Lex Luger Full shoot Interview 2019
2 time WCW World Champion, former member of the 4 Horsemen of wrestling and former WWE Superstar “The Total Package” Lex Luger does a full 2019 Shoot Interview with The Hannibal TV covering his football career, bouncing, early athletic days, getting into wrestling, the infamous Bruiser Brody Incident, matches with Ric Flair, his time in WCW, friendship with sting, move to WWE, Narcissist Character, Made in the USA Character, teaming with Davey Boy Smith, jumping back to WCW, his relationship with the office there, dealing with Hulk Hogan, his relationship with Miss Elizabeth and her death, going to jail and contemplating suicide, finding God and how he’s turned his life in recent years.
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These prowrestler are unbelievable! hey everybody this is a total package Lex Luger with an exclusive in-depth interview on my career with the Hannibal TV I read look forward to this interview this is Hannibal from the Hannibal tv.com and today I am here in the home of multiple time world champion former WWE and WCW superstar the total package himself made in the USA Lex Luger how are you doing today I’m doing great thank you and you’re back in Buffalo this is obviously where you’re from but how long have you been back living here I am back in beautiful Buffalo as I call it Devin and I having a great time I’ve back here Wow almost for almost four years now Wow so never anticipated coming back but it’s been a real homecoming for me with a lot of my friends I grew up with and they always build me from Chicago and but obviously born and raised actually in Buffalo so it’s funny my I used to come back to wrestling Buffalo buffalo nians there’s no nonsense blue-collar town they’d boo me out of the building whether I was a heel or a babyface because they thought I’d I’d abandoned my roots coming back as being built from Chicago and they all knew I was from Buffalo was funny when I wrestle here my family come I’d be a I’d be a babyface and I’ll be boring me but it’s good to be back they they have forgiven me and it’s it’s great to be back I actually did them Moshe Atlanta for better part over three decades and I kind of missed the change of seasons and the I first got back to Buffalo I was I really wanted a lot of snow because I hadn’t been around snow hardly at all and they’re all going people didn’t know me I go are you really from here you you want more snow and so I said yeah I want some real snow well we got it so in the past four winters I’ve gotten a real feel for it now I must admit by around January now it’s like okay I’m okay I’m cool with the winters now you can start lighting up but I love it being back here and and people talk about the weather but great people Buffalo they call it the Queen City the city good neighbors it’s really true and I’m I’m having a great time back here buffle made a lot of new friends and having a great time hanging out my mom I came back with the passing of my dad I just didn’t feel LED leaf and I just came back and I’ve been hanging out with my mom we’re having a great time she’s a hooting out with so it’s been really really good so growing up here what was your childhood like had a great childhood a great family posted grandparents my great-grandparents on my dad’s side came over from Germany my grandparents my mom’s side from Scotland and just all my roots are here I’m living right now right down the street from my great grandfather’s farm it was pharma it’s not farm line anymore but his farm of a community college it’s on his farmland now and I felt when I came back like I was kind of blooming again where I was planted and growing up here I had a lifelong avid Bills fan Buffalo Bills fan my older brother he’s five years old we used to drag his little brother along I was a little kid we go down to the Bills games at the old stadium called the rock pile but now we have a different stadium but great memories of that EE the Sabres came along I love hockey obviously being a buffalo sabre fan and I love sports growing up and paid football basketball and ran track and field in high school and just just great great members going up here I’ve read other internet it says that at one point in time you were considering possibly going into professional soccer because you were such a good soccer player has any truth to that no none whatsoever I don’t know where they got that from there you know sometimes you look if once a while somebody states about I write on your way PDM like well not everything because anybody can go into Wikipedia and put anyone on there so there’s been all kinds of stuff on Wikipedia crazy stuff two years I think a lot of it’s still on there but one of the rumors I don’t know if that one’s I look at people I always heard I heard you were gonna be a professional soccer player I go well no I I was interested in a lot of things with but I do love so I’m a big Manchester United fan so I love soccer but never never played it other than like a little bit you know with around the neighborhood but never never considered a five be a professional soccer players that totally false alright so for anyone watching this knows how to change Wikipedia maybe they can help blacks out there oh there’s a lot of stuff they’d have to go they have to sit with me no I don’t know how they do that they I guess they can be edited but – Lee mine is so long and there’s so much true stuff and then there’s so much stuff that’s knob which I doesn’t bother me it’s no big deal now you started off playing for Penn State I guess when you started your college football career when did the college scouts start recruiting you in high school and what made you choose Penn State you know they didn’t look at me till my senior year I wasn’t gonna play football my senior year I was gonna specialize in basketball I was wanted to play in the NBA I grew up we had a pro basketball team here at the time Buffalo Braves I think through the Clippers now but I want to be a basketball player I was I really loved playing hoops but um I’ve met him since the my both my football coaches had an assistant coach met me I had a breakfast I was speaking out here locally and say surprised me how do you know if they were still around my first came back they showed up at a Saturday morning breakfast I can eat o’clock at a church I was picking him and the head coach played football at Syracuse and he took me aside when he found out I wasn’t going to play football my senior said you know if you ever applied yourself with a portion of the effort you put in the basketball football you guys you could probably maybe go to any college you wanted to so I I mean I really would encourage you to go out for a football because we had another couple guys end up playing both in the NFL as well Jim Burke played nose tackle for a giant Super Bowl team and Craig will 13 mind played 13 years for the Steelers all three of us from same high school team so they were getting looked at and so I end up going out and really applied myself my senior year and I end up getting offers from all over because they had come to look at Craig Wolfe Lee and Jim Burton and they said who’s and and coaching you should take a look at this guy and I I credit a lot to my coach and to those two guys forgetting me look that I end up getting all kind of scholarship offers from really really good school so and a funny thing as a side note and a driller and my road to being in my senior year which I would had to have a big year to try to get the kind of offers in basketball I wanted I tore ligaments my shooting in oh I missed almost the whole season I senior year so so Wow yeah yes I ended up I got to take recruit all those recruiting trips because I I didn’t have to go to practice all the times I couldn’t and I told coach Winkie – go go go go – go man you the important said you coaches had on my life and many others you spoke into my life I never thought of myself as a football player I thought myself as a basketball player who played football because my friends went out for it yeah we didn’t specialize as much back then you you played sports and season my love was basketball I thought of myself as the best mother and he spoke into my life about being a football player and you know they wouldn’t I don’t think there would have been on a lex luger I told him had it at the when I spoke that morning that there wouldn’t have been to Lex Luthor speaking right now at this church because if I hadn’t played football I don’t think I would have got into the weight training the way I did and and and everything that football laid the foundation for me that was a bridge for me into wrestling so I was pretty neat another great part I’ll come back to Buffalo and I understand your weight training actually started around the senior year of high school it did another another great friend to friends I’ve been reunited at time Haney was an exercise physiologist who started helping me train my senior year in high school when I started focusing on football and Don right now I don’t know if you anybody’s watch the world’s strongest man contest on TV he won that he was a super heavyweight world champion power lifter was like the biggest strongest guy I had ever seen in my life and maybe just stay still he was like 6-3 350 pounds he had traps the size of grapefruits he was an incredible guy he spent time with myself Craig willfully in gym Bert and we drive out but an hour away from here and Dunkirk Fredonia area outside of Buffalo and we drive there and train with him a couple times a week he allowed us a train with them and we learned so much for him and it was a real foundation for me the strength training and the power lifting that I did the offseason and during football which I think we’re led a lot into my a great foundation for me the training I did which was different but training I did wrestling as well for obviously my physique my weight earning a big part of who I was as Lex Luger so coach Winky and then tom haney the exercise physiologist usually I just had met with a little last week right and been reunited with Tom great guy and Don right now just you know you connect the dots of what went into me becoming the Lex Luger that Lex Luger that I became from very full yeah you were blessed because I remember when I started working out I thought doing machines one day and free weights the next was actually a good split I had like the top of the line people teaching you from the start and then when you course wouldn’t go to college you get great you get great strength and nutrition coaches there and so add in the professional level as well so that in combination I I had a lot of great mentoring and tutoring on training and nutrition what are some of your all-time best lifts and like the bench press deadlift and squat let’s say you know I never maxed out and in the bench I because once I was in even football you want risk injury but if I had to guess what I could have maxed out in a bench pop with mid fives and which was pretty good back then yeah and then I was a good ska squatter I squatted with the officially like you know now I had a power student and a big belt on and everything but over 800 pounds for a single on the squats I never I never did deadlifts for max because I was didn’t want to risk of like a lower back injury or anything I used to have some lower back issues now and then so I do everyone super every girl that did from football more power cleans and hand cleans so what’s your opinion on knee wraps and these things that help you lift more is it worth it or do you think it’s better to lift with this little help as possible you know you can go either way on that I didn’t overdo it with those suits or the wraps and we didn’t have as a the advancements we have now and that stuff now some of the things they were to bench press and squatting or like the materials they use this stuff are I mean it’s crazy what they’ve come up with which helps their lifts a lot which hey if they allow it in competition that’s it’s allowed I was kind of a I guess back then you would say I was the advocate of I’d like to wrap my knees not super tight but I like to wrap my knees it felt you know that I always felt good and I’ve wear some wrist wraps of some type that was about it for me I might wearing on my bench day I might wear a little bit like a tighter shirt or a double shirt like tight yeah that’s about as far as I went with that so why did you only spend a year at Penn State you know growing up and Buffalo at the time of course Here I am back in Buffalo but I’ve been heavily recruited by Miami and I knew the coaches down there and I just felt that the opportunity at the time and I felt that the weather was a big draw so I I was young and impulsive and I was like I’ve wanted to go to sunshine you so my after my freshman year at Penn State which is a great school and a great program football program but I was longing for the sunshine and palm trees so I I transferred down to Miami I like to say there was some great reason but it was mostly the weather yeah at the time and I guess at that time by Abby was a real party area in general and it’s known of course for the cocaine as well but did you experience any of that party atmosphere I know you were an athlete but oh yeah Miami’s known as a party school so it was a lot I had a lot of fun that’s for sure well my main focus was football and I so we do know we drink load on the weekends with the guys and stuff like that but uh there wasn’t a big drug culture amongst the football players when I went there at all I know we were in South Florida I mean I used to work the night clubs for spending money yeah I had to I’d be the work the front-door some of the big clubs in Miami and LA Fort Lauderdale I knew there was a big like I mean I had a lot of contact with drug dealers and drug drug users and so I