The WWE Hall of Fame has rectified one of their biggest omissions as Lex Luger will be part of the 2025 Class.
It was announced by WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, who visited Luger while he was working on his mobility with Diamond Dallas Page. Rhodes surprised Luger with the news, much to his delight.
After his professional football career ended, Luger was trained for wrestling by Hiro Matsuda, and he would shortly join Championship Wrestling from Florida where he wrestled for nearly two years before joining Jim Crockett Promotions and adding “The Total Package” to his already colorful name. Luger joined the Four Horsemen, and would win the United States Championship, by beating Nikita Koloff, though he would lose it to Dusty Rhodes due to a mistake by his own manager, J.J. Dillon. This led to an eventual face turn for Luger, who formed a tag team with Barry Windham, and they won the World Tag Team Titles, only for Windham to turn on him.
Luger spent most of 1988 chasing Ric Flair for the World Title, but was unable to unseat the Nature Boy, though he beat Windham for his second United States Title. He turned heel again, but that was brief as his close friend Sting was injured, and he subbed in for him in multiple World Title shots against Flair. Luger dropped the U.S. Title in late 1989 to Stan Hansen, though won it back two months later.
In 1991, Luger finally became the WCW World Heavyweight Champion, defeating Windham for the vacant strap following Ric Flair’s departure from the company. It was the beginning of a lackluster title run, as Luger never beat Flair for the belt, and the roster was depleted. Rarely defensing the title, he lost it Sting in 1992, and finally he was WWE bound.
Luger was originally slated to compete for Vince McMahon’s World Bodybuilding Federation, though that was a way to have him appear on TV without breaking his no compete clause. He finally made his in-ring debut in 1993 as “The Narcissist”, a vain heel character, but on July 4 of that year, he body slammed Yokozuna on the USS Intrepid, catapulting him into an All-American baby face.
Luger was unable to unseat Yokozuna in title shots at Summer Slam ’93 and Wrestlemania X, and he would slide down the card, eventually settling in a tag team with The British Bulldog. His contract expired, and after appearing at Summer Slam 1995, he appeared at the debut of WCW’s inaugural Monday Night Nitro.
Luger remained with WCW until it folded and was purchased by the WWE. His lengthy second run in WCW was fruitful, generating many main events, titles and copious high-profile matches. Following the death of WCW, Luger would work on the independent scene, but tragedy best the “Total Package.”
In his personal life, Luger suffered a drug addiction, which was passed on to his then girlfriend, Liz Hulette who passed away from a drug overdose. In 2007, he served a nerve impingement in his next that led him to paralysis, which he has dealt with since.
While Luger’s run in WCW far surpassed his time in the WWE, his overall body of work is worthy of this induction. He will be removed from our notinhalloffame.com list of those to consider for the WWE Hall of Fame following the revamp of the list after this year’s Wrestlemania.
We here at notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Lex Luger for his impending WWE Hall of Fame induction
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