Athletes - Lex Luger

Home > Listing Index > Athletes > Lex Luger

	Athletes - Lex Luger

Lawrence Wendell ("Larry") Pfohl (born June 2 1958 in Buffalo, New York, now resides in Atlanta, Georgia), better known as Lex Luger, is an American professional wrestler and former professional football player.

Football career

Pfohl was a student at Pennsylvania State University, where he played football before transferring to the University of Miami in 1978. He later played football for the Memphis Showboats and Tampa Bay Bandits of the United States Football League, the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League, and the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League.

He met Bob Roop at a celebrity golfing event and was given the chance to get into professional wrestling. Roop regarded him so highly that he arranged for him to be trained by Hiro Matsuda, who trained Hulk Hogan and "Mr. Wonderful" (Paul Orndorff). He adopted the ring name Lex Luger.

Wrestling career

NWA Florida

Luger began wrestling in the NWA Florida territory, and quickly came to dominate the area. He got his first victory on Halloween 1985 against Ed "The Bull" Gantner, and later won the Southern title from Wahoo McDaniel. In 1986, he fought NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair to a 60 minute draw.

Towards the end of his run in Florida, Luger was involved in a now-legendary steel cage match with Bruiser Brody, where Brody stopped cooperating, leading to a quick exit from the ring by Luger. Some sources claim that Brody was annoyed with the exiting Luger's boasts about how much money Luger would be making when he left Florida, and decided to teach the youngster a lesson in respect.

World Championship Wrestling

In 1987, Luger went to work for Jim Crockett's World Championship Wrestling, and joined Flair's "Four Horsemen" group. He also began wrestling Sting, who later became his close friend; the two once owned a gym together in Atlanta. Luger went from heel to face many times, whenever the circumstances were best for him. He won multiple NWA/WCW U.S. Titles, multiple NWA/WCW tag team belts, and, near the end of his WCW run, was the heavyweight champion. He would eventually be a two-time WCW World Champion. His nickname in the WCW was "The Total Package." His finisher was called "The Human Torture Rack."

World Wrestling Federation

By early 1992, Luger was tired of wrestling in WCW. He sat out for several months before losing to Sting at SuperBrawl II in February. Luger negotiated a departure from WCW, but the terms of that agreement precluded him from wrestling for the rest of 1992. He planned to join the World Bodybuilding Federation (WBF), which was owned by Vince McMahon, and appeared regularly as a co-host on its Saturday-morning program, WBF BodyStars. He was slated to guest pose at a WBF pay-per-view event, but was injured in a motorcycle accident. By the time Luger recovered, the WBF was out of business.

A metal plate was inserted into Luger's forearm after his accident, and Luger later used this misfortune to his advantage by making the metal plate a gimmick in the ring (it was claimed that when he hit opponents with his forearm, he did extra damage).

His initial appearances in the WWF were as The Narcissist, in which he posed before a full-length mirror before matches. After Hulk Hogan left in mid-1993, Vince McMahon needed a new "Real American" hero, and Lex Luger got the job. In a memorable event, then-WWF champion Yokozuna challenged any American athlete to bodyslam him on the deck of the USS Intrepid in an event on July 4, 1993. After a series of professional athletes and wrestlers tried and failed to lift him, Luger arrived on the scene and successfully slammed the big man.

Luger was booked to win the then-WWF World championship at WrestleMania X in the first match of a planned double main event involving Luger, Yokozuna, and Bret Hart, and lose the second match to Hart. However, he became heavily intoxicated at a bar just before WrestleMania and told several people (including a local reporter) about the planned outcome. This information spread rapidly, and the WWF opted to change the booking of WrestleMania, with Luger losing to Yokozuna by disqualification, and Hart beating Yokozuna instead. Luger was never given any run with the WWF title.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Lex Luger ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Lex Luger; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.