Larger-than-life pro wrestling icon would love to have had career with Green Bay Packers

If Larry Pfohl hadn't been injured during Green Bay Packers training camp in 1982, he might still be, well, just Larry Pfohl.

Instead, most know him as professional wrestler Lex Luger, one of the industry’s biggest stars in the 1980s and early 1990s, and two-time WCW world heavyweight champion.

“I would have loved to have had a long-term career with the Packers; are you kidding me?” Pfohl said. “If I did, I probably wouldn’t have become a wrestler. So, in the big picture, it worked out for me in that regard.

"Had it worked out in Green Bay, I seriously doubt I would have become a pro wrestler.”

It’s been 35 years since Pfohl, 60, was released by the Packers during training camp in 1983. And although he has never returned to Green Bay for a football game, only as a wrestler, his one year spent wearing green and gold remains special.  

Pfohl arrived as a free agent after spending three years starting at left tackle for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League.

The Packers topped the list of teams he could have signed with, even though the Buffalo native grew up a Bills fan. But watching Green Bay win the first two Super Bowls when he was in grade school left a lasting impression.

Green Bay was the first team to bring him in for a workout in January 1982. They put him through what he called a “mini-combine” and, afterward, Pfohl felt he’d aced it.

Turns out, he was right.

A short time later, he signed a two-year deal for about $120,000. He also received a $10,000 signing bonus.

His dream was to play in the NFL. This was his shot. 

“I was definitely aware of the history and legacy when I got there,” Pfohl said. “I didn’t even look around at other teams because I understood and was excited to have an opportunity to play for the Green Bay Packers.”

CFL to NFL a big leap

Pfohl entered training camp confidently because of his experience in the CFL. But nervous, too, because he was moving to guard.

He never had played the position and knew it would be a steep learning curve. He also knew his new team had high expectations.

The Packers were coming off an 8-8 season in which they had won six out of their last eight games.

Pfohl played well in minicamp that May. He wanted to impress the well-respected veterans of the offensive line, such as center Larry McCarren and right tackle Greg Koch.

“He showed up at camp looking like he did for wrestling,” said Koch, who spent nine seasons with the Packers and was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in 2010. “I mean, this guy was chiseled. He looked more like a body builder. He was just an impressive athlete. He could run like a 4.7 (40-yard sprint). He was just big and impressive.

“We got to be friends because we worked out a lot together. He’s just an all-around good guy.”

Pfohl felt the same about his teammates. He became friends with many of them and remains in contact with some.

“There was a great group of guys there,” Pfohl said. “It really was a nice group of guys. I had the usual rookie (hazing). I had to do the singing during training camp. I didn’t want to do that. I had to step up and sing a song. Usual rookie stuff.”

But Pfohl didn’t get to show the coaching staff what he could do for much of his first summer. He injured his left groin and hip flexor almost immediately after training camp started.

He attempted to hide the injury at first, hoping the pain would be a short-term problem, but it didn’t improve. At least not fast enough.

Pfohl tried to return more than once. Each attempt was unsuccessful because of the lingering injuries.

He loved lifting weights — Koch said it still irritates Pfohl that he could bench more — dating to his time in college at the University of Miami.

In preparation for his move to the NFL, Pfohl trained with Don Reinhoudt, a world-class power lifter who won the World’s Strongest Man competition in 1979. Pfohl had met Reinhoudt when he was in high school.

Pfohl looked like Hercules, but maybe that wasn’t such a good thing.

“Looking back now with modern-day training methods, I should have been doing other things along with that in the offseason,” he said. “I had a lot of injuries in football in my hip and groin areas from, I think, a lot of it is from the heavy deadlifting and the squatting I did in the offseason.”

The Packers eventually put Pfohl on injured reserve, ending his first NFL season before the first regular-season game. He hit the weights just as hard with a plan to return bigger and better.

Digging in in Green Bay

In the meantime, he rented one side of a duplex not far from Lambeau Field, where he lived with his then-wife, Peggy.

“Me being a Buffalo boy, Buffalo people are very similar to Midwestern folks,” he said. “Just good, hardworking, mainly blue-collar workers who kind of have a no-nonsense attitude. We call Buffalo the city of good neighbors, and it truly is.

“I felt the same sense of community in Green Bay. I loved it there. That’s why I stayed there in the offseason. I loved being there.”

Toward the end of his second training camp in 1983, Pfohl sensed that making the team wasn’t going to happen. He heard the Bills might be interested, as were the Tampa Bay Bandits of the United States Football League.

