Jim Cornette's Watch-Along: Yokozuna vs. Lex Luger at SummerSlam 1993 

Jim Cornette is literally the greatest thing in wresting today.

Listening to Jim Cornette is more entertaining than today's wrestling.

Ah yes, the count out victory. What better reason to drop balloons.

Talking about the balloon drop at the end, Brian: Things are starting to drop right now. Jim: Yeah, enthusiasm!!!!! Line of the watch-along!!! Love these shows, best podcasts on here!

That ending of the match was the Participation Ribbon of celebrations.

It wasnt a slam, but Shawn simultaneously threw Yokozuna and Vader over the top rope in the 96 Rumble. Arguably the most preposterous spot in wrestling history up to that point.

Yoko had tremendous cardio for a man of his size in his younger years. Extremely underrated wrestler and champion.

I look forward to these watchalongs all week.

Yokozuna is imo the greatest super heavyweight wrestler of all time and my favorite wrestler of all time. RIP. Gone from this world but never ever forgotten. Oh, and I am glad that he kept the title at SS. Yoko was a far better worker than Lex, and losing that match completely so soon after winning the title again would have buried him, especially after his hogan loss at WM (which at least had somewhat of an excuse because he had already wrestled a whole match prior).

“Yoko’s ass bouncing better than the ring ropes” Jim Cornette 2020. Pure gold.

Comparing Cornette's review to OSW's review is like night and day - especially regarding who actually got gassed first.

Worst build up to a babyface not winning a world title!

Love these watch-alongs. Thanks, guys!

Keep these watch alongside coming!

I remember meeting Lex during his Lex Express tour when he visited the North Riverside Mall in Illinois. Waited like an hour to meet him.

Corny was literally at ring side when Ahmed slammed Yokozuna. come on man ;_; it's like the one of the two good things he did in WWF

Anyone else remember the followup to the body slam on the Intrepid when Fuji and Cornette kept claiming it was actually a hip toss, not a body slam. Though this might've been something that only played out in the pages of WWF Magazine.

More watch alongs! These are fantastic

From personal experience, a metal plate would hurt the person with the plate far more than it would the person getting hit. I still have plates in my lower right leg from a soccer injury years ago, and anytime I hit the plate on something particularly hard, it feels like my entire lower leg is on fire.

Off topic but its gonna be a long week before i get to hear Jim on the stipulation for the new match between Jericho and Pockets lol

I can tell you that as a kid watching this, Luger was indeed over. Looking back and during WrestleMania 10, it seemed that the kids in my area were more into Luger while the adults wanted Bret. My house was also split. My father, myself and my youngest sister were rooting for Luger while my mother and older sister were rooting for Bret. I remember a lot of people going crazy when Luger slammed Yoko and they talked about it a lot.

Jim has always helped with my anxiety.

The title should have “(the burial of Lex Luger)” at the end of it

The WWF dug themselves a Luger sized hole and should have stuck with it, done the only sensible thing at that point and put him over. He could have held the belt for 4-5 months and when he inevitably failed, he then drops the belt back to Yoko at the Rumble and Bret wins it at Wrestlemania. If they were going to not have Luger win at Summerslam, his push to the title should have ended then and there. Then Bret can win the Rumble solo.

Great! Now all I need is a place where I can watch the match for free 🤣

Talking about the difference in WWF and JCP style of match, a better Luger match I'd like a Watch Along of would be Luger vs. Pillman from Halloween Havoc '89.

Ahmed Johnson slammed him. Was a decent slam

I'm surprised they didn't talk about the part where Yokozuna was putting a submission hold on Luger's neck and how of a terrible hold that was lol. If you look at it, it wasn't even a hold at all! :P

Yoko took a weak steel plate forearm shot to the head, bounced off the turn buckle corner, & literally walked into Luger's arms for that smoke & mirrors bodyslam. On Monday Night Raw, Ahmed Johnson, fake, implant triceps & all, was the only man to legit slam Yoko without a bouncing Yoko assist, from a static position.

I loved bigelow/headshrinkers vs tatanka/smoking guns from this show

Luger was never believable as a babyface, but in the NWA you could cheer for him against the Four Horsemen, who were REVILED at that time. It was great wrestling, and you could tell that the ongoing Dusty finishes really did piss off Luger, which made him give a stronger performance.

Lex Luger is the only wrestler in history going into the main event as a babyface replacement for another (Sting in WCW and Hogan in WWF) and not winning the title due to a countout because he wasn't over enough. Can you think of another one with this distinction?

