Lex Luger — also known as “The Total Package” and “The Narcissist” — gained worldwide fame as a pro wrestling champion. He stood at 6-feet 4-inches tall, weighed 265 pounds and had a 32-inch waist. His muscles were like polished steel and his perfectly sculptured body added to the wrestling mania that had gripped the nation. His wrestling persona was designed to thrill his fans. His accomplishments in the ring are legendary.
For the last five and a half years, he’s also been a Christian, learning and growing more each day. God, he says, has helped him “get rid of the last remnant of that vanity and pride” that was the emblem of his ring persona.
Born in 1958, Luger played professional football in the Canadian Football League and the now-defunct U.S. Football League before beginning his wrestling career. He did not have the privilege of growing up in a Christian home. He never went to church, but grew up chasing fame on a track that included drugs, alcohol and women.
“My life was a train wreck,” Luger admitted. “I was burning the candle at both ends. I had a beautiful wife, Peggy, and two wonderful children, Brian and Lauren. But I was living one life on the road and another life at home.
“I was making millions of dollars and had a lot of fancy stuff — cars, clothes, baubles — and never realized why I wasn’t satisfied.
“I had a home with my wife and children on the ninth green of the Sugarloaf Country Club in Duluth and a townhouse with my girlfriend in Marietta,” he said. “Sometimes when you think you’ve got a grip on life, you really don’t. The people I thought were friends were users and abusers.
“In 2003 my girlfriend, Elizabeth, died in my arms of an overdose of drugs. I was arrested later that day after a search of the townhouse revealed a number of illicit controlled substances.”
The next day Luger was released on $27,500 bail. Elizabeth’s death was ruled accidental. Luger pleaded guilty to the drug charges and was sentenced to five years probation.
“I violated probation on numerous occasions,” he said. “I was caught for reckless driving, continued to drink alcohol and abuse drugs, but somehow God protected me even though I ignored Him.”
In August 2005 he had a nightmare in his hotel room. He recalled of the dream, “I ended up in the bottom of a pond, asking myself, ‘Is this all there is?’ I was on drugs at the time and actually think I died and slipped into eternity for a few moments. Suddenly, I sat up, looked up and saw a little spark — a little white light. I was enveloped in darkness, in hell, but sensed that God loved me enough to give me that speck of light.
“When I awoke, I reached for the Bible in that room, but it opened to the genealogies in the book of Genesis. When I saw all those unfamiliar names, I concluded that the answer was not in the Bible and threw it against the wall. Although I didn’t understand what was happening, that was the moment of a spiritual awakening for me.”
In the latter part of that year Luger decided to make a comeback in Winnipeg, Manitoba. However, he and two fellow wrestlers were removed from a flight from Minneapolis to Winnipeg and he was held without bond due to his outstanding felony charges and failing to obtain permission to leave the country from his parole officer. After remaining in the Hennepin County (Minn.) jail for two weeks, he was extradited to Georgia to stand trial.
Luger was sentenced to three months in the Cobb County jail where he began to receive visits from Steve Baskin, a Baptist pastor in Kennesaw. But Luger wasn’t interested in talking.
Then Baskin started smuggling small containers of peanut butter to Luger, who claimed he was always hungry. Luger also knew that the only way to get out of the “pod” was to see the pastor/chaplain. He started accepting Baskin’s visits, and a relationship ensued.
By March of 2006 Luger was released from the jail. One day he happened to meet Baskin at Gold’s Gym and the preacher asked Luger to help him get into shape, to become his physical trainer. Luger said he thought to himself, “I will give him a workout he will never forget.”
Luger’s idea of an impossible workout schedule for Baskin didn’t work. Baskin kept coming back for more. “Steve started taking me to all kinds of places — to places like Golden Corral and Wal-Mart,” Luger said.
“He also started giving me books to read like Josh McDowell’s ‘Answers to Tough Questions.’ He would leave gospel tracts in his car, and when he would go into a store I would read those tracts.
“Then on April 16, 2006, he talked me into going to church on a Sunday night. I went to Clarkdale First Baptist Church and heard Pastor Marvin ‘Doc’ Frady preach on Matthew 7:24–29.
“I went back to my room — the same room where I had that nightmare — and Doc’s message was churning in my heart. Steve came and explained God’s plan of salvation. I got on my knees and prayed and asked God to forgive me and save me.
“I never felt stronger. I felt a power inside of me that I interpreted as the power of the Holy Spirit.”
“Doc” Frady has become Luger’s mentor and spiritual father. They meet regularly to study the Bible and pray. “People told me that he would be back in jail in six months, but it has been more than five years and he is as solid as a rock. I wouldn’t be afraid to have him speak anywhere as a representative of Christ,” Frady said.
“The Total Package” has been unwrapped and rewrapped by the transforming power of Christ. “It’s been an incredible five-and-a-half years, but I have learned that God is with us through whatever challenges we face.” (BP)
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