Lex Luger’s legendary bodyslam on Yokozuna is still one of the most unforgettable July 4 moments in WWE history, but Luger says the whole thing was way more chaotic than fans realized.
In a clip uploaded to Going Ringside on July 4, 2026, Luger looked back at slamming Yokozuna on the USS Intrepid decades ago. The moment helped launch his red, white and blue push, but according to Luger, he was dealing with nerves before he ever got near the ring. When asked about the famous USS Intrepid slam, Luger said the entrance itself was already enough to rattle him because he had never been in a helicopter before.
“Intro. It was nerve wracking. Helicopter Ride in was. Was nerve wracking. I’d never been in Helicopter Ride.”
Luger said the pilot only made things worse. According to him, the pilot was a Vietnam War veteran who started showing off during the flight, while Luger and the others were not even strapped in.
“And the guy was like a Vietnam War guy out of the military. He was the sideways showing off. And we weren’t strapped in or anything. I was like, this guy’s out of his mind.”
Things did not calm down once Luger arrived. He said Bobby Heenan came up to him on the way to the ring, and Luger did not realize he was supposed to shove him aside as part of the segment. Since Heenan had been his manager when Luger was a heel, Luger’s first instinct was to greet him.
“And then Bobby Heaney came up to me on the way to the ring. And I didn’t realize they wanted me to, like, shove him aside because he was my manager as a heel. And he walked up me, I’m like, hey, Bobby, give him a hug.”
Heenan quickly set him straight, and Luger remembered the Brain giving him a very direct order.
“He goes. He goes, push me, you stupid. I won’t say what he said. He said, sob. Push me, you stupid sob.”
Then came the real problem. Luger said once he got into the ring, the mat had become slick from the heat, and the outfit WWE put him in gave him almost no traction. He was wearing jeans, cowboy boots, and a red, white and blue shirt while trying to lift one of the biggest men in wrestling.
“And so then I got in the ring, and the ring was like ice skates. I mean, the mat from the heat. And I had. They had me wear, like, jeans and a cowboy boots and a red, white, blue shirt. I had absolutely zero footing.”
That is when Luger started thinking the entire thing could go very wrong. He said he imagined Yokozuna crashing down on top of him and flattening him like something out of an old cartoon. Luger said he honestly thought he might end up trapped underneath Yokozuna because the cowboy boots gave him no base at all.
“Now I think I’m going to try to slam him with no footing. I thought I was going to be like, you guys ever see the Roadrunner cartoons way back when the coyote got flattened? I thought I was going to be a puddle underneath Yoko with these boots. He’s just going to fall on top of me.”
The slam ended up going down as one of the biggest patriotic moments WWE ever produced, but Luger’s version makes it sound like the whole thing was one bad step away from disaster. Between the helicopter ride, the Heenan mix-up, the heat, the slick mat, and Yokozuna’s size, Luger had every reason to think he was about to get crushed in front of everybody.
What do you think about Lex Luger’s story about slamming Yokozuna on the USS Intrepid? Please share your thoughts and feedback in the comments below.
