Wrestling Legend Story Time

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Now, the Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back to another episode of It's Time to Man Up. Lex Luger. Welcome back to the Man Up show, Lexner. Thank you. It's great to be back on the Man Up show.

I feel very manly when I'm on the Man Up show. Well, as you should, because anyone who knows your history, and if you don't, hey, those of you listening out there, if you don't know the history of Lex Luger, professional wrestler extraordinaire, as well as an avid, excelled on the football field, professionally speaking, and just has an amazing story that we're going to unfold over the next few minutes here, go check out his book Wrestling with the Devil. And I want to tell you right now, if you pick up a copy of that book, you will be impacted by how this man's life and story has impacted not just thousands, but millions of people.

And so, Lex, it's just so great to, for real, just to have you back and just to update people, because it has been like right at three years, and update people on what you're doing. And so, you know, I mentioned, I reference the football career course, for those who don't know, you're a Buffalo, New Yorker, right? Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, right?

Correct. Go Bills! Go Bills! And you are an avid fan of the Buffalo Bills, because you donned their regalia, is that the right word?

I don't know. Anyway, their hats and jerseys, and you've just been an avid Bills fan, even though you haven't, you know, you've lived in Buffalo growing up, and you spent about five years back in Buffalo with your mom, but you never left, Buffalo never left your heart, even though you weren't even living in Buffalo for a long time, right? It has, and I love Buffalo, the Queen's Sea on the lake, the City of Good Neighbors, the people are great, we love bed on the weather and the snow, it rallies us all together, it's a great community feel there, and I loved, had a great childhood growing up there, and yes, huge NFL Buffalo Bills fan. They were kind of born when I was born, that branch I was born in 59, and I was born in 58, so we got, we like, I like grew up together with the Bills, so, yeah, I love watching my Bills games. I've got the NFL package this year, I'm gonna not miss one game, hopefully.

Nice, well, and I know they appreciate loyal fans like you, and so they were born in 59, I was born in 59, I know you and I for three months of the, you and I for three months of the year are the same age, so. I will say one caveat to being an avid, wild Bills fan, these days, due to a lot of different, for a lot of different reasons, I do not jump through those tables lit on fire like a lot of the Bills fans are known for at the game. Well, that's probably a good thing that you don't do that. I've been through some tables, as I'm sure you have too, but not anymore. Especially lit on fire. Those Bills fans are wild.

They have a good time. Well, and yeah, and of course being slammed through a table is probably what's led to some of your injuries and my injuries all these years later, or the repercussion of those injuries has led to our, how our bodies feel all these years later through all that fake wrestling game. You're holding up really good. Were you slammed through very many tables? Well, I tried to avoid as many as I could, but there was an occasional time or two that I, yes, that I did go through a table. I still have a flashback, Big Show or the Giant, we know how big he is. They had him on a Monday night drill, I'm having a flashback right here, excuse me, but he chokeslam me where he lifts you about, at his height, seven feet tall, he lifts you about ten feet in the air, he chokeslam me through a table and had champagne glasses all over it. There was like a celebration signal for him and I went through the table, broke all the glasses, that was real glass, and cut my entire back up. People show that all the time on social media that I thought I was dead. I mean, it was unbelievable.

They had to pick the glass out of my back in the back with the tweezers. Oh no, oh my gosh, that took more than a minute. Who said aspects of wrestling aren't real? People go, it's all fake. I go, well, how about you go to the table with champagne glasses on it like Big Show chokeslam me through? I'll ask you afterwards, is that all fake?

Right, exactly. And that just kind of reminds me too of even some of those, think about some of the crazy matches, especially Dusty and some of the guys, a barbed wire match, right? Were you ever in a barbed wire match, out of curiosity? I was in a bull rope match with a jagged belt with Stan Hansen, that's almost as dangerous. Oh my gosh, he tried to get me open with the belt, the bell belt.

Oh my gosh. Well known, at least within the wrestling circles, that he was blind as a bat the minute he took his glasses off. So I'm reminded of that scripture, Lex, when Jesus took the man outside the village and said, what do you see? You know, he prayed for his eyes. He goes, I see men that look like trees walking. And then he prayed for him again and he got clear vision. But I envisioned Stan Hansen saw men that looked like trees walking. In other words, blind as a bat could only see a blur in front of him, which is probably why he gaffed you open with his bell.

Oh my gosh, unbelievable. But I wrestled Stan, I did a six month program with him. Every night I dreaded, I loved Stan, good guy. But I mean, I dreaded working with him. Who did you not like? People always ask, who would you like to work with the most? I mean, that's a tough question. I wrestled almost 5,000 matches and I wrestled so many great stars.

