Sting Talks Eric Bischoff's Reaction To Signing Lex Luger, If He Ever Thought WCW Could Beat WWE
On a recent episode of WWE Network's Table for 3, WCW Legends 'Diamond' Dallas Page, Sting, and Vader discussed Sting's involvement in bringing Lex Luger back to WCW in 1995 and the Monday Night Wars, among other things.
In regards to Sting's involvement in Luger's return to WCW in 1995, Sting indicated that he and Luger were still in touch when Luger was with WWE since they were business partners, owning health clubs in Atlanta, Georgia.
"[Luger] wanted to leave [WWE] because the grass was greener and all that. I think he got frustrated for whatever his reasons were and he reached out to me. He said, 'hey man, what are the chances?' and so I went and talked to [Eric] Bischoff and Eric said, 'man, lets try to make something happen! This would be cool!'"
Sting relayed this information to Luger. Apparently, Bischoff was interested in having Luger as a surprise for the first episode of WCW Monday Nitro and wanted to keep the deal quiet.
"I said [to Luger], 'yeah, Eric says we can make this thing work. We talked about doing something on [WCW Monday] Nitro, but shh'. We just didn't tell anybody! Like, his wife knew, my wife knew, [but] that was it."
During the show, Page asked Sting whether he ever believed WCW could supplant WWE as being the top professional wrestling company. Sting said he did not believe it until the very first episode of WCW Monday Nitro on September 4, 1995.
"It wasn't until that very first show in Minneapolis [Minnesota], we talked about it, we saw, 'wait a minute, something that has never happened here is happening now'. And you could kind of feel this real strong movement and, man, it just kept on growing. Kevin [Nash] came, Scott [Hall] came, Lex came first, and, man, now all of a sudden, you know, 'okay, we're winning every week now'."
Page added that WCW Monday Nitro overtaking WWE Monday Night RAW in the ratings war was "surreal" to him.
"I can remember Bischoff going, 'we're going to win! We're going to beat [Vince McMahon]! We're going to be the number one company!' and that just shows you about manifesting a dream into reality."
Also, Sting said that over the years, Ted Turner would meet with WCW personnel and say that he was facing a lot pressure from the business side of the organization to get rid of WCW, but assured WCW staff to just keep doing what they were doing and not to worry because he has deep pockets. Page claimed that WCW never would have gone away if Turner still owned Turner Broadcasting System.
The WCW Legends covered many topics during this episode of Table for 3. To watch the show, subscribe to the WWE Network. New subscribers can still sign up for the WWE Network by clicking here and get their first month for free, which includes last Sunday's WWE Hell In A Cell pay-per-view.