04 May, 2009
The Top 15 Wrestlers of the ‘90s: #15-#11
Posted by: The 90s Guy In: People| Television
Okay, so here we go:
#15. Lex Luger
Lex Luger was strange in that he was wildly popular wherever he went, but when you look back, you’re still trying to figure out why. Luger started out the ‘90s in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), where he held the United States Championship and was their world champion for a period of time as well. He left to go to Vince McMahon’s World Bodybuilding Federation (WBF), a company that Vince hoped would succeed in the idea that the American public enjoyed watching guys flex their muscles for long periods of time. Judging by today’s reality shows, it might work now. But then, people needed more.
Once that fell through, he joined the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as “The Narcissist”, a guy that flexed his muscles for long periods of time. You gotta hand it to Vince, he really pushed hard for that flexing thing. It bombed.
In 1993, one of the greatest villains of the ‘90s, Yokozuna (found elsewhere on this list) was challenging everyone to try to bodyslam his 500+ pound body. They held the contest on the U.S.S. Intrepid for some reason. Looking back on it, I wonder how entertaining it was to watch a billion guys walk into the ring and try to pick up another guy for what I’m sure was hours. All of a sudden, Luger landed on the ship in a helicopter wearing a stars ‘n stripes-laded shirt. He bodyslammed Yoko, and he became the top superstar in the company (though Yokozuna’s manager would continue to entertainingly claim, “IT WAS A HIP TOSS!”). He toured the country on a bus called the “Lex Express”, which was a really lame way of trying to get people to like a wrestler. Seems like if you’d have him WRESTLING, he might have made a bigger impact. He beat Yoko by countout at SummerSlam 1993 and floundered around for a while.
He left the WWF and joined WCW again on the first night of WCW’s new program, Monday Nitro. It was considered a huge move, and Luger spent the rest of the ‘90s in the main event scene there, fighting the biggest villains of WCW.
Today: Luger, sadly, had a series of medical problems and was paralyzed for a while recently. Now he can walk for short periods of time using a cane, and is a born-again Christian. Obviously, he is not wrestling anymore.
#14. Owen Hart
I get sad when I watch old clips of Owen, because I never truly appreciated how darned entertaining he was in our favorite decade. He started off the decade in the WWF in 1991, as just another wrestler. At the end of 1993, he started the best run of his life: the jealous little brother of ‘90s legend Bret “The Hitman” Hart.
The storyline went that Owen was tired of his older brother getting all the attention, so he wanted to step into the spotlight. He fought his brother for the first time at WrestleMania X, and he pinned him clean in the middle of the ring. Later that night, Bret won the world championship, and it set up the best feud of 1994, culminating in a big steel cage match at SummerSlam 1994. After that program ended, Owen was simply a cocky heel who felt he was the best thing since sliced bread. It was simple, and he did it perfectly.
The next few years he spent claiming to be a “Two-Time Slammy Award Winner”, where he stole awards from other wrestlers and claimed them as his own. It even said so on his tights. Man, Owen was funny.
The late ‘90s saw Owen get a rougher edge and eventually join The Nation of Domination, which was a, um, black militant group that wound up with Owen and a Samoan guy named Rocky Maivia.
In 1999, Owen reprised his first gimmick from the late-‘80s, The Blue Blazer, which was a bumbling superhero. At the Over The Edge 1999 pay-per-view event, he was scheduled to descend from the rafters of the Kemper Arena in St. Louis, Missouri and take a pratfall at the end. Tragically, the quick-release mechanism snapped as he was descending, and in front of the entire live audience of thousands, he fell 78 feet from the ceiling and landed chest-first on the ropes before falling into the ring. The cameras did not catch it live, and there is no videotape of it that exists to this day. That night, on May 23rd, 1999, Owen Hart was pronounced dead. In a controversial move, the show was ordered to continue, and the next night on Monday Night Raw, the WWF saluted Owen with an entire tribute show dedicated to him with wrestlers performing out of character and making comments about him.
Today: Owen is remembered as a very entertaining guy, and supposedly one of the nicest guys that ever walked backstage. I’ve never heard a bad word said about him in any interview or book I’ve ever read.
#13. Bill Goldberg
This guy is the complete opposite: I liked Goldberg at the time, but now I think he was terrible. He spent the late ‘90s bursting onto the scene in WCW and beating up nobodies left and right. They kept a horribly inaccurate record of his wins, and apparently he went 173-0 before losing to Kevin Nash. During that streak, he won the United States Championship and even the world championship by pinning Hulk Hogan. His repertoire consisted of two moves: the Spear (a football-like tackle) and the Jackhammer. He spent the rest of his time grunting and making weird faces (see picture above).
After his streak ended, he floundered around as well. WCW didn’t really know what to do with him after that.
Today: In 2003, he joined the WWF for a while, and pretty much bombed. He has since retired from wrestling and spends his time complaining about how the WWF should have used him the way WCW did in the beginning (read: “I should never have to lose.”).
#12. Chris Jericho
He’s a great author, a great interview, and he wear ridiculous hair with the best of them. Chris Jericho was the most entertaining guy on WCW programming, and WCW never knew what to do with him. He led the Cruiserweight division in the late ‘90s, and had a “bodyguard” named Ralphus, a fat guy who followed him around in a half-shirt. He mocked Goldberg for a long time, but WCW never really pulled the trigger on it. His best WCW moment was when he was feuding with Dean Malenko, a man who billed himself as “The Man of 1,000 Holds”. Jericho, in response, claimed to be “The Man of 1,001 Holds”. He sat on the microphone with a list of wrestling moves and read them on-air. They even went to a commercial break and came back – he was still reciting moves, most of which were just variations of the armbar. It was a classic moment.
After being tired of working at WCW, Jericho joined the WWF in 1999 and was given one of the most hyped-up surprise entrances in history, interrupting ‘90s legend The Rock and rocking the live audience.
Today: Jericho left WWF for a while, but then came back with a new look and a new attitude. He has dropped his goofy persona and is now an ultra-serious bad guy. I hear he does really well with it, too. Good for him.
#11. Sting
Sting was definitely a wrestler of the late-‘80s/early-‘90s. He sported bleach-blonde hair, bright colors, and smiled a lot. He was ultra-popular in WCW. Then, as the WCW was threatened by the nWo, Sting was accused of joining the bad guys. He was so offended at the accusation that he stopped wrestling and dressed up like The Crow (see above picture).
There started a slow burn for a full year, as Sting sat in rafters at the arenas and just watched everything unfold. The wrestling world was on the edge of their seat anytime he did anything, such as rappel down from the rafters (before Owen’s accident) and beat up the nWo with a baseball bat. One of the most anticipated matches of the entire decade was held at Starrcade 1997, when Sting kinda beat Hulk Hogan for the WCW title. Sting then went back to being a rather forgettable good guy, but still amazingly popular.
Today: The Stinger is now wrestling in TNA, where he has held their world title for a long time I guess.
Stay tuned for more later this week!
