Lex Luger

Lawrence Wendell Pfohl (born June 2, 1958), better known by the ring name Lex Luger, is an American retired professional wrestler, bodybuilder, and football player.

He is best known for his work with Jim Crockett Promotions, World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE).

Luger is a two-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion and one-time WWA World Heavyweight Champion.

He is also a five-time NWA/WCW United States Heavyweight Champion who holds the records for consecutive days and total days as champion.

He is the second WCW Triple Crown Champion.

Upon leaving Miami, he played professional football for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League where he played in the 67th Grey Cup against the Edmonton Eskimos.

He sat out the 1977 season as a redshirt transfer student in Coral Gables.

In 1978, Luger played for the Miami Hurricanes, which featured future Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly, Jim Burt, Mitch Guittar, Fred Marion, and Mark Richt.

He was kicked off the team for what Luger referred to as "off-the-field incidents".

On the team's road trip to Atlanta to play Georgia Tech, Luger, who was suffering from cabin fever and disappointed at not being named a starter by coach Lou Saban by the 5th game of the season, snapped and trashed his hotel room.

He then signed with the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League, but never played in a game and thus is not listed on their all-time roster, though he did spend the entire 1982 season on the team's injured reserve list with a groin problem incurred during training camp.

He returned to the Packers training camp in 1983, but he was released before the regular season began.

Luger wore number 66 for the Packers, the last player to do so before it was retired for Ray Nitschke.

In 1984, Luger finished his football career playing in the United States Football League for the Tampa Bay Bandits, Memphis Showboats and Jacksonville Bulls.

He was a teammate of future WCW rival Ron Simmons while playing for the Tampa Bay Bandits.

In 1985, Luger walked into the Championship Wrestling From Florida office where he met Hiro Matsuda, who had previously trained Hulk Hogan and "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff.

Luger adopted the ring name "Lex Luger", being a fan of the comic book villain Lex Luthor, which helped cast himself as a typical wrestling heel which he would continue to be throughout most of his early years in wrestling.

Luger made his in-ring debut in September 1985.

He was featured alongside other notorious heels, Percy Pringle and Rick Rude.

Luger began wrestling for CWF, gaining his first victory on October 31, 1985, against Cocoa Samoa and later won the Southern Heavyweight Championship from Wahoo McDaniel the next month.

For a short time, he feuded with Barry Windham before they began teaming up against Sir Oliver Humperdink and his team of Ed "The Bull" Gantner, Kareem Muhammed, and The White Ninja.

On September 1, 1986, he fought NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair for the title at a show Battle of the Belts III, which resulted in a 60-minute draw.

As a result, Flair retained the title.

Towards the end of his run in Florida, Luger was involved in angles with Kevin Sullivan and Bad News Allen.

He was also in a steel cage match with Bruiser Brody, where Brody stopped cooperating, leading to Luger climbing over the cage and leaving the match.

In 1987, Luger went to work for Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), which was under the NWA banner, with the nickname "The Total Package" and began using "The Human Torture Rack", an Argentine backbreaker rack, as his finisher.

He was first booked as an associate to Ric Flair's "Four Horsemen" stable until Ole Anderson was kicked out and he became an official member of the group.

His first big feud was with Nikita Koloff, whom he defeated for the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship on July 11, 1987.

Manager J. J. Dillon threw a chair over the top of the cage while the referee, Earl Hebner, was down.

Luger knocked Koloff unconscious with it and then lifted up Koloff in the Torture Rack.

Although he never won a championship in the WWF, he challenged for every title in the organization (including WWF World Heavyweight Championship matches at SummerSlam in 1993 and WrestleMania X in 1994) and was the 1994 Royal Rumble co-winner with Bret Hart.

Pro Wrestling Illustrated readers voted Luger the Most Popular Wrestler of the Year in 1993.

Luger attended high school and played football in Orchard Park, New York.

He then attended Pennsylvania State University on a football scholarship, but transferred to the University of Miami after his freshman year when the Penn State coaches thought he should move to linebacker or defensive end.

Luger was an avid basketball player in his youth, and though he rarely played soccer, is a fan of English soccer club Manchester United.

He eventually decided his skills would be better suited to football.

Luger said in a 2018 interview with the Green Bay Press-Gazette his wrestling career might have never happened had it worked out with the Packers.

"I would have loved to have had a long-term career with the Packers; are you kidding me?"

Pfohl said.

"If I did, I probably wouldn't have become a wrestler. So, in the big picture, it worked out for me in that regard ... Had it worked out in Green Bay, I seriously doubt I would have become a pro wrestler."