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Lex Luger On Possibly Walking Again, Working With DDP, Hall Of Fame, Sting
Lex Luger (@GenuineLexLuger) is a retired professional wrestler who previously competed in WWE and WCW. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at the DDPY Performance Center in Atlanta, GA to discuss working with Diamond Dallas Page to increase his mobility, the accident that left him paralyzed, slamming Yokozuna on the USS Intrepid, his shock debut on the first episode of WCW Nitro, beating Hulk Hogan to become WCW World Champion, the tragic passing of Miss Elizabeth, what his current relationship is like with WWE, if a Hall of Fame induction could happen soon and more!
Quote I'm thinking about: “We judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their behavior.” Stephen Covey
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"We've been obviously friends for years through wrestling. But the latest journey started when I had taken a lot of falls and I always wanted to get the most out of what I felt the good Lord gave me as far as recovering from my injury and function. I'm what Shepherd Center called like a one percenter, they're a world-class spinal cord rehab center. I spent two years there back in 08-09 after my spinal cord injury, they called me a high-functioning quadriplegic. I have a cervical injury, which makes me a quadriplegic. Paraplegic is waist down, quadriplegic is neck down. So all I am supposed to be able to do is move my head and shoulders and need 24-hour care for the rest of my life, bathe, fed, clothed, and round-the-clock, care. I lived independently and I was able to walk out of Shepherd initially. I was pushing the envelope on my ability and mobility and balance. I started taking a lot of falls, and it got to the point where they felt I was endangering [my health]. My neurologist at Shepherd, Dr Bilski, told me, 'Lex, you're one of our miracles, but if you keep on falling like that you have to wear a helmet, elbow pads and knee pads like a skateboarder, or you’re gonna have to use some mobility devices like a walker and a chair for safety and balance, because we don't want you back in here with a head injury.' Which they also specialize in. Because you've already been here for a spinal cord injury, we do not want you back in here with a head injury. So I said, okay, and I started using the mobility devices, but I kept on pushing the envelope and walking. I was taking some really bad falls, a miracle I didn't really have a bad injury. So they finally convinced me to use the chair and walker more, and I had to admit defeat when we got back together here recently, I got scared. It's hard to admit for us guys, but I got scared of some of the falls and what they told me could happen. I started sitting too much, like anybody else, and not walking enough. If you don't use it, you lose it, and I pretty much lost all mobility. My quality of life had dropped dramatically. I saw DDP back at Sting's retirement match that we both were able to go to, which was awesome. I just said, 'Hey, D. You think we could do maybe a little bit of work on getting a little more movement? I'm pretty much in this chair full time, I'm having trouble just doing everyday stuff and brushing my teeth and to shower, my quality of life's dropped quite a bit, my energy levels, everything.' You know DDP, all you got to do is tell him that he goes, 'Brother, I've been waiting for you to come to me on this.' So we went to work, and we made amazing progress that we were going to reveal to everybody for his incredible partner, Steve and him are documenting, kind of filming it and the progress, and it's going to be pretty cool. I'm real excited and thankful for what he's doing with me. Our friendship was always there, but our friendship is growing. So he's a special guy."
"Well, everything from being able to stand up and brush my teeth instead of being over the sink trying to. There's things we take for granted, getting off of my chair into the shower. In the morning, you’re showering, you're going to the bathroom, you brush your teeth. When you're sitting it's challenging and even to safely get from your chair to a toilet or anything. So just everyday functional stuff. I heat my coffee up in the morning, I could stand up and put it in the microwave now, I couldn't do that. I was trying to reach, I was spilling coffee everywhere. So, things you think about. When I go to the grocery store now. I had to wait and my grocery store guys would know me. They see me pull up and they bring me out the power cart. Now I can get the power cart myself with stuff. So, I mean everything. I can shop again. I can go through my day with you. My quality of life and my function has increased dramatically. So it's amazing."
