Miss Elizabeth

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Miss Elizabeth
File:0626 miss elizabeth full.jpg
Born(1960-11-19)November 19, 1960
Frankfort, Kentucky
DiedMay 1, 2003(2003-05-01) (aged 42)
Atlanta, Georgia
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Miss Elizabeth
Elizabeth
DebutMay 1985
RetiredAugust 17, 2000

Elizabeth Ann Hulette (November 19, 1960 – May 1, 2003), best known as Miss Elizabeth, was a U.S. professional wrestling manager. She gained international fame during the late-1980s and early-1990s in the World Wrestling Federation, and the mid-1990s in World Championship Wrestling in her role as the counterpart to "Macho Man" Randy Savage.

Professional wrestling career

While working at International Championship Wrestling shows, Hulette met Randy Poffo, a wrestling performer with the stage name "'Macho Man' Randy Savage".

World Wrestling Federation

1985-1987

In 1985, the WWF was doing an angle where all the managers in the promotion were bidding for Randy Savage's services. During a match on July 30 1985, several managers were at ringside in hopes that he would name one of them as his new manager. After the match, Savage thanked the managers for their consideration and then asked that his new manager come to ringside. An unnamed woman then came down to the ring, and announcer Bruno Sammartino remarked, "She must be some sort of movie star." It was later revealed that her name was Miss Elizabeth. Elizabeth's WWF debut aired on the August 24 1985 edition of WWF Prime Time Wrestling, and from that point on, she was the manager of Randy Savage.[1]

Miss Elizabeth's first major angle was during Savage's feud with George "The Animal" Steele in 1986. In the angle, Steele fell in love with Miss Elizabeth, angering Savage and leading to a series of matches. Their feud was one of the WWF's most popular of the 1980s; it carried on for more than a year, thanks to the feral Steele's continued crush on Elizabeth. She also figured prominently in Savage's 1986 feud with Hulk Hogan and Ricky "the Dragon" Steamboat.

After injuring Steamboat's larynx, Savage lost his Intercontinental Title at WrestleMania III on March 29 1987 to Steamboat. The Savage-Steamboat match concluded after 19 attempted pinfalls, with Steamboat finally taming the Savage. Steamboat later lost the title to The Honky Tonk Man. Honky's constant harassment of Miss Elizabeth instigated a challenge by Randy Savage. In the match, which aired on NBC's Saturday Night's Main Event in October 1987, Miss Elizabeth persuaded Hulk Hogan to rescue and join Savage to form The Mega Powers, defeating The Honky Tonk Man and his allies, Bret "The Hitman" Hart and Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart.

1988-1989

The year 1988 was a pivotal one for Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth. Hulk Hogan, who had been the Champion and the foundation upon which the WWF's popularity was built, lost the WWF World championship belt in a match against André the Giant. André the Giant then forfeited the belt to the "Million Dollar Man", Ted DiBiase, an arrangement that they had prior to the match. This resulted in a the WWF declaring that the belt can only be forfeited to the WWF, and that there would be a championship tournament at WrestleMania IV, which Randy Savage won. With Miss Elizabeth alongside him in the spotlight, she was the first female manager-valet to ever reach such a successful plateau.

At the first ever SummerSlam, The Mega Powers teamed up against André The Giant and Ted DiBiase, with Jesse Ventura as the referee. Most of the pre-match build-up centered around Elizabeth, who by this time was at the peak of her popularity. The tease for the match was that if things got bad, Elizabeth, billed as the secret weapon of The Mega Powers, was going to wear a bikini under her fancy clothes. Towards the end of match, André and Dibiase were in control, so Elizabeth got up on the apron and ripped her skirt off to reveal a red bikini bottom, which distracted both André and DiBiase. The Mega Powers quickly took advantage of the situation and won the match after Ventura made a reluctant three-count.

