Lex Luger - The Untold Story

The Untold Story-
The Lex Luger Story
By Lisa A. Rice

If you happen to visit restaurants in Cobb County at lunchtime, especially the "troughs," as they're jokingly called (you know, TONS of food choices, all buffet-style), you might see a tall, muscular, late-forties blonde guy in a ball cap sitting in a corner, often socializing with fans known to be even more enthusiastic than the NASCAR crowd, and eating a huge healthy lunch. The healthy lunch is a reflection of his greatest passions-fitness and nutrition.
If you haven't already guessed, we're talking about Lex Luger, famous World Champion Wrestler, Atlanta resident and new Christian believer. We interviewed Lex at on of those "troughs" and heard about his tumultuous sports and personal history, as well as his new-found faith and newly-launched ministry.

A Scrapper is Born

Lawrence Pfohl, a.k.a. Lex Luger, was born and raised in Buffalo, New York, a blue collar steel mill town. His parents worked seven days a week in full and part-time jobs, so Lex was an original latch key kid.
"It taught me independence and gave me a lot of autonomy," Lex recalls. "However, I started getting in trouble and actually missed my high school graduation because my friends and I got caught smashing mailboxes in a rich neighborhood."
Lex says his dad and mom were great parents and taught him right from wrong, but because of his own rebellious nature, he began questioning authority and making bad decisions. He admits that the lifestyle choices he made then started him down his self-imposed "highway to Hell."

Sports Becomes god

Lex quickly found out in grade school that he could run faster and jump higher than others, so he pursued sports with a vengeance. "We all seek significance through what we see as our strengths," Lex says, "and my strength was sports." He became All State in football and basketball, and colleges began their relentless pursuit of the athlete, offering scholarships and inducements. He says that gave him a sense of entitlement, and he felt he was above the rules and better than others, like many other tough athletes.
"I started lifting weights, working out and reading muscle magazines," Lex says. "Many of them featured Arnold Schwarzenegger. "At that time, I began to get a passion for fitness and nutrition, and it's never left me. I even hung on to it later. When I was on drugs and drinking, I was still going to the gym!"

The Athlete's in Demand

Lex's passion for working out paid off big time, and he received a football scholarship to the University of Miami to play for the Hurricanes, commonly known as "the NFL Football Factory." But once again, on his "always in a hurry, never satisfied climb up the ladder to fame and fortune," he found himself in some off-the-field related problems, which got him kicked off the team.
He continued to play football, however, and became pro for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League, where there was no age restriction (at age 19, he was too young for the NFL). After three seasons in Montreal, he jumped for greener pastures to the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League. In 1984, after two years at Green Bay, he jumped to the United States Football League and played for the Tampa Bay Bandits.
"I kept jumping leagues because I was never happy with the here and now," Lex says. "I was never able to live in the moment. Ambition was turning into greed and self interest above all else." That led Lex to look into the financial opportunitities in the world of professional wrestling.

The Wrestling Bug Bites

In 1985, in the off-season from football, Lex heard that Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan had set an indoor attendance record at the Detroit Silver Dome. The always-confident Lex got dollar signs in his eyes. "I can do better than just football," he thought. And off he went chasing the next thing.
Lex was trained by Hiro Matsuda, who had previously trained Hulk Hogan and "Mr. Wonderful," Paul Orndorff. Lex made his in-ring debut in October 1985 and became pro wrestling's Rookie of the Year in 1986. The "total package" was born.
"I was fortunate enough to get into a business I knew nothing about and to stay on top for fifteen years," Lex says. Lex Luger became a household name like other wrestling icons.

Family Life Fails

During that time, Lex was happily married to his wife, Peggy. They had a son, Brian, in 1986 and a daughter, Lauren, in 1991.

"I had a great wife, kids, a house, everything; and I showered my family with stuff. I remembered the reckless lifestyle choices of other wrestlers-partying, drinking and womanizing-and I vowed not to do that. I was better than that. However, when wrestling on the road for over 300 days a year, we all became one big dysfunctional family in the locker room and after the shows. Those were the days before computers, camera phones and paparazzi. What was done on the road stayed on the road, so I began dabbling in it just enough to fit in while I was on the road."