He met with Packers coach Bart Starr and asked if he would consider cutting him. Starr granted the request.

Pfohl felt the Packers gave him every opportunity to succeed, but he saw the writing on the wall and was appreciative that Starr gave him a chance to find a home with another team.

“For as good an athlete as he was and what he could do, he just kind of couldn’t ... the top half of his body couldn’t catch up with his legs,” said Koch, who also played against WWE Hall of Fame wrestler “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan in college.

“Football was just a different sport for him. You go see all the acrobatic things he did in the wrestling ring, and you went, ‘Wow, it’s strange he had a hard time with football.’”

Koch had seen defensive players built like Pfohl, but never someone quite like him on the offensive line. He knew he was watching a great athlete, but for whatever reason, things just didn’t completely click.

Koch thought it boiled down to mastering foot movements and reacting quickly.

“You hate to say that about a friend but, no, he was one of those guys who just wasn’t getting it,” Koch said. “In the NFL, they don’t have much time to wait on you. He came back the next year and he still was having the same trouble, so they tried him out on the D-line, and it didn’t work there.”

After his release by the Packers, Pfohl played for the Bandits and coach Steve Spurrier until he was traded to the Memphis Showboats four games into the 1984 season.

His last stint in football was with the Jacksonville Bulls in 1985, not because he was cut but because he stumbled upon a new career path.

While looking for offseason work, he got a gig with Championship Wrestling out of Florida. He eventually quit football to wrestle full time.

Instead of trying to block Lawrence Taylor, he would be grappling with Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair.

Goodbye, Larry Pfohl. Hello, Lex Luger.

Launching into fame

Pfohl laughs about how his football career largely became just a trivia question.

His dream of playing in the NFL never was realized, although making millions in his next gig and arguably being the most famous Packers player from the early 1980s isn’t a bad consolation.

“A lot of people sure as hell know who he is,” said Koch, who hosts a radio show in Houston and has had Pfohl on as a guest. “If you talk to millennials, you could say Hall of Fame wide receiver James Lofton and they might not know him. But almost anybody you talk to, I go, ‘Have you heard of Lex Luger?’ They go, ‘Oh, yeah.’”

Pfohl doesn’t appear on the Packers’ all-time roster because he didn’t play in a regular-season game, but he does hold one title of sorts: He was the last player to wear No. 66 before the Packers retired it in honor of Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke. 

“How crazy is that? How cool is that?” Pfohl said. “We used to go out, I had just started learning golf back then. In the offseason, a bunch of us guys that played golf with the Packers would go out to that Brown County golf course.

“I look back now, Ray Nitschke and all the guys were out there. They hung out there every day playing cards and playing golf. I got to go out there and meet those guys and hang out with them. Oh, my gosh. Unbelievable. I was excited at the time, but looking back now, I’m like, Oh, my gosh. Incredible.”

As for finally coming back to Green Bay as Larry rather than Lex?

Pfohl has a good friend, Jerry Haines, who is a Packers season-ticket holder and often sends him pictures from the crowd.

“Larry is a great guy,” said Haines, who is the president of Titletown Cheese. “We need to get him here for a game.”

He invites Pfohl to attend one each year, but hasn’t been taken up on it. Yet.

“(Haines has) great seats every game,” Pfohl said. “I look forward to coming back someday soon.”

Born-again Christian

Personal demons plagued Pfohl after he left football for wrestling. He battled drug addiction and was convicted on domestic violence charges following an April 2003 dispute with girlfriend Elizabeth Hulette, known in the wrestling world as Miss Elizabeth.

Hulette died in his arms less than a month later from a drug overdose in the townhouse the two shared in Georgia. Pfohl was charged with 13 felony counts of drug possession and sentenced to five years probation.

He also suffered a nerve impingement in his neck in 2007 that temporarily left him a quadriplegic.

Pfohl is a born-again Christian and speaks often at churches and schools. Those who know him are happy to see how much he’s turned his life around.

“These days, I’m not much of a rearview-mirror guy,” Pfohl said. “I look back fondly and cherish the memories that I have of all these things, especially things like being a part of the Green Bay organization for over a year.

“I embrace that part and don’t really look back with a shoulda, woulda, coulda. I’m more of an out-the-front-windshield kind of guy, for a lot of various reasons. Especially now in my life. God’s hand was at work. Things have worked out fabulous. I’m at such a great point in my life now.”