knew that was a big it was big down there in South Florida time and the late 70s early 80s but I was more focused on I’m football head time so between the bouncing at the hot nightclubs a star football player I’m guessing you had no shortage of women in those days well there was a lot of a lot of beautiful coeds that went to Miami and at the clubs and everything yeah I actually actually got into a pretty serious relationship early on I girlfriend at Penn State than a fiance I kind of had made a commitment to her earlier around I was I was so I didn’t really are taking all that at the time so why did the opportunity but I didn’t partake in it yeah what ended up that you actually I guess got kicked out of Miami which seems very hard to do because it was known as a bit of party school yeah people ask me although I keep that a ma’am ago it took a lot I think it was more the drip drip drip I just had different stuff that I got caught doing and disciplined for and and just stuff wild crazy stuff kids do at college we vandalized our own on-campus apartment one time and so coach I got in trouble at Hotel doing some pranks with my my roommates at a hotel and and we messed up one of the rooms and so it was nothing it sounds crazy but it was accumulative for the really the coach wanted to discipline me at the time who save him that coach and so he suspended me from the team because which looking back now in hindsight was he was just trying to get me back in line but as soon as you suspended me I said well I was here to play football so I withdrew from all my classes and started working full-time at the club’s Lauderdale and moved in with my brother who was living in Lauderdale the time someone probably Barry so I dropped us going I learned later coach so we didn’t meet him and drop out of school and we want I guess the original tension was get my attention ramie an and by disciplining me to have me come back and win my spot spring ball so you ended up from there I guess going in up to Canada in the area where I’m from up to Montreal to play pro football how did that opportunity arise yeah I could have gone back to college but I was just I was working the clubs in Lauderdale and at some alumni I don’t remember his name knew one of the scouts from Montreal and he looked at my game films from Miami talking about what you know I was always had you know when the combine guy type guys would come and test fit my am I always like pretty much for my position as a lineman down linemen just tested off the charts my vertical and my speed and what was your speed like um I could I could do when I was at Green Bay I think I clocked the 4 6 o which back then for a you know tuner 75 80 pound lineman was fast yeah so and I did get the standing broad jump you know all the measurement said you so I already kind of had that going for me said you so the the guy Montreal looked at my film and the alumni told him about my athleticism and so you might have a raw one here and they offered me a contract and I didn’t think about I I went there not knowing the rules that there was only so many Americans and and only so many Americans at my position and I said wow opportunity played pro ball why not I was 19 years old so yeah so I signed him went up to Canada with the Montreal at the time Alouettes was the pay for playing football in Canada at the time better than bouncing at a Hot Club in Florida probably not I looked at in my book I talk about it the crowd I was with around those clubs yeah and I was getting offers to do like bodyguard stuff yeah for people that we’re in that business and everything and it yeah that’s a that’s a road I still look I self as an athlete who was bouncing so I was like when I got the offer to go to Montreal I had to make that decision which was gonna go and I chose the path of state you know if I had that here’s here’s an opportunity stay in football and making it make it if I don’t do it I always come back down here so I felt I had nothing to lose to try it and it just worked out incredible the line coach at Montreal took a real liking of me and they kept me around so was it worked out I guess you were there for three years told ya yeah loved Montreal great city had some great times there got married might right after my rookie year to Peggy my wife and yeah it was is very fond memories of playing CFL football was a blast I would I really enjoyed it and I remember being at the Montreal WCW show in 96 you came out in the Alouettes Jersey then I think other than Hulk Hogan’s pop that night I think you definitely got the second biggest pop of it I reasoned then I resorted to that Montreal wow yeah there we go why not right so Eddie Eddie bevery that stands out for Montreal because I know a lot of people from Montreal are gonna watch this oh man the food as a rib place I goes Barbie barns or yeah yeah just the food and the atmosphere there others right down under this high-rise condominiums work down to stay right here though what used to be called the forum yeah it was called the Hatton arms it was a really nice kind of pool on the rooftop but you could lay up to in the summer and and just just overall great memories and the going down to Old Montreal the district there’s a couple really good restaurants I used to like love to go to there and just just the culture and the and the food and the people I love I love I loved Montreal do you speak any French I don’t I don’t I Montreal’s bilinguals yeah I didn’t have to learn any French really what’s wrong with food I’ve learned a few a few things you know to order but no I never I never became bilingual now if I stayed there my whole career it probably would have been a great idea to to become bilingual I thought that would have been great I think the fans would have liked so I would probably definitely consider that if I’d stayed there longer I understand you played in a great Cup against Edmonton yeah my rookie year got the start in the Grey Cup and I played against dr. death Dave Finnell was his name it was all-pro lineman and he he I was injured at times and I had a really good game against some sort of he kind of put me on the map of with coaches at Montreal and I was glad he wasn’t a hundred percent he even had the name dr. death for nothing he was a really because they had a great career a really good player Warren Moon was their quarterback was now a Hall of Famer and from the NFL they had a really good team we lost but it was a it was great to be in a great Cup in our hometown in Montreal I was a I’ve very fond memories of that for sure how did you end up getting the opportunity with Green Bay after that oh I became a free agent and the first team I tested with was Green Bay and they offered me a contract and I signed with and unlike two days okay got injured there and only stayed there less than two seasons but that was the first team I tested with and I love the coach and the atmosphere there was like like a green baize like college atmosphere so I love that because I could feel like I didn’t really get to get my full college atmosphere so I was at Green Bay so great fans had a great time there unfortunately I got injured a couple of injuries when I was there but definitely I had a great opportunity there but I got injured and the at the time the spring football league Donald Trump league with Herschel Walker and the they called it and the USFL and my my rights are offered to the Tampa Bay bandits which had plays was out drawn Tempe book in the years of the time in the NFL and that was they owned my rights and they offered me a contract and I was not unhappy to go back down to Florida so I had fun there playing football USFL for a couple seasons played a Tampa and also Memphis okay and Memphis I understand a lot of people were confusing you to be a wrestler when you were walking they did Memphis was a wrestling and I didn’t grow up really watching progressing my grandfather was a big processing but used to kick us out of the room when he watches pro wrestling even wants to bother him distract him oh I always remember that my dad my grandpa my dad suppose a wrestling city to historical eluded Paulo was was one of my teammates and footballs damn beast ever our football banquet there yeah he was like you know everybody everybody loved you leo so I I knew about wrestling obviously but I didn’t really grow up watching it and so yeah Memphis was a new experience for me they every we had a real fever pitch about resting so I guess because of my because I loved working out I didn’t I guess I looked more like a wrestler than a football player almost yeah makes any sense yeah I had a lot of muscle mass spots pretty lean did you have the long hair at that time not really know me a little bit longer yeah but yeah just get mistaken about are you a pro wrestler all the time I got stopped there mmm fost which maybe think about maybe looking into that into wrestling at the time I thought about me maybe maybe there’s something to that wrestling thing and I saw obviously the WrestleMania with Hulk only under a giant I read about how they’d broken the indoor attendance record and everything so so that’s when I start really like watching wrestling when I was in Memphis and I watched the local and started watching some of the W stuff we have it on the locker room the guys loved it so that’s why I really thought wow and a lot of guys go bland you’d be great at that even the footballers you’d be created for us things like which appealed to my ego back then a little maybe I would be good at that so that that well that’s one of the first thoughts came into my mind of entertaining the possibility being a pro wrestler when I was in Memphis really so I understand your football USFL career was coming to an end I guess and you ran into Bob Group or something and he helped get you into wrestling that’s what it says anyway so that wasn’t wikipedia and i’d know bob and bob was a big part of my early career he was like one of the Booker’s yeah my first year in Florida but we traveled some together but Bob had nothing to do with my turn human my Sudha trained me and I I just walked in off the streets to the office down in Florida which was world championship wrestling in Florida we had a lot of good independent organizations back then Championship Wrestling in Florida was one of them I was walking off the street and name was Danny he was a fort retired pro wrestler time numbers last name but anyways he took one look at me and called up here on my suit I trained Hogan and Paul Orndorff lot of wrestlers down there at a factory nearby garment factory and he told me to go over talk to hero Matsuda so I walked and talked to hero my suitor sat down with him for about an hour and to me to come back and and to get ready to break a sweat and he was like amazing he met he he’d he hasn’t take guys the ring a lot of times for a year at a time before he even takes in Ricky makes me do push-ups and Hindu squats and and takes out a four or five mile jog is to warm up in the heat summer heat of Florida but he he brought me through the whole program got me in the room within three months which was real unusual we really hit it off he did everything with you he asked you to do great great guy and he was involved in the booking a little bit then as well okay and at the time in the he got me started even managed me for some of my matches early on and Matsuda hadn’t been on TV in quite a while but he was a very well-known wrestler and so he was really the instrumental guy on training me and then getting me in the ring do some videos with me down there that they did on how he trained me some of the Japanese style training and the fans really really liked it so even he was a big part of my success early on looking back very very grateful to hear muscle you didn’t have a school didn’t charge you then you had the intrinsic enjoyment of he thought that pro wrestling came over from Japan the judo background did very well with it did well for his family financially as a wrestler and yeah he really was a wonderful guy did he tell you what happened with him Oh Cogan why he broke oguns leg no he never brought that up he was very stoic but everybody else told me different versions of the story that he was goofing off and that’s settling in the ring properly and so my suitor was known for his what they call shooting abilities and hooks is it called bone to bone type stuff where you can actually know how to break people’s bones I guess it goes in with her like Danny Hodge guys and stuff going way back and wrestling and my suitor was trained how to do that kind of stuff so he I guess got in the ring and I want to show Hogan how to really sell and not goof off by breaking his Chenery his leg or something but but I heard but Sam I got to train my my suit he had mellowed out quite a bit at that stage fortunately for me and I was not a I always loved training so I was not a goof-off kind of guy I was I think my suit he considered me a good pupil I was very hungry to learn and and I didn’t ever never goofed off so forth I never experienced that side of him we wrath of hero famous for that but I never I never I’d ever encountered fortunately were you still doing your regular gym workouts on top of all those squats and push-ups that you know when I when I went trained with him for those three months it was all training with him every every afternoon he turned the air conditioning off in the garment factory so be like 120 degrees in there the summers in Florida it was yeah we’d be two big pools a sweater around his sores out I think it was they it was unbelievable so he owned a garment factory he was on all and he wrestled that he managed tired from okay yeah he’d retired a number of years ago before that was not managed he managed you came out of like retirement to manage me okay yeah which was huge what was your experience like when you first got in