Miss Elizabeth became the catalyst for the breakup of the Savage–Hogan relationship. During a 1989 tag team match that pitted the Mega Powers against The Twin Towers (Akeem "The African Dream" and The Big Bossman), Savage was thrown onto Miss Elizabeth, knocking her unconscious on the outside of the ring. Seeing this, Hogan scooped her up and, as the match continued, carried her to the backstage area for medical attention. Upon his return to the ring, Hogan was greeted with anger from Savage for having abandoned him in the midst of a match. Savage slapped his partner and left the ring area. Hogan continued the match, winning singlehandedly. Hogan exited the ring and reached the backstage area, where Savage attacked him, turning Savage heel.

1990-1992

Savage remained a heel for several years, eventually taking on Sherri Martel as his manager and dubbing himself "The Macho King" after defeating "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan for the "king of the ring" tournament crown in 1989. Miss Elizabeth was a full-time valet and did not officially wrestle in a single match. However, she engaged in a notable feud with Sherri Martel, including several catfight segments. When Savage and Martel began a heated feud with "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes and Sapphire, Miss Elizabeth came to their aid and joined forces with them. This came to a head at WrestleMania VI, where the two couples were engaged in the WWF's first mixed tag-team match. When Martel attempted to help Savage double-team Rhodes, Miss Elizabeth grabbed Martel by the hair. While the two women faced off, Sapphire took advantage of the situation, kneeling down behind Martel just as Miss Elizabeth pushed her. Martel lost her balance and gave Sapphire enough advantage to pin Martel for the win.

Miss Elizabeth disappeared from WWF television until WrestleMania VII, when Savage lost a retirement match to The Ultimate Warrior. Upon his loss, Martel began beating him, kicking the defeated man, until Elizabeth, who was sitting at ringside, entered the ring and defended Savage. Elizabeth grabbed Martel by the hair and threw her out of the ring, reuniting Savage and Elizabeth.

The couple then held a heavily promoted on-air wedding billed as "The Match Made In Heaven" at SummerSlam 1991 in New York's Madison Square Garden (the couple was officially married in 1984). At the wedding reception, Elizabeth opened a gift package containing a live snake, which frightened her. This led to Savage coming out of retirement for a feud with Jake "The Snake" Roberts. Moments later, Roberts and The Undertaker crashed the reception and assaulted Savage. At the Tuesday in Texas pay-per-view, Savage pinned Roberts. Following the match, Roberts beat down Savage, then forced Elizabeth to beg him to stop the beating. Apparently dissatisfied with her begging, Roberts grabbed her by the hair and slapped her across her face. On a February 1992 episode of Saturday Night's Main Event, Roberts, with a steel chair in tow, was waiting in the backstage area for Elizabeth and Savage to come through the curtain after a match. Roberts was about to strike Elizabeth with the chair, but Undertaker stopped him. This started Undertaker's feud with his former ally.

In her final WWF angle, WWF Champion Ric Flair bragged that he dated Elizabeth before Savage met her. Flair's tagline was, "She was mine before she was yours." He showed photos of himself with Elizabeth in casual situations, which were later printed in an issue of WWF Magazine. Flair, with Mr. Perfect as his "executive consultant", said that they were going to show a nude photo of Elizabeth on the screen at WrestleMania VIII, although this did not occur. Instead, Savage regained the belt in a match with Flair at the event, and WWF Magazine later revealed that the photos were doctored, as other photographs showed Elizabeth in the exact same poses and situations, but with Savage. Elizabeth's final WWF appearance took place on April 19 1992 during an overseas tour of England. Randy Savage pinned Shawn Michaels after Miss Elizabeth, who had earlier been sent backstage, returned to prevent Sherri's interference.[2]

Savage and Liz divorced on September 18, 1992.[citation needed]

World Championship Wrestling

1996-1998

In January 1996, Miss Elizabeth returned to wrestling as a valet for Savage. She later turned against Savage and become Ric Flair's valet in the Four Horsemen. She later turned against the Four Horsemen and joined the New World Order (nWo) alongside Savage and Hogan. In June 1998, she parted ways with Savage once again by joining Hogan's side of the nWo, nWo Hollywood. Then, for the next few months she accompanied Eric Bischoff on his way to the ring.

