Lex and Liz

Nikkolas

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So I have a sort of..."unique" interest in this, albeit a rather morbid one. I pretty much never watched the news. However many years ago I had just randomly turned a news channel on when they were reporting on Miss Elizabeth's death. Now her and Randy's time together was pretty much before my time as a wrestling fan (I'm an Attitude Era kid) and I mostly saw her with Luger in WCW. And of course it was with Luger where she met her untimely end.

Now back when Randy passed away, I was curious to learn a bit more about him and Elizabeth. Everyone I ever talked to online (and an interview with the Powers of Pain I bought) confirmed Savage was a very typical possessive jerk of a husband. I hear he even hated Hogan largely because he thought Hogan ruined his and Elizabeth's relationship. So I looked up whatever I could find with him from arounD the time she died and he didn't seem to really care. I heard a Podcast or some sort of radio interview with him from around the time and the interviewer brought up the subject and he had nothing to say at all. I figured he'd hate Luger.

So I realize all this has precious little to do with wrestling beyond involving wrestling personalities but it's just the kind of thing you can only find out on boards like this and not on a Wikipedia page. I was just wondering if anyone here knows more about when Luger and Elizabeth got together? How it all started? I think Lex wrote a book so is there something in there if any of you have read it?

And if this topic doesn't belong here...my apologies. It's just a curiosity of mine.
 
Liz joined WCW in 96, apparently to the distaste of Randy Savage as I recall. They had an OK working relationship but just OK.

She started dating Luger at either the end of 98 or the beginning of 99. Hard to know exactly when, but it was before she became his onscreen manager.

Always liked Miss Elizabeth. She was the best looking woman in wrestling history from a traditional standpoint.
 
I don't know when they started dating but they were living together when she died. Lex was still married at the time and his now ex wife made a comment about finding out about the relationship when Liz died. I don't remember if she saw it on television or online or what but she divorced Lex after.
 
Well, if you really have a morbid curiosity about it some years ago WWE aired an episode of Confidential, where they did a piece about it, and in quite poor taste played Luger's 911 calls. So if you haven't seen that yet it might have some more insight.
 
Really?

The reality of it is that Liz and Lex were two people who got together after previous marriages, they had the business in common and seemingly a love of destructive living... Randy seemingly didn't... Randy was SO worried about Liz all the time? Why? Cos he was a "possessive jerk type of a husband" or perhaps he KNEW what she was capable of and didn't want that for her and Lex led her right to the slaughter metaphorically speaking?

The reality is that no one will know... Lex isn't gonna talk about it now... as a "reformed" Christian it would be against his beliefs to speak ill of the dead, much less WWE would frown heavily on doing so... They played his 911 calls, but that is public record, anyone could hear them....Sadly she gets to be Wrestling's version of Marilyn Monroe...

What anyone needs to know about Liz Hulette is she was a VERY beautiful woman who played a major part in that Golden Age everyone talks about just being in Randy or Hulk or neither's corner... she then got a second go in WCW and the Monday Night Wars... anything else... whatever time period is none of your damn business...

Lex for his sins has atoned... he no more wanted her to die than Randy wanted her to hate him... but people in love and relationships, especially with co-dependency do stupid, dangerous, messed up things. I feel bad for Lex, WWE can't risk putting him on TV, not cos he is banged up/the stroke he had... but cos the same wankers who chant Husky Harris or "Boring" at Bray Wyatt will chant "You Killed Liz" on RAW live...and he didn't... she took her own path... he was perhaps just in too deep himself to notice or stop her...

There was a famous case in the UK very similar, a Children's TV presenter's girlfriend scalded herself to death in the bath while high on Coke he'd bought for them both... he then went missing and was found hanged... totally tragic... but Lex didn't do that at least... he is facing his punishment each day...
 
read Lugers book, he doscloses all of the sordid details. Finding God apparently makes people confess all of their adultery and shit.
Savage and Liz divorced, so why would Savage give a shit about who Liz dated. If you recall, he was banging Stephanie Bellars(Gorgeosu Geroge) at the same time in 1998-1999 and she was smokin hot, half his and Liz age(even younger). Hell they both punched on with Hawk and his wife at a concert. Hard hot bitch
 
Really?

The reality of it is that Liz and Lex were two people who got together after previous marriages, they had the business in common and seemingly a love of destructive living... Randy seemingly didn't... Randy was SO worried about Liz all the time? Why? Cos he was a "possessive jerk type of a husband" or perhaps he KNEW what she was capable of and didn't want that for her and Lex led her right to the slaughter metaphorically speaking?