the ring did you did you enjoy it right away oh I loved it I never forget my first match at Daytona Beach Oceanfront Center with Coco Samoa and still got scar my nose but different match with him from his fingernail and great guy and I intentionally paired me with very experienced wrestlers which I didn’t realize that no know about wrestling how huge that was who could walk and talk me through a match and was I was so it experienced and they’d especially the first few months bring my suited down ringside to help me as well so I had like my trainer and coach ringside the first few months and then they put me very very experienced guys which was very very helpful early on and you wrestled Ric Flair fairly early on – yeah that was crazy Ric Flair right my first match against infant was where I debuted like six months after I debuted was that they told Tony beets over front center which is still there people still wrestle there down there and I’ll never forget Ric Flair coming in with the the custom suit and the designer shades and the and limo and the Rolex and diamond rings and I was like oh man I want to be like him and we ran our Broadway I don’t know how he got me through that match that mile of experience but he he carried you through a one-hour Broadway I didn’t know order he called her some tough sunset flip I didn’t know what a sunset for the poison that boy was here to heal and that match or were you you know we I was a heel at the time yeah he was a heel but the crowd Rick turned the crowd against him and and so I did the crowd there our house it was definitely definitely for me he oversees heel six months into the business that’s crazy ideas and see where you got it last Nate Han take a guy with that and experience that as I was and get me through an hour of Broadway I don’t know I don’t know how he did that he’s unbelievable did you hit it off with him right away but behind the scenes oh yeah I was mr. Flair sir and I was I was like a sponge and he gave me some advice afterwards I didn’t realize he’d gone back and and put in a a really really ran and ran and raved about me back in Charlotte at the time were the Crockett’s for an NWA wrestling which led to me eventually less than six months later making my debut there that was all wrinkled back and talking to dusty and the Crocker family and saying you got God you got to take a look at this guy so and before you left I got to ask you about this I know you’ve answered this question a million times but there’s the infamous match you had with Brodie that I it’s funny cuz I bet you probably didn’t think about it for years and now with the internet that match is one of the the matches that smart marks always talk about oh I I get asked about it all the time and there was it was a one another learning experience we had done TV earlier that day and on Wednesday we were usually animal we do TVs all morning and the afternoon drive across to your Lauderdale to Miami do is show Wednesday nights every week and it was a long day and they had me in a my first cage match I think ever I had no idea to get here I am with bruiser Brody in a cage match and I we better not or any experience like I had a match would be a non cage match with him before okay the matches went fine from my perspective a human woman maybe not from his perspective but and Peter died when he was a big I mean in Chile and looking guy he’s big scary looking guy and every told me about his reputation but we worked fine together for the coal electric prior to that which is why such a mystery we got cage matches I didn’t know what I was and he just stopped working stood there and you like made these noises and but didn’t work and if you hit him or punch number did anything he just like kind of register but not sell really and I fortune on a very experienced referee called him Fonzie and the ring and Fonzie looked at me and I looked at him but I didn’t know what’s going on with my I got scared because I’m thinking this guy’s not selling and I heard all these stories about him and he’s got tape on his fingers I think memes those are razor blades they put under those things and and we’re a cage match and I don’t know what I’m doing and he’s not working he’s just staring at me and so he kind of locked up a little bit and pushed around a little bit but finds he go fuzzy what do we do I got in the corner and hit him a couple times he register he stood there and go Fonzie what do we do in finds him I don’t know brother just finds he goes silent he saved me finds it just back him in the corner again and hit him a few times and I’ll grab your arm and just kind of throw me aside don’t listen to me and I’ll DQ it so that was our only thing that Fonzie thought of to get out of the match because he just stopped working we don’t unfortunately don’t have him bass s white why he did that by did because of my training with Matsuda I want to be respectful but when the bell rang they they couldn’t get the cage door open now I was stuck in there with the sky but there may be an hour we’ve really ticked them off man I ran I jumped over the ropes and do the cage like a jack like a scared jackrabbit and went to lock I miss at I go man my suitor would want me to go over and and and say something or apologize I don’t know what I did because I didn’t I better go over there so I got I got over my fright and walked over we were separate locker rooms there because there was a stage behind the cage you couldn’t talk to each other before after the matches put the crowded without of the building I waited and walked over there knocked on the door timidly and like a man his badge or he had the time down in Florida Engelbert Humperdinck I think they called him he was called Humperdinck and I saw him and knock the door E&G he like just kind of waiting me in I said man I’m done I’ll just excuse me stride I don’t know why I did it wrong in there and I’m sorry and and he was taking his stuff off Brody he said man don’t worry about he just told her blew it off said it’s been a long day she goes I’m I’m a baby face on TV right now down I’m down with the find Eric’s he goes you’re on TV already as a he’ll to go down and NWA cuz I had done some TV a couple TVs already and I was already getting ready to leave Florida because you’re you got you on there as a heel he goes just wasn’t working in there don’t worry about it so I was you say I was greatly relieved I go man go over there good I’m gonna get a butt whooping I’m gonna get a butt whupping yeah but I went over there in Sicily maybe the worst and what gosh what I do but he was very like professional and was very nonchalant can manage it’s been a long day today and that was it so the wrestlers I know wrestlers gossip and they exaggerate everything so the people that say you left in your gear and you drove that’s that’s wrestlers making up gossip oh no I walked over and talked to them and showered there and ya know I actually intentionally went over went over to locker room hamed I was nervous but III knew my su to be upset if I didn’t go over there and try to talk to him so and you’re also played professional football you’ve dealt with some very serious characters of your life yeah I’ve been around a lot big intimidating guys so I wasn’t like a shooter guy or anything but I’m like man I better go over there at least at least apologize I was going over to apologize I was I was not going there like what happened in there like a I went over there humble as humble as I could be and I’m one to apologize to whatever happened that caused caused or I didn’t even understand happened in there at the time but I was in the ring stuff I didn’t I was scared I didn’t know what was going on it was it was scary did the office ever tell you any explanation obviously that wasn’t the finish of the match what was the finish of the match do you remember there’s gonna be some kind of DQ I think so many remember it they didn’t explain to you anything the next days sorry about that or the office oh no no they they I think I think they talked to bruiser and bruiser told him when he told me and and so the office didn’t make a big deal out of it at all and I guess he would have been killed shortly after that do you remember hearing about it because I remember hearing but I don’t remember the timeline was this sad July 88 is when he died yeah we were all sad about that for sure that was a horrible thing so you started off with the Crockett’s shortly after that and what was it like going from Florida which was popular but not as nearly as popular as the NWA at the time man I tell me it was like the fourth of July fireworks career-wise going off to be in with the NWA it’d be with the four horsemen and oh my gosh Ric Flair on Anderson toy puncher and JJ Dillon what a I didn’t grasp the opportunity but it was incredible and huge crowds it was it was a what a great way to get into her second year wrestling Wow it was fabulous did you become immediate friends with sting we all know that you guys were best buddies for a long time how did that friendship start we weren’t he was working with a company that we merged with the watch territory it was a uws person UWF and they still covered wearing some separate shows we did some joint shows together and I’ve seen singing some of the magazines and stuff but but when he came in he immediately got put with flair got a big push and I was kind of jealous and we’d see each other at the hotels we started traveling the same shows got but we didn’t hang out and we’d actually had a couple matches together but he I’d seemed in the breakfast-room because he’d get up to a lot of guys to sleep in but we’d get up and eat breakfast um one go to the gym and so he we see each other sitting across the restaurant and he tried to approach me one time but I was so cocky back with the horseman he asked me how I kept the shape on the road and stayed looking so good he was he was being gracious and trying to break the ice I I was sarcastic and and was taking my resting pose laughs never looked up and said stole he’s being vodka and peanut M&Ms I gave him a smart answer he walked off he probably one to knock my Mac my I think he wanted to knock my head off but he walked away shaking his head like really but thankfully he gave me a second chance and my selling the restaurant wind up so this is ridiculous you start eating breakfast together and then we saw each other Saint Jimmy started going the gym together so we have breakfast to go to the gym and just evolved into a a lifelong to this very moment that I sit when you hear our incredible friendship thank God he gave me a second chance from our initial meetings speaking of that in those days what was your pre-workout breakfast well back then back then we would do oatmeal and again a huge bowl of oatmeal and a dozen egg whites a piece would be our kind of our pre-workout carb protein meal then we go to the digests a little bit to go to the gym okay yeah so he was a good workout partner obvious loss thing was instrumental me make the transformation from football player he he had been a training with pro bodybuilders out in California was in the gym business out there Gold’s gyms the old school franchise yeah so he knew all kind of stuff about training and more bodybuilding stuff I knew lie about football training and powered I think so he helped me incorporate a lot of the bodybuilding principles nutritionally and because I was like a McDonald’s and junk food I don’t just spend my Tricia’s we told me Stinger taught me so much about how to eat properly and train properly and do some more bodybuilding exercises along with my strength type training so I did more of a power building routine early in my career so it sting was instrumental and then he really mentored me on that suite a great friendship and he really mentored me a lot of my turn he taught me a lot about what I knew about training nutrition early on in my wrestling career and what was your reaction when you were brought into the four horsemen were you happy about dollars thrilled kidding me that was that was the ultimate he’ll pretty much maybe in wrestling the ultimate he’ll group at the time so what an opportunity and they were great of working with me from Jay Jay dato Lee and I aren’t all used to go to a barn you’re outside of Charlotte and take me the ring and help train me and so because they knew as part of the group they didn’t want me to be the weak link necessarily so to speak I was so inexperienced so they really mentor and train with me and so it was a well it was just a look back what an opportunity was it was great did you ever party with Ric Flair I’m guessing you must have gone oh yeah definitely Ric Ric is uh one of a kind so he was 24/7 he sometimes and sometimes hanging out Ric would he almost felt you didn’t sleep at all or more than a couple hours because we train the afternoons wrestle at night a lot signs out the travel fly in the morning and go so if you if you went out and got to the building at midnight after you get showered got out we’re out at all it was already 3:00 3:00 4:00 in the morning and we didn’t go out a little bit and get grab a meal or something my gosh sometimes I feel like I didn’t sleep for days a time with nature he was a blast to hang out with what was the the craziest thing you ever saw him do obviously he’s known for streaking I guess you could say yeah he did a little bit of that and just buying trays full of shots and and when we go out and Ric always did everything all the way low riding the limousines and just you name it definitely now he’s claimed he’s bid with 10,000 women what do you think about that is that possible or obviously there’s been a hell of a lot but I don’t know I think a man will chamber on both Clint make the same dream let’s just say Rick definitely definitely made a good effort I don’t know if we reach that number or not but he definitely