Lex Luger

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Lawrence Wendell Pfohl
LexLuger.jpg
Data
Ring name Lex Luger
The Narcissist
The Total Package
height 190 cm
Fighting weight 120 kg - 130 kg
birth June 2, 1958
Buffalo , New York
Announced from Chicago , Illinois
Trained by Bob Roop
Hiro Matsuda
debut September 1985
retirement 2006

Lawrence Wendell Pfohl (born June 2, 1958 in Buffalo , New York), better known by his pseudonym Lex Luger , is a retired American wrestler and former football player .

Career

Pfohl got into wrestling in a roundabout way. His sports career began with Canadian and American football . Pfohl was a regular for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League in 1979/80 , in 1982 he was then signed by the Green Bay Packers of the NFL , he was not used this season due to several injuries during the season and was still before the start of the following season released again. In 1984 Pfohl played with the Tampa Bay Bandits in the USFL .

National Wrestling Alliance (1985-1990)

Pfohl made his debut in the NWA Florida Territory in 1985 . In his first year as a wrestler , he won the NWA Florida Southern Heavyweight Championship against Wahoo McDaniel . In the following year 1986 Pfohl won this title two more times (against Jesse Barr and Jerry Gray ). In addition to this title, he was also able to secure the NWA Bahamas Heavyweight Championship.

In 1987 Pfohl made his debut on American television and was marketed as The Total Package from then on . He became a member of the Stable Four Horsemen , which was led by Ric Flair . Pfohl was soon able to win the NWA United States Championship from Nikita Koloff . He won the title at the Great American Bash in a steel cage match. After a few months Pfohl lost the Starrcade title to Dusty Rhodes .

After some quarrels with Horsemen manager JJ Dillon , Pfohl left the group. He teamed up with Barry Windham , an old companion from the Florida days, and the two of them formed The Twin Towers tag team . At the Clash of the Champions in March 1988, both won the NWA World Tag Team Championship against Horsemen representatives Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard . In the rematch for the title a month later, Windham turned against Pfohl and joined the Horsemen. A few days later the Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup was held. Since Pfohl was now without a partner, he teamed up with Sting and both won the final against Anderson and Blanchard. During the year Pfohl played several fights against Ric Flair for his NWA World Heavyweight Championship , but he lost all of them.

In February 1989 Pfohl defeated his former partner Barry Windham and was able to secure the NWA United States Championship . In May of the same year he briefly lost his title to Michael Hayes . Pfohl began to change to heel . In the Clash of the Champions, he attacked Ricky Steamboat , because this was the No. 1 challenger to the NWA World Heavyweight Championship . Then some matches of the two for Pfohl's NWA United States Championship took place, in which Pfohl could always defend his title. Pfohl's NWA United States Championship lost importance in the course of the year. He defended his title against weaker opponents, while Flair, Sting, Terry Funk and Keiji Mutoh fought the main fights for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship .

At Starrcade , in December 1989, an Ironman tournament between Flair, Sting, Pfohl and Muta took place. Sting won the tournament and became the No. 1 challenger to the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Pfohl initially disappeared from the main fighting scene in 1990 until Sting was injured. Sting's injury gave Pfohl several matches against Flair for his NWA World Heavyweight Championship , in which, however, he could not win the title. At the end of the year, Pfohl briefly lost his US title to Stan Hansen .

World Championship Wrestling (1991-1992)

After the WCW broke away from the NWA, Pfohl feuded against Dan Spivey . In Wrestle War he was able to successfully defend his WCW United States Championship . After Flair left WCW because of disputes, his NWA World Heavyweight Championship became vacant. At the Bash at the Beach Pfohl fought against Barry Windham for the new WCW World Heavyweight Championship in a steel cage match. During the match, Harley Race and Mr. Hughes showed up to help Pfohl. This was an expression for Pfohl's heel turn during the match. Eventually Pfohl was able to win his first World Heavyweight Championship with the help of illegal actions. He defended the title against Ron Simmons and Rick Steiner . Because of disputes about his contract with the WCW, Pfohl did not appear in title matches several times. In February 1992 he lost his title to Sting at Superbrawl and left the WCW for the time being.

World Wrestling Federation (1993-1995)

While he was briefly participating in the World Bodybuilding Federation (founded by Vince McMahon), he suffered a motorcycle accident. After surviving the consequences of this accident, he switched to WWF . He was marketed as The Narcissist , a self-indulgent heel gimmick . McMahon also built his motorcycle accident into the gimmick: The fact that Pfohl, whose finishing move was the running forearm, wore a metal plate in this arm as a result of an accident, was marketed as a scandal and led Pfohl's opponents to demand that he wear a protective cuff, so that he could not gain an illegal advantage. However, the desired success of The Narcissist gimmick did not materialize.