The reality is that no one will know... Lex isn't gonna talk about it now... as a "reformed" Christian it would be against his beliefs to speak ill of the dead, much less WWE would frown heavily on doing so... They played his 911 calls, but that is public record, anyone could hear them....Sadly she gets to be Wrestling's version of Marilyn Monroe...

What anyone needs to know about Liz Hulette is she was a VERY beautiful woman who played a major part in that Golden Age everyone talks about just being in Randy or Hulk or neither's corner... she then got a second go in WCW and the Monday Night Wars... anything else... whatever time period is none of your damn business...

Lex for his sins has atoned... he no more wanted her to die than Randy wanted her to hate him... but people in love and relationships, especially with co-dependency do stupid, dangerous, messed up things. I feel bad for Lex, WWE can't risk putting him on TV, not cos he is banged up/the stroke he had... but cos the same wankers who chant Husky Harris or "Boring" at Bray Wyatt will chant "You Killed Liz" on RAW live...and he didn't... she took her own path... he was perhaps just in too deep himself to notice or stop her...

There was a famous case in the UK very similar, a Children's TV presenter's girlfriend scalded herself to death in the bath while high on Coke he'd bought for them both... he then went missing and was found hanged... totally tragic... but Lex didn't do that at least... he is facing his punishment each day...

I certainly don't blame Luger. The tasteless comments I've found on some YT videos are...well, tasteless. It sounds like they were happy togeher, or at least as happy as two people can be when their personal lives are in such a state. I certainly do not blame him for her death - it's not like he got her addicted to drugs, at least not as far as I know.

As for her and Randy, all I can go on is what I've heard. I guess it's the curse of having one of those "fairy tail on screen romances" that everyone wants to put you down but I've never read one good thing about how he treated her IRL.


Well, if you really have a morbid curiosity about it some years ago WWE aired an episode of Confidential, where they did a piece about it, and in quite poor taste played Luger's 911 calls. So if you haven't seen that yet it might have some more insight.

The WWE was the one that released that??? I've heard of the call but the fact the company officially did this is....wow. That's pretty f'ed up.

Still, I might check out this episode. Thanks for the info.
 
For whatever Sins Lex has committed he has completely atoned for them and then some.. Its totally sad,and tragic what happened.. Was Randy Savage the Possessive Jerk of a husband? Or was he the overly protective type,because he knew what kind of Influences might be out there waiting for Liz,and she couldnt turn them down..

Back when Liz and Lex were together,at that time both of them were Destructive type of people.. It really should shock no one that One of them at least died when you get those two type of traits together.. THTRobTaylor is 100% correct in saying they dont dare Put Lex on TV. Not because of Lex's stroke or the fact he is as small as me,but because some assholes will chant You Killed Liz.. Just to sound I dont know what cool or something.

It is a very sad,and tragic situation.. Lex has completely turned his life around,is a devout christian. Liz should be in the HOF,first lady of wrestling.. Glamerous,pretty,and was just utter pure class! I prefer to remember the Good
 
Do you think he can still get into the HOF? What you said about not putting him on TV because of people shouting threats or taunts at him about Elizabeth just got me thinking about that. I know there is some stuff going around about how some of the other HOFers killed or allegedly killed some people but those and happened long, long ago. To contrast, people to this day are still berating Luger for Elizabeth dying. I was just looking up some videos online and comments were more or less "you killed Liz you asshole!"

I don't think that's fair. He was the last person she was with in her life so I assume they cared about each other. He's also deeply sorry for the whole sordid mess and wishes it hadn't happened as much as the rest of us, if not more since he actually knew her.
 
Lex should have gone into the HOF already...he was a huge star in the late 80s and easily one of the top draws in the business when he singlehandedly carried WCW during the first year of the NWO storyline with Sting in storyline dictated exile and Flair injured with his shoulder for half a year.

Luger main evented both a Starrcade and WrestleMania, just the 3rd guy in a hand ful to do so (after Flair & Hogan and before Savage and Nash).

Also, as much as he is criticized as an in ring performer, watch his best matches and he is light years ahead of many other top name stars. Luger was so much better than Ultimate Warrior that it's like comparing Tom Brady to the quarterback of your high school football team. Watch Luger vs Flair (Starrcade 88, WrestleWar 90), Sting (Super Brawl 92), Ricky Steamboat (Great American Bash 1989), as well as his best bouts with Brett Hart and Randy Savage.

Luger was also just the second guy ever to beat both Flair & Hogan (pinfall or submission only, not counting DQs or count-out) as he pinned Flair during US Title defenses in 1989 and made Hogan submit to win the WCW Title on the 100th Monday Nitro.

He should have gone into the HOF for his time with The Four Horsemen, the group was its best in 1987 with him on the team, adding the youth and monster strength dynamic they lacked previously (they had the brawler in Arn Anderson and the cunning rule breakers in Blanchard & Flair).