made it made the effort I think for sure at what point you know part of it is reputation as well yeah but and that that was part is his reputation his persona as a wrestler not just you know Jeff fine limousine riding and Jeff Hyman ryan whealon you know so were you in the limousine to when you were part of the horsemen oh yeah we all traveled together okay yeah what they with the private jets and the limousines yeah it was quite the quote to entry for a second year guy in the wrestling oh sure a lot of fun have you seen Rick and Tully’s daughters in the ring yet they’re they’re both doing pretty well these days I’ve seen Rick’s daughter she’s amazing and I haven’t seen loved but totally started to do by her she’s really good so it’s in the it’s in the genes for sure and at what point did you started becoming friends backstage with Nikita Cola we weren’t I wrestled the ring with the key to some but we didn’t hang Nikita wasn’t he used to go back to hotel and he cans of tuna fish stuff I heard at the time and he do it he wasn’t uh he wasn’t I go out after the matches kind of guy so we were cordial with each other but we made a couple of road trips together if out of Charlotte a couple times but Nikki and I didn’t have any real friendship so to speak back an hour early wrestling days then he retired all right is it true that he was cafe being the boys that at certain times regarding the Russian gimmick no I heard that but he got in a little bit or alerted me when I travel with them as Ron he spoke English and I I never encountered that with him I already took it all the way but I mean for a number of years when he first got in but by the time I met him in the surrounding more in the late 80s I think that you’d let lightened up a little bit on that and I heard you on road warrior animal caste recently and it sounds like you guys were pretty good friends oh yeah we would real words like to go to the gym too so we you know we landed when you’d land in the city the guys who were really into working out and obviously what can I was a big part of what they did cuz it looks incredible so we’d all hit the ground running we’d find in the morning and we’d all hit like we said grab a meal and digest and hit the gym together without where we going we’ve got to know which teams at what time so so yeah we then we’d all like maybe go out to eat afterwards it before we I’m back to hotel and shower yeah so be like work out you know eat shower go to the building so yeah we were in very similar circles so yeah got got to be hung out quite a bit the road warriors now obviously you trained extremely hard and dieted extremely hard but you’ve been open that you took peds throughout your career with did that start in your football years or did that really take place in the realm the steroids at the time at the time really my career I I took them a little bit in the offseason of football not in season and then in my wrestling career I actually would go on a eight or twelve week cycle then go off for eight or twelve weeks I was a contrary to popular opinion I had I had a good foundation of football and powerlifting and working out and I always had kind of a from high school on a I was kind of know my calling card was my physique so a lot of that was genetics so I would back in that day it was so common back then yeah right when I started taking the peds they weren’t even a classified substance really right at the time didn’t start till 1990 yeah so we looked at as for a as a strength athlete as like a training supplement but my agent getting back to time it tom haney my background was down ryan out a world-class poplar they always mentored me to do if you’re gonna do it get your blood work done make sure you cycle on cycle off so I was a user of peds and looking back now because I well you did you abuse steroids well if you take it any illicit drug I look at it as a potential abuse but if there was a way back then to to monitor it I did do that so that’s kind of was my experience towards the end of my career switched over to basic what you would term now last four or five years of my wrestling which was many people thought where I’ve really got leaner and maybe he had my best look I was on what you would call anti-aging type supplementation PD was which lot of the baseball players yeah started doing and football players back then in the late 90s a little bit of growth hormone like basically anti-aging might now wasn’t that old then you take a little bit growth hormone a little bit testosterone that was it take a shot at testosterone once a week and and a few cc’s a growth and that’s all I was on the last number of years of my career and I actually thought that was probably maybe a healthier way to go about it his doctors endocrinologist everybody that was under thought that was at my age and my you know forty or forty ish was it was a better route to go I never took really high dosages of this of the peds and I always would make a real a concerted effort duty like mentoring I had with doctors in with coaching to make sure I cleared on and off for my own health and fortunately Oh am i as you know now I give God a lot of credit my body now I mean I’ve had a neurological injury testing but I’m on my health is phenomenal yeah no medications no blood pressure issues no I’m so thankful the way God designed our bodies and there was no lasting after-effects of my use of peds back in the day I think part of that was I did psycho on and off right after there’s a safe way to do that kind of thing but I think that definitely played a role of me being healthy now as well now I know you don’t want to promote this and buy a new kind of mentioned that the last cycle you did with the shot of testosterone and the growth hormone was effective for you but I had a few bodybuilding people ask me if you could say what your most effective stack was of the steroids when you were into those that would be outdated now yeah that kind of thing I definitely don’t endorse that are promoted now because now with I firmly believe with the modern day training methods and nutrition the advancements that I’ve made have been made that um and the natural supplementation out that most guys can reach I think they’re a full genetic potential clean and looked phenomenal and be able to compete in any sport and there’s much a lot more drug testing now and I think that’s great and so I mean it would be outdated anyways but I was a test and deca testosterone Dec take a guy I thought that was a safer combo and I tried a little winstrol vu for a couple cycles but I didn’t like the water-based and I did take a lot of shots so I threw out my early career I was mainly just some testosterone and that could travel all the time and what was your reaction in restfully when you got your first world title run well it was it was a big responsibility because Ric Flair had left for WWE and he took the belt with him and it was a huge void in the company I mean nobody can step in and take the place for excited so overnight I stepped in as a world champion against Barry Windham which is great for Barry to come in a cage match they gave me all the bells and whistles Harley Race on the all Tangra legends my manager and we actually had the match and we couldn’t even hold the belt up because you wouldn’t have a belt made yet but we are the company the best they could they were scram when they said let’s switch you heel with Harley and make a run with the Bell so because originally I was supposed to wrestle Ric in the cage and win that match I had no astronauts I’m bizarre hard feelings you’d recognize are you kidding all the Ric did for me freak a decision he was making as a businessman to go to go to another company there was no hard feelings from my part or or against Ric at all but it was it was definitely a big challenge at the time yeah I I did my very best with but it was it was again it was a great opportunity who wouldn’t want to be world champion a lot of great wrestlers had their whole career in every world champion so it was a great opportunity at the same time but I felt the town I felt a lot of pressure because I felt that nobody could fill Ric Flair’s shoes and here I was as like a transition champion with when Ric had been the man all that time so it was like I felt a lot of pressure not to be Ric Flair but to fill that void at the time but it was I was honored and I felt like it was a great opportunity at the time for sure we’re something I’ll always cherish of course was Harley Race traveling with you on the road to Harley Race traveled every word mean was very great mentors and that was very helpful as well that helped take I felt I was think I was putting a lot of pressure on myself and then putting Harley Harley with me for leads a lot of that pressure would you be the driving or would he be the wind girl he was entirely when Harley was in a traveling he well Harley would drive cigarette in one hand young people heard it before a beer and the other hundred miles an hour literally pretty pretty scary first couple times but but when you get used to Harley Harley wanted to drive use it he was a a road warrior old-school rubber on the asphalt kind of guy when he drove he wanted to get where he was going he wanted to be behind the wheel and I was going to question our mister oh it was mr. Harley Race sir you know so did you ever see him in action and one of his altercations to understand I’m I know this is towards the end of his career but sometimes he’d get into it at the clubs I saw him do some of his hand stuff with guys where he’d hand wrestle guys and and twist their arm over he did some unbelievable stuff with his hand strength and but but Holly was also at that stage career I heard Harley when his young days my gosh he was like came out of the like the would wrestle people out of the crowd when he was fifteen years old what an unbelievable man in a career so but he wasn’t he would that he was definitely more laid-back at that at that stage funny when he was when I was around for sure I understand at one point they were gonna release him or something and you stood up for him well yeah it wasn’t just him I was standing up for Harley because I was I had so much respect for Harley but also I wanted hardly be my manager I was like man how it raced my manager you know and I felt they’d made a commitment with what happened and and the challenge of of where we go from here with the huge void of Ric not being there of Nate’s being gone for them to I felt like they were pulling the rug out from underneath us a little bit by by not utilizing Harley as my manager and so I definitely want to go in there voice my my concerns and I would they wanted to stay with Harley and keep it going for sure that was I had massive respect for Harley still do so that that was like a no-brainer to go in there and wasn’t like I was doing anything great it was for me too and they kind of promised that at the time so I felt I definitely need this let them know how I felt about it for sure what did you think about Jim heard who I guess that was the guy that Rick had his problems with and he was probably the one you had to speak to about Harley um Jim heard was I never had an issue with Jim and in his office he wasn’t her you know my main content was using it at the office and we always had cordial businesslike type meeting so I never had any any big issues or problems personally with Jim her Dino heard a lot of stories especially after I left and gone WBE but I never had any any real big issues with Jim heard and during your last few months is a champion during that run you didn’t wrestle that much I understand it this could be wrong again according to the internet because they already used all of your dates and they didn’t want to use you much more than that because that would be going over your contract was that the reason or I had gone over okay back then I had sounds crazy 275 wrestling matches a year and usually every year by November I was over she was you huh how much we wrestled back then so they would ask me if I would wrestle more events and I believe would but with the scenario believing and risking injury and I only had a few months left we’d agreed upon her departure date contractually I fell if you want me to wrestle and go over in Japan the event and risk injury I I did not have a deal yet with anybody else on paper so I felt like I should definitely compensate it and then they were very fair about that they paid me well to go to Japan I know whether New Japan pay that what they paid me to come over but they took very good care of my on the way out my match was staying in Milwaukee to put the title back on staying they paid me extra from what my guarantee was per year so I was out of matches so what made you want to leave being the top guy you just had enough of the company at that point well I wasn’t I wasn’t the top guy was one of the top guys I didn’t think I was the guy I’ve been world champion time but we’d the road warriors and sting and so many great wrestlers their time Steiner Brothers and you name it I go on and on there’s a meet a lot of talent there but um you know I I had always had my eye you know I look back now in life we always think the grass is greener on the other side you know I had a farmer one time tell me yeah Lexx grass always looks greener side ago because that’s a farm thing I what do you mean goes the lot of livestock especially the goats they always the grass is green where they’re Apple they eat the grass underneath the fence he goes though though they’ll cut their heads trying to eat the grass to the other side of the fence I always thought that was kind of a funny analogy I we can always think things are better elsewhere I wasn’t that unhappy obviously where I was that I had a great career going there but I always thought at the time that maybe W was the number one we were we