Lex Luger On Living A Double Life, Spinal Cord Injury, Steroids In Wrestling, Hulk Hogan
Lex Luger recently spoke with WGRZ on his life and pro wrestling. Here are some of the highlights:
Later years in wrestling:
"I was living a double life, and ended up hurting those closest to me, and while my personal life, while it seemed that I had it all, 'The Total Package,' everything going on in the ring, and then the million dollars that had been going on. There was an emptiness that I was trying to fill and outside of the ring there was never enough money, there was never enough women, there was never enough partying, and as a results, I went down some pretty dark paths for awhile there."
Spinal cord injury:
"From all my matches, heavy-weight training, and stuff in the gym, did heavy work-out. I was on a east coast to west coast flight and I woke up the next morning paralyzed from the neck down. I was given like a point-zero something chance of having any real function from the neck down. Thankfully, over time I have some mobility and have had periods of time where I can stand and walk."
Use of steroids in wrestling:
"It was [used], in both football and in wrestling, earlier on, and in my career. It was very prevalent then and looking back on it, we all always wished there was a level playing field, but it was kind of like 'work hard, play hard' if the rest of the guys are taking it, you didn't want the guys to have an edge."
Wrestlers who had creative control:
"Hogan was one of the rarities; him and Andre the Giant were the only two wrestlers who had, what they call, 'creative control.' They could say 'yay' or 'nay,' okay, if they said, 'you're going to lose tonight,' you could say 'nah, that doesn't work for me.'"
Lex Luger also discussed early life in Buffalo, how he got into pro wrestling, and finding religion while in jail. You can hear the entire interview by clicking here.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit WGRZ with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: WGRZ
Riley O'Connor contributed to this article.