Even though he hasn't been seen onscreen in many years Luger did work (and may still work, not sure) behind the scenes with WWE with the Wellness Policy. I believe he was welcome at the HOF Ceremony when The Horsemen were inducted as well (although he wasn't on camera I don't believe). He hasn't been totally excommunicated but I do think he hasn't been given his due publicly because Liz's death.
 
The main reason Lex Lauger isnt in the WWE HOF is because of the bitterness Vince feels for him after the way he left the company in 1995.
Vince always worked on a handshake back in those days, Lugar had alledgedly told Vince he would be staying on with the company. Sure Lugar since has made amends, but Lugar can go in down the track when his health is at a level where Vince would feel comfortable having him on WWE programming.
It was right to not induct him as one of the Four Horsemenr, Barry WINDHAM should have been inducted long ago also, so him getting the nod was fitting over Lugar, as well as his extensive WWE history compared to Lugars 3 year run
 
The 1995 side of things does come into play, it's also a factor as to why Rick Rude isn't in there... but the reality is that Vince wasn't USING Luger anyway... at Summerslam 95 he had a run in, he was going to be fed to Mabel... I'd walk if I could too.

For a guy who "worked on a handshake" a lot of guys seemed to be able to walk in that way or get their way in contract issues like Savage, Rude, Lex and Jarrett. Fool me once and all that.
 
I read Lex Luger's book and he explains the situations pretty well. He got tired of Vince stringing him along without a solid deal and decided to go get a guaranteed paycheck. Can't really fault him for that. As for Liz's death, they both did pills pretty hard but he didn't force her to take the pills. So even though he may have contributed to her death somewhat, she was still a grown woman who was responsible for her own actions.
 
I'm not entirely sure, so please don't take most of this as rock solid, and sorry if someone else has already posted what I'm about to: I haven't got time right now to read through everyone's responses thus far. I just saw the title and figured this'd be an interesting little piece.

As far as when they got together, I THINK it was sometime in the very late 90s. Prior to her relationship with Luger, Liz was married to an attorney from Florida named Gabe Lubetsky in early December 1997 in Miami, Florida. They separated not too long after that and were officially divorced sometime in April 1999. I don't know what circumstances led to the divorce, how long they were a couple before getting married, whether an affair with Luger had anything to do with it, etc. Around the time the divorce was set to be finalized, I think Luger suffered a legit bicep injury and Liz also had time off to take care of the legal matters of her divorce. During that time, Liz & Luger were in a romantic relationship, though I've no idea when it began. Just a guess on my part, I think it probably happened during her marriage to Lubetsky and is what ultimately caused the separation and divorce.

As far as Liz's relationship with Savage, every source I've ever read or seen states that Savage was very, very possessive and jealous. Bret Hart mentioned it in his autobiography "Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling", but he didn't slam Savage or anything along those lines. He merely stated that he was possessive of her. Some of their various real life issues were used in storylines or interviews. It wasn't anything particularly overt, but it was used a little. Not long after Liz's final WWF appearance, sometime in 1992, Savage did an interview in WWF Magazine in which he thanked fans who asked about how things were and that he & Elizabeth were no longer together.

When Liz started working for WCW back in 1996, I don't think Savage was all that happy about it though, from what I understand, he was ultimately able to keep it professional. They did interact in storylines during the angle with the New World Order. When the nWo split in 1998, Liz joined Hogan's side and would accompany Eric Bischoff to the ring for a while, and she'd try to get under Savage's skin in the storyline with Savage responding that he got over her a long time ago and didn't need her. It wasn't too long after that, or it may have been around the same time, it's hard to remember, that it seemed like Savage was going into full blown mid-life crisis mode as he began using steroids to get jacked up, had gotten hair plugs and had his then real life girlfriend Stephanie Bellars, AKA Gorgeous George, coming out with him as his valet. She was about 23 years old at the time while Savage was about 46 or 47.

I think by the time Liz died, again this is just a guess on my part, that Savage had genuinely moved on emotionally. There's no way to tell if there was any personal animosity left between them or on Savage's part, but it may explain why he wasn't all that phased by her death. They'd been divorced for more than a decade by then, so it's entirely possible that whatever was once there simply was gone. It wouldn't surprise me if Savage also harbored no ill feelings towards Luger because of what happened. Liz was a 42 year old woman and it's not as if Luger forced fed her painkillers and vodka.
 
I'm not entirely sure, so please don't take most of this as rock solid, and sorry if someone else has already posted what I'm about to: I haven't got time right now to read through everyone's responses thus far. I just saw the title and figured this'd be an interesting little piece.