were number two with audience and ratings I always thought manna be great to see what I could do there WI be so had met and talked with Vince McMahon just by chance and Jim Las Vegas one time we were both in town and he was real cords that had loved you business sometimes so I definitely was looking there you know see what I could do with WI be for sure that was the main purpose behind it so I understand you’re initially signed with wbf because there was some type of no-compete clause after your contract not enforceable really legally but I did sign a one-year non-compete okay which is why I signed the bodybuilding contract and not a wrestling contract with Vince McMahon so you were one of the hosts of the body stars television show and I guess you were supposed to guess pose were you ever actually gonna compete as a competitor or was it all just going to be that was strictly a one-year the segue into the wrestling yeah and I was gonna be a guest poser I got injured with a motorcycle wreck very serious one right before they’re the guests posing but what happened with that if you want to get into that because I’ve always been curious about that motorcycle wreck it was a bad one head-on with a car Twilight on like a one and a half lane road I was riding it like it was mine the car came around a blind curve and head-on I almost got out the way but not me Bobby 150 feet into the woods missed every tree but I was a mess end up having a miracle of God I look back now I didn’t hit a tree would have snapped me into we bought a golf pulling around 40 45 mile an hour so where did that take place Atlanta okay and so initially we’re gonna amputate my right arm and sting say man that sting was there in the middle of the night come back from a show I was off that and I don’t ask me how I got off but I was off that was why I was riding my bike and he was at a show when he came back and then came right to the hospital and he got doctor Andrews out of Birmingham he’s a world-renowned supports orthopedic and the people in Atlanta want an amputee right arm was really bad multiple fractures through the skin that was a lot injuries but that was the worst of it and sting heard them talking about amputating the arm having emergency surgery we all dr. enemies Anders don’t let him do that tell him to clean him up and send him to Birmingham the next day which we did and dr. Andrews some I’ll put that arm back together when I was in the ring like seven months later unbelievable recovery I mean I went did made my debut as the narcissist like seven months later did it have the same strength as before or was there well I had to build back up but then what you know the good thing about bone breaks are they put they still have steel rods in there that thing but the steel rod my form was the real deal I a titanium plate about seven inches long which I still have in my right arm to hold the bones together and once the bones heal you know that the book that’s pretty solid you worry about a little bit but doctors are sure you know with that titanium plating there the bones are healed you can start working out and get into the ring again and the neurological stuff they thought maybe I’m gonna have some neurological damage because the damage is so severe damp down my elbow in my hand but there was non my my right hand in that forearm and arm get was a stronger stronger than that and then my left arm so well it was a I look back now I give God the credit but but it was a res of miraculous recovery for sure what did the WWE initially say to you after right after that accident did they always say it’s gonna be here for you when you’re when you’re back or were you afraid that for a bit that you were gonna be possibly released oh no I they they took great care of me and they paid me it’s all the way through my one-year as a bodybuilder and um they paid me all the way through my one year as a bodybuilder and then jumped right into the mine debut for them as a narcissist with Bobby to bring Eden Heenan why do you think the wbf didn’t work you know I don’t know I mean I think at the time we turn out in California had a monopoly on supplements and magazines and things like dad to do a magazine your own supplement company we got to give Vince credit he’s bold with foot all leagues or you name it yes he is not afraid he was he is a he is a born entrepreneur and he wanted to do the bodybuilding thing and we him and I used to work out together he loved working out still does obviously he’s incredible shape for guys age yeah amazing so he had he always loved the workout lifestyle so it was a natural thing for him the tried an entrepreneur get a supplement line going so I gave him credit but I don’t think that’s an easy business and and there was a rule monopoly in the time from a couple companies that he’s up against and he’s incredible on tumor but he was a real experience in that field and that endeavor war so I wouldn’t know I wouldn’t be the one to judge why it wasn’t successful just timing-wise or I’m not sure what was Vince like to work out with oh he’s there he’s right there man Craig Craig got a great training partner Wow for sure yeah he loves the gym and he’s he’s not he’s all out everything he does so when did they approach you with the narcissistic gimmick was that something that they’d already talked about doing before the accident or was this something that came up with I’m not sure the timeline I think as after the after the bodybuilding show they had we started talking about as I was recovering from the injury from motorcycle wreck but we wanted you and I’m not sure wasn’t my idea but somebody and creative came up with it and they really decided that would be something really really good with the mirrors and and my book my physique and and so I was that sounds good to me so we we went with it I definitely was my idea and your first feud was with Curt Hennig my first WrestleMania match was no Curt yeah yeah I WrestleMania B which was shortly after my debut so what I would a put a guy to have a debut match with funny to match Curt I talked about match well I I was all relaxed thinking WrestleMania debut with mr. perfect or any one of the best wrestles in the business I got note and so we went over the match live I didn’t think I was a little careless didn’t think much about what we talked about we got in the ring and I didn’t know I knew Kurt was was had a reputation of being a river yeah like pull pranks we got in the ring we locked up because what are we doing what are we doing I thought he was joking around he apologized afterwards but Kurt told me I don’t know whether he’s still ribbing me or not but he said he completely blanked out so we ended up having like an okay match I was trying to remember what we talked about in the back and I was calling the match but normally the he’ll calls match he was a heel so it was kind of like a lure couldn’t even have a great bracelet mania debut as a worker you know I was never the best worker anyways it was more my look and more aesthetics and not as much substance to my to what I was and so it was a WoW lucre didn’t have very good match for his WrestleMania debut but behind the scenes I was like oh my gosh I was I was in like a state of panic in the ring do you mean what do we do it was it was a look back now as a funny moment yeah I didn’t think it was funny at the time I was a nervous wreck but I had to call the match I said I didn’t really memorized a lot of stuff what we were doing in there and Bruce Prichard told the story that I guess when Kurt would wrestle you on house shows you would rip some of your tassels I’ll uh oh yeah well well that was Kurt that was him you did bridge my tassels on offer or do a sunset flip and not good and I and he did pull my trunks down and Madison Square Garden he was always doing bad stuff but that was his courage I had never found with that stuff at all yeah Julie the costume girl just put the tassels back on that was that was that was that wasn’t like a curtain I got along fine so that wasn’t that was Kurt that we’d all laugh we’d laugh about after the match was it special to you to wrestle in Madison Square Garden oh man that’s hallowed ground first time I was in the garden see Muhammad Ali and Frank Sinatra all the stars that have performed there on the walls in the back and be back in the locker rooms as they worked it’s a it’s a special place it really is for sure what were the biggest differences backstage you noticed between WWE and WCW um I didn’t really notice when we had the agents and giving your matches and a finish and the you know the kind of the the boys are the boys so I didn’t ruin that notice any big difference or at all and then that regard how did you get along with Pat Patterson oh we got along great Pat and I honest and his uh his husband and I’m and we used to go golfing together wondering the same time we bring our golf clubs and go golf we both love golf so I got along I look great with Pat no doubt about it he was a real prankster – so he scared me the first time I met him because in Vince was standing there and he goes I went to a TV my first TV and Pat was joking around with Vince and I cuz well by the way Lex I don’t know if you heard Pat Patterson I can’t talk like me because we’re all sold out hotels the night goes but I got actually I next I got next to bed in my room for you I was like a deer in headlights I I know he was joking with me second what do you mean I’m gonna room with you good I heard Pat he was married to a guide so I was like I wasn’t a hobo full brake or anything bout was like what do you mean I meant I’d heard some stories about WB the time with you know that in that regard so Vince didn’t think was all that funny but but he started laughing so that was the first time I ever met Pat I didn’t know what a river he was I was like oh my gosh what do you mean I’m gonna room with you you know like I thought I wanted to do guy you know so when you heard that they were going to switch the gimmick and make you a baby face were you happy about that I were you kind of comfortable and the narcissist gimmick at that point I love the narcissist and being a heel and it was fun but one thing my suit always taught me was you know it’s a work and it was a shoot there would be that many guys in wrestling don’t ever question finishes don’t ever question when the Booker’s want you to do something or switch or do something you do it to the very best your ability and if you’re injured if you can walk to the ring you’re gonna wrestle so I kind of drilled those see never question finished never questioned character changes and do it and so he taught me to me to be a good foot soldier I’ll never forget those things Matsui told me what’s over the fence called me and told me that they want to do the further I didn’t know whether it be a long term didn’t make it all the times I honestly I thought was something for SummerSlam okay to do at that that’s what it’s complaining to me I was of your bus tour and challenge Yokozuna for the world title so I didn’t know how they’re gonna do the switch because I was a heel looking at mirrors but Vince explained what he wanted to do in the aircraft carrier and I didn’t know if I could slam vo go we did a walk through the oblique before but he goes don’t worry it’ll work and it definitely worked I went from looking at Mir sue on July 4 it being a baby face well the crowd had a great response live there on the USS Intrepid it was a great setup so there was how did you like working with Yokozuna Oh Yoko is a Yoko I calm Yoko Yokozuna was a dream to work with one of the I think one or the best big man ever he was a walk on the dancing bear we called that because he was six hundred plus pounds but he could he could bend backwards before took a bump when speckies when his that his hair down at that long hair he lit out and he’d been his flexibility his agility is ability to move in the ring and just you know his island boys are incredible workers usually naturally anyways yeah so he was a dream to work with Yoko and I also struck a very good friendship outside of the ring we both loved playing cards to kill time on the on the road the locker room where I was in Europe on the bus so yoke and I got good together personally really well really well so yeah very fine members of Yoko were you disappointed at all I’ve heard you say another interview to work but I know as a fan I was a fan of yours at that time and when they had the balloon drop and the confetti or whatever when you won by count-out did you find that that was a little lame considering the big build-up to that match another question I’m asked a lot Wow I would have loved that one but I wasn’t disappointed because I was never promised I thought was a great opportunity to do the less expressed or it went really really well and to be the main event against Yoko for the world title and Vince had already pretty much mentioned if I was gonna with a TRO he’d rather maybe weight off until Fong WrestleMania so I know I definitely wasn’t disappointed and I knew that they were to take Yoko off on a angle with Undertaker and then if I wasn’t get another world title shot they would try to zero back in on WrestleMania the following year which was proceed with Bret and I tying in a Royal Rumble to I thought was went great we both hit the mat at the same time you know I think it’s the only tie every war alum ball yeah that I know Cole winners and was that scary go ahead to that victory video bites screw that we didn’t know that was Wow Brett so good Brett hung on to me and just timed it like I was just going backwards over the top rope so that was all Brett and that we back then and even the camera was in but that they were scared but it was gonna look really bad that’s right call it but we both hit the mat you you could run that over slow-motion a hundred times and not be able to