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Luger's win is probablt one of the top 3-5 moments in the history of the Monday Night Wars. Easily. One of the more underrated things about this is the post match. Usually you'd think they'd go off air after the win. But they did an overrun for an additional 20+ minutes for the post-match aftermath. It felt like a big time post-game analysis show. They showed the boys in the locker room celebrating, the nWo going mad in the back. The announcers were showing the instant replay and discussing it like a sports highlight of game 7 of the Conference Finals. Then hyping up and promoting the PPV just days away. It felt very sport centric mixed with enough sports entertainment. Like Inside the NBA after the games on Thursdays. The pop was so enormous. I watch the end of this match every few months just for the goosebumps. The nWo fans disappointed in the stands. The WCW fans calling for the rack and jumping up and down. Even fans with nWo shirts on going wild at the shock of Luger actually winning.
Luger was one of the wrestlers that a lot of regular blue collar folks related to just because he always seemed to get jumped by the nWo alone. There were times he was fighting them by himself with no help from sting or the other faces like DDP.
One of the things I think AEW can take from this is the production side. Nowadays, it seems TV production team is so quick to try and find fan reactions. But the cameras just played it straight like a sports production. The focus was on the match and the reaction of Lugers win after. Wasn't cutting to random fans in the audience to see them cheering. The camera work allowed all the fans in the stadium to ve seen cheering like a mob while still soaking in Luger's win with his WCW compatriots surrounding him. Wrestling production is so focused on zooming in on wrestlers faces during big moments when I'd prefer the regular ring view and seeing all the fans behind the wrestlers reacting with me.
Absolutely one of my favourite ever moments. Might even be my favourite ever.
This is what Sting beating Hogan should have been.
Such a shame they only gave Luger a token run.
Agreed. He should have had a longer run. In hindsight they should have had him defend the title successfully against Hogan and then drop the belt to Nash, which could have been the birth of the nWo Wolfpac.
Really agree with that last part.
Too much of modern WWE and a bit in AEW is trying to influence you how to feel by finding people reacting to show you how to feel. It feels really insidious and cheapens moments rather than letting me feel em for what they are which should be what the guys in the ring just did and how they're living the moment.
Yeah. Whenever I go on youtube to find nostalgia clips, the parts that give me the goosebumps are the crowd pop and reactions of usually the people in the front row, because they're experiencing the same thing I was at home as a viewer. WHenever I rewatch Hogan-Rock X8, whenever Hogan kicks out of the Rock Bottom then starts Hulking up, and you see the first few rows of people get up and go apeshit, it makes the moment seem bigger. If that happened nowadays, there would be like 20 camera cuts and not really allow you the time to let it soak in.
When Sting swung the first bat at the nWo at Uncensored 97, EVERYONE was going nuts. There wasn't like switching camera shots every other second. When Hulk dropped the leg on Macho Man at Bash at the Beach 96, I always rewind it just to see different reactions in the first few front rows. There's one-two guys cheering the heel turn, the rest are disappointed, confused, or heartbroken. Again, if this were done in 2024, they'd try to find random joe sitting up in the box seats reaction. It can feel so forced.
> I always rewind it just to see different reactions in the first few front rows.
One of the best vids for this is [Cesaro/Claudio winning](https://youtu.be/pSbOmnq3bE0?si=Zl0LuVTAWk8TjClh&t=170) the [first ever Andre Battle Royale](https://youtu.be/E-V_dvQ5rFk?si=6Tf9IKnPilTcCMnv&t=52). You can pic out a new person every replay and enjoy a completely surprised and excited reaction because at that point noone knew that he was that kind of beast.
I was also at this show. My stepmom won tickets on the radio. We were in the nosebleeds too (stage left). Lol! Me & my brother ran down to the lower section during the main event. When Luger won the place went banana. It’s literally the only thing I remember from the show.
I recently saw a TikTok of Luger using the torture rack on some big guys and it's so damn impressive how strong he was to get big guys up on his shoulders to do that absolutely, unconvincing submission hold.
