The Man, the Myth, the Legend Vol. 2: Lex Luger

The Total Package Lex Luger had a distinguished career that became mired in controversy. Here are ten moments from the life and career of the Total Package.

Lex Luger is perhaps the best example of the great American Jock. Someone who pushes himself to the heights of excellence, and develops an ego to match. A man with undisputed athletic ability and fierce discipline, who nonetheless manages to behave like a frat boy on and off the field.

Luger's fiery alpha male temperament got him into hot water early in his athletic career. He was kicked off the now defunct Miami Hurricanes for trashing his hotel room in a temper tantrum. It seemed that Luger wanted very much to be a starter but that was to be and he responded inappropriately.

As his NFL career lay in ruins, he took up professional wrestling. Here, his over the top jock persona was an asset. Luger moved up the ranks of the NWA Florida territories quickly through virtue of his great look and clear, concise speech on the mike.

From there Luger would embark on a career that has seen more highs and lows, more tragedy and triumph than one human being should be able to endure. Here are ten major moments from Luger's life and career.

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#1 One door closes, another one opens...

Newspaper clipping about the end of Luger's University of Miami football tenure.

Lex Luger desperately wanted to be an NFL star, like many of his contemporaries. However, in spite of his size and strength he didn't quite make the cut for the starting line up when he attended the University of Miami. In a fit of rage, he destroyed his hotel room and caused so much drama he was cut from the team.

While this isn't one of his best moments, it does illustrate an important point about Lex Luger; He is a fiercely competitive and passionate athlete.

Luger would go on to play for both the Canadian Football League and the American Football League, and was signed by the Green Bay Packers but never played a game. When it was obvious his football career was going nowhere, he turned to pro wrestling.

#2 First championship gold

Lex Luger vs. a bloody Wahoo McDaniel

When you're six foot three and rippling with muscles, wrestling promoters want you to succeed.

Lex Luger had one of the best looks going in the early 1980s wrestling scene. When he joined NWA territory Championship Wrestling from Florida (CWF) he was quickly put into a feud with reigning Southern Heavyweight Champion Wahoo McDaniel. Luger got the better of the veteran Wahoo and captured his first wrestling title. Here are highlights from the match.

#3 Clashing with greatness

Battle of the Belts was one of the NWA's major shows of the year, gathering together the best and the brightest of their territories for one super show.

At Battle of the Belts III, the main event saw Lex Luger challenge legendary Nature Boy Ric Flair for the NWA world heavyweight championship. Their brutal contest ended in a time limit draw, allowing Flair to retain the title, but for a man less than two years into his career to get a title shot was unheard of at the time. Luger proved that he was a marquee attraction on this night, even if he didn't win the belt off of Flair. Here's the entire show, including their epic contest.

#4 A controversial aborted match with Bruiser Brody

The decision to feud Lex Luger and Bruiser Brody was a no-brainer to NWA officials. On paper, having the two muscular titans square off must have seemed like a license to print money to the promotion team.

However, Brody was always unpredictable, and Luger continued to be a bit of a prima donna alpha male jock in his early NWA career. The two clashed backstage over the match direction though it was agreed Luger would go over Brody in the finish.

The two faced each other in a steel cage match that will live in infamy. For some reason, Brody suddenly stopped performing, refusing to work with Luger any longer. Hastily, the referee instructed Luger to climb out of the cage and 'win' the contest.

After it was over, Luger demanded to know why Brody had stopped working the match. All Brody said in reply was "I don't know, man, it just wasn't working."

Blame for the incident fell squarely on Brody, who was not much in favor with promoters anyway due to his high salary demands and poor attitude. Luger's career would survive the incident and move forward.

Here's the cage match in its entirety, such as it is:

#5 Riding with the Horsemen

Ric Flair remembers those performers who he believes work well and sell tickets, and when Luger showed up at Jim Crockett productions Flair insisted the young man be associated with the Four Horsemen stable.

At first Luger was just sort of a tag along, but after Ole Anderson was kicked out of the group Luger became an official member. Portrayed as a former football star (even though his career was mostly mediocre at best) Luger was a 'blue chipper' athlete and featured star of the stable.

#6 Winning the US title

During his Horsemen tenure, Lex Luger challenged Nikita Koloff for the United States championship.

Koloff had spent most of his career as a faux-Russian heel to cash in on cold war heat, but oddly had turned face after longtime rival Magnum TA was forced to retire after an auto accident. Luger went into the match as the underdog, and a cage was erected to keep the Four Horsemen from interfering.

Unfortunately for Koloff, JJ Dillon tossed a chair into the cage and Luger used it to KO his opponent. Luger raised Koloff in the Torture Rack and the dazed referee ruled the Russian could no longer continue, giving Luger the second most prestigious belt in the NWA.

#7 Feud with Ric Flair over the NWA title

Predictably, Luger's tenure in the Four Horsemen came to an end, and he wound up feuding with Ric Flair over the NWA world title.

Their battles for the belt spanned several pay per views, and always were mired in controversy. Despite his best effort, Luger would not capture the big belt from Flair but their clashes increased his stock in the world of wrestling to the point that the WWE wound up giving him a call.

#8 The Lex Express fails to get Luger the WWE championship

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When Luger joined WWE, he was re-cast as the preening Narcissist. The gimmick fell rather flatly, and Luger was again repackaged, this time as a new Hulk Hogan.

Lex Luger became the first man to bodyslam WWE faux Sumo Yokozuna in a highly publicized stunt aboard a US aircraft carrier. WWE then came up with the Lex Express, a bus tour that was meant to recapture Hulkamania's glow.

The tour was thought to be a failure, however, as Luger simply lacked Hogan's common man appeal. Rumors that Luger had given away the finish to his championship match in a bar as well as the Lex Express's failure led to WWE deciding not to give him the championship, and he beat Yokozuna by countout instead.

#9 Standing up to NWO and world title reign

Luger flip flopped over the heel/face fence more than just about any other wrestler, so much so that when the NWO showed up and teased a WCW traitor, everyone just assumed it would be Luger.

However, Hulk Hogan would turn out to be the culprit, turning Luger undeniably babyface. Luger faced the NWO and was often beaten down for his efforts, but on August the fourth 1997 he actually did the unthinkable and defeated Hogan for the WCW World heavyweight championship.

Though he would lose the belt several days later, it marked a career highlight and one of the most unexpected, surprising moments of Monday Nitro's history.

#10 Tragedy and legal troubles spell doom for his career

In the late 1990s, Randy Savage's divorced wife Miss Elizabeth joined WCW. There she and Lex Luger met and eventually developed a friendship. That friendship developed into a romantic relationship, and eventually the two moved in together, becoming a team both on and off screen.

Tragedy struck when Miss Elizabeth died of a drug overdose in the home they shared in 2003. Luger was also found to be in the possession of a plethora of illegal substances, and was arrested. He was also initially charged with negligent homicide due to his providing the drugs that Elizabeth used before her death, but the charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.

Even though Luger wasn't tried for her death, he plead guilty to the drug possession. This led to the death of his career, as he would work very little after this tragedy.

Though Lex Luger's life went through many ups and downs, his career and legacy remain one of the most celebrated in Sports Entertainment history.

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