When wrestling fans think of Lex Luger, several monikers come to mind: The Total Package, The Narcissist, and The All-American.
They think of the incredible physique. They think of the time he slammed the 500-pound Yokozuna on the USS Intrepid or his time with the nWo Wolfpack.
Those were great moments in his career; however, Lex’s greatest moment was his redemption. Recently, with the help of Diamond Dallas Page, Laurence Pfohl, also known as Lex Luger, resumed his life after a monumental struggle. Once one of the most tragic stories in wrestling, now one of the most miraculous.
This is the story of Lex Luger.
Lex Luger – The Beginning of The Total Package
Before steping in a ring, Lex Luger made his name on the gridiron. Like many, including Ron Simmons and The Rock, Luger was a football standout.
However, it might be interesting to learn that he started out in basketball, not football. Speaking of Ron Simmons, he actually played alongside the future WCW Champion on the Miami Hurricanes.
Unfortunately for Luger, his time in Miami was short. He was kicked off the team due to outside activities. He did play in the Canadian Football League for Montreal, but was again released.
Finally, he found himself signed to the Green Bay Packers but never played a single game. He also spent some time in Tampa, FL, and Memphis, Tn.
Since both are big wrestling towns, Luger was recognized, but the general public thought he was a wrestler. He had a big physique, but was lean too.
Eventually, Luger left football. This was due to an injury. It was obvious Lex was not meant to be a football player. It was time to give wrestling a try.
Interestingly enough, Lex Luger never watched pro wrestling. He had zero contacts in the business. He was actually thinking about becoming a lawyer.
However, in 1985, Lex Luger trained with Hiro Matsuda. Matsuda was one of the premier pro wrestling trainers in the Florida area.
He said Matsuda taught him to respect the sport. Lex had all the tools. He had charisma, ring prescence and muscles to spare. Matsuda had trained greats like Hulk Hogan and Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff.
If you ever wondered if Luger got the inspiration for his name from Superman’s arch nemesis, wonder no more. Yes, it was a play off the infamous Lex Luthor from DC lore.
Luger was an instant success as a heel. The fans loved to hate him. On October 31, 1985, Lex Luger won the Southern Heavyweight Championship, defeating Yahoo McDaniel.
He then started a feud with Barry Windham. During this feud, Luger became a face and fought alongside Windham. It wasn’t long before he challenged the NWA Heavyweight Champion, Ric Flair at Battle of the Belts.
It was a heel vs heel match. The match ended in a 60-minute draw. It established Luger as the future of wrestling, only 6 months in the business. According to the total package, he looked at wrestling as a business.
“I just showed up, worked as hard as I could, and did what they told me to do. If I was going over great, if not thats good too. I’m not going to say winning a title isn’t a big deal. It is respect-wise.
How many guys can say they were World Champions? I didn’t win it. They put it on you. So you carry it the best you could.”
Luger and The Four Horsemen
Lex Luger was known as having an attitude in the locker room. However, he denies that. The dirt sheets took it upon themselves to stir the pot.
He said he’s a quiet guy and a lot of people mistake that as arrogance, combined with his character on TV. Fun fact, both WCW and WWF billed Luger from Chicago or Atlanta, but honestly, he is from Buffalo, NY.
In 1987, Lex Luger went to Jim Crockett Promotions. This was the first time he began using the Total Package name. It was also the first time he started using the torture rack as his finisher.
This is the move that he would use throughout his career. He has stated that his ties with Ric Flair led him in that direction. He was booked as a heel. He quickly became a member of the legendary 4 Horsemen.
On July 11, 1987, Lex Luger won the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship, defeating Nikita Koloff. In November of that year, he lost that title to Dusty Rhodes. JJ Dillon, the Four Horsemen’s manager, threw a chair in the ring for Luger, instead of Luger using it on Dusty, Dusty used it on Luger.
This caused Lex Luger to turn face, leaving the Four Horsemen in the process. The total package then started tagging again with Barry Windham. The duo was called The Twin Towers.
In their first match, they defeated Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson for the NWA Tag Team title. Shockingly, Windham turned on Luger, causing the team to lose the titles back to the Horsemen.
This actually proved to work out in Luger’s favor as he won the Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament with his best friend, Sting.
The tournament included such powerhouse teams as LOD, Powers of Pain, and The Horsemen. They also had Magnum TA in their corner. Lex Luger would tag many times with Sting throughout his career. The best friends even owned a gym together.
It wasn’t long before Luger found himself challenging the leader of the 4 Horsemen, the NWA Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair. The Horsemen attacked Lex Luger in the parking lot before the match.
During the attack, they split him open. During the match, Luger had Flair in the torture rack. Flair was seconds away from submitting when the referee stopped the match.
