better?

  • Bret Hart in WCW

    Votes: 14 58.3%
  • Lex Luger in WWF

    Votes: 10 41.7%

  • Total voters
    24

Epic Springs

Epic Reine
Messages
12,612
Reaction score
1,879
Points
253
Location
NYC
Eh, as crappy as Bret was booked, he did win the world title at least.
 

Valeyard

Retarded sexuality and bad poetry.
Messages
14,076
Reaction score
6,654
Points
253
Objectively Bret. Better matches and arguably featured better than Luger, which is weird.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Laz

JN News

Integral Poster
Messages
1,529
Reaction score
1,158
Points
163
Location
Tucson, Arizona
Yeah, I got to go with Bret in WCW. He got to become WCW World Heavyweight Champion, twice, like Epic pointed out to us. And Bret Hart won the title in a tournament to win the gold to win it for the first time.

Then, Vince Russo decided to fuck it all up by turning Bret heel, which sucked, IMO.
 

King Kamala

Integral Poster
Messages
60,444
Reaction score
8,296
Points
293
Location
Vacationland
Lex was a "bigger name" during first year of his WWF run than Bret ever was in his WCW run but Bret otherwise was better all around.

And tbh, I think '99-'00 WCW had better ratings and they certainly had much better attendance than '93-'94 WWF. Feel free to correct me if I'm way off.
 

AA484

Integral Poster
Messages
7,693
Reaction score
1,030
Points
228
Location
NC
Bret by far. I wouldn't say that Luger was a bigger name, either. As bad as 1999 WCW was, it still reached more eyes than 1993 WWF. I don't mean to dump so hard on Luger because he is probably top 5 all-time WCW for me but his WWF run was a stinker.
 

King Kamala

Integral Poster
Messages
60,444
Reaction score
8,296
Points
293
Location
Vacationland
To me it seemed like, SummerSlam '93 and Royal Rumble '94 were bigger than any of Bret's WCW matches. Ironically, Bret was involved in the latter. By the time of the WrestleMania X main events, Lex felt like a total afterthought. Which is too bad cause that was the debut of his kickass entrance music. Why didn't they give him badass babyface music earlier? Having him enter to "Stars & Stripes Forever" made him look like a complete dork!

I feel like pre MAGA, patriotism had never been less cool than it was in the '90s. I think everybody collectively thought "Alright already! We won the Cold War. No need to brag about it!"
 

909

909
Staff member
Messages
40,057
Reaction score
3,858
Points
313
Location
West Point
Answer is clearly Bret. That being said I do agree that WM X and Summerslam 93 were bigger than anything Bret did in WCW. Bret had a better run because of the matches he had and titles he won, even though the most notable thing he did was to show up at Starrcade 97 and be part of Sting being sabotaged by Hogan.
 

Valeyard

Retarded sexuality and bad poetry.
Messages
14,076
Reaction score
6,654
Points
253
Lex's best case is his huge runs pre-WWF, where he drew lots of money and had great matches with a lot of different guys. It's not an impossible claim to say Luger had better ppv main events over the course of his career than Bret did (although I do not believe this personally). Match quality it doesn't compare overall, though.

But how good would Sting/Luger vs Hart Foundation been?
 

HarleyQuinn

Laugh This Off... Puddin'!
Staff member
Messages
22,077
Reaction score
1,990
Points
313
I went with Lex mainly because I think his peak was better than Bret but Bret's matches were (obviously) better in WCW. I just don't remember a lot about his WCW run outside of a few matches and random moments whereas I recall more of Lex's run and think the Allied Powers team with Bulldog could've worked if they had gotten a Tag Title run at the time.
 

Youth N Asia

Boners, and farts.
Messages
11,679
Reaction score
547
Points
253
Location
Michigan
Lex felt like a bigger deal in the WWF than Bret did in WCW to me. Bret was immediately lost in the shuffle. By the time he got rolling most of the fans seemed like they’d left, and gone back to Vince. And even then the booking was so bad.
 
