If It's Rest Borga Needs, He'd Rather Be Dead

Ludvig Borga vs. Rich Myers WWF Wrestling Challenge 9/19/93 - FUN

ER: A nice simple meat and potatoes Borga squash, working slowly with more trash talking. He's good about not using the exact same movesets in similar order (you can pick up a lot of habits from watching specific guys working squashes), and instead makes small offense changes depending on how he's going to finish. That's really the quickest way a good big man can become a great big man, and was instrumental in Mark Henry's leap to great worker. Here, Borga works a lot of hard kneelifts that believably lift Myers off his feet, and he didn't go to one knee lift in his Superstars match that aired the day before (against PJ Walker). The kneelift is one of his best strikes and it's cool that he has enough of a repertoire to know what things he can keep or drop match to match. Myers is game to be hit in the ribs a bunch, the high elbowdrop looked great, and all of the knees to the ribs lead to the cool torture rack finish. 

Ludvig Borga vs. Rod Bell WWF Wrestling Challenge 9/26/93 - VERY GOOD

ER: GREAT squash match. This was the most cocksure Borga has looked in a WWF ring. A man really owning the ring and getting the exact reaction a top heel should be getting. He gets in the ring and quickly walks straight up to Bell and clotheslines him hard, then holds him by the arm a few times to land several uppercuts to the kidneys and ribs. He jams his knee in Bell's stomach in the corner and holds him up in the air for a 15+ second vertical suplex. Great high elbowdrop, and nails him with the diving lariat but interestingly opts to keep the match going for more punishment. He does some great trash talking throughout this whole beatdown, and is practically strutting around the ring drawing heat. It's brilliant, a truly great, confident, powerful heel performance. He lands more body blows and puts the (good sport) Bell away with the torture rack. This is the kind of memorable heel squash that makes fans want to see you get your smug bell rung, and you love to see it. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE LUDVIG BORGA

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What's the Best Lex Luger WWF Match? Is it with Owen? Or This Squash Match?

Lex Luger vs. Owen Hart WWF Mania 6/26/93

ER: What a production! The Narcissist poses in his mirror, as Gorilla Monsoon turns Luger putting on his company-mandated protective arm sleeve into the biggest social justice cause of our time. I'm not sure I've ever heard Gorilla so frequently and incessantly demand that a wrong be righted. Luger is great during the whole intro, laughing off fans' demands but then losing it once told over the house mic that he must put on the protective sleeve or forfeit the match. Owen gets a big reaction coming out, and this is a crowd mildly intrigued about the chances of a win streak being broken by a man who lost to Bastion Booger the previous weekend. And, that was the weekend where Booger lost IN HIS DEBUT to Virgil. And yet, plenty are here to see Owen, the man slotted below Virgil on the depth chart, and that rules. Luger must sense this, as much of the match is Luger bumping and stooging for Owen. Luger misses a corner charge and eats a bulldog, runs right into a spinning heel kick, goes over fast for armdrags, and then takes the most glorious close call on a crossbody. Luger cuts nearfall kickouts so damn close and it is a great skill that few have. He gets such great reaction from his kickout timing, and this was a rare instance of him getting his shoulder up SO CLOSE to a 3 count that the crowd actually gets audibly upset, thinking they had been lawyer balled out of seeing an Owen win. But Owen doesn't show frustration and keeps the pressure on Luger, getting loud reactions from corner punches. Sadly, as the ref tries to separate them, Luger blasts Owen with the forearm (Luger is so good at removing the elbow sleeve while tied up in the turnbuckles) and Owen goes out like a light. 

Lex Luger vs. Rich Myers WWF Superstars 7/3/93

ER: This is Luger's finest and most effective squash match under The Narcissist run, giving Myers a couple of actual hot nearfalls and looking flustered until he delivered two killshots. Myers is one of our bigger bumping jobbers, and he looks like an American take on Bruce McCulloch's mulleted disaffected youth. McCulloch's youths rebelled by putting their teenage love poetry to guitar riffs, while Myers rebelled by becoming a wrestler. He slips out of a backdrop and gets some arm drags on Luger, runs him into the ropes with a nice O'Connor roll, and Luger was great at showing such fun panic in his eyes. But Luger kicks Myers to block a backdrop, knocks him sideways with a lariat, then throws Myers into the ropes only to run at him perpendicularly (like he's doing a Pounce) and times it *perfectly*. He runs elbow first right into Myers' jaw, then just kneels on him for the pin. How sad that Luger's best squash performance as the far too short-lived Narcissist came the literal day before the USS Intrepid. 

Neither of these were Lex Luger's Best WWF Match, but they are among his best performances as The Narcissist and that counts for a lot. 

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