Little did Lex know how dangerous that dabbling would become.

Internal Corruption Sets in

Everything looked great from the outside looking in-money, fame, success, notoriety and all of the other accolades. But despite the external glory and fame, the famous wrestler admits that it was never enough.
"If I was flying in First Class, someone would recognize me and say, ‘Are you still flying commercial?' And then I'd fly in a private plane. But someone else would say, ‘Hey, that's a cute little plane;' and I'd want a private jet. It just went on and on... If I bought a Rolex, I'd see someone else with a diamond-studded Rolex. If I bought a top of the line Mercedes, someone else would show up with a Bentley Azure..."
In June of '92, Lex was involved in a near fatal, head-on motorcycle crash while he was at home in Atlanta. His petrified wife walked into the emergency room and found Lex covered in blood, with his arm so badly injured that the doctors were discussing amputation. Peggy, in a moment of emotion and pain, lashed out at him in anger.
Lex says,
"In a moment when I was really scared-for probably the first time in my life-instead of having the Lord to lean upon for strength, I was looking to my frightened wife-who loved me with all her heart-for strength and reassurance. At that very moment, I selfishly decided I was just an ATM machine for my family. I thought all my sacrifices traveling on the road were nothing for them. I used that as justification when I went back on the road and traveled with the guys. My dabbling to fit in evolved into total chaos. I became a ringleader to what I vowed I would only dabble in, including womanizing and adultery. For the next ten years, my life was totally self-centered and self-satisfying rather than Christ-centered. "

Public Humiliation Takes Its Toll

In 2003, though Lex had a beautiful home in the Sugarloaf Country Club in Atlanta, he also had a mistress by the name of Liz Hulette-known as Miss Elizabeth in professional wrestling-on the other side of town. Liz died of a drug overdose in the townhouse in Marietta that she and Lex shared, and Lex was arrested after they found steroids and other drugs on the premises. After a two year trial and a well-deserved divorce, Lex pleaded guilty to felony drug possession charges and was given a five year sentence with probation, since he was a first time offender.
"I'd like to be able to tell you that that time was the low point in my life, but my grief, sorrow and self-pity sent me down a worse spiral of drugs and alcohol, which continued to devastate my real friends and family. The pain and destruction I put Peggy, Lauren and Brian through by losing my moral conscience as a husband and a father," Lex sorrowfully confesses, "was the worst disappointment to face. Lauren, who was twelve years old at the time, was always a daddy's girl and thought the sun rose and set on her dad. I can never imagine the pain and heartache she must have felt, or the heartache of Brian and Peggy."

God Gives a Dream

On August 21, 2004 at an extended stay hotel in Kennesaw Georgia, Lex says he was at the point in his life that he wasn't suicidal, but he just didn't care if he lived or died. "I came home from doing community service work all day long, drank over a liter of vodka, took over forty pain killers and muscle relaxers over a period of hours, and just faded out of consciousness."
Lex awoke on the couch recalling an extremely vivid dream in which he was floating down to the bottom of a dark, cold, murky pond, face up. "I kept sinking for what seemed like forever, finally landing on my back in the bottom of the pond in the muck. There was pitch blackness with no sound. I got that overwhelming scared feeling again-just like I'd had after my motorcycle wreck. I became increasingly terrified and remember thinking ‘Is this it? Is this all there is?' Then I saw it...the tiniest little pinhole of brilliant light outside the darkness. I sat up towards the light on the bottom of the pond as I was waking up on the couch coming back to reality."
That moment was the first moment Lex ever thought about the possibility of divine intervention in his life.