Last edited:

King Kamala

Integral Poster
Messages
60,444
Reaction score
8,296
Points
293
Location
Vacationland
Luger’s standout wwe moments that are better than almost all the moments of other careers no matter where they wrestled:

- when he first drank a glass of milk as a debuting bodybuilder at mania 8, live via satellite. Sure hogan told kids to drink their milk but how many times did he actually do it? If Luger doesn’t drink milk here then Kurt doesn’t have his milk truck moment, the line is direct
- posing in front of a mirror in front of all those lovely ladies with the fireworks at mania 9
- body slamming yoko
- 94 rumble finish
- telling mr perfect THATS BOGUS MAN at mania 10.

I could go on but I think I proved my point
I don't want to make Povy choose between his guy Lex and his fellow CANADIAN MAN but I thought his defense of Lex's WWF run deserved to be crossposted in this thread.

I'd add the time that Jim Powers somehow ended up posing in The Narcissist's mirror only for Lex to clobber him from behind to the list of Lex in WWF highlights.
 

Valeyard

Retarded sexuality and bad poetry.
Messages
14,076
Reaction score
6,654
Points
253
It should come down to who had the better match with Danny Spivey.
 

King Kamala

Integral Poster
Messages
60,444
Reaction score
8,296
Points
293
Location
Vacationland
Did Bret have a televised match with Danny Spivey? I don't remember a Bret-Waylon Mercy match but I suppose it could have happened. Also may have been a Bret-Spivey match during Spivey's days in the later version of the US Express.

Edit-
8/29/95; Erie, PA; Civic Center
9/2/95 - included a segment of Dean Douglas' Report Card in which he gave Razor Ramon a grade of "MF" for miserable failure in his losing effort against Shawn Michaels at Summer Slam; Douglas then announced he would face the 1-2-3 Kid the following week; featured Vince McMahon conducting an in-ring interview with Davey Boy Smith & Jim Cornette regarding Smith's recent turn on WWF World Champion Diesel; included the announcement that Bret Hart would face Jean Pierre Laffiette at In Your House 3:
Bam Bam Bigelow pinned Brian Faulkner at 2:28 with a moonsault
Jean Pierre Laffiette pinned Rodney Anoui at 2:40 with the Cannonball; after the bout, Bret Hart came ringside and brawled with Laffiette after Laffiette stole from a young fan at ringside; the fight was eventually broken up by referees as well as officials Pat Patterson and Rene Goulet
Henry Godwinn pinned AC Conner at 2:20 with the Slop Drop; late in the bout, Ted Dibiase appeared in the aisle; after the match, King Kong Bundy came out and attacked Godwinn from behind and held him for Dibiase to slop but Godwinn moved and accidentally slopped Bundy
Bret Hart defeated Waylon Mercy via disqualification at around 6:20 when Jean Pierre Laffiette, wearing Hart's jacket, interfered; after the bout, Hart fought off a double team attack from Mercy and Laffiette before he was eventually pulled off Laffiette by officials

Bah gawd. One of the Superstars that was just uploaded to the Network. Also King Kong Bundy: Still There in September of '95.
 

Valeyard

Retarded sexuality and bad poetry.
Messages
14,076
Reaction score
6,654
Points
253
It's on Youtube but my computer crashed when I was pulling it up.
 

King Kamala

Integral Poster
Messages
60,444
Reaction score
8,296
Points
293
Location
Vacationland
At least we had the image of Tenta and Vader happily bouncing in the ring together pre-match.

It'll never cease to be inexplicable to me that King Kong Bundy chose to come back to WWF instead of WCW in Fall of '94.

And while we're at the hoss fight, they never even gave us a stinking King Kong Bundy Vs Headshrinkers match!
 
Last edited:

King Kamala

Integral Poster
Messages
60,444
Reaction score
8,296
Points
293
Location
Vacationland
If it makes sense, I think Lex had the worse run but Bret's run was more disappointing. Should Lex in WWF gone better? Absolutely but at least you can tell they were earnestly trying (in their own stupid way) to make him a top guy.

Bret Hart going to WCW seemed like it was going to solidify WCW's victory in the Monday Night Wars and instead he was a complete non factor. By the time, they did decide to make him a top guy in the Fall of '99, it really felt like they only did it cause they had tried everything else and they were already paying him a bunch of money so whatever.
 

alfdogg

Alfdogg
Messages
6,917
Reaction score
975
Points
228
Location
Anderson, IN
I would say Bret but I've always been a huge Bret stan. If Lex had a longer run as the Narcissist or turned back heel at some point it may be more of a debate for me.
 
Top