Lex Luger Recalls His Wrestling TV Debut, Talks Lex Luthor Name Inspiration

– Lex Luger was the guest on this week’s Bischoff on Wrestling and discussed his career and more. The audio and highlights are below:

On his wrestling television debut: “My first time on television I just stood in the background. They said, “Hey Lex, you go out there with your shirt off out there and stand behind them.” It was Ravishing Rick Rude at the time with Percival Pringle who ended up being Undertaker’s manager. That was my first time ever on TV and they didn’t know where I was from nor did they have a name. Within about three minutes before we go out they go, “What’s your name?” I go, “Larry Fold.” They said, “You can’t be that!” So we came up with Lex Luger as my name and they said, “Where you from?” I go, “Buffalo, NY.” They go, “ON MAN! You can’t be from Buffalo!” We had the ‘Mistake on the Lake’ reputation back then. The rust belt and all the steel belts. Wahoo McDaniel and Blackjack Mulligan were in charge and they looked at each other and went, “Chicago or Detroit?” So I became from Lex Luger from Chicago and that’s something that stuck with me my whole career. As funny as that sounds.”

On his name being taken from Superman: “Yes, the first name was from him. Lex Luthor from Superman. The last name, Luger, was actually because of my German heritage. We all thought that was a good last name. At the time, I’m going back for nostalgia, Magnum PI was the number one television series on network television. They figured Magnum was a popular TV series so they’d call me Luger. So I became Lex Luger.”