really tell who touched first it turned out great and that was a good setup for Wrestlemania for sure and I understand you were pretty good friends with Brad outside oh man we still are I just saw Brett a while back we had a up in Kingston Ontario we were together and it’s great to see him again and the great friendship to the state we always love to work in the ring together nothing but respect for Brett are you still a big coffee connoisseur I understand Brett and you had that in common I’m a big coffee guy to this day president Starbucks coffee go to Starbucks almost every day with my mom but we got Tim Hortons also here in Buffalo but Brett really introduced me to the joy of coffee and the caffeine and the whole the whole deal so we travel together summon threats the reason I’m a coffee lover Jamie we shared that as well now for the Lexx express itself what were your thoughts on that concept and how it played out Alexis dress was very well laid out we tried we traveled the whole country they really did systematically they were great crowds everywhere we went I mean we’re in Denver one time remember those airline three times around a Toys R Us Wow like 100-degree he did they promoted it well we had a tour director on the bus it was very well done it was a long summer I’d like to start doing morning radio shows at 6:00 a.m. calling and in persons from city to city every day then do like two appearances thread 3 hour autograph sessions try to get the gym I did I go on the evening newscast with the weather guy and it was morning till night it was exhausting but it was good it was very well done now I don’t know if you’ve heard this would up I guess Bruce Prichard did a podcast on you where I guess he was working with you a bit during that Lex Express time and he said you started to make requests where you would want to fly into a city then get on the bus and end up staying at the Marriott at night and just go on the bus when you had to make the appearances is there any truth that you were asking for those or is that him telling a different version of what I’d have to hear what he said okay I want to stay at a decent hotel because that because of my training I didn’t wanna stay at a hotel but like didn’t have room service so I did like Marriott so I might have put in a Marriott request or a hotel at that rooms room service stand or food right I wasn’t trying to get a rich cult or anything but I wasn’t being the road that much for my training I wanted to be D so tell so I mean maybe he’s in the office and he knew things that I might have asked for I don’t know so I don’t know if there’s I might say that’s a falsehood but I was on the bus most of the whole tour to see my family a couple times they flew me home for like a day but I was on the road I rarely flew I was pretty much on the bus the whole time I did fly once a while they want to give me a date with my family or something cuz I had two small children and which was a great that they would do that then I’d meet them if they like it and they time it they had a really long ride like from South Dakota they wanted to get to California they’d fly me home then fly Murray California like the next day okay or something like that but I never requested that it was something that they want to do for me so I could still see my family a little bit I knew that that it was it was you know a lot you know I told you my daily schedule so yeah we’re gonna give you a day or two home with your family so we’re gonna fly you from where you’re at Denver home to Atlanta then we’re gonna fly to LA and get back on the bus but I I would just hit a hotel and go and hop on a bus to go to the appearances and fly everywhere I was definitely on the bus and go from parents to parents all day long in the bus it’s been a lot of time on the bus yeah definitely he also Bette said there was a video crew with you on the bus the whole time is that accurate not the whole time there was between certain dates they want to get some footage they want to get some footage of me more more more just sitting in the bus more than soundbites really more they want to get footage yeah cuz I I heard that I was wondering like maybe in a few years it’s they’re subtly gonna be a video that comes out and everything you did on the bus at that time but also that would become bit annoying to have a crew around you in those close quarters yeah no we didn’t have a full-time career I guess they’ve released some footage of me that they have of flex express that they’ve released but the one guy I was on social media I the only thing I do is Twitter and um guy goes my watch all that footage you look are your I got the feeling you were you were miserable well I was probably tired I wasn’t miserable at all ago I was probably tired when they got shots of me in the bus I tend to do that late in the day I’ve been up since 5:00 in the morning eating breakfast and then doing appearances and signings all these long said then they come into bus with the camera crew to let’s get some outtakes and reflect in a day and I was like a zombie so by said that was probably exhausted but plus wrestling to I guess you would probably do it on this tour right no they took note out of the wrestling okay there’s no way I’m not with literally I’m not exaggerating yeah I was on the bus doing appearances from I get up at 5:00 in the morning and literally til til dark maybe run to a gym getting our workout it was literally all day long every day if you had an hour to workout and you were in a town where the Lexx Express was promoted how did you get people to leave you alone because I’m not anywhere near as famous as you but people in my town bothered me when I’m working out so I can only imagine how difficult it would have been for you um you know I’ve always gone around the gyms just fine I kind of got myself in the zone I put a pair of headphones on and yeah and there’s a kind of like the gym cut type of more I don’t know if the hardcore is the word but Gold’s gyms up the guys are all in training themselves so during your workout they might ask you for something on the way in or way out or an autograph or a picture or something but most people the types of gyms I training because I needed had some free weights and things like that they they were pretty respectful of let me get my workout in for sure okay that’s good so the Lexx Express went from for a time period that was supposed to happen I guess and then it just ended so it was never supposed to be an ongoing thing that was just for the SummerSlam okay like if you asked me one time what happened to your bus I go I don’t know maybe they turned it back in I don’t know people thought there it was like my bus it’s funny now Ludvig Borga everyone remembers that feud he was kind of a controversial character in his later years but what was your experience like working with him Luca and I got along fine I don’t know if we were the best matchup in the ring because he worked strong and I worked strong yeah so but outside of the ring and he liked to go to the gym we just go to gym together and stuff so we got along good outside of the ring but so yeah I think that a might not been the best match it was a good idea Primus our Idol I don’t think I work we were both relatively inexperienced and he worked strong and and guys who would put over my strength usually end up being a little bit better match because one guys got to highlight the other kind of an experienced wise that was kind of a tough matchup for both of us but I really I always got along good and I’d like to move Vic either he was a he always got along well and what about Tatanka oh he was great to work with you yeah and I see him all time still now I had events and things and great guy and fun to work with and ya know what she’s there he was fun to work with chops didn’t bother you not at all after naitch’ the hit the chops didn’t bothered me whatsoever I can’t imagine yeah and they used to my chest bleed the entire summer I’ve you know every night with him in the ring my chest where you had scabs all over it so from those chops busting me open and towards the end of your WWE and you were a trainer teaming with Davey Boy Smith I understand you guys were friends even before that you want to just talk a little bit about him yeah we hit it off from day one once again the Jim thing working out and he came in and he looked incredible we immediately hit it off predator introduced us cuz I have friends with Brett and Owen and we end up traveling all the time together and I got to know his family and we got him here in Florida we’d stayed I’d stay with Davey’s house along to England they took all the guys in the bus they let Davey drive us his Jaguar around I stay with David his mom and dad’s house and we just became great friends great guy great town he was he you talk about being massively over in England oh my gosh unbelievable so we we we had a wonderful friendship I really miss Davey great sense of humor credible guy and you were teaming with him before you departed what is what made you actually switch because I understand you took a pay cut when you switched over to WCW I did I was looking to actually renegotiate my contract with W beers is just a business thing so you when your contract runs up W the time had to give 90 day notice didn’t mean you were leaving just meant you wanted to read you your deal just didn’t want to roll over so I wanted to be able to do some maybe some things in in the fitness endeavor because the money back then I was it was always good for me but I I thought maybe I could do some things outside of wrestling workout wise and and make some extra money maybe doing commercials I didn’t know about one did the flexibility of my contract and so I gave my 90-day notice because I didn’t normally do that but Vince and I were to negotiating through it my 90-day contract ran out but Vince I had such a good personal relationship that we we went on for months after that but the lawyers wasn’t between Vince and both lawyers are working that out the language in the contract and it cut was kind of dragging out a little bit and I just had a happenchance conversation with sting I don’t even know they were gonna start a new show then I told him and a kilo conversation that I was my Cointreau goes up and I was no longer in her kind of go W goes way second sting on GOG almost like dropped the phone your work at WB right now and you’re not under contract I don’t know my contract I gave a nine-day notice it expired a couple months back he was like you’re kidding me Ivano so he called Eric Bischoff and the rest is history ended up being the surprise guy on Monday nitro in Minneapolis now Bruce told a different story so I just want to just get your opinion on that he said that JJ Dillon was continuously trying to get you to to resign and you kept saying you were going to and putting him off and I guess that’s why in his opinion JJ may have had some heat with you after that but probably JD never mentioned that to me we’re good friends now we see each other quite often I’m not aware of that I did I did most of mom and ago Jason was through it through a lawyer okay so if there was JD might have a problem with what was going on in negotiations because negotiated some kind of could be tenuous and frustrating right I was a frustrated but really the the opportunity with a new show that I don’t even know about monday nitro came up all last minute right I’d never plan I’d told he planned on it’s not resigning I wasn’t putting anybody off at all I was planning on resigning with wiv yeah I just wanted to bring that up because this podcast I’m surprised you haven’t heard about it but it was all about you they talked about better career for seventy minutes I figure well okay I listen to it on the way down oh I got oh but every perspective can be different right AJ’s were but he might have been very frustrated with my attorney yeah but but I was just trying to get the right language and then my attorney was not me my attorney was the one guiding me right was just a business thing but I I definitely I wasn’t like leading anybody on and like negotiating with WB WCW at the time at all that all happen in a matter of like a couple weeks I went from thinking I was gonna resign with wve to walking on a nitro a matter of like a week and a half it all happened and I get that quick and you wrestled the New Brunswick Canada the night before was that your last scheduled match or was there other matches that WWE was expecting you to do well once again I was not on a contract okay so I was on night to night basis anyways right but um but one of disappointing things was I wasn’t able to get a notice right that was part of the agreement that Eric Bischoff wanted it to be a surprise if I came to Debbie Debbie she W there Eric Bischoff I’d heard wasn’t a big Lex Luger fan so that’s why he want to test my was i full of myself my reputation was being kind of arrogant so he cannot filed low bomb and see what he box on the money see if he really would like to come back here and work with us I know sting you I know stain you love him he’s you’re one of your best friends but that and Eric I said man I’d love to be a part of that and get to come back and be as my best friend sting and got a new show going so and boy it worked out good but I definitely had great misgivings about met Souter the way he taught me in wrestling it was you know it wasn’t a thing of real character integrity the idea of events not giving me notice and if I done it over again now you know worked out literally good with me with W step I would told Eric I would have to give notice and talk to Vince if the stipulation was to just walk off his house show in the next night being a ring with WCW I would like to think I wouldn’t do that now we all things people realize kind of scene taking care of our family and taking the best