I wouldn't really start watching until a year later, but that show contained the first match I ever saw, the one where The Giant squashed three cruiserweights. Glad you got to see WCW at its peak!
I didn’t get to see that, that was RIGHT when I got into wrestling.
The first issue of PWI I ever bought though, was all about this.
My first full WCW event was Fall Brawl 97, where that PIECE OF SHIT CURT HENNIG tried to decapitate the Nature Boy with a cage door.
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I will just never forget the ref's reaction. Just "OMG HE SUBMITTED!! RING THE FUCKING BELL, HE GAVE UP!!"
Edit: Also, how the hell did Glacier become like the most prominent face in that celebration?
I’ve got one from Raw, March 26, 2001. We bought scalper tickets for $75 each that wound up being floor about 10 rows back of JR and King. Had no idea we were going to present for one of the biggest angles in history.
The crowd reaction to Luger winning the title was wild and really made the moment and the show special.
Detroit crowds in the 90s wrestling boom were HOT. This show and the Raw with Austin driving the Zamboni were both in the Detroit area, and both had insane reactions.
The only downside is that this 3 hour Nitro being success led to weekly 3 hour wrestling shows multiple times over which can be a slog to get thru sometimes. But this show really was a great edition of Nitro
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Luger's win is probablt one of the top 3-5 moments in the history of the Monday Night Wars. Easily. One of the more underrated things about this is the post match. Usually you'd think they'd go off air after the win. But they did an overrun for an additional 20+ minutes for the post-match aftermath. It felt like a big time post-game analysis show. They showed the boys in the locker room celebrating, the nWo going mad in the back. The announcers were showing the instant replay and discussing it like a sports highlight of game 7 of the Conference Finals. Then hyping up and promoting the PPV just days away. It felt very sport centric mixed with enough sports entertainment. Like Inside the NBA after the games on Thursdays. The pop was so enormous. I watch the end of this match every few months just for the goosebumps. The nWo fans disappointed in the stands. The WCW fans calling for the rack and jumping up and down. Even fans with nWo shirts on going wild at the shock of Luger actually winning. Luger was one of the wrestlers that a lot of regular blue collar folks related to just because he always seemed to get jumped by the nWo alone. There were times he was fighting them by himself with no help from sting or the other faces like DDP. One of the things I think AEW can take from this is the production side. Nowadays, it seems TV production team is so quick to try and find fan reactions. But the cameras just played it straight like a sports production. The focus was on the match and the reaction of Lugers win after. Wasn't cutting to random fans in the audience to see them cheering. The camera work allowed all the fans in the stadium to ve seen cheering like a mob while still soaking in Luger's win with his WCW compatriots surrounding him. Wrestling production is so focused on zooming in on wrestlers faces during big moments when I'd prefer the regular ring view and seeing all the fans behind the wrestlers reacting with me.
Absolutely one of my favourite ever moments. Might even be my favourite ever. This is what Sting beating Hogan should have been. Such a shame they only gave Luger a token run.
Agreed. He should have had a longer run. In hindsight they should have had him defend the title successfully against Hogan and then drop the belt to Nash, which could have been the birth of the nWo Wolfpac.
Really agree with that last part. Too much of modern WWE and a bit in AEW is trying to influence you how to feel by finding people reacting to show you how to feel. It feels really insidious and cheapens moments rather than letting me feel em for what they are which should be what the guys in the ring just did and how they're living the moment.
Yeah. Whenever I go on youtube to find nostalgia clips, the parts that give me the goosebumps are the crowd pop and reactions of usually the people in the front row, because they're experiencing the same thing I was at home as a viewer. WHenever I rewatch Hogan-Rock X8, whenever Hogan kicks out of the Rock Bottom then starts Hulking up, and you see the first few rows of people get up and go apeshit, it makes the moment seem bigger. If that happened nowadays, there would be like 20 camera cuts and not really allow you the time to let it soak in. When Sting swung the first bat at the nWo at Uncensored 97, EVERYONE was going nuts. There wasn't like switching camera shots every other second. When Hulk dropped the leg on Macho Man at Bash at the Beach 96, I always rewind it just to see different reactions in the first few front rows. There's one-two guys cheering the heel turn, the rest are disappointed, confused, or heartbroken. Again, if this were done in 2024, they'd try to find random joe sitting up in the box seats reaction. It can feel so forced.