But it's an easy one. Who did you not like wrestling the least? I go, nothing personal against Stan. I love Stan, but I hated wrestling him because he was blind as a bat and he was dangerous. Oh my gosh. So to your point, so you had a, you had a flash. So I just had a flashback.

I wrestled Stan. Remember that old building in Charleston, South Carolina? Like we thought it was, it wouldn't even be standing every time we rolled in there on King Street. Oh my God. I mean, and there'd be, there'd be mounds like for legit, we're not making this up.

There'd be mounds of termite, termite dust for every time we walked in that building. And I had one match and a buddy of mine, his name was Richard, a buddy of mine, they, they were short, like they needed somebody to ring the bell. And so my buddy, Richard, who had rode down with me to the show said, well, you know, he volunteered, right? Well, he's sitting ringside, you know, a little tiny table right there.

Ding, ding, ding, ding. Well, I, you know, of course I go out, I'm the bad guy, go out, I'm in the ring first. Here comes Stan with that, that, that rope and that cobble, swing that thing around.

And he comes towards, towards me. I jumped out of the ring and he swings it over the rope. Well, he hits my buddy with the bell and my buddy was so mad. He goes, I'm going to sue him. I go, Richard, you can't sue him.

You volunteered like he was so bad. He, he tried to run. Couldn't get out of the way of the bell and got, got nailed with that bell.

But Stan keeps swinging that bell. Get out of the way. Right.

Get out of the way. Well, you know, in Japan, you know, I mean, Oh, I know. Yeah.

He's as big in Japan as Babe Ruth was in America. Right? Yes. Like every bit. Well, what, what, so, so I'm going to go back to a minute too. So get you off track. I know you like to stay on track.

Sorry about that. Well, it's an organic conversation and, and, and I'm sure those who are avid wrestling fans out there right now have are hearing inside. This is like inside baseball here since I mentioned Babe Ruth. Right.

So we're giving some of the, I mean, picking glass out of your back with a tweezers. Like you don't get to hear that every day. Okay. But Hey, so, so, but were you, so were you ever in a barbed wire match though? Do you remember, do you recall? I know you had a lot of matches. No, you were not. Okay. Well, I was, uh, you know, cause obviously I did a program with dusty, you know, of course.

And as you did a six foot. Yeah. Right. And certain guys in the business were known for, for getting as, as we term getting color. Right. And, uh, cause you know, red meant green and back in the old school days. Right.

Well, you are very fortunate in a sense. Unfortunately, I could not avoid the barbed wire match now for the record for people just like that rubber, that's not really barbed wire ago. You're like, Oh yes it is. Right.

That's, that's what I want for our listeners right now. I want to paint a mental picture for you. Like legit, like if you were ever on a ranch or ever out on a farm or something. So they would take bar, like for real, take barbed wire and wrap it all around, all around the ropes, all around the rings. So you, there was no way to avoid it unless you just by the way. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. The guys weren't necessarily about it. Yeah. They weren't very experienced at wrapping barbed wire around a wrestling rope.

So, so it led to a very interesting match. Let's just say, and I did try my best to, to avoid hitting the ropes. Cause obviously that's where you're going to get cut up. Right.

When you're, when you're thrown into the ropes or whatever. So fortunately they didn't have to, you know, take a tweezers and pick anything out of, out of my back, but you would still get, get gaffed, you know, as you, as you got nicked by the barbed wire, you know, running back and forth and, and all of that. Unavoidable.

Unavoidable. So, so would you say, okay, so you already said that, that, you know, your least favorite to wrestle was, was, was, was Stan Hansen. So, so was that, does that then rank up there as the number one, perhaps most, let's say safe. What would you say is the most physical match you've ever had outside of Stan Hansen?

Wow. You were one of them, but we both liked to work in that way. You were real physical.

I think it was our football background. Oh, we call it snug, right? That's right.

Working snug. That's exactly right. Of course, for those who don't know, let me give a little wrestling background here, a little history here. So, so for the, for the old timers, they call it stiff or they actually even remember the term Lex crowbar. Oh yeah. So somebody can envision a crowbar that like, so for guys who worked snug, like Lex and I, some of the old timers would call us a crowbar and, and yeah. Yeah. And, and say we were very stiff. And so, well, yes, yeah, I, yes, I would, I would agree with that. I just had a conversation. I was just at an autograph signing recently and the, the road warrior conversation came up, uh, uh, just about how snug they, they worked as well and how believable many of their matches were because of how snug they worked.

Right. So I'll give you a surprise guy that works snug with me. He did with a couple other guys and he didn't mean to, but DP diamond Dallas page. He about, he punched me the hardest. I bounced in nightclubs in college, everything in their fights. I never got punched so hard as Dallas. He had me in the corner of punching me. He about knocked me out three times a row. I was like, I was like, I said, Hey, you're killing me. Oh my gosh.