opportunity I would have wanted to with with character and integrity and Vince and I were close outside of the ring so that was even back then I had a a lot of turmoil over that doing it that way what did you hear from the WWE side because obviously there was probably still pay that they owed you you probably had some kind laughter did you hear any feedback – what happened yeah they said we’re not gonna pay you anything so that was the feedback you’re with them now and if you want the money see us did you I did not side bet it best to move on I looked into what would take to try and I to sum it up what would have been a long line how much did they owe you oh I don’t know what you know that there was some pay-per-view money and some marketing money I’m sure I was sure that you yeah I’d have no idea what that one would add it up to I see and Bruce not nothing you know no huge something like a sum of money okay anything like that Bruce apparently said Pat Patterson’s reaction to it was to say well he’s their problem now that sounds like Pat that sounds like fed that’s good I like that now what I was definitely possible sounds like that that’s a good way I had never heard any well that’s good Devon I like that what sounds like that what I noticed would you debuted on that show you looked like the old Lex Luger which amazed me because you had just been on WWE TV and there was a distinct difference in your look it seemed like your hair and magically grown no I know I already started go I’d already started growing my hair out a little bit but I had nothing to do with me cuz it all happened a week and a half I decided I was gonna grow my hair out a little bit okay at WVU so that that had nothing to do with it but I definitely felt comfortable back was stinger and and the guys back in every she’d up against kind of work you look like about well comfortable yeah yeah no doubt and what was it like dealing with Hogan because I guess she had probably met him in WWE but this was the first time you’re actually having a confrontation with him in the ring and working with this yeah hardly knew him at all and the first night didn’t go well because when we got nose-to-nose on nitro we went to commercial break and to come back out of it which told me nose the nose and the camera guys ring okay word that were off or whatever was a minute or two so I broke character a little bit when your nose knows but and there was a live crowd there and the Hulkster is all business about his business I didn’t never been around him so I kind of smoked at him and I’ll never forget he looked at me and goes hey brother knock that smile goes take that smile off your face I’ll knock it off I tried to welcome him afterwards he kind of blew me off I said I’m sorry mr. Rogan certainly I’m like I didn’t mean to he goes that’s okay man but you don’t ever break character out there that’s taking money out of my pocket he said walk away I knew he’s mad at me so I went home told my wife I got boy here my first night WCW and I just I just ticked off alcohol good I was like oh my gosh what a dumb thing to do but I walked up III the next week at TV we’re in Florida somewhere the second night show and I was had some stuff I wasn’t do with them on camera but I found him be fine his dressing room knocking we had we had a nice discussion time I never want to disrespect I thought we were off camera I understand totally where you were coming from and I just want to apologize I go I didn’t mean any disrespect to you or the business but at the same time I want to apologize he was and he was very gracious and we got along great ever from that moment on we got along great obviously he put the belt on me yeah which is what I was 97 so we obviously got along really well outside of the ring and I enormous respect for him obviously and and he had enough respect for me obviously you could done that with anybody and he gave me the honor so that was that was huge acknowledging for him and were you surprised that night I understand you found out just before you walked out to the ring that you were gonna win the title I couldn’t believe it we knew that they’ve got heat left us laying for like months on end once a while sting would come out the amber they I didn’t know that Eric and Hogan table well we need to give maybe a little own for the guys were beating up every week because where he eat he we got lots of heat let’s give the fans a little bone so they did that deal with me when they bailed nitro then he’d take it back at the paper who the following weekend but that was the phrases we gotta give the fans a little bone and the fans man what a quarter response that night Detroit do it live on a nitro nobody saw that coming they I didn’t know till almost heard before I wanted a ring so I guess you became friends with Elizabeth because she was brought back to be with Ric Flair at some point in WCW and you probably had interactions with her not a lot I mean you got to know between the the crews at those things and the production people and all the wrestlers and they start bringing a lot of women in so I would be passing the hall and hey hey Liz I called her Liz and that was about it for gosh the first couple years I was back at least I and she became the TV’s I was on the road all time wrestling how shows and I’d see her in on Monday night and every guy that hotel afterwards at the hotel afterwards maybe you have a couple B or something but never had a lot interaction with her at all first first few years there be honest with you other than hey I doing that was that was about it so when did you start developing the relationship because obviously you had a family and but you were on the road all the time and it was a real party atmosphere from what I understand in those days it was and and we did we I know now that there’s no such thing as innocent workplace flirtations but it started out as that and it developed we developed what you think anybody knew and then we actually got put together to work together which was my idea but it was the idea of the booking people and so now now we’re together on somehow shows as well novelle and everybody should do we like to hang out together but it was like a workplace relationship I see so what up slowly over time over time over period of like a year or so at what point did it actually start affecting your home life well I probably immediately without me even realizing it but obviously I was a married man and she was married at the time so something neither of us looking back in retrospect now through different set eyes had no business doing period but it happened and and I’m sure it affected my home life she ended up moving to land on so things escalated from that point on especially once WCW got bought out she was living at land on and things developed even more more along the lines after that were you still under contract when it was bought out did you have some time left on your clock I did I had a couple years left full pay which was probably not a good thing I probably should stay busy and Russell too much time money in my hands at the time so that’s where the drugs and the partying really escalated I had time off and so you would have to go to work yeah and you know that the the drug thing the pills and the alcohol escalates slowly over a number of years I never thought I had an issue with that thought I’m so disciplined my training and eating and everything in the gym and I don’t have any issues with drugs or alcohol you know I mean I’m Lex you know so it uh so was it your wife finding out about Elizabeth that ended the marriage or was it the drug and alcohol issue combination of all those for-sure for-sure drugs the alcohol my wife tried to give me a second and a third chance once she found about Elizabeth I was unrepentant did macho man ever have any issue with you dating her when you guys were still working for WCW never a match I had a great relationship revenge he never expressed anything you know tinge of that around me we always continue to have a good jovial fun friendship inside and outside of the ring from Leah wait Liz had explained it to me in time she had remarried he had a bunch of girlfriends for years they had really moved on both of them so yeah Randy never expressed anything uh no well I thought he was upset or anything like that that’s what you may wish she already into the the pills and stuff before she started dating you or did you kind of um I get asked that question a lot I can’t speak for cuz I didn’t but I wasn’t ever really around her much all right yeah I met her so I met her she would drink a little bit and she would you like a lot of people at business we’d pop a few pills or something once a while to what extent she did or didn’t prior to or she evaded she saw that before she met me I don’t know so at the time of her passing were you guys both divorced I was separated and she was divorced okay and the domestic abuse allegation right anything really come of that or what was that all about was that just that we had an argument at the townhouse where I was at we had parked in the garage the garage door was open I don’t know what the neighbor felt felt she saw but she had called the police and we both explained that a police was had a mark on her face from welcome to those like a week prior a scrape mark but when the police came the one police guy its I could we kind of both felt that that he won’t take me to jail so his end I both felt that way and we’ve all told now we had two dollars a German Shepherd and a husky and they could get frisky with each other and they wrapped him on her leg she fell down at an operational mark on her face with how she’d been crying for us we’d argued that night wasn’t a physical thing right but she is crying but the even the officer that they went to make Yannick and the guy cuffed me Carolee they’re all like oh this is one of those calls from my neighbor nosy neighbor and you know or we’ll be out of here in a few minutes they bunching quite a dozen cops outside there they that the cop station was right down the street and they were all hanging out like suckers place so you know so we were robbed both Liz and I were both shocked you were extremely famous at that point – yeah and I was 20 almost 24 years of marriage and I’m believing Mona I was not my at the time the way things went down my kids infesting my wife they were no big fan of mine at the time to put a mile diamond and rightly so and even they were like I’m the domestic disturbance thing they’re like my gosh dad you you’re a mess right now we hate your guts but you know there was they know 24 plus 24 plus years of relationship never never any any sign or a hint of that kind of thing right would have been you know so out of character for me evil even there like it you know you a lot of things but not that was my what came off my even my ex-wife but um it happened it was a tumultuous time la drama goes on when you you’re making bad decisions in life things go downhill they go down quickly so that’s all part it’s kind of wrapped into all the horrible things that happen in a very very tragic time because she passed away not too much long after that and actually that’s where they dropped the charges I don’t know about forensics but apparently when they checked her out the Scott County live I was on their radar where I where they saw happen outside of Atlanta and I guess my from my what my lawyer told me was that when they did the autopsy the guy I don’t know who does the forensics said that that was an Aboriginal type injury that wasn’t the impact like kind of injury and which confirmed what we both told him the officer that happened yeah at the scene but he arrested me anyways but once you’re arrested you arrested so and they dropped the charges based on what my lawyer told me cuz I don’t think I’ve kind of would dropped any charges against speaketh um they’re having me on seventeen I think felony counts on drugs because the amount drugs I had my place at design was that force la or was that you just you consumed a lot as much they I just read up my stash I called it I didn’t want to buy like drugs on a weekly basis so I’d buy like a six-month supply or here supply at once glad the money to do it well at all so I bought I just bought a bunch of stuff and what was it exactly that Miss Elizabeth had taken that night no I I never got the duck a Texas oil toxicology report I wouldn’t be there was alcohol on a couple of different pills I mean she seemed fine that night it was we were watching movies together and she’s standing in the microwave next to me one minute I took her food over to his he’d mine up the microwave the next minute she wasn’t she wasn’t responding or breathing I was totally shocked as you were probably buying pills at that time to say you were probably yeah I mean I wasn’t like oh and I was making food and yeah I wasn’t like I had messed up a lot back then I wasn’t really messed up yeah it didn’t seem like she was all that messed up at the time so was it was it was a shower was like when she didn’t respond I just immediately dialed 9-1-1 and they were there within I guess seems like a minute and a half cuz they were right down the street like I told you yeah and they were there and when they worked on her and took ran her out the name on that I said this isn’t good but the same time ago they got her now she’s gonna make it so what went through my mind didn’t find out till later what happened that she didn’t make but they restaurant the parametric working on her and and rushing out the hamlet though we always think we’re gonna make it right which might speak to youngsters now so I tell them you just never know yeah one night too much of a certain thing or your body responds different you it you know drugs are you know a Russian Roulette and that very very sad that didn’t actually clean you up then either did it I would