5 Times WWE Superstars surprisingly let their contracts expire

#3 Lex Luger jumped straight to WCW when his WWE contract expired in 1995

Lex Luger shows up on very first WCW Monday Nitro after wrestling a house show for WWE the night before. pic.twitter.com/J2Hd94dV3A

— Kenny Davis (@Kdav3680) October 4, 2018

Similar to Randy Savage, Lex Luger made the jump from WWE to WCW during his career. However, Luger's switch had a far bigger immediate impact when it happened in September 1995.

Luger's WWE contract was due to expire in late August and he reached out to WCW to see if there would be interest in bringing him into the promotion.

For WCW Executive Producer Eric Bischoff, the timing couldn't have been any better. WCW launched Monday Nitro on September 4, 1995 - and Bischoff agreed a deal with Luger which would allow him to debut on the very first edition of the show and a major surprise.

There was one condition, though. Bischoff didn't want Luger to tell Vince McMahon that he was leaving. Relunctantly, Luger agreed.

Lex Luger is out to save the day NOW on #KingOfTheRing 1994 as part of @WWENetwork's #WWETBT! http://t.co/OpO6Pt5kgv pic.twitter.com/nFH79AEXcj

— WWE Network (@WWENetwork) May 14, 2015

Luger was still an active in-ring competitor for WWE at the time he signed with WCW. Lex was working on a handshake deal with McMahon, who fully expected the former Royal Rumble winner to sign a new contract with his promotion shortly. This led to Luger appearing at a WWE live event in Saint John, New Brunswick, less than 24 hours before he debuted on WCW's newest television show.

Speaking during an appearance on Sean Waltman's Pro Wrestling 4 Life podcast last month, Luger admitted he now regrets walking out on the WWE without giving proper notice.

"It was hard to keep a secret, but Eric wanted it to be totally secret that I was leaving," said Luger. "I was still negotiating on a handshake to stay in WWE, and for me to walk out there and not give any notice to Vince, looking back now, I wish I hadn’t done that. I did what I thought was best at the time for my career. Me, myself, and I. Hopefully if I’d have done it again, I wouldn’t have done that to Vince. I felt, even back then, felt really bad about that.”

Although there were numerous switches between WWE and WCW during the Monday Night War era, Lex Luger's was one of the most controversial of all.