I'll never forget that thing. I met him one time too. Cause he was punching things like Dallas like to make everything look good, which I'm with it. He about, he about knocked me out three, four times in one match in the corner. Was he punching you in the head? I guess, obviously.

Maybe he thought he was in there with Muhammad Ali or Joe Frazier or something. You're listening to the truth network and truthnetwork.com. This is Nikita Koloff here and I am excited. Did you hear the huge announcement, the big announcement?

Well, maybe it's a minor announcement. Anyway, Facebook, go look up my new fan page, Nikita Koloff fans and like it and follow today. For a gift of $25, Nikita will send you his two CDs adoration and declaration for a gift of $50. Nikita will include his book wrestling with success.

And for a gift of $100 or more, Nikita will include a signed copy of his newly updated life story, a tale of the ring and redemption. Go to www.koloff.net and donate today. Would your company, business or you personally like to partner with me in supporting Koloff for Christ Ministries, the Man Up Show and Man Up Minutes? Go to koloff.net and click the donate button.

You can give monthly, annually or one time. God bless you for making a difference around the world. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. You do a pretty good imitation of him, too, right? Bro, bro, bro, bro. Hey, bro. Bro, bro, come on. Come on, bro, bro, bro. Bring me a break. Well, come on.

I know you've done it through and through Jersey boy. I love it, man. I love DDP. Well, I've always you always get me giggling when you when you imitate him because you've got him down pretty good. Absolutely.

Well, well, DDP, Diamond Dowager. And of course, you know, we talked over the years, you know, probably the what would you say is the number one? Like if you're talking to the rest of it now and you're in high demand for speaking of autograph signings, you're in very high demand. I mean, you go coast to coast, border to border with in out there, out there meeting the fans. And I know you love it. And I think fans are so loyal, aren't they?

They don't forget about you, man. Amazing. I get amazed every time I go these things. They line up for all of us guys.

I mean, unbelievable. It's like the millennials are now we're little kids watching us. They come and want to bring their kids to meet you because their kids are watching Roman Reigns and all the current guys. They don't want to come these autograph sessions that they put out for us without an ambassador program with the WWE. I think it's like a class reunion on the weekend with all my buddies.

And then the fans line up, the wrestling fans. They are unbelievable, aren't they? They really are. They're so loyal and and and, you know, as you mentioned, for us, it's it's kind of like, you know, family reunion kind of thing. You know, we had a very close group, you know, especially back in the day. I know for me in the NWA, very, very close group guys that worked well together. You know, you mentioned you and I, you and Sting and and just all the ravishing Rick Rude, all the different guys and that we are fortunate to be. I was just recently with Cowboy Bob Orton, Ken Patera.

Yeah. And Mr. Anderson and Ken Patera, man. Yep, Ken.

And and and, you know, again, we talk about the the physical side of wrestling. I mean, Ken is getting ready to have some multiple back surgery. He's he's walking with one of those stand up, you know, like you have one of those stand up kind of walker.

You can stand up and lean on it. I've got wheelchairs, walkers, every type of cane. I got it all, man. I got I got the hope for thorough of assistive devices.

I love it. Let me let me touch on that for a minute, because for those who get me, you know, may not know your full story. So I want him to go get your book, wrestling with the devil and really understand, you know, the the your whole life journey and what a fascinating story it is. And, you know, as you mentioned, you have all the so 30 or so years of being, as you call it, a human crash dummy, you know, led led to, you know, some very serious injury. And it took you into the Shepherd Spinal Center in Atlanta, of which you're a small percentage to ever literally walk out of there. But, you know, your attitude lacks you because you're one of my biggest inspirations personally when anytime I'm around you or we're having a conversation, you know, whether it's over the phone or even an interview like this because of walking through what you went through with that spinal cord injury. But the perspective you have and you're walking through, I did. Yeah, no pun intended. Walking through that journey.

I'm a one percenter, less than one percent with my type of injury ever stand or walk again. So how thankful am I? My gosh. Yeah.

Well, and I know you attributed to obviously your relationship with the Lord and the recovery you've had from the early prognosis of being a quadriplegic and lifted out of a bed and fed the rest of your life where you can fly and drive and, you know, take care of yourself. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I'm sitting in the white night right now.

Sitting in the white night. And, of course, you do a lot of road travel and do well with that. But you fly a lot as well.

I mean, you're in and out of airports. Absolutely. Yeah. And so, you know, the... It's just a miracle I've got. Right. Well, exactly.

And that test... I have been. Some people don't recognize me.

I've lost 100 pounds of muscle from the spinal cord injury because I can't work out the weights anymore. But I tell people I've been streamlined and redefined. Well, and of course, you know, we've spent many, many, many days and times and even actually almost a year living together, which I want to talk about in a minute, which birthed the vision for men's ministry that you and I have been a part of over the years. But before I get there... Hey, Nick.

