What's the Best WWF Lex Luger Match? Is it with Tito Santana?

Lex Luger vs. Tito Santana WWF Mania 3/20/93

ER: This was a really good start to the Luger project, a nice strong contender right off the bat. Tito was getting his usual strong babyface reaction and heel Luger played off it great, being real slow to tie up in any way and slowly circling to make the crowd restless. The lockups are good as they avoid a typical collar and elbow, with Luger instead bending Tito's arm back straight over Tito's shoulder, then hitting a hard frustrated back elbow when Tito turns it. Luger really sets up his own win early by routinely going after Tito's neck, and smartly sets up a ton of Santana nearfalls just by intensely missing offense. Luger really swung for the fences on everything he did, making the hits look great, and the misses leaving him off balance and wide open for Santana to take quick action. There were two different missed Luger clothesline that were thrown so low and so fast that they would have wrecked Santana's neck had their been a crossed signal, and it made Tito's inside cradle and small package nearfalls all the more believable, and Luger made little things like being rammed face first into the turnbuckle look like he had chipped a tooth. 

I liked all of Luger's offense directed towards Santana's neck, punches to the back of his neck, downward elbows strikes to the back of his neck, STANDING on Santana's neck, and some nasty Bret Hart style elbowdrops right to Tito's throat. The home stretch is fairly surprising, as Santana calls for and hits his flying forearm, but Luger kicks out at two. The fans were rabid at this point, actually jumping out of their chairs thinking they had just seen Luger beaten in the middle. I wish they would have set up the finish a little differently, as Luger just gets up and obliterates Tito with the running forearm, basically shrugging off Tito's finisher. But the forearm looked like such a devastating KO blow - Santana went down like he was shot, really different than any other bump in the match - that it just made Luger look superhuman. Gorilla and Alfred speculate on whether that was the hardest KO they've seen, and what Luger could have done to generate such force.

This is a strong champ to start off with, already feels like it will be difficult to unseat. 

1. Lex Luger vs. Tito Santana WWF Mania 3/20/93