like to go through a few years no I was yeah I got worse for there for me for sure what was the the lowest point of death of that whole period in your life obviously her passing has to be up there that was a low point the jail saw a time I went to my house I actually thought of taking my own life I thought maybe if I got on top of cement barrier I was in I so sell my hands behind my back and fell headfirst because it was all cement down below I might build take myself out um thankfully I didn’t do that but I thought about it that was a little point and you know find out what happened with Liz and and you know up on seventeen felony counts and it was it was like that was like a lot of weight on me yeah a lot of darkness that night but I allowed dark times over I’m a living breathing miracle gotta still be alive the next few years and one from bad to worse put drugs and alcohol and one bad decision after another for sure and it was religion and treatment that ultimately got you over that from whatever it meant it helped but it didn’t work working right away from me it was definitely on April 23rd of oh six when I met Jesus and I had her like a road to Damascus experience and he rescued me he delivered me over a period of a couple years he gave me three from all drugs and alcohol I’ve been clean ever since and my health is great and I’m very thankful for that what was different about that particular instant experience you had from being an atheist all your life to others because I’m sure you’ve had some religious interactions prior to that some but like I said I was an atheist most of my adult life and it was a question what was the biggest difference before April 2006 April 23rd was gonna after just yeah just uh peace that surpasses all understanding I talked about that I had I never had about how much money fame I always thought that there had to be more I was I always chased the creation rather than the career toward not realizing that the thing missing my life was a relationship with the creator of all things and that’s God so once I had that relationship secured with him through Jesus before he did the cross I had a immediate peace and then my respect from my body that’s that’s part of God’s creation and and just that’s what’s real key for me of I really can’t take the credit of God turned my life around do you think the reason why you’re not yet in the WWE Hall of Fame could possibly be because of animosity from that nitro you know I’m with the Ambassador Program now so if there was animosity I don’t think I’d be an ambassador for WV so I I don’t know I you know I it’d be real honor if I if I ever get it some days a lot of a lot of great wrestlers and I earn there yet so someday ever get it be great if I don’t I you know I don’t but it’d be real honor if I ever do of course now there’s not a lot of time left but I’m gonna ask you some fan questions we may have to do a part two down the road since you’re not too far from me and there’s still a lot we didn’t cover in this interview but I’ll great Devin I’ll pop in some fan questions now if UFC was an option in the 80s would you have considered that as a career no I I I wouldn’t want to get beat up for real we took enough beating and wrestling with bumps in the ring I wouldn’t want to get beat up for real for a living I don’t think I would have been interested but I know it wasn’t as big a den as it is now no that would have been more for you know guys like the Steiner Brothers or or dr. death or some of the guys had that Rilke I was a football player I wasn’t a shooter I would more I think an option for the wrestling guys like those guys rather than somebody like me who is the hardest opponent to torture Act you know surprisingly some of the bigger guys like I had big big show up in the rack he wasn’t difficult at all yep of course he helped a lot people think it’s the biggest guys but sometimes the shorter heavier guys were harder to get out there’s one of the guys was Joey bags one of the guys I wish to work with on TV a lot he was shorter and heavier and bottom heavy so he was difficult to get up and I had one guy I wrestled live on TV one time that might recall on his name right now but he was difficult to get up so and you’d be surprised some of the bigger guys were used a gift because they were a little taller so was it the distance was shorter matter of physics sorta what was your all-time favorite match wow that would be hard to pick had a lot of great matches without I went to every top guy and the business that’s a great question I think my first world title match I had was Rick nee-chan Baltimore was very memorable the world title response I really remember that I have my first match with Bret Hart up in Winnipeg can and I’ll show that I would remember that match we clicked right away both in the ring and personally I match the Hogan I in Detroit not when the which puts the title that was huge I’ve been there so many hours almost 5,000 matches so I get asked the question a lot it’s a good question it’s really hard to say to just pick one match did you enjoy being a heel or a face more there was a tag match against the Steiners in a pay-per-view we had one time sting and I because we’re all such good friends yeah we had a really good match and it felt really good afterwards that was a that would have no the match that really stands out to all four of us really did you prefer being heel or face um I enjoyed both I think it was easier to be heel how it felt was easier to get people ticked off at you and is the getting to love you so as a behind-the-scenes I felt that was easier a little more fun to be a heel and trying to make people love you but I enjoyed both who would you ideally want to induct you into the WWE Hall of Fame if you were inducted oh if you um that’s a good question a lot of guys but um probably probably if you would do it definitely stinger would be yeah I think a great a great choice I mean a lot to both of us really do you still follow wrestling’s I do definitely any favorite um gosh these guys are so talented now my gosh um these guys do stuff too that I never dreamed of they’re so athletic and they they look great costuming and there’s so many good ones now obviously John Cena’s had a great career how many guys left in my generation but there’s so many good young talents now that’d be very really difficult it’s just one do you have any stories about how ku may also known as me um great guy we’d love to have him around and he’s like he was like a bodyguard when they go out I’ve heard a lot of stories about him I work with them we got along great and he was a joy to work with but I’ve heard try the same stories every Brio says that that calls the goozle Ragab guys by the throat and they just like go unconsciousness he’s for real heard a lot of unbelievable stories about that thankfully nobody did it to me for real we grabbed guys about a throat unbelievable what a man’s man for sure what’s your opinion on Dusty Rhodes um he was a real mentor and he really he gave me my finish my character my team at WCW the backbreaker spent a lot of time with me on interviewing and and uh just I have a debt of gratitude to him he’s mentioned a lot of guys and a real credit to the industry for sure why was your TNA run so short did that have to do with your injury or other reasons um TNA at that time my life I had a lot of other stuff that we Pryor talked about what my mind wasn’t really on resting at that point he was on stayin alive at the time I was in a life-and-death struggle with drugs and alcohol did you ever try to get back in with WWE before WCW closed any like contract negotiations during that period No one time I left back in 95 yeah um when I when we got bought out my contract was for two more years guaranteed so we never had any discussions by then then my obviously my life had completely fallen apart I wasn’t eons were thinking about wrestling of that what’s your opinion as a Christian and how Ric Flair lived his personal life I love nature and he’s one of the most dynamic charismatic guys I’ve ever been around and you know sting and I and Nikita and the guys that are believers now in the business that love Nate’s to death we were always hopeful and prayerful we’d always say to man if we could get an H over to our side well what a testimony we call the testimonial which means our story of what we once were and did to what we are now because of Jesus for I was like man we can so we’re all still very prayerful we all still love Nate for just who he is and we love him just the way he is but we please others see him come over to our side for sure what a testimony that that man would have Wow way to with a lot of people to Christ he’s got that he’s got the gift right that’s for sure those interview skills being used for the kingdom my gosh Dupree the preachers of pastors are the next early Graham’s yeah exactly we’d love to have Rick on our side with others in that regard we’re all on the same side but I mean in that regard we love man we’d love to have Rick on board come on Rick and this is another question as a as a Christian what do you think of transgender wrestling now that they’re doing in this new all elite wrestling company you know I haven’t heard of that what is that men dressed up as females wrestling as females against females you know I look at TV and wrestling and as an entertainment business so I mean I don’t have a like I’m not like a legalistic like thank you people overhead with the Bible I I know that that they try to always mirror wrestling with our current times and what’s going on in the world so that stuff’s going on in the world so so I understand and they’ve cast her out to draw money and get television rings oh I understand I understand where they’re coming coming from of that kind of stuff if that makes sense I mean I I would definitely necessarily condone that myself but I mean with I understand where they’re coming from favorite TV show Wow failure a favorite TV show I would have to say right now it would be now that I’m here but the precious opportunity hanging out with my mom the last few years and hanging out together I used to show mom she beats me most the time because she’s a wordsmith in like a straight-a student all the way through high school in college but we love fortunate oh and Trey Patti Vanna you ever see this wheel of real fortune well I wouldn’t have expected that oh yeah what happened with main event fitness sting sold out a partnership few years for me then I sold out to my other two partners that I had a few years after that and it was it was a business that I’m not sure what they what they did with that after that I was up to them obviously what’s your favorite horsemen rode story Wow that would be impossible to zero in on my gosh I have to think about that one nothing we had so much fun together town that you got the biggest pops in Wow Baltimore was always a good town for me that’s the first one that pops into my head being on the cover of the WWE magazine with Michael Jordan what was that all about oh that was cool I was at a conference with like top athletes from every sports endeavor and for pro wrestling that I was chosen and I got to hang out with all those guys for a weekend and play golf together and we did a bunch of photos in front of it and the front of the Magic Kingdom Castle was down at Disney World so it was a great weekend and I loved hanging out with those guys and sure makes for a memorable magazine wrestling magazine cover for sure and fans this is gonna be the last question I’m asking because I’m out of time here with Lex but we covered a lot of what you’re asking in the full interview which will be posted in high quality but the last fan question I’ll ask is what was your favorite wrestling run could be in any company I have to say three phases obviously the one with the four horsemen really stands out as a highlight that whole period and was it was all new then so that’s very special Lex Express was an incredible experience a partner with Davey Boy was huge as tag team and then obviously the whole nitro experience in the world title win with Hogan on live on TV it was a another bit of that not Monday nitro experience as a whole was so really my whole 15 year career I felt like I said earlier interview like a fourth of July fireworks it always with the wrestling aspect of my life was amazing I’m very thankful for that look back with many many fond cherished memories for sure and if fans want to follow you you’re on Twitter at genuine Lex Luger that’s the only thing I’m on anything else there is not me but it’s at genuine Lex Luger and anything you want to close this off with as I said I think we’re gonna need a part two because we only really scratched the surface but is there any message that you would like to leave the fans with to close this interview up not other than you know I look back at my career my god I under arrest I’m not really knowing wrestling sometimes I thought you the fans were like crazy but then I realized that wrestling was so unique we had every socio-economic ethnic racial the diversity of wrestling fans and we all between the guys who wrestle in the fans I see now in hindsight sometimes in that in the moment you don’t realize it but it’s really hit me what a special like family we are and when I go to do a interact with the fans now there’s there’s so much love and it really does it we feel like we’re a family I see the guys and the fans and I don’t think there’s anything like wrestling and I just want to let the fans know I love them I love when I get to see them when I’m out and about and it’s a it’s a really special progressing very very special very dear and then the fans are and the guys it’s hard to describe you even really it’s it’s a it’s really special you
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Lex Luger Full shoot Interview 2019
