I've been on a wrestling kick lately so I figured I may as well make a small list of the who my favorite superstars were of all time.
It is important to keep in mind that I am a child of the 80's and WWF (now WWE) was not a part of most people's lives back in those days because they rarely if ever did anything on network TV. WWE's strategy was to do promotional TV events that were designed only to get the public to purchase tickets to go to live events, they were not trying to establish a television advertising revenue avenue.
Therefore the usual people you might be thinking of, or the greats during the Hogan era in WWF, well, I wasn't able to watch any of that so they are not on my list. We're gonna start with a guy who I actually saw wrestle in a non televised house show near my home as a child.
Lex Luger
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Luger was probably one of the first wrestlers to come along with a physique that eventually became stock standard for the league so to speak later on. He was on roids, we know that for sure now because he is very open about his drug abuse during his prime days in wrestling these days because his story and his fall from grace is spectacularly tragic.
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Luger joined the NWA back in nineteen eighty something and he ended up being a part of a 4-Horsemen storyline that was for the ages. His addition came at the expense of eliminating Ole Anderson who was the fake brother of Arn Anderson, who is to this day considered a real pioneer in the sport going mainstream.
Ole obviously was pissed off about this and beat up all of the Horsemen including Luger when this was announced. However, this 4 Horsemen stable (pun intended) was my favorite of all time. There were many that came and went as far as the Horsemen were concerned but back in 80's NWA when the Horsemen were in their prime there was no quad quite like Arn Anderson, Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, and Lex Luger.
Luger brought a certain physicality to the team that was just awe-inspiring. There was nobody in the sport as ripped as he was at the time and even though there were people that were bigger, none of them were ripped like Luger was.
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Luger would "beef" with a lot of people in his run in NWA but the only one that I think I was forced to choose a side and think about it hard was when they consistently pitted him up against Sting. Sting was a babyface and Luger, by virtue of being a Horseman, was a heel. Therefore, Sting would regularly put the beatdown on Luger and Lex would frequently cheat as is tradition with heels.
A lot of wrestlers fall from grace or get fat but Luger's fall was extremely tragic and perhaps a bit telling about the dangers of achieving the size that he did. After a bizarre injury brought on by years of substance abuse and injury, he suddenly found himself paralyzed and never fully recovered from it. Also, due to many years of poor business decisions despite being one of the biggest names in wrestling, he was (and kind of still is) completely broke.
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Lex Luger lost all of his muscle very rapidly during his paralysis which was thankfully temporary. He now has full use of his body but at times he needs a wheelchair. I do not know the reason why this is the case. He is now actively involved in Christian activities and works to help people recover from drug addiction, which is wonderful and noble. It is quite tragic what lead him to this point though and I am just happy to see that he didn't end up going down a darker path that has plagued so many other professional wrestlers that came before and will come after.
I suppose that Luger might have been the guy that changed it all because these days basically everyone in wrestling has to be ripped like he is if they are going to stand a chance at making it in the business. It's hard to imagine that when Luger first appeared on the scene he was an absolute GIANT because these days.... he would just be considered average size.