"I had gotten scared and discouraged with the walking and all the falls I was taking, so I had really pulled back and was pretty much relegated and come to the terms that maybe I'm just going to be in the wheelchair the rest of my life. So I was gonna make the best of that, but still to have this gift by working with DDP, and a gift from God, I think to be able to get this increased mobility again is very exciting."
"I'm headed to San Francisco for an appearance. I had to get in that one last heavy workout and shower and run to the airport for an overnight red-eye flight from Atlanta into Frisco. I get in at like midnight or something. So I got in a heavy shoulder trap and neck workout, which they say may have been a factor, might not. So that was my last heavy workout ever. I was on the airplane, I was talking to somebody next to me and my head turned right after that workout. I turned my head back. This is just my theory. The neurologists aren't sure that this had anything to do with it, but I kind of feel like it did, and they think it might have. I turned my head back to the front and I had this burning, stabbing pain between my shoulder blades. But football, wrestling, we get aches and pains, little pinched nerves all the time. So I go, man that didn't feel good, that didn't feel right. I got to the hotel, I checked in, and I woke up, I'm not sure what time it was. It was just pre-dawn, and I had the worst burning, stabbing pain in my lower neck, shoulder blade area, unbelievable. It was so bad. I'm a side sleeper. I was on my side towards the nightstand, and I was trying to get to a phone, so I figured maybe I'd get to the phone like a seal hit it with my nose. I didn't know. I was in so much pain. I fell off the bed down to the floor. When I was on the bed, I actually felt like I was in those old metal diver suits you see, metal helmet from back in the mid-1900s. I felt like I was in one of those suits and there's magnets pulling me from underneath, almost through the mattress. I didn't know what being paralysed felt like. So I can move my head and shoulders, but that threw me off the bed. Now am up against the nightstand, my chin down to my chest, and I didn't know this either. When you have a cervical high spinal cord it affects your breathing, which didn't help my breathing. My breathing was already compromised, so I thought I was gonna suffocate. So now I'm up against the nightstand. I can't move. I feel like I'm being pulled by magnets through the floor now, and I feel like I'm suffering. I thought that was it. And I tell people this, the Lord came into that room, proverbs three, five and six. I was a brand new believer. I didn't even know I had a verse memorized in the Bible. But Proverbs, three, five and six, trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not upon your own understanding. Acknowledge me in all your ways, and I'll make your path straight. It was so calming when I felt like God was actually almost speaking to me. I didn't hear a voice or anything, but that resonated so much to me that my breathing calmed down, my heart rate and I laid there probably for hours until they came for my appearance. When I didn’t answer my door they had to knock my door down. I locked my door. I put the extra lock on my door, which I don't normally do."
"I couldn’t scream because my breathing was compromised. I can't believe the guy heard me. He knocked on the door. I'm like, help. But they knew when I didn't open the door and it was locked, I had to be in there. So that's when they called 911 they came in and bashed my door down. And who's there? Let's go full circle back, DDP, who's there out in Frisco for the appearance was there as well. DDP comes into the room and he convinces me. The medics had picked me up off the floor and sat me in a chair. I'm paralyzed in a chair, and I'm like, No, I'm okay. I think I'm dehydrated maybe. He [DDP] looks at me and says, 'You gotta go the hospital. You gotta go with these guys, man, this ain't dehydration, bro.' So they took me downstairs. The medics were big wrestling fans, a guy and a girl. They looked at each other, I'm laying there. I can't move up, but I'm listening to them. They go, where do we take him? They're naming these hospitals, and they go Stanford, which is like almost an hour from the airport. The guy goes, 'Oh man, we might get fired if we do that, but let's do it.' They drove me all the way to Stanford, which is a world-class medical facility. They were unbelievable. Ran every test you could possibly do. Once again, getting back to your original question, I've given you a really long answer. But they said it could have been the workout. We saw a little bit of stenosis, nothing from your wrestling and football career that necessarily made this happen. We see this in people all the time that never did sports or any high collision stuff. We put it in a category, kind of like a category we don't know what you have or what cause of transverse myelitis, swelling of the spinal cord, massive swelling from C5 down to T5 and that's lights out from there down. That's it for the rest of your life. Because when they were telling me my prognosis a few weeks later, when I got to Atlanta, which was an unbelievable story, how I got to Atlanta, there weren't any planes to get me there. I got to Atlanta and Shepherd Center, which is a world-class facility right here in Atlanta where I was living at the time. Which was a miracle. They put me in room 316, John 316. I go I must be in the right place. The two nurses were Grace and Hope. When I came into the room the name tags. I'm like, Oh my gosh."
