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Legendary referee Bill Alfonso recently reflected on the time when Bruiser Brody refused to cooperate with Lex Luger during their infamous steel cage match.
In January 1987, the up-and-coming Luger faced the experienced Brody at the War Memorial Auditorium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. During the match, Brody no-sold many of his opponent’s moves, leaving Alfonso and Luger questioning what to do next.
Speaking in an interview with WSI’s James Romero, Alfonso revealed that the WWE Hall of Famer took exception to Luger’s attempt to control the match:
“You couldn’t really comprehend what was going on. Luger would try punching him and so on, and Bruiser Brody wouldn’t sell for him because it wasn’t the right thing to do. [Brody was thinking] ‘Listen to me, kid, and I’m gonna make you look like a superstar, then we’ll have our match.’ But Luger couldn’t do that and he got scared. We spooked him."
Due to Brody’s behavior, Alfonso told Luger to put his hands on him to cause a disqualification. The Royal Rumble 1994 co-winner then quickly escaped the cage due to fears that Brody could legitimately hurt him.
Bill Alfonso thinks Bruiser Brody vs. Lex Luger should never have happened
While his opponent was regarded as a steel cage match specialist, Lex Luger had limited experience inside the steel structure before facing Bruiser Brody.
At that early stage of his career, Bill Alfonso felt that Luger should not have been in the ring with someone of Brody’s caliber.
“With Brody’s flamboyant personality and Lex Luger being green [inexperienced], they were hand-picking his [Lex Luger’s] opponents... he was winning every match. It was just a bad booking. That’s what led to that finish,” Alfonso said.
Luger revealed on Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw that he genuinely thought Brody was suffering from a “mental incident” during their match. He added that his veteran opponent was “real nice” backstage and told him not to worry.
Please credit WSI and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.
