Lex Luger was in West Seneca, NY today at the Christ Church Buffalo to tell his story about God in his life, with a free pancake breakfast.
My dad and I normally don’t drive this far (about two hours) for a signing, let alone in a different country, so I didn’t think I’d make this one. We decided to go to this last minute. With the event scheduled to start at 8:30am, we thought it might be easier to book a motel Friday night rather than waking up extra early Saturday morning to make it for the event. This also implied more figure hunting, of course. Come Saturday morning, we wake up at 6:15, get ready, check out of our hotel by 7:45. Within half an hour, we were at the venue whose parking lot had these homemade Lex Luger signs.
We walk in and are warmly greeted by the pastor of the church. He shakes our hands and we tell him we can from Toronto for this event, to which he said he appreciated. We also mentioned that we want to meet Lex. We then go into the hall itself, which holds 200 people, but only 10 in attendance so far with some trickling in. About 25 people ended up showing up. Other members of the church greet us and let us know there is coffee in the back. The pancakes were to be served soon.
After about 10 minutes later, Lex comes in with his wheelchair and stays off to the side. Some of the people in attendance were Lex’s old friends as he grew up in Buffalo. He gets approached by them and they take turns talking to him. One or two wrestling fans also came up to talk to him. With it already being past 8:30, I figured I’d wait until after to meet him, however, the pastor came to me and said “now would be a good time to meet him, I know you said you wanted to”, and so my dad and I approached Lex, who was talking to another fan. The fan asked Lex to sign two of the event information pamphlet, but didn’t have a sharpie, so I loan my blue sharpie to them. Lex signs the pamphlets for free, which got me excited. Once this particular fan was done with Lex, Lex asks: “do you want me to sign something? I’ll hang on to the marker.” I tell him that I have a bunch of items and that I came from Toronto to meet him. He begins signing my items, starting off with the encyclopedia. I open up to the Allied Powers entry and he asks me where I want the signature. I point to the entry and he signs it with the book on his lap. I then flip over to his individual entry and he signs it.
Next, I bring out the magazines. I tell him that I appreciate him coming out and that I have a huge collection. He smiles and continues signing. I would have loved to say more to him as there was the opportunity to literally sit with him and engage in conversation, but it’s too early in the morning for me and I’m not a morning person lol.
After, I had him sign vhs tapes. At this point, he wheels himself over to one of the dining tables to give him better support to sign.
Next, I open up my Roos poster, which he signs. The pastor we spoke to saw Lex signing my stuff and commented as to how much stuff I brought. Not negatively though; he could tell that I’m a big fan.
I then asked if we can switch markers, and he was more than happy to do so. I have him switch to a light blue to sign his E30 with. I ask him to personalize it, but he doesn’t hear me properly, and asks me to repeat. As I repeat myself, I also point to the post-it note that had “To Alex” on it. He excitedly says “sure!” and signs the figure. We then switch over to purple paint to sign his E45 with.
After he signs them all, I ask for a picture, and in response he asks my dad to step in closer with the camera so that the picture turns out better. We take the picture, and I thank him and shake his hand before packing my stuff and going back to our seats.
Minutes later, pancakes are served and at about 9:05, Lex is introduced. Before he speaks, a video package produced by one of the church people was shown that featured highlights of Lex’s career. Lex then begins speaking. Some of what I remember he said:
- He started by bringing up the idea of foundation - would you rather build a house on rocks or on sand? The idea is that what’s the use of having something great if there’s no foundation to support it. This was the prelude to the brief talk about his wrestling career. In reference to the career highlights shown, despite all the fame and glory, he felt like something was missing.
- After his wrestling career, he tried to get into acting and looked at the real estate in Malibu. Lex asked a real estate agent as to what the “regular” people do, and she said that they work at rehabs. The rehab market is huge there because of the celebrities doing drugs and alcohol. Again is the idea of having something big/great, but not having a good foundation.
