Lawrence Wendell Pfohl (born June 2, 1958), better known by the ring name Lex Luger, is an American retired professional wrestler, bodybuilder, and professional football lineman. He is best known for his work with World Championship Wrestling (WCW), National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) under Jim Crockett Promotions, and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE).
Luger is a two-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion and one-time WWA World Heavyweight Champion. He is also a five-time NWA/WCW United States Heavyweight Champion who holds the records for consecutive days and total days as champion. He is the second WCW Triple Crown Champion. Although he never won a championship in the WWF, he challenged for every title in the organization, including WWF World Heavyweight Championship matches at SummerSlam in 1993, which he also main-evented alongside Yokozuna, and WrestleMania X in 1994. He also was notably the 1994 Royal Rumble co-winner with Bret Hart.
Pro Wrestling Illustrated readers voted Luger the Most Popular Wrestler of the Year in 1993. Luger was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2025.
Of German and Scottish heritage, Lawrence Wendell Pfohl was born in Buffalo, New York on June 2, 1958. He was an avid basketball player in his youth, and though he rarely played soccer, is a fan of English soccer club Manchester United. He attended high school and played basketball and football in Orchard Park. However, during his senior year his football coach convinced him to dedicate himself to the sport for the chance at a college scholarship. Pfohl and his teammate Craig Wolfley then began intense weight training with World's Strongest Man competitor Don Reinhoudt.
He received scholarship offers from Boston College, Miami and Penn State. Ultimately deciding to attended Penn State University on a football scholarship, but transferred to the University of Miami after his freshman year when the Penn State coaches thought he should move to linebacker or defensive end. He eventually decided his skills would be better suited to football. He sat out the 1977 season as a redshirt transfer student in Coral Gables.
In 1978, Luger played for the Miami Hurricanes, which featured future Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly, Jim Burt, Mitch Guittar, Fred Marion, and Mark Richt. He was kicked off the team for what Luger referred to as "off-the-field incidents". On the team's road trip to Atlanta to play Georgia Tech, Luger, who was suffering from cabin fever and disappointed at not being named a starter by coach Lou Saban by the 5th game of the season, snapped and trashed his hotel room. Luger left Miami without a degree.
Upon leaving Miami, he played professional football for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League where he dressed for 14 games at guard & tackle over 3 seasons and played in the 67th Grey Cup against the Edmonton Eskimos. He played in 2 games in 1981 for Montreal before being released. He then signed with the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League, but never played in a game and thus is not listed on their all-time roster, though he did spend the entire 1982 season on the team's injured reserve list with a groin problem incurred during training camp. He returned to the Packers training camp in 1983, but he was released before the regular season began. Luger wore number 66 for the Packers, the last player to do so before it was retired for Ray Nitschke.
Luger said in a 2018 interview with the Green Bay Press-Gazette his wrestling career might have never happened had it worked out with the Packers:
"I would have loved to have had a long-term career with the Packers; are you kidding me?" Pfohl said. "If I did, I probably wouldn't have become a wrestler. So, in the big picture, it worked out for me in that regard ... Had it worked out in Green Bay, I seriously doubt I would have become a pro wrestler."
In 1984, Luger finished his football career playing in the United States Football League for the Tampa Bay Bandits, Memphis Showboats and Jacksonville Bulls. He was a teammate of future WCW rival Ron Simmons while playing for the Tampa Bay Bandits.
NWA Championship Wrestling from Florida (1985–1987)
In 1985, Luger walked into the Championship Wrestling From Florida office where he met Hiro Matsuda, who had previously trained Hulk Hogan and "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff. Luger adopted the ring name "Lex Luger", being a fan of the comic book villain Lex Luthor, which helped cast him as a typical wrestling heel which he would continue to be throughout most of his early years in wrestling. Luger made his in-ring debut in September 1985. He was featured alongside other notorious heels, Percy Pringle and Rick Rude.
Luger began wrestling for CWF, gaining his first victory on October 31, 1985, against Cocoa Samoa and later won the Southern Heavyweight Championship from Wahoo McDaniel the next month. For a short time, he feuded with Barry Windham before Luger turned face and began teaming up with Windham against Sir Oliver Humperdink and his team of Ed "The Bull" Gantner, Kareem Muhammed, and The White Ninja. On September 1, 1986, he fought NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair for the title at Battle of the Belts III, which resulted in a 60-minute draw. As a result, Flair retained the title. Towards the end of his run in Florida, Luger was involved in angles with Kevin Sullivan and Bad News Allen. He was also in a steel cage match with Bruiser Brody, where Brody stopped cooperating, leading to Luger climbing over the cage and leaving the match.
Jim Crockett Promotions / World Championship Wrestling (1987–1992)
In 1987, Luger went to work for Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), which was under the NWA banner, with the nickname "The Total Package" and began using "The Human Torture Rack", an Argentine backbreaker rack, as his finisher. He turned heel again upon arrival in JCP and was first booked as an associate to Ric Flair's "Four Horsemen" stable until Ole Anderson was kicked out and he became an official member of the group.
Luger's first major feud in JCP was with Nikita Koloff, whom he defeated for the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship on July 11, 1987. Manager J. J. Dillon threw a chair over the top of the cage while the referee, Earl Hebner, was down. Luger knocked Koloff unconscious with it and then lifted up Koloff in the Torture Rack. A revived Hebner then dropped Koloff's arm three times with no response and awarded Luger a submission victory. He held the title until JCP's first pay-per-view event Starrcade '87: Chi-Town Heat in November 1987, when he dropped it to Dusty Rhodes in a steel cage. This loss set the stage for Luger leaving the Four Horsemen, as manager Dillon's interference cost Luger the match. A steel chair thrown in by Dillon was dropped by Luger and Rhodes DDT'd Luger on it prior to pinning him for the win.
Feud with the Four Horsemen (1987–1988)
Luger left the Four Horsemen and turned face again on December 2, 1987, at the Knight Centre in Miami, Florida, after he and his stablemates (Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson, and Dillon) were the sole wrestlers left in a Bunkhouse Stampede battle royal and Dillon asked the other wrestlers to eliminate themselves so he could win. Although Blanchard and Anderson complied, Luger refused and eliminated Dillon, leaving the Horsemen in the process.