"We left so much on the table" - former WCW personality discusses Lex Luger's 1997 title win

Former WCW President Eric Bischoff has commented on his decision to crown Lex Luger as the promotion's World Champion in 1997.

Luger defeated Hollywood Hogan for the WCW championship on the August 4, 1997 edition of Monday Nitro. He would hold the belt for five days before losing it back to Hogan at the promotion's annual event, Road Wild.

Luger previously held the same championship in the early 1990's. This win would signal the second (and final) world title reign of his career. He retired from in-ring competition in 2006.

Looking back at the moment on a recent episode of "83 Weeks", Bischoff stated that he and WCW didn't fully capitalize on the momentum of The Total Package's victory at the time:

“I’m disappointed in that," Bischoff stated. "We left so much on the table, and it was definitely too quick. It was a poor decision on everybody’s part – mostly mine. I greenlit that s**t. There’s no other way to look at it. I know what the thinking was then, it was ‘It’ll be so much heat because people want Lex to be the champion.’"

Bischoff went on to acknowledge that they potentially left a lot on the table with the storyline:

"We knew it was gonna get heat and it did, but maybe the wrong kind of heat. Maybe not. But for sure what we did was leave so much great opportunity on the table, so much great storytelling on the table." (H/T: 411MANIA)

Bischoff admits that he and WCW creative rushed through Luger's storyline

Lex Luger was one of wrestling's biggest stars in the 90s. However, because of the way several of his storylines went down in WWF and then WCW, he is often overlooked by modern fans.

Speaking on "83 Weeks", Eric Bischoff admitted that he and those overseeing the storyline failed to get the most out of Luger's program with Hogan, as they knew the angle would work with the bare minimum of effort:

"There was no rush. What’s the rush? There’s no deadline or expiration date on this s**t. It’s all about what can we as a team at that time do to make the most of it? Rather than thinking about it from that perspective, we rushed and took the easy way out because we knew it would work and why put any more into it than was necessary. That wasn’t a conscious thought, but that’s what I think was probably going through our minds then.” (H/T: 411MANIA)

After Hogan's win against Luger, he would hold the WCW championship into December, when he was eventually defeated by Sting at Starrcade 1997.