- He was very open about his demons and his attitude towards life back then. He did a lot of drugs and alcohol after his career and addressed Miss Elizabeth’s overdose. He referred to her, as an ex-girlfriend, however. Lex didn’t mention her by name. He explained the death and how she died at dinner. He gave her her food, then went back to the kitchen to get his own food. When he returned to the couch, she was dead. Emergency personnel came within a minute but couldn’t do anything to save her.
- Despite this, he still had an arrogant attitude when it came to drugs and alcohol. He admitted to being an atheist and even said that he was so hooked up on material things like drugs, alcohol, and money, he would want physical proof of God’s existence.
- Getting arrested was the best thing to ever happen to him. Officers knocked on his door and found so much drugs that he had 17 felonies. He had so much because he had the money to buy a large supply for himself and the people he partied with. He was in and out of jail several times because of his poor attitude.
- During one of his stints in jail, the jail chaplain makes several attempts to talk to him, but Lex kept brushing him off. He finally gave in and decided to talk and hangout with the jail chaplain. This is when he realized that talking to his guy would give him time out of his cell.. but more importantly, the jail chaplain would sneak peanut butter to him. Lex brought this up because he was used to eating 8000 calories a day and so being in jail was different in that terms. Still, Lex was not a changed person
- After he gets out of jail, Lex meets up with one of his drug dealers at a gym. By sheer coincidence, as they were leaving the gym, they run into the very same jail chaplain. Lex later concludes this as being God in the flesh considering that of all places for this guy to show up, it was at that gym.
- The chaplain then asks Lex if he can train him. Lex agrees but because he doesn’t believe the chaplain would be up for it and would give up right away. They agree to meet up the next morning and to Lex’s surprise, the chaplain doesn’t give up and doesn’t get sore (and still is trained by Lex to this day). They end up becoming good friends
- One day in 2006 (he remembers the exact dates of these events), the chaplain asks Lex to go to church with him. Lex is annoyed at the request, but appeased because the chaplain was his friend. When he attends church that day, the pastor was talking about the Sermon on the Mount teachings. Lex says that despite there being many in attendance, he felt like that the pastor was preaching to him, and only him. He felt like he had a calling.
- After this incident, Lex couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat, couldn’t properly function, etc. and so he asked his chaplain friend for advice. That’s when Lex realized what was missing. He was missing God in his life. Once he realized that, he had an instant feeling of completeness, unlike what he has ever felt before. He admits that it is miraculous that his is still alive.
- He addressed his spinal injury that left him in a wheelchair. He said that he doctors don’t exactly know the cause of the injury and that Lex would need 24/7 care, which he actually does not. He imagines as to what would have happened if the spinal injury had occurred during the period of time his demons were controlling him. Lex believes that he would not be here today if that were the case.
- He also briefly mentioned as to why he moved back to Buffalo. Not too long ago, his dad had died after suffering a massive stroke. When Lex came to Buffalo for the funeral, he decided that he missed living there and moved back. He now regularly hangs out with his mom. He said he feels stronger than he has ever been before.
- To end, he reads a couple of verses, including one from Psalms 18. I quickly google this for this report, and it reads: “ The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”. This is to come full circle as to his rock and sand foundation analogy. Lex says that people need God in their life, but we need to take the initiative to bring God in. Lex’s three steps to doing so is to 1. Love God, 2. Love others, and 3. Share your story.
That’s what I remember and that’s actually most of what he said. I’m surprised I remembered that much. Lex was very very open about his demons, which was really interesting to hear. Once Lex is finished, the crowd applauses. The pastor comes on the mic to say thank you and to say a prayer. It was 10am at this point. I felt like the event was of good length. It wasn’t too short, wasn’t too long, and had a nice message. The pastor then said that Lex will sign autographs and take photos. Meeting Lex was definitely great. Such a nice guy and his story was interesting to listen to. Before we leave, the pastor personally thanks my dad and I for coming, and asks if I got everything I wanted signed. We thank him back and talk for a minute before leaving and doing more figure hunting.
Thanks for reading!
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