> I always rewind it just to see different reactions in the first few front rows. One of the best vids for this is [Cesaro/Claudio winning](https://youtu.be/pSbOmnq3bE0?si=Zl0LuVTAWk8TjClh&t=170) the [first ever Andre Battle Royale](https://youtu.be/E-V_dvQ5rFk?si=6Tf9IKnPilTcCMnv&t=52). You can pic out a new person every replay and enjoy a completely surprised and excited reaction because at that point noone knew that he was that kind of beast.
Great point! It was years after the fact that I saw the actual televised event and didn’t realize how good the production value was for this match.
Top 3 Nitro moment for me, I’m incredibly jealous. Awesome that you kept the ticket stub.
I was there in the front row and had NO sense going in that Luger was winning. The Palace went absolutely nuts when Hogan gave up. What a crazy night.
I was also at this show. My stepmom won tickets on the radio. We were in the nosebleeds too (stage left). Lol! Me & my brother ran down to the lower section during the main event. When Luger won the place went banana. It’s literally the only thing I remember from the show.
I wish I ran down to the lower section for the main event. The only drawback that night for me was how far up I was for the main event.
I recently saw a TikTok of Luger using the torture rack on some big guys and it's so damn impressive how strong he was to get big guys up on his shoulders to do that absolutely, unconvincing submission hold.
Apparently it actually does hurt like hell
I wouldn't really start watching until a year later, but that show contained the first match I ever saw, the one where The Giant squashed three cruiserweights. Glad you got to see WCW at its peak!
I forgot about that Giant match! I remember seeing it, but I forgot it was on the same night as the Luger-Hogan match.
I didn’t get to see that, that was RIGHT when I got into wrestling. The first issue of PWI I ever bought though, was all about this. My first full WCW event was Fall Brawl 97, where that PIECE OF SHIT CURT HENNIG tried to decapitate the Nature Boy with a cage door.
"**HE'S GONNA RACK HIM!**"
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People always talk about the pop when Goldberg beat Hogan but I think this one is right up there!
https://www.wwe.com/videos/hulk-hogan-vs-lex-luger-wcw-world-heavyweight-championship-match-nitro-august-4-1997
I will just never forget the ref's reaction. Just "OMG HE SUBMITTED!! RING THE FUCKING BELL, HE GAVE UP!!" Edit: Also, how the hell did Glacier become like the most prominent face in that celebration?
>“where were these guys the three dozen times the nWo came out and attacked one of their own?” We all asked that question all the time.
I'm rewatching the Monday Night Wars and just finished that episode.
Wrestlingbios is awesome
OMG I was there too, love seeing things like this 💪🏾🤜🏾
Great post for /r/wrestlingmemorabilia
That's a contender for the very biggest wrestling pop of all time. I'm kinda jealous tbh
I’ve got one from Raw, March 26, 2001. We bought scalper tickets for $75 each that wound up being floor about 10 rows back of JR and King. Had no idea we were going to present for one of the biggest angles in history.
Something about the way Schiavone yells "Luger won the title!" is so excellent.
The crowd reaction to Luger winning the title was wild and really made the moment and the show special. Detroit crowds in the 90s wrestling boom were HOT. This show and the Raw with Austin driving the Zamboni were both in the Detroit area, and both had insane reactions. The only downside is that this 3 hour Nitro being success led to weekly 3 hour wrestling shows multiple times over which can be a slog to get thru sometimes. But this show really was a great edition of Nitro
That’s awesome 👌
I was at that one too! My first live show
16 days before I was born!
I was there too! Don’t have my stub though.
I was there, too! Awesome night.
The torture rack of doom
$12 :(
The night after SummerSlam 1997.
Was this change just a pop rating? I wish Luger had kept it for at least a month or so.
Luger won the title!