The cut on Luger’s head was excessively bleeding. Eventually, the feud ended with the dirtiest player in the game using the ropes to pin Luger at Starrcade 1988.
United States Champion
After that, Lex Luger set his sights back on Barry Windham and the United States Championship. He got his chance at the Chi Town Rumble held at UIC Pavilion in Chicago, IL.
Former tag team partners tore into each other. Windham’s main weapon was the claw; his right hand had been injured.
At one point in the match, Barry Windham went for a back suplex, and the ref counted three; it was Barry’s shoulders on the mat. Lex Luger won the US Title.
He then began to team with Michael PS Hayes. Hayes turned on his partner and defeated Luger for the US Title at WrestleWar 1989 with the help of fellow Freebird Terry Gordy.
Luger decided to take every advantage he could to regain the title. During the Main Event of Clash of the Champions IX, Luger attacked Ric Flair.
Sting came in to save the Nature Boy, but was also attacked by Luger. Sting then won an opportunity to challenge Ric Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
However, Sting suffered a legit injury, and Lex Luger was put in his place. The Icon Sting was in Luger’s corner for the bout, but was mugged by the Four Horsemen.
Luger left the ring to help Sting and was counted out. Lex Luger was once again a good guy, sacrificing his win to help his friend.
The Total Package held the US Title for 523 days. WCW rebranded the title the WCW United States Championship. His first feud was with the Russian Sickle Ivan Koloff.
Honestly, this feud was a preview of Luger’s WWF run as the All-American in 1993. The Total Package again began to challenge Ric Flair for the WCW World Championship.
He finally received his opportunity at the Great American Bash, but the match never happened. Ric Flair left WCW after disagreements with Jim Herd. He took the belt with him to the WWF after he quit.
This was the belt Bobby Heenan carried around, calling Flair the real World Champion as opposed to Hulk Hogan, the WWF Champion.
Flair spoke about Luger on his podcast, ” Wooo Nation.”
“I have respect for Lex. He came along similar to Goldberg, where he looked good, so he didn’t have the opportunity to learn.
I feel bad for him with his health. To come back from all that is really remarkable. I am glad to see he’s in a good place.”
WCW Champion
The WCW title was declared vacant. Barry Windham faced off against Lex Luger in a steel cage match at the Great American Bash 1991. The match was originally set up as The Total Package vs Ric Flair.
The WCW fans were not happy and chanted, “We want Flair.” Even though there was no beef between Luger and Windham, a steel cage match was still advertised. The Total Package won the championship as planned.
Related Reads: Barry Windham – A Career Retrospective Of One of Wrestling’s Greatest Unsung Talents
Lex Luger eventually lost the WCW Championship to Sting at Superbrawl II. Luger had not wrestled in at least 30 days, and it showed.
Even Harley Race, Luger’s manager, could not stop the Franchise Player from winning the title. The truth was, Lex was disappointed he did not get to face Flair. He was upset with WCW. He basically just wanted out.
Even though he was disappointed, he never held any animosity toward Flair. He knew it was just business, not personal.
World Bodybuilding Federation
Lex Luger became the spokesman for Vince McMahon’s new venture, the WBF. He was supposed to guest pose at the first WBF Pay Per View, but was injured in a motorcycle accident.
He was hit by a car at 45 miles per hour. Even after being listed as a DOA, the total package survived. They wanted to amputate his arm, butLuger refused.
He contacted Dr. Andrews in Birmingham, Alabama. You may have heard of this doctor’s name before, as he was also responsible for the return of Triple H in 2002 and Kurt Angle’s neck in 2003.
Dr Andrews put Lex’s arm back together with a steel plate and titanium screws. This was used as an “illegal weapon” by Luger to knock out other wrestlers during his initial WWF run.
The Narcissist Arrives in WWF
Luger returned to wrestling in the WWF. Now known as the Narcissist, Luger took self-love to a new level. He aligned himself with Bobby the Brain Heenan to give him that heel rub.
Similar to what Heenan did for Rick Rude years before, the weasels’ stamp of approval was the certification of a heel. He mentioned that, contrary to popular belief, Larry Pfoal is not anything like a narcissist. Luger said,
“At first, I was taken aback by it. However, you want me to be The Narcissist. I’ll be the Narcissus.
I got him to the best I could. He’s paying me to come in here, and I will do the best I can with it.”
WWF incorporated Luger’s real injury into his character. His opponents kept getting knocked out cold; no one knew why.
They started demanding that Lex Luger wear an elbow pad, which, of course, as a heel, is removed somehow. It was during this time that the Total Package got to work with The Hitman Bret Hart.