When Hulk Hogan left WWF in mid-1993, Pfohl was given the face gimmick The Real American . In the following months Pfohl was on his Lex Express bus in the USA to get support for a fight for the WWF Championship. At Summerslam Pfohl got his title chance. Although he was able to win the match by counting out, he was denied the title.

In January 1994 Pfohl won the Royal Rumble main match with Bret Hart and should therefore get another chance at the WWF Championship. At Wrestlemania he fought again against yokozuna. Due to a binge drinking just before the event, the officials arranged that Pfohl should not win the title. Instead, Bret Hart won the title in his match against yokozuna. In the course of the year, the Kayfabe friendship with Tatanka broke because the latter accused Pfohl of wanting to join the Stable Million Dollar Corporation of leader Ted DiBiase .

At Summerslam, Tatanka attacked Pfohl and joined the Million Dollar Corporation herself. Together with The British Bulldog , Pfohl founded the tag team The Allied Powers in 1995 . The World Tag Team Championship was denied to the two and the team broke up again. Pfohl should get another chance at the WWF Championship, but left the WWF because of a dispute with Vince McMahon before these plans could be realized.

World Championship Wrestling (1995-2000)

At the end of August 1995, Pfohl contacted Eric Bischoff to return to the WCW. Pfohl performed for the first time at WCW Monday Nitro in early September to watch a match between Sting and Flair. For the main fight of the evening he rushed to the aid of Hulk Hogan, who was attacked by several wrestlers. Particularly annoying for the WWF: Pfohl could be seen at the same time in the recorded RAW and in the live broadcast Nitro, because his change took place at very short notice. In the following months Pfohl helped various wrestlers against their opponents.

In early 1996 Pfohl did face gymnastics and teamed up with Sting to win the WCW World Tag Team Championship ; his good friend from days gone by, Bati Cabbar, helped him with this. In February Pfohl won the WCW World Television Championship against Johnny B. Badd , which he lost one night later and was able to win again in March. In the summer, Pfohl began a feud against The Giant . At the Great American Bash both fought for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, but Pfohl was defeated. When the Outsiders ( Scott Hall and Kevin Nash ) appeared on the scene, WCW stars Randy Savage , Sting and Pfohl challenged them at the Bash at the Beach . To the surprise of the general public, Hulk Hogan joined the Outsiders and the stable nWo was born. Pfohl remained loyal to the WCW squad and feuded against the members of the nWo.

In August 1997 Pfohl won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship against Hogan, before losing the title again to this six days later at Road Wild . During the first half of 1998 he fought Scott Hall and Buff Bagwell before joining the nWo Wolfpac ; Pfohl played a central role in the fight against Hogan's original nWo. After a biceps injury, his membership in Wolfpac ended in 1999. Pfohl did gymnastics in heels and started again under the name The Total Package . With Buff Bagwell, he joined forces to form the Totally Buff team, which was managed by Miss Elizabeth . Together they entered Ric Flair's Stable Magnificent Seven , where they stayed until the end of WCW. After the WCW was bought up by the WWF, Pfohl was not taken over and retired from wrestling for the time being.

World Wrestling All-Stars (2002)

At the end of 2002 Pfohl appeared on the WWA's European Tour and fought with Sting against Buff Bagwell and Malice . In December Pfohl defeated Sting to win the vacant WWA World Heavyweight Championship . The following day, Sting and Pfohl fought Buff Bagwell and Jeff Jarrett . Pfohl made his last appearance in the WWA a week later when he lost the title to Sting.

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2003-2005)

Pfohl first appeared on TNA at the end of 2003 . There he fought with Jeff Jarrett against Sting and AJ Styles . In February 2004, he helped Abyss defeat Styles.

End of career

In October 2007 Pfohl fell ill with an infection, as a result of which he was paralyzed and lost almost 40 kg of muscle mass. However, since autumn 2008 he has been able to run independently again.

successes

  • World Wrestling All-Stars
  • 1 × WWA World Heavyweight Championship
  • Royal Rumble 1994 - together with Bret Hart (through double elimination, both arrived at the hall floor at the same time)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [1] Match statistics on cagematch.de
  2. ↑ Letters To Lee Remmel on Packers.com ( October 17, 2006 memento on the Internet Archive ), October 17, 2006 version, accessed January 8, 2014
  3. ↑ Tampa Bay Bandits ( Memento of the original from July 29, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on geocities.com @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.geocities.com
  4. ↑ report Pfohls health on cagematch.de
  5. ↑ Wrestle Complex.com- Full Update On The Condition Of Lex Luger. March 13, 2008, archived from the original on March 13, 2008 ; Retrieved July 11, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Luger, Lex
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pfohl, Lawrence
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American wrestler
DATE OF BIRTH June 2, 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH Buffalo , New York