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Update On Who’s Handling Bray Wyatt’s New Gimmick

Bray Wyatt WWE Champion & Husky Harris

• On This Day In Pro Wrestling History (July 4, 1993) – Stars and Stripes Challenge

On this day in Pro Wrestling history on July 4, 1993, the World Wrestling Federation hosted the famous ‘Stars and Stripes Challenge’, a special event aboard the U.S.S. Intrepid, where all kind of athletes from different sports tried to bodyslam WWF World Heavyweight Champion Yokozuna.

More than 1000 live fans wanted to see the evil Japanese (kayfabe, actually Samoan) Heel Champion get bodyslammed by an American athlete on Independence Day.

The tagline of the event was ‘Yokozuna vs The USA – Live! On the 4th of July’.

WWF Superstars Tatanka, Crush, Bob Backlund, Rick Steiner, Scott Steiner & ‘The Macho Man’ Randy Savage failed to lift and slam the big World Champion, but also several professionals from other sports like Bill Fralic (Detroit Lions / NFL), Peter Taglianetti (Pittsburgh Penguins / NHL), James Campen (Green Bay Packers / NFL), Joe Morris (formerly NY Giants / NFL), Gary Baldinger (Buffalo Bills / NFL), Scott Burell (Charlotte Hornets / NBA) & Keith Sims (Miami Dolphins / NFL) tried and couldn’t do it. Yokozuna was just too damn heavy for them.

Originally Yokozuna has won the contest as no athlete was able to bodyslam him, but then a Helicopter landed on board of the U.S.S. Intrepid and out came Lex Luger, who was known as the self-regarding ‘Narcissist’ Lex Luger at that time.

What happened was that ‘The Immortal’ Hulk Hogan had already given his notice a few weeks earlier after losing the WWF World Title to Yokozuna at King of the Ring, and only agreed to do the upcoming Summer Tour in Europe and then finish up with the company to concentrate on his TV Show ‘Thunder In Paradise’, which left Vince McMahon without his larger than life All-American Hero & #1 draw.

In an attempt to create the next big thing, a new Hulk Hogan if you will, he had Lex Luger turning babyface that day by going to the ring and doing what no other wrestler or NFL/NHL/NBA athlete was able to do: Bodyslam Yokozuna!!!

At the end of the day America’s pride was restored! Thank God!

A new American Hero was born that day and what followed was the so called ‘Call To Action Campaign’, that had Luger tour the United States in his now-famous ‘Lex Express’.

Unfortunately Luger’s entire gigantic push as a larger than life superhero and legitimate Hulk Hogan replacement didn’t last long, as the Lex Express’s last stop The Palace of Auburn Hills in Auburn Hills, Michigan saw Lex win his WWF SummerSlam 1993 main event by count-out, thus failing to win the Title.

• Update On Who’s Handling Bray Wyatt’s New Gimmick

According to Brad Shepard, Vince McMahon is very hands-on with Bray Wyatt’s new gimmick and he isn’t willing to take any chances with it, so anything and everything regarding Wyatt’s new gimmick has to be approved by Vince first.

Below is what Brad said on his podcast:

“I was told Vince is all over the Bray Wyatt stuff and that’s exactly how it was put. I was told he’s very hands on. It’s still Bray’s ideas, but anything anyone wants to do with that gimmick needs Vince’s approval.”


        
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