Yokozuna was one of my favs in the day still is sad he is gone. I was watching Yokozuna from 92-94 his best years he was a great monster heel, his matches with Taker, and Bret great. But by 95-96 you could tell how much weight he put on as you could really see it, he was sucking wind after just a few minutes not like here. I always wonder if Yokozuna lost the weight and got back to the weight here, or even WM9. I think Vince have brought him back in 98 as he was under contract by then. I can see him in some big feuds like Yokozuna vs Stone Cold would have been good, Yokozuna vs Kane two monsters, Yokozuna vs The Rock, Yokozuna vs Mankind, and for sure Yokozuna vs Undertaker to great rivals.

Imagine if Hulk beat the Sheik by count out in ‘84.

Cornette the Express were badassmfrs back in the days of good wrestling and today he is a beacon of profane hope !!

This was the moment I fell in love with wrestling. I'll never forget it. I was 9.

Artwork is usually on, but that Lex Luger looks like Don Muraco?!

Then miraculously, that deadly steel plate in the forearm was forgotten a few weeks later and it was never mentioned again as a gimmick in the following year. Aside from the lame ending, the only other thing I remember was both guys sweating like pigs under 250 watt shop lamps!

Savage cried during Aaron Neville's rendition of the Star Spangled Banner.

Jim. The wrestling treasure we all need. One of , if not , the greatest wrestling mind we have. Best podcaster in the buisness by far.

i remember thinking how weird the ending was, luger and all the wrestlers celebrating yet he didnt even win the title. never made sense to me.

29min: jim: ahmed Johnson was the one after luger that slammed him in the, go home, raw for the 1995 survivor series to bring in as a talent

I hate not being able to actually watch along because I don't have the network. Where is this match on the interweb? Can't find it.

Even in hindsight they had nothing to lose putting the belt on Lex. They might as well have.

I remember watching this and they were building Lex like there was no tomorrow. You thought Lex winning the world title at SummerSlam would be the endgame. The end of the match left a sour taste in my mouth. The next day I told my boss, "I paid $24.95 for a countout?!".

I watched some of the earlier matches before starting the podcast, and while some of the matches were a bit rough, Bobby Heenan on commentary was good - as usual.

I remember this. I was in almost the top row. My Dad thought Lex won the belt, I was confused by the celebration because I thought you couldn’t win the belt by count out. I was more excited about Bret v Doink and King.

Luger was never going to be Hogan,it just wasn't going to work. For people who complain that Vince should've let Luger have a run with the belt, where was the same energy when Crockett had 2 chances in 1988 to put the belt on Lex, Bash and Starrcade 88 cause he was hot that year. Just saying. 🤷‍♂️

As good as Yoko was, for me his heat got killed at WrestleMania IX when Hogan squashed him in seconds.

They way to do it was have luger be stripped of it due to using the loaded arm by Tunney

This is one of his funniest watch alongs

They built this up so much and it ended up backfiring big time!

Even as a kid in the 90s I could always tell Luger wasnt confident with being a baby face . His smile just seemed forced, something was off.

A thought on Lex: when he was first introduced, he was the Narcissus. I loved his introduction at WrestleMania, Heenan delivers a great promo about his near sexual love for Lex's body. A few weeks later, the Narcissus takes on Crush, who beats him in a match where the story is "this hotshot idiot gets overpowered, in an almost purely strength contest, by the tall Hawaiian Babyface with the nice smile". Then we get to the Intrepid, where Crush, a man who is clearly stronger than Lex, cannot pick up Yokozuna, but Lex, who it is clear in real life cannot pick up Yokozuna, because you can watch Yokozuna jump, and that was an awful body slam, barely picks up Yokozuna and messily drops him to the ground. That was what really killed this matchup for me. I don't want to watch Lex try Yokozuna, I want Crush. They shouldn't have had Crush on the Intrepid, they shouldn't have had Lex versus Crush, or, they shouldn't have pushed Lex as the strongest man in the WWF after being beaten by Crush.

Missed Lex's generic biddle music during the entrance... :/

I can't find this match. Would it be possible to put a link to these watch alongs please? Thank you and I love your shows..

I never got on the Lex Express bandwagon I was one of the few kids cheering for Yokozuna to retain the belt and was happy that Yoko kept the belt.

The thumbnail looks like theo von.

Poor Lex didn't deserve that treatment. Vince could have put the belt on him for a cup of coffee and maybe have him turn heel and drop the belt to Bret. But at least he went on to hold the big gold belt for a cup of coffee four years later

I am the kid with no shirt flexing in the Lex Express video.

As of today on the PeaCOCK, I think the ideal start time is around 2:16:10 instead of 2:15:56 because of edits

I immediately turned off Ghost of Tsushima to do this watch along. I guess Lex really did win. U S A! U S A!