"Sting said that I would have committed suicide. My best friend. Because if you hadn't been a believer before that happened. He goes, the old Lex, Second Corinthians five said we're a brand new creation in Christ. So I'm a brand new creation. He said, If you hadn't been born again at that point, everything was about you, your body, your workouts. You would have ended it."
"Well, that was a heck of a nickname Dusty Rhodes gave me, The American Dream. I was in the back and he goes, 'I want you to be the brains and the brawn and the beauty, because I want you to have the look, the brains. I want you to be the total package, baby.' So he came up with that nickname. He came up with the finish the torture rack, because he thought it showed my body and my abs. It wasn't an easy finish to execute on a lot of guys, but it turned out to be a really good finish for me. So yeah, he said, 'I want you to just be the total package.' And of course, I had mentoring from Nature Boy Ric Flair on that early on, as far as that persona. A lot of people said back then the old Lex took to that pretty easily as far as thinking he was the total package. Eric Bischoff, who and I become really good friends. People thought we hated each other, but we love each other now. Eric Bischoff said, 'Lex thought he was the sh*t, and he made people believe him. He may have not been the greatest interviewer or worker in the ring, but Lex had an aura about him that he just thought his you know what didn't stink. And he goes that came across on camera and in front of people, he said he believed he was the total package.' And I did."
"It was a great moment, for sure. I was actually petrified by the time I got on the Intrepid. Because they flew me on a helicopter, and I had only been on a helicopter ride once before in my life. I'm not scared of heights or anything, but I had this ex-Vietnam combat pilot flying the helicopter in, and we were there with no belts on, nothing, this helicopter with open doors. He was tilting and showing off on the way and I'm holding on for dear life. Then I go to the ring and they threw Bobby at me. I didn't know Bobby was going to meet me. He was my heel manager as a narcissist. So Bobby comes up to me and I'm like, Hey Bobby. As I'm walking to the ring with Yokozuna, Bobby goes, 'Push me.' I go what? He goes, 'Push me, you stupid SOB.' I shoved him because I didn't know Bobby was gonna meet me part way down, trying to stop me from going to the ring. But I then I got in the ring, and I cowboy boots so I had no footing. So I get nose and nose with Yoko, and we go nose and nose. We're supposed to be trash-talking, but I'm telling Yoko we can't do it. I was panicking. I got no footing. Yoko actually was a cool as ice Samoan. We call him the dancing bear. He was so agile for a guy at 600 pounds. He looks at me and goes 'No problem, brother. Just get a wide stance, I'll do the rest.' People go you look so excited afterwards, did you know you were going to slam him? I go, Well, I was hoping. We did a walk through, but I've never slammed him. They didn't want me in the walk through to hurt Yoko. I go hurt Yoko? What about me? I'm going to get double hernia trying to slam the guy. But we did it live first time in that ring, so I was really nervous. With no footing. Yoko just pushed himself around me. I had to help turn him and that ain't easy, so I played a part. But I tell people I was so excited afterwards, even though I knew I was supposed to slam because I was so happy it came off. I go, Yoko basically slammed himself. He was that agile. He flipped himself off of me by getting a wide stance. Unbelievable athlete. One of the best big men ever. He doesn't get credit for one of the best."