The story was that the Narcissist knocked Bret out cold at a Wrestlemania Brunch. This led to a series of house show matches between the two future Hall of Famers. Luger recalls when he started a program with Hart.
“It was in Canada, of all places. I goofed up a spot and busted his nose open. I was worried, but Bret was great about it. Always a professional. I still love Bret, he’s a great guy.”
The Narcissist had one feud with Mr. Perfect Curt Henning. Perfect recently turned on his longtime manager, Bobby Heenan, and was now a beloved babyface. Heenan claimed Luger was beyond perfection.
Luger defeated Mr. Perfect at Wrestle Mania VIII. According to those in the know, that night, Mr. Perfect was not Perfect and completely blanked out in the ring. Lex remembers feeling overconfident because
Curt Hening was going to make this match… well Perfect. Luger said they locked up, and Perfect forgot the match. It was known that Hening loved to play practical jokes. Luger thought it was a rib, but unfortunately, it wasn’t.
Related Reads: Curt Hennig | Remembering Perfection Personified
All-American Lex Luger
Luger soon found himself again becoming a face. It was on July 4, 1993, on the USS Intrepid, that he slammed WWF Champion Yokozuna.
After that, Lex traveled around the United States, gaining support to challenge Yokozuna for the WWF Title at Summerslam. Dubbed The Lex Express, Luger drove around like a politician.
Finally, at Summerslam, the All-American Lex Luger challenged Yokozuna. However, Luger did not take the title. He won on a countout when Yoko was knocked out cold outside the ring.
It has been thought that Luger did not win the WWF Championship due to the failure of the Lex Express. It was more of a combo of not wrestling at all, combined with Luger’s more mellow promo style.
Luger did not give bad promos; he just was more reserved than the WWF wanted. What happened? Lex was supposed to win the belt. He was built up for a month and a half.
Well, it was decided that the All-American would not win at Summerslam, but later next year at WrestleMania X. The way to get around the stipulation of one title opportunity was for Luger to win the Royal Rumble.
This was way too long. He did start a feud with Ludvig Borgia. He also captained the All-Americans at Survivor Series against Yokozuna’s team.
He won the Royal Rumble along with Bret Hart when their feet hit at the same time. It was deliberately designed that way to see if the fans liked Bret or Luger.
Luger said he was nervous about hitting at the same time, but Bret was an expert at timing. It looked incredibly difficult to tell who touched the floor first.
Despite Luger’s best effort, the fans overwhelmingly cheered for Bret. The Lex Express reached its final stop. Bret Hart went on to capture the WWE title from Yokozuna instead of Luger.
Lex Luger then began feuding with the Native American Tatanka. Tatanka accused The All-American of selling out to the Million Dollar Man, Ted Dibiase, when it was actually Tatanka all along.
The total package began teaming up with the British Bulldog, Davey Boy Smith, also known as the Allied Powers. Here was a team of two unstoppable powerhouses.
They challenged WWF Tag Team Champions Owen Hart and Yokozuna. Unfortunately, the duo came up short. The powerful partnership came to an end when Luger jumped ship back to WCW.
Lex Luger Returns to WCW on the First Nitro
According to Lex Luger, he was only allowed to return to WCW if it was a surprise. Basically, he jumped ship behind Vince McMahon’s back. Lex Luger stated he felt extremely bad about that and wished he had given notice.
Lex Luger made his WCW debut on the very first episode of Monday Night Nitro. This was the first shot fired that started the Monday Night War.
Eric Bischoff admitted he really did not want Luger back, but as a favor to Sting, he decided to offer him a low-paying deal. To his surprise, Luger took the offer.
Lex stated that he was working in the WWF without a contract, so it wasn’t like he was breaking a contract. The total package immediately made an impact. He helped Hulk Hogan and Sting battle the Dungeon of Doom.
After the ring cleared, he had a staredown with the Hulkster. Years later, in Lex’s book, he recounted the staredown. He said that he broke kayfabe during a commercial, and Hulk was livid.
Luger was off to a rocky start, making enemies with the WCW Champion. Lex said he apologized the night after, and that won Hogan over. He believes that contributed to Hogan putting him over during the height of the NWO.
Lex Luger was granted a WCW Championship match against Hogan the next week. Ric Flair claimed Luger was in WCW to get rid of the Hulkster. Luger never confirmed nor denied that.
To his credit, Luger did rack Hogan. However, some things never change, as Luger thought he won, but the WCW Champion never submitted. Hogan hulked up and hit the legdrop on Luger, but the Dungeon of Doom interfered.
Sting and Macho Man ran to the ring to help out. It was obvious that none of the Dungeon of Doom attacked Luger.
This led Hogan to ask Luger to be on his team for WarGames. Savage did not trust the Total package and rightfully so.
