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#2 Lex Luger appears on Nitro
One such moment came on the very first episode of Monday Nitro when former WWF employee Lex Luger fired the first shot of the Monday Night Wars by appearing on WCW television, seemingly from nowhere.
Luger had actually appeared at the WWF Summerslam event a week earlier, as well as at a house show the day before Nitro aired. His appearance was not only shocking but also made a small mockery of the WWF, having somebody the fans assumed was an active competitor appearing on their rival’s signature show. Luger interrupted the main event of Nitro, which consisted of a match between Hulk Hogan and Big Bubba Rogers.
Luger made an indirect reference to the WWF in a promo, claiming that he had once been at the very top of the wrestling business in much the same way Hogan was in the 80s. This related to the fact that for a number of years Vince McMahon attempted to make Luger into the next Hulk Hogan.
This was the first high profile steal from WCW, and there would certainly be more to come. Luger, while seen as a significant member of the WWF roster at the time, didn’t appear to be part of Vince’s long-term plans as guys like Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels were emerging as the company’s real future. The Luger experiment which began in 1993 was all but finished by this time, making the whole affair more of an embarrassment for Vince as opposed to a serious challenge to his business.