"My family was upset about the A&E special, they made it look like I didn't enjoy myself. We had a great time on that tour. It was judiciously edited by Bruce Prichard to make it look like Lex wasn't the guy and he didn’t have a good time. They took excerpts on that A&E and made it look like I was heeling on people during the tour, and I wasn't upset, just spicing it up. I said they're just throwing some stuff in there to tell their story. So it didn't bother me at all that they put that stuff in there. For instance, they would show me acting like I didn't get a suite at the hotel, and I was making a big thing at the desk. I was joking around with the camera guys and the desk people, but they made it look [different] on the A&E. You could portray something that I was throwing a hissy fit because I didn't get a suite at the hotel, which was not what happened, but that's what it looked like on the A&E. But I was laughing. I thought it was funny, so yeah, but they actually did a really good job on that."
"Bret tries to credit me. I credit Bret, the Excellence of Execution, because all I had to do was catch him and go backwards over the top rope, which is not fun. I didn't even do a lot of backwards over the top rope kind of stuff, but I trusted Bret because he had to tuck my head and everything. Because when you go backwards on top rope, you gotta for safety tuck your head and everything. So Bret cross-bodied me and took us out, and then, man, he spider monkied me. He pulled me in and pulled my head in and they said Vince jumped out of his chair in the back. Because we walked through it however we’re going to do it. Bang, bang, bang, cross body, out. Vince goes, 'Try to hit the floor at the same time, we'll touch it up afterwards so we’re both at the same time.' They even did it in slow-mo. What a miracle that you couldn't tell in the slow motion who hit first. But Bret pulled me in so tight the way we hit the apron with me going backwards, and from there to the floor Bret just got us both level, and even we both hit it at the exact same time. That's when Vince jumped out of his chair. Wow, oh my gosh. They nailed it."
"There wasn’t really. Even SummerSlam, they go what a lame finish. You didn't beat Yoko after that big tour. I go that was never the plan. Vince was such a fan of the Garden. That was his dad's place. That was his place. He always stood at the curtain watching the match at The Garden to see the response of the crowd towards new talent. They don't call it the Mecca for nothing, and that was Vince's place and his dad's place. So Vince and I had a very good relationship. He said, 'If I put the belt on you, it'll be at the Garden at WrestleMania 10. That's going to be a big pay-per-view. And if I do, because I'm not saying you are...' I go, 'Well, I'm not asking you to promise me anything.' He goes, 'I'm not.' So I was never promised the belt, and if it was it was going to WrestleMania 10. He went with Bret, which is a great choice. Bret's a great champion. We had Yoko and Bret now wrestling for a title at WrestleMania 10. But I didn't feel jilted or I'd been lied to it all because they never told me I was gonna be the champion. And I always, once again, go to what Eric [Bischoff] said, 'Lex always thought he was the you know what.' I didn't have a problem with winning or losing or I always felt, no matter what, even when I walked out first on the Monday night wars and went from WWF at the time. Eric lowballed me and offered me almost nothing. I said, You know what? I'll come in and I'll become a big star for him, and he'll take care of me. Which Eric did. I never lacked confidence. That was part of my persona."
"People say Vince wanted to be the next Hulk Hogan, which also was not Vince's plan. Vince always knew that there was only gonna be one Hulk Hogan. He always wanted a merchandise selling babyface so I became the guy. But Vince always knew that the red and yellow, say your prayers and take your vitamins and all that, there's only gonna be one Hulk Hogan. He didn't want me to be another Hulk Hogan knockoff. He wanted me to be Lex Luger the babyface. Vince was actually very patriotic kind of guy. He wanted me to be the red, white and blue champion and sell a bunch of merch. He ended up going with Bret as the World Champion. But I always felt that if I stayed at WWE I was determined that I was going to get another shot at the title someday and be their world champion. So if I stayed there and Vince and I were trying to work it out. When I went to Nitro, that was a last-minute thing between Sting and Eric Bischoff that came out on a random phone call with Sting because of our friendship. I wasn't under contract anymore, and we were trying to work it out on a handshake. I was going to stay at WWE. I had no plan on leaving."