Elizabeth briefly married to a non-wrestler, Cary Lubetsky, a South Florida attorney, in December 1997. The wedding was held at the Cuban Hebrew Temple in Miami Beach. The marriage was short-lived, as the couple were divorced in 1998.[3]

1999

On the January 4 1999 episode of Nitro, Elizabeth was seen talking to police detectives. She claimed that Bill Goldberg was stalking her and that he even accosted her by the water cooler. She then filed charges against Goldberg. Goldberg was arrested later that night for aggravated stalking and taken into custody by police. However, later that night, Elizabeth admitted that she was lying. As it turned out, Elizabeth was a pawn for the nWo so that Goldberg wouldn't be able to have his scheduled title match with Kevin Nash later that night. Due to Goldberg's apparent absence, the returning Hulk Hogan took Goldberg's title shot in the match that is known as "The Fingerpoke of Doom". Soon after, Elizabeth accompanied Lex Luger, and sometimes Kevin Nash, to ringside. However, Luger injured his biceps at a February 1999 house show and they soon took time off the road.

In January of that year, she received a breast augmentation.[citation needed] An autopsy reported conducted on her body would later confirm the augmentation.[4] At WCW Souled Out 1999 she strutted down to ringside, baring her enlarged chest wrapped in a tight velvet blouse.[5] Despite that one-off moment, Elizabeth was not planning on going down the "T & A" route, popular at the time. Later that year in an interview WOW Magazine conducted with Elizabeth, she said, "There's obviously an audience for everything, especially the titillation of 'let me show you what's under my top' approach. You will never see me in an evening gown match or anything like that where someone's going to rip my clothes off. I just don't think it's necessary. For those people that it works for, good for them."[6]

2000

In February 2000, Elizabeth managed the short-lived partnership between Luger and Ric Flair. The three of them were known as Team Package. The trio's main goal was to take down Hulk Hogan, whom Luger had been publicly challenging to a match during the previous few weeks. Hogan made his return to WCW during the February 2, 2000 edition of WCW Thunder, and while back was turned during an interview segment, Elizabeth came into the ring, baseball bat raised. However, Hogan quickly turned around and easily out-muscled the bat from her possession. As a receipt for her dastardly act, and in a throwback to his attacks on Sensational Sherri in the World Wrestling Federation, Hogan picked up Liz and held her up high in the air and delivered his patented atomic drop. However, Elizabeth no-sold the maneuver and quickly rolled out of the ring.[7] Later that week, Hogan called into Bubba the Love Sponge's radio show to discuss his program with Luger, not to mention Elizabeth no-selling his atomic drop maneuver on the previous edition of Thunder. Hogan claimed that Elizabeth refused to take a bigger bump because she wasn't wearing any panties underneath her skirt.[8] Shortly thereafter, Team Package went their separate ways as they fought various members of The New Blood. Elizabeth engaged in short-lived feuds with Vince Russo and Kimberly Page.

WCW released Elizabeth from her contract on August 17, 2000.[9]

Later life

Despite being let go by WCW, Elizabeth and Luger stayed together as a couple. Friends of Elizabeth said the two were planning on getting married sometime in 2003. After her departure from wrestling, Hulette began working the front desk at Main Event Fitness in Marietta, Georgia, a gym that Luger had owned for years after he and Steve Borden opened it during their wrestling heyday.

File:Lexlugermug.jpg
Luger's mug shots after being arrested in May 2003 on 14 drug possession charges and then in April 2003 for misdemeanor battery charges

Elizabeth was advertised to make her first wrestling appearance since her departure from WCW during the World Wrestling All-Stars tour of Europe in November 2002 and December 2002 alongside Luger.[10] She accompanied Luger on the tour overseas, but didn't appear on a single show.[11][12] Elizabeth never made another wrestling appearance after her release from WCW. Luger ended up winning and losing the WWA World Heavyweight Championship in matches with Sting during the tour.[12]

