By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
Insight With Chris Van Vliet with guest Lex Luger
Host: Chris Van Vliet
Podcast available via Podcasts.Apple.com
On what’s been the biggest change since working with Dallas Page: “Well, everything from being able to stand up and brush my teeth instead of leaning over the sink trying to. Things we take for granted. Getting off of my chair into the shower [chair]. In the morning, you’re showering, you’re going to the bathroom, you brush your teeth. When you’re sitting it’s challenging to even safely get from your chair to a toilet or anything. So just everyday functional stuff. I heat my coffee up in the morning, I can stand up and put it in the microwave now, I couldn’t do that. I was trying to reach, I was spilling coffee everywhere. When I go to the grocery store now I had to wait and my grocery store guys would know me, they see me pull up and they bring me out the power cart. Now I can get the power cart myself. So, I mean everything. I can shop again. I can go on and on. If I go through my day with you, my quality of life and my function has increased dramatically. So it’s amazing.”
On how this wouldn’t have happened a few years ago: “I had gotten scared and discouraged with the walking and all the falls I was taking, so I had really pulled back and was pretty much relegated and come to the terms that maybe I’m just going to be in the wheelchair the rest of my life. So I was gonna make the best of that, but still, to have this gift by working with DDP and a gift from God. I think to be able to get this increased mobility again is very exciting.”
On the 1994 Royal Rumble: “Bret tries to credit me. I credit Bret, the Excellence of Execution, because all I had to do was catch him and go backwards over the top rope, which is not fun. I didn’t even do a lot of backwards over the top rope kind of stuff, but I trusted Bret because he had to tuck my head and everything. Because when you go backwards over top rope, you gotta for safety tuck your head and everything. So Bret cross-bodied me and took us out, and then, man, he spider monkeyed me. He pulled me in and pulled my head in and they said Vince [McMahon] jumped out of his chair in the back. Because we walked through it however we’re going to do it. Bang, bang, bang, crossbody, out. Vince goes, ‘Try to hit the floor at the same time, we’ll touch it up afterwards so you’re both at the same time.’ They even did it in slow-mo. What a miracle that you couldn’t tell in the slow motion who hit first. But Bret pulled me in so tight the way we hit the apron with me going backwards, and from there to the floor Bret just got us both level and even and we both hit it at the exact same time. Probably could have done that a thousand times after and not got it. That’s when Vince jumped out of his chair. Wow, oh my gosh. They nailed it.”
On not being in the WWE Hall of Fame: “Well, people say that good things come to those who wait, always hopeful. If not, I still feel I had a great career. There’s a lot of deserving guys other than me who still aren’t in as well. So yeah, it would be a huge honor though, if and when it happens.”
On why he doesn’t think he has been inducted: “I don’t know what criteria they do, because there’s a lot of other guys too that should have been in. I don’t know if it was me personally or anything with Vince at all. I’m not sure about that. Only they can answer that.”
On how his relationship with WWE has changed: “I think they waited and observed that I was a different guy now, and I felt that they learned to maybe trust who I was, that this wasn’t some temporary thing. This is the new Lex Luger and this is the direction he’s headed with his life. So I’m thankful. But they’ve been a real blessing in every way, including financially. You know, they gave me new merch and gave me what the guys call mailbox money. So I am very thankful for them welcoming me back into the family and making me a part of WWE. Obviously, the Hall of Fame would be the whipped cream and cherry on top for sure. If I never get in the Hall of Fame, I feel like I had a great career. That won’t change it, but it would obviously be a huge honor. Definitely the creme de la creme, for sure.”
Be the first to comment