"They kept it a big secret and all that. But we had no idea Nitro and the Monday Night War was going to get so big. Sting told me we're going to do a Monday night show. I'm like, 'Good luck with that. Up against Raw?' That was my attitude. But okay. WCW was always a distant second kind of at that point. Yeah, we try harder, but we're number two, the old car rental ads and stuff back in the day. So yeah, we didn't know. We had no idea it was going to actually overtake them in ratings and stuff. My gosh, who would have thunk? So I had no idea. That moment when I walked out there, they had to actually pull me off the tapes we had already done for the shows for WWE. I was very uncomfortable because of my good relationship with Vince I couldn't tell him I was going to do that. That was Eric's one stipulation. I went home with my wife I go 'Peg, he [Bischoff] wants me to leave, but Eric wants me to give no notice. Just show up on Nitro.' I heard rumors that Vince was watching with his wife, and Linda turned to him, ‘If you ever bring that guy back…’ Because Vince always would forgive and bring guys back when people thought was impossible. I'm not sure if that's true, but I heard that rumor that Linda was almost angry with me at that because Vince and I had such a good relationship, I didn't even give notice. I walked out of Nitro."
"I was under contract. From the penthouse outhouse to the jailhouse. I had too much time and money on my hands. I had almost three years of guaranteed contract with Time Warner for a lot of money, and Vince couldn't touch me. I would have had to give up three years of guaranteed money."
"After that, everything happened. I got messed up on the wine and women, I had too much time and money on my hands. Got messed up on drugs and alcohol, and had a period where I was a complete train wreck. The tragic passing of Elizabeth. Obviously people go, 'Well, he killed Elizabeth.' Well, I didn't kill her. But was I a contributing factor to the lifestyle I was living and her being around me all the time and she overdosed? Absolutely."
"Absolutely. Sure, there's always collateral damage to lifestyles like that, and she was part of it. So absolutely. Sadly."
"You’d think it was, but that led me to more depression where I felt completely unlovable. I was never going to be able to be a part of wrestling again after that happened. Instead of, I hate to admit it, who I was back then. Instead of being so grieving over the loss of Liz, I was grieving over what this would do to me and my career, almost more so. I hate to admit it. Back then when I was done in wrestling and my fitness nutrition quest after wrestling, I was going to be a big fitness nutrition guy to have my own nutrition company and exercise. Well, no one's going to want that for me now. So I went into massive depression, darkness, did more drugs, more alcohol. It wasn't until at that point where I dug such a deep, dark hole, I always thought I could somehow work or be smart enough to get out of it. I knew I was at the bottom of a pond with no light, and there was no way to the top, and I was drowning in darkness. And that's when I turned to God. I knew there's no way I get out of this. So God, if you're really real, you have to get me out of this, because I'm done."
"No doubt, and I totally understand, I do, yeah. I get it. She was a beloved character, Liz, and I'll always be tied as part of what happened with her. And I get that I have haters out there. I understand where they're coming from. I get it."
"Well, people say that good things come to those who wait, always hopeful. If not, I still feel I had a great career. There's a lot of deserving guys other than me who still aren't in as well. So yeah, it would be a huge honor though, if and when it happens."
"I don’t know what criteria they do, because there's a lot of other guys too that should have been in. I don't know if it was me personally or anything with Vince at all. I'm not sure about that. Only they can answer that."
"I think they waited and observed that I was a different guy now, and I felt that they learned to maybe trust who I was, that this wasn't some temporary thing, this is the new Lex Luger, this is the direction he's headed with his life. So I'm thankful. But they've been a real blessing in every way, including financially. You know, they gave me new merch and gave me what the guys call mailbox money. So I am very thankful for them welcoming back into the family and making me a part of WWE. Obviously, the Hall of Fame would be the whipped cream and cherry on top for sure. If I never get in the Hall of Fame, I feel like I had a great career. That won't change it, but it would obviously be a huge honor. Definitely the creme de la creme, for sure."
"The good Lord, my friends and my family."