On April 19, 2003, Elizabeth was involved in a domestic dispute with Luger in the garage of their townhouse in Marietta, Georgia, who allegedly struck her. Cobb County police found Elizabeth with two bruised eyes, a bump on her head and a cut lip. Luger was charged with a misdemeanour count of battery and released on $2,500 bond. Two days later on April 21, 2003, Luger was arrested for driving under the influence after rear-ending another car while driving his Porsche. According to the report on the arrest, Luger had slurred speech, bloodshot eyes and could not locate his driver's license. Luger had a 9-mm handgun in the car. Elizabeth was a passenger in the vehicle, and was sent home in a taxicab. Luger was also driving with a suspended license for not appearing in court on March 5, 2003 for a hearing on a previous offence (driving with expired tags and having no proof of insurance).[13]


Death

On May 1, 2003 in Marietta, Georgia, Luger called 9-1-1 from his home and reported that Elizabeth was not breathing. She did not respond to mouth to mouth resuscitation, and paramedics rushed her to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead at age 42. (Luger's phone call was later aired on an episode of WWE Confidential.) Elizabeth and Luger were taking mixed pills of hydrocodone and Alprazolam (Xanax) with vodka. Luger was arrested later that day after a search of the residence revealed a number of illicit controlled substances, including anabolic steroids, OxyContin, synthetic growth hormone, testosterone, and Alprazolam. He was charged with 14 drug possession counts, 13 of them felonies. Luger pled guilty to the charges on February 3 2005. He was given a $1,000 fine, sentenced to five years probation, and required to submit to periodic drug testing.[14]

Her final resting place is in Frankfort, Kentucky, at the Frankfort Cemetery next to her grandparents, the Sorgs.[15]

Wrestlers Who Made love To Her

Notes

  1. ^ "WWF @ Poughkeepsie, NY - Mid-Hudson Civic Center - July 30, 1985". The History of WWE. Retrieved 2007-11-04.
  2. ^ "UK Rampage 92 - Sheffield, England - Arena - April 19, 1992". The History of WWE. Retrieved 2007-11-04.
  3. ^ "Managing at all levels suits Liz fine". Miami Herald. Retrieved 2007-08-25.
  4. ^ "Elizabeth Ann Hulette autopsy report". The Smoking Gun. Retrieved 2007-11-07.
  5. ^ "WCW/nWo Souled Out - Sunday, January 17, 1999". DDT Digest. January 17, 1999. Retrieved 2007-11-04.
  6. ^ "Miss Elizabeth Interview". World of Wrestling Magazine. Retrieved 2007-11-04.
  7. ^ "WCW Thunder - Wednesday, February 2, 2000". DDT Digest. February 2, 2000. Retrieved 2007-11-04.
  8. ^ "Hulk Hogan Calls In To The "Bubba the Love Sponge" Radio Show To Talk About Return To WCW". Pro Wrestling Torch #588 - February 12, 2000. February 12, 2000. Retrieved 2007-11-04.
  9. ^ "Miss Elizabeth 2000 Updates". Official Women Of Wrestling. August 17, 2000. Retrieved 2007-11-04.
  10. ^ "WWA welcomes 'The Godfather' & 'Perry Saturn'". Lords of Pain. November 11, 2002. Retrieved 2007-11-04.
  11. ^ "Miss Elizabeth Dead At Age 42". Mike Mooneyham. May 2, 2003. Retrieved 2007-11-04.
  12. ^ a b "World Wrestling All-Stars Information". Wrestling Information Archive. Retrieved 2007-11-04.
  13. ^ "Luger's arrests". Marietta Daily Journal. May 4, 2003. Retrieved 2007-11-04.
  14. ^ "Lex Luger Discusses Miss Elizabeth's Death in Emotional Interview". Lords of Pain. November 14, 2005. Retrieved 2007-11-04.
  15. ^ "Elizabeth Ann "Miss Elizabeth" Hulette (1960-2003) - Find A Grave Memorial". Find A Grave. Retrieved 2007-11-04.

References

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Miss_Elizabeth&oldid=203431444"