I spend most of my time on real sports, primarily MMA, NFL, and to a lessor degree the NBA, WNBA, and MLB. Despite the fact that anyone who isn't institutionalized for lack of brain activity or a child know that WWE and other wrestling organizations or scripted and fake, I still love it and very much appreciate the level of extreme athleticism that goes into putting this sort of show on.
I have loved wrestling for as long as I can remember and how I would be just "gaga" for the 5:35 daily broadcast on TBS after school. If someone in my house wanted to watch something else they knew they were going to have to physically wrestle me in order to do so. I was so passionate about it that my family knew better than to schedule anything during that time that wasn't absolutely necessary because I would throw a fit if I didn't get to watch it. I wasn't crazy about most things in my life but I was about that.
I want to talk real quick about a guy that isn't at the top of my list if I had to make a list, but he is definitely in the top 5. That man's name is Wawrence Pfohl, but his stage name was Leg Lugar.
Lugar was a professional football player who didnt get much love as far as contracts were concerned and tried his hand at professional wrestling. Because of his very impressive physique he was immediately a hit despite the fact that most of the veterans would say that he was "stiff" and was a liability in the ring because he wasn't very experienced. This would all change over time though.
Lugar started out in NWA as a "friend" of the 4-Horsemen, who were my favorite stable of wrestlers for a very long period of time. They rotated members very infrequently and the situation where Ole Anderson was kicked out in lieu of letting Lugar in was one of the really early and fantastic storylines that I have in my mind.
Lugar was such an imposing figure in the ring because even though I am quite certain other people were roiding at the time and do so to this day, he was one of the first ones that really had the look of an action figure and was just larger than life.
His finishing move was called "the human torture rack" and it is a very ambitious move to have on one's arsenal since it consists of picking up a 250 to 400 pound person on your shoulders, holding them there, and then shaking them until they tap out. It's a completely ridiculous move because it wouldn't be painful nor would it be very difficult to break out of if one wanted to, but it was so damn impressive to see when you consider how difficult it is to pick another person up even when they are helping you to do it.
In the picture above he has Kevin Nash in the rack and at that time Kevin Nash weighed 330 lbs. That is an absurd amount of weight to pick up off the ground and hold on your shoulders, even though Nash was a willing participant and helped get himself up there.
Lugar had a lot of rivalries over the years but the one that was the most famous was his ongoing feud with Sting. They had similar physiques, were both very popular with the fans, and would put on great shows. In other times they ended up teaming up as a tag team and were one of the most popular tag teams of all time. Of course there was always going to be a betrayal on the part of Lugar, it was easy to predict this.
Lugar almost always played a "heel", meaning that he was one of the bad guys who would cheat and be mean to the fans and I have always been a fan of heels, I don't normally gravitate towards the good guys... I"m not sure why that is but it is that way.
When Lugar eventually went over to WWE (then was WWF) they created an all-American good guy persona for him and really pushed for him to be a star. This didn't work for me and for most other people and the storyline was eventually dropped as was Lugar's contract because it turns out that us fans all really enjoyed him as a bad guy, not a babyface. I never paid much attention to him in WWF because of this. It was kind of like John Cena's heel turn that happened in the last year, it just doesn't make a lot of sense and the character has a tough time pulling it off because it just isn't their character.
Lugar's life had some really bad turns in it and he has a very interesting book entitled Wrestling with the Devil where he tells all of the horrible stuff that he was subjected to and the horrible stuff that he did. He admits that while he was not directly responsible for it, that his lifestyle of drug abuse definitely contributed to the early demise of fellow WWE star "Miss Elizabeth"
They were in a relationship for a long period of time both inside and outside of the ring and in 2003 she died of an overdose while mixing a bunch of different prescriptions and alcohol. Police searched the house and discovered a massive stockpile of steroids, oxycodone, xanax, HGH, testosterone, and a mix of other things that he didn't have a prescription for. Lugar was charged with 14 felonies.
Things unfortunately didn't get better for him and one day he ended up getting paralyzed in a very unusual way. He simply "fell asleep wrong" which is something that all of us have experience at one point or another but rather than waiting for the sensation to come back in your leg or arm for a few minutes, Lugar was unable to move at all. It was a nerve impingement in his neck and because of this and other health issues caused by years of abusing his body, he ended up in a quadriplegic (no movement possible in arms or legs) state.
Even though he has seriously turned his life around in a very different direction thanks largely to Diamond Dallas Page (who himself seems like an absolutely awesome dude) and now Lugar is capable of walking on his own, but only for short distances.
It's so tragic to see this absolute beast of a man reduced to a shriveled up and tiny person, but Lugar, who is now extremely religious, has said that the injury saved his life. Seriously, if you like wrestling you should check out his book because it is just fantastic.
Lex Lugar was inducted to the wrestling hall of fame, and he belongs there. he also worked with the WWE on their wellness policy and he is a good candidate for this because if there was a drug to be abused for making your body huge and impressive, he definitely has experience with it.
Lugar is still alive and has some involvement with wrestling events to this day. He is 67 years old now and is happy with the way things have gone in his life, with some regrets obviously that he has and continues to atone for.
He's one of my favorites and I actually got to meet him at a small non-televised event back in the late 80's. That was such an amazing thing for me although I have to say that Lugar never broke character and was super rude to everyone, even little kids like me that were there to meet him.
Even though that happened I left with a big smile on my face and it remains one of my top childhood memories. It's not often that you get to meet your heroes after all.