Yes. I've been pruned. Go to John 15. I've been pruned. He pruned away the muscle guy so that I can bear more fruit. Well, and I like what you say, too, Lex. We say, you know, another way you phrased it is he...

He's defined we are the branches and he'll prune us. Sometimes we go through adversity in life. Like the spinal cord injury, everything, people get saved and they go, I live in the name.

They claim it to be la-di-da. No. We still have adversity. We'll have trials and tribulations in this life, but I have overcome the world. He walks us through it. He walked me through the spinal cord injury and he's remained with me and he pruned me. I got the selfish, focused on my physical that's out of the way so I could be more usable and fruitful for him. So really, my spinal cord injury was a blessing in disguise. Well, and I like how you have said in the past how he stripped away.

You've said it this way, too. He stripped away the muscle to show you that you didn't need the muscle or the physical proudness to be a tool in his hand or a vessel that he could work through and utilize your story and testimony to win others to Christ or at least lead others to the foot of the cross, right? Absolutely. God works from the inside out. We just have to let him in, man. I'm telling you. Wow. He gives you strength that you can't get in a gymnasium.

I'm telling you what, man. Supernatural power. Supernatural. He puts it... You may not look the same on the outside, but man, I feel so much stronger now than I ever did on the unsafe, Lex, for my first 47 years.

Amazing. And what I want those listening out there right now is you're hearing some of Lex's story, and if you've never heard it before, this is a refresher for you. I hope you sense and tell he's being 100% just genuine in what he's saying. It's not just hyperbole or just Christianese talking here. This is the truth of who he is now and how grateful and thankful he is. And, Nick, I take people to 2 Corinthians 12, verses 7 through 9. Apostle Paul had a thorn in his flesh. He once, twice, twice, three times asked God to remove him. God said, no, Paul, because my power works best in weakness.

And Paul was like, well, gosh, well, I'm all up for that. I'm paraphrasing the verses. But, yeah, God needs us to empty the vessel, let him work in through us, and God knows what's best for us.

So, yeah, it's amazing. I love that verse. My power works best in weakness. And it keeps us, as I'm reminded, it keeps us dependent upon him, right, when we can't have such an independent spirit.

It keeps us dependent upon him. Well, we only got a couple minutes left here, but I do want to touch on the fact that the ministry, the man camp that you come in for every spring and every fall and lend some of your experience, knowledge from physical weight lifting. And not just that, just a spiritual aspect of things, but how we cover the body, soul, and spirit at the camp. Take just a minute in our last couple of minutes here and, you know, a guy's out there listening or maybe a wife is out there listening.

Why would she or why would he want to consider attending man camp? Well, we get so busy in life, right? We can drift away from God. And it's just an intensive five-day camp where, man, we get after it, and we talk about opening the vessel up and emptying ourselves out, getting out of the way and filling it up with the power of God to go back in the communities better mentally, physically. We give them knowledge and action plans and most of all, spiritually, that whole rock, right?

Not the sand, but the rock foundation spiritually. And it's just great fellowship. And these guys go home changed men.

I mean, for their families, for their workplace, for their communities. It's so incredible to watch the transition that you see these guys making that five-day intensive. It's fun. It's fruitful.

I'm honored to be a part of it. Well, and you brought up an issue, but the transformation, like the, we literally get to see from day one to day five, I mean, their countenance and everything transformed. You see them the first day, it's like, oh my gosh, it's so incredible to watch and be a part of.

Yeah, they really want to make eye contact, right? But by day five, I mean, yeah, they're just loving on guys. Oh my gosh, incredible. And it's a blessing to have you a part of that and so an invest into these men. And if you're out there listening, ladies and guys, and if you want to know more about Man Camp and how you can come and experience and be empowered, as Lexus is saying, be empowered. And so many testimonies that if you go to the website, go to mancamp.info, mancamp.info.

We do these every spring and every fall. And Lexus is an integral part of that in praying and interceding, but also teaching as well. And so Lexus, as always, you are just such an encouragement, such a blessing, not only to me, but I know so many others, and it's just so great to have you back on the man of you are. You are a man who is manned up even through all the adversity you've been through. And it's just always a blessing to have you back on the show. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it, guys. And so thank you for tuning in to another day, another show, Man Up with Nikita Koloff, and go out today and have a God-filled, God-blessed day.

Hi, Nikita Koloff. Be sure to check out The Man Up Show, now available on television, broadcast and podcast. Go to MorningStarTV.com or The Truth Radio Network. Check out your local listings or better yet, download The Truth Network app today. If you are enjoying The Man Up Show, would you help us spread the word? Tell your family, tell your friends, tell your neighbors to download, subscribe and leave a comment. Nikita Koloff here.

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