5 New Generation Era Superstars who should have been WWE Champions
In the previous article, we listed and looked at the five greatest WWE Superstars from the Golden Era who should have been crowned as WWE Champions. That list included Roddy Piper, Ted DiBiase, Jake Roberts, Ricky Steamboat, and Jimmy Snuka. Other honourable mentions from that era are Nikolai Volkoff, Paul Orndorff, Greg Valentine, Jesse Ventura, Junkyard Dog, and George Steele.
Now, we will take a look at the New Generation Era which started in 1993, when Vince McMahon started pushing younger talents such as Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, and The Undertaker.
The WWE was ravaged by the steroid scandal a year before, so they had no other choice but to repair their image. The New Generation Era lasted for just four years, and it only produced a handful of new WWE Champions. They were Yokozuna, Diesel, Shawn Michaels, and Sycho Sid.
Now, lets take a look at 5 superstars from the New Generation Era who should have been WWE Champions.
Honorable mentions: Ahmed Johnson and Bam Bam Bigelow
Unlike the Golden Era which had a lot of deserving superstars, the New Generation only had a handful of characters who were WWE Championship material. First, the honourable mentions which are Ahmed Johnson and Bam Bam Bigelow.
Johnson was signed by the WWE in 1995, and there was a lot of hype surrounding him. There were even talks of him being a future WWE Champion. He had the look and the size, but his health failed him. Johnson suffered from kidney problems in his second year in the WWE, and he was never the same after that. He joined WCW in 1999, but was released a year later due to weight issues.
On the other hand, Bam Bam was a unique monster who deserved a short run as WWE Champion. He was a big guy, standing 6’4” and weighing 390 pounds, but he moved like a cruiserweight. Bigelow had problems with The Kliq (Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, and Sean Waltman) backstage, which led to his release from the WWE.
#5 Lex Luger
When Hulk Hogan left the WWE in 1993, Vince McMahon tried to replace him with Lex Luger. The former WCW Champion had the look, since he was heavily muscled, and he was 6’6”. Luger started his WWE career with a narcissistic gimmick, with Bobby Heenan as a mouthpiece.
It was very effective at that time, but he was abruptly turned babyface to be Hogan’s successor. However, he lost all of his momentum because his charisma was non-existent. He defeated Yokozuna at SummerSlam 1993, but he did not win the WWE Championship because the title cannot change hands due to a count out.
Luger returned to WCW in 1995 wherein he was booked better than he was in the WWE. He won the WCW Championship one more time in 1997, and he was in a team with Sting. Luger retired in 2007 after a spinal infarction, and he has been with the WWE since 2011 as part of the WWE Wellness Policy.