As a 5 year old kid in attendance near the ramp. I remember the balloons and was confused cause my family was confused

That a man named Lex Luger was supposed to be an american hero also boggles the mind, if you think of it 🤣

Even in WCW he seemed more comfortable being heel with Harley Race going against Sting and even being part of NWO he did some great work .

Re: Luger knowing or not knowing Aaron Neville...didn't Michael Hayes say that he and Lex took some time to warm up to each other, but when they did it was over a shared love of classic R&B music? If so I bet Lex absolutely knows who the Nevilles are.

I was about 12 when this match happened but I remember my cousin's then boyfriend talking about meeting Lex Luger in the hotel he worked at in Chicago and Lex told him he either hurt his back or his bicep (can't remember which) slamming Yoko but just think if he was able to get under him he probably would've been injured worse.

Lex was NOT a babyface... I think Lexy should've won the belt, then turned heel

Yoko's ass bounced more than the ring did!

Vince was stuck with the All-American idea.

Where is the link ? is it on youtube or network ?

SS 1994 is a GREAT CARD!!!!!!!! I only planned on watching Lex & his flat punches & am watching all of it!!! GORILLA MONSOON & JIM ROSS ARE CALLING THE MATCHES FOR ARMED FORCES RADIO - I WANNA HEAR THAT!!!!

Randy was doing it all in '93. I think they figured everybody liked the Macho Man, so why not have him announce Luger? Though admittedly, his use here deprived us of the golden voice of Howard Finkel

Count out victories only work for heels. It just makes a babyface look stupid.

I knew the celebration was bad but oh my god the video package afterwords. They made it seem like a Lex Luger memorial. And they compare him to Neil Armstrong, JFK, MLK, Washington, Lincoln, etc. that was painful

Love the watch alongs even without seeing the match. This is Sports Entertainment!

R.I.P. 🙏Yoko

I would compare the way that they pushed Lex Luger 2 how they pushed Roman Reigns the first four years. At least that's what it felt like to me as a kid like we already knew Lex Luger from WCW and he wasn't getting any better no matter how hard they shoveled it in

Ahmed Johnson body slammed him. but was basically same way as Lex.

Should’ve been Hacksaw Jim Duggan vs Yokozuna.

They should of never turn lex baby face he was good as a heel

Early in 93 Lex was a monster heel as the Narcissist. his gimmick was like a much darker, meaner version of shawn Michaels with the mirror flexing routine. Narcissist was a total psychopath. its strange that was the guy they tried to make the face of the company just months later.

I was starting to watch WWE around this time and remember seeing the body slam challenge and all the Lex Luger promotional hype they were doing at the time. Then the ending of the actual match when Luger didn’t win the title and even back then I was like ??? All that and he didn’t win the title? That was disappointing to say the least. You could tell WWF gave up on him quickly as he was in the midcard after the Yoko stuff was over with.

The brutal rock bottom from Yoko was on Vader during the Survivor Series match. Not the easiest opponent to attempt that on, but was pretty ugly.

I just wish Yoko and Bret had a year long feud after Bret’s loss at Wrestlemania 9 that didn’t include Hogan and Luger.

The actual problem with the booking here more than the finish was the stipulation that if Luger didn't win the belt then he would not have another shot at the WWF championship and the Rumble was far away in people's mind to even consider it, so they're like "oh he won, but he'll never be champion now or have a rematch for the belt so why caring about Luger from now on?"

Lex Luger is underrated imo.

This one is bottom 2 next to thrill seekers v bodies match..kinda on the mehh side

Let Lex go over, if he flops, do a screwed finish at Survivor series that gets the belt back on Yoko and go from there

This is the match were Jim slapped around luger and Yokozuna backstage and threatened they're families

Ahmed Johnson did "slam" Yoko, in his rookie year push

Funniest match finish ever. Lex Luger doesn't win the title but celebrates as if he has with fuckin confetti and everything. It's great lmao

The burial of Lex Luger

Ahmed Johnson Slammed Yoko. Just a FYI

93 wcw was good

4:49 he's hyperventilating already lol

Jim talks about the outs they tried to give Luger... They may have worked if Lex hadn't looked like a complete moron celebrating so hard a countout victory. You can trick or deceive a babyface, but when they look stupid you've lost it.

there was something with Hacksaw Jim Duggan on Superstars, another glorified hip toss passed as a slam?

People sometimes stop at this event and pronounce Luger's career dead. Forgetting in just 4 years he would be beating Hogan for the world title on free tv. And dominating the WWE for 84 weeks in the ratings with Luger main eventing for most of it.

I wanted to see Luger put Yokozuna in the rack...