There was a time when Vince McMahon really wanted to turn Lex Luger into the next big thing within the WWE Universe and was willing to try just about anything to make that happen.

A former football player and eventual bodybuilder who got his big break wrestling for WCW, Mr. McMahon wanted to make sure the Luger fans saw in the then-WWF was a different being entirely, as he explained on his Lex Expressed podcast.

“I trademarked ‘The Total Package’ Lex Luger with a really good attorney. I wouldn’t have thought of it when I first started wrestling down in Florida. So they had to utilize that, borrow that from me while I was there, my trademark. He wanted to completely rename me. I get it. But we ended up coming to an agreement to use ‘Lex the Narcissist,’ or ‘Lex Luger the Narcissist,'” Lex Luger explained via EWrestling News.

“As far as finisher, I think, once again, it crept in that the Torture Rack was my finisher as the WCW wrestler. So he didn’t really want me to use that finish. I wanted to use it, but he didn’t want to. So I think it morphed eventually, as a heel, as ‘The Narcissist,’ ‘Hey, let’s do a program, a storyline, with that steel plate… in your arm. And let’s use that as a heel.’”

Turning his attention to his heel run, Luger noted that while he enjoyed transitioning to the Lex Express, he enjoyed being a heel, too, and wished it would have lasted a little bit longer.

“I wish I had a way longer run as a heel before doing the Lex Express because we had some good stuff going with that I thought,” Luger explained. “I really enjoyed working as a heel, probably more than a babyface in my career, if you had to ask me the question. It’s much easier to get people to hate you emotionally than it is to earn their respect, their admiration, and their trust. Wrestling fans are really special that way. So I guess it was easier to be a heel, and can be a lot more fun sometimes in that regard.”

Should Mr. McMahon have kept Luger heel? Sure, his gimmick was fun, and it largely got the intended reactions from fans across the world, but when Hulk Hogan jumped to WCW and the Ultimate Warrior proved an unstable succession plan, the Lex Express came a calling and, in a way, led to another WWF exit not too much further in the future.

Lex Luger explains why he jumped from WWE to WCW.

Speaking of wrestlers changing gimmicks and companies, Lex Luger experienced both sides of the coin as, in 1995, he too signed with Eric Bischoff's company in the pursuit of financial and championship riches.

Discussing that move on his podcast, Luger revealed that only a few people knew that he was going to appear on his first Nitro back in the company, leading to a major surprise for even the most major of marks.

“Nobody in WCW other than Hogan, Sting, only a handful of people knew I was going to be coming out at that match,” Lex Luger said via SE Scoops. “And I walked into the position [backstage], and guys were like, ‘What are you doing here? Aren't you still wrestling for WWE?' Not anymore. I wanted to make it all the way to the top, still I wanted to prove to all the naysayers in WWE.

“My contract was coming up. I had planned on resigning up until a couple of weeks before that with WWE. It would've been a new two or three-year contract. And then they [WCW] invited me to come under contract back home in WCW and debut in that show as a surprise. That was like lightning how that went down.”

Turning his attention to his outfit, which has become a signature part of one of the most incredibly important pictures of the Monday Night Wars, Luger explained why he opted for the fit and how it compared to what some were expecting.

“It was a custom-made shirt for an NBA guy in Atlanta. Kevin Willis played 23 years in the NBA; he made my suits and everything. People ask me about that moment, that shirt, all the time. Because I was always the guy with his shirt off so, everybody's expecting me to come down, and no matter what, I was going to take my shirt off, right? But the shirt stayed on. I'm honestly not sure why I kept the shirt on, but I did.

“It's unbelievable how people talk about that and want to see it in action figures and everything, the big white shirt, it's crazy. I gave it to a young man I'm mentoring, who could be the next Total Package.”

Did Luger make the right decision leaving WWF for WCW? From an in-ring perspective, it's impossible to say, but he did make the jump in an iconic fashion – literally- which helps to play into the mythology.