Lex Luger's Nitro Debut

In September 1995 the war between Raw and Nitro really hit turbo mode with the first shots fired on the opening night of Nitro. Lex Luger's contractual loop hole enabled him to negotiate a deal with Eric Bischoff and WCW. Unlike ever before Luger's move started a rivalry between both companies that would accumulate in the most historic period in wrestling history.


Stating he recently regretted his actions of appearing on Nitro without informing Vince McMahon of his departure, Luger admitted the move shouldn't have occurred as it wasn't the right thing to do but felt it was "best for his family at the time".

In the weeks leading into Nitro's debut, Luger admitted he didn't know about WCW's plans to go mainstream on Monday nights. At Nitro they were willing to offer him a guaranteed contract unlike his hand-shake agreement with Vince McMahon. For weeks previously, Luger had been working without a contract hence making it easy to negotiate with Bischoff at WCW.

With Bischoff not keen on the idea of Luger returning to WCW, it was his friendship with Sting that enabled the two parties to come together. The two had agreed a deal but Bischoff being Bischoff wanted to keep the recruitment of Luger a secret and ordered him to remain quiet on the deal.

Bischoff's plan had been to make Luger a surprise debut on the opening episode of Nitro and immediately set the tone for the viewer who tuned into Nitro. Luger had worked a house show the night previously for the WWF and to everyone's knowledge was still a contracted WWF employee.

Monday September 4th 1995, Lex Luger arrived in Minneapolis' Mall of America and literally walked into the show with a handful of people in the knowledge of his arrival. Luger stepped out immediately and stood in the entrance way during a match between Ric Flair and personal friend Sting much to everyone's amazement.

It set the tone on the show straight away highlighting that anything could in-fact happen on Nitro. In the meantime on Raw, an angry dentist was attacking the WWF's best performer and a character portrayed as a pig farmer were launching slop at a blue blood.

Luger reappeared at the end of the night to aid Hogan in attacking the Dungeon of Doom and informed the viewers when "Mean" Gene stepped into the ring that he was sick of wrestling nobodies and came where the "big boys play".

A symbolic moment for Bischoff  and  Nitro with the show's surprise factor immediately set. Despite the lack of professionalism towards his parent company, Luger's appearance has since become iconic and can go down as arguably the most surprising debut in wrestling history.