God Reveals Himself Through a Pesky Preacher

Over the course of the next few months, Lex quit drinking and doing drugs. However, he unknowingly violated his probation when he arrived at the Canadian border without the judges' signature. He ended up in a Cobb County jail for four months. Lex was miserable, depressed and not in the mood to talk to anyone. But jail chaplain, Steve Baskin, son of Dr. Jack and Shirley Baskin and pastor of Western Hills Baptist Church, kept showing up twice every week at the jail wanting to talk to Lex.
"I avoided him at all costs," Lex says, "though I did take a Bible he wanted me to have. I found the Bible to be dry, and I couldn't concentrate on it." Steve kept faithfully coming back to the jail-every Wednesday and Friday-with a big smile on his face, trying to be Lex's friend.
Jail was boredom and drudgery for Lex. None of his fake friends form the past-‘losers, users and abusers'-were visiting him in jail, but there was Steve-always there, pesky and persistent.
"Once I got out of jail, Pastor Steve hunted me down and found me in Gold's Gym in Kennesaw. He wanted to get in shape and lose some weight. I knew how to work guys in a way that wouldn't make them too sore the next day, but I didn't do that with Steve. I gave it to him-both barrels-and he'd still come back, limping and bruised, ready for more."
After a couple of months of working out together and enjoying Steve's consistent friendship, Lex finally turned to the preacher one day and asked him what was up with the sinners prayer. He had prayed it years earlier to get a team chaplain off his back, but he had felt nothing. Steve said, "Well, Buddy, this is pretty important. It has to do with life and death and your eternity. If I were you, I'd make sure I had it right."
On that day, April 23, 2006, in an extended stay in Kennesaw, on the very same couch where Lex had dreamed his dream several months before, Steve prayed with Lex, and Lex invited Christ to take over and be his Lord.
"This time it was real and amazing," Lex says. "All the guilt and hate and envy were gone. I was finally clean. There I was, having lost my moral conscience, my family, my friends and my way, but now my Creator and Savior was offering me a new start. I can't tell you how freeing that felt. I love II Cor. 5:17... about becoming brand new. I knew that God was changing out the old for the new."

Sharing the Faith

Because Lex is now ever-aware of the possibility of missing opportunities and letting someone go to Hell-where he believes he was headed-he makes evangelism an intentional part of every day. "Now I'm helping others find their way with the Lord," he says, "and I never go anywhere without one of those tracts that lead people to Christ."
As fans approach Lex in his travels, he gives them his autograph on the back of a Christian tract, and he invites them to explore his newfound faith.

Ministering to the Body

Though Lex's first passion is evangelism ("I want everyone to be their utmost for His highest," he says earnestly), he's also helping people keep their bodies in shape through fitness and nutrition. He works as a coach and counselor for a new company called Integrity Fitness and Nutrition. He teaches people how to begin a realistic, balanced, nutritious, in-shape lifestyle-without drugs.
Lex doesn't minimize the drug issue, which is so prominent in the news, but teaches his clients that the training we have today is just as effective as taking steroids. "I like to say to the kids I'm speaking to that if I can look like this (shows his bulging bicep) at 49 without steroids, I wonder what you can do with your age and energy."
Lex says it is absolutely possible to be in shape through exercise, resistance training and the right combination of foods, spaced at the right times of the day. As a matter of fact, Lex has been working with the pesky preacher who got him saved, and Steve has now lost fifty-five pounds! "I got the better deal," Lex says and laughs. "He got in shape, but I gained my salvation."
Lex also writes a general wellness column in Christian Living through which he encourages parents and kids to follow some simple guidelines to great health. "I'm all about simplicity," he says. As a matter of fact, he brings his clients to grocery stores and to the Golden Corral and teaches them how to make great choices... how to eat their protein and carbs the right way at the right times. "It's not rocket science," he says, "but it does take a willingness to make a lifestyle change and to have some conviction about it."
Lex believes that people need to open their eyes-first spiritually, to get serious about the reality of a quickly-approaching eternity in Heaven or Hell; then family-wise, so others won't lose their loved ones through stupid choices and divorce. Then he believes they need to get real about treating their bodies in a way that will make them last the longest with the fullest amount of energy available to fulfill God's purposes.
"The person who came up with ‘J.O.Y.' is right," Lex says. "It's Jesus, Others, then You. It's God's design and the way to happiness."

For information on Lex and Integrity Nutrition and Fitness, please visit his website at:
www.flexwithlex.org