As far as when they got together, I THINK it was sometime in the very late 90s. Prior to her relationship with Luger, Liz was married to an attorney from Florida named Gabe Lubetsky in early December 1997 in Miami, Florida. They separated not too long after that and were officially divorced sometime in April 1999. I don't know what circumstances led to the divorce, how long they were a couple before getting married, whether an affair with Luger had anything to do with it, etc. Around the time the divorce was set to be finalized, I think Luger suffered a legit bicep injury and Liz also had time off to take care of the legal matters of her divorce. During that time, Liz & Luger were in a romantic relationship, though I've no idea when it began. Just a guess on my part, I think it probably happened during her marriage to Lubetsky and is what ultimately caused the separation and divorce.

As far as Liz's relationship with Savage, every source I've ever read or seen states that Savage was very, very possessive and jealous. Bret Hart mentioned it in his autobiography "Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling", but he didn't slam Savage or anything along those lines. He merely stated that he was possessive of her. Some of their various real life issues were used in storylines or interviews. It wasn't anything particularly overt, but it was used a little. Not long after Liz's final WWF appearance, sometime in 1992, Savage did an interview in WWF Magazine in which he thanked fans who asked about how things were and that he & Elizabeth were no longer together.

When Liz started working for WCW back in 1996, I don't think Savage was all that happy about it though, from what I understand, he was ultimately able to keep it professional. They did interact in storylines during the angle with the New World Order. When the nWo split in 1998, Liz joined Hogan's side and would accompany Eric Bischoff to the ring for a while, and she'd try to get under Savage's skin in the storyline with Savage responding that he got over her a long time ago and didn't need her. It wasn't too long after that, or it may have been around the same time, it's hard to remember, that it seemed like Savage was going into full blown mid-life crisis mode as he began using steroids to get jacked up, had gotten hair plugs and had his then real life girlfriend Stephanie Bellars, AKA Gorgeous George, coming out with him as his valet. She was about 23 years old at the time while Savage was about 46 or 47.

I think by the time Liz died, again this is just a guess on my part, that Savage had genuinely moved on emotionally. There's no way to tell if there was any personal animosity left between them or on Savage's part, but it may explain why he wasn't all that phased by her death. They'd been divorced for more than a decade by then, so it's entirely possible that whatever was once there simply was gone. It wouldn't surprise me if Savage also harbored no ill feelings towards Luger because of what happened. Liz was a 42 year old woman and it's not as if Luger forced fed her painkillers and vodka.

I can't verify names but I am pretty sure she remarried after Randy so that much makes sense... but to call Randy a "mid life crisis" is pretty strong too... if anything he was still in "his prime" at least in his head and he could still go... this wasn't a traditional "guy gets old, does some work, buys flash car and gets hot teen GF" he was still viable to both WCW and WWE, he was viable enough to get put in the Spiderman movie (that part was thought out a long time in advance) Savage was relevent.... Where it went wrong for him was the "wank tape" GG made for him getting out (anyone back then saw it, admit it) and that he had a genuine issue with Hogan that he couldn't let go...

It's easy to speculate on what happened with Liz and Lex but the reality is they were a couple, for a relatively long time in the wrestling business... Austin was with Debra barely 2 years and was battering her... Lex and Liz had about the same... Co-Dependency seems to be a theme for Liz... but in Luger she perhaps found a less possessive, more benign version than with Randy but the other guy she married was clearly too far the other way...

The business and nostalgia paints a portrait of "Miss Elizabeth", like Marilyn Monroe... it's foolish to think it's perfection and whiter than white... In Lex she had a willing accomplice, someone who was willing to "have her kind of fun" and not judge... after years of being locked in a locker room for real... you can see how that might be appealing...

Again we will never KNOW... but enough have spoken who did know the pair to know ti's not far from the truth, and that Randy then found a polar opposite wife, a "teen sweetheart" and found happiness kinda backs it up... Both Randy and Liz found happiness in the "polar opposite" of what they were expected to go for...If anyone had a "mid life crisis" it was Liz in reality... after years of being in Randy's "thrall" she got out and made up for lost time... Sadly in Liz's case her "wild side" was too much for her or the reality wasn't as appealing as the idea... but both Randy and Liz died with people they loved and who loved them... so neither died alone.. and that's rare in wrestling... most go alone in a hotel room somewhere...
 
but both Randy and Liz died with people they loved and who loved them... so neither died alone.. and that's rare in wrestling... most go alone in a hotel room somewhere...

Can I just say this really hit home for me? It really puts into words why I support Lex and Liz in opposition to all the tools who try to say he killed her or whatever. Fact is, she found someone she cared about and was happy with and while it's tragic she went far, far too soon, she didn't die alone and unloved.

You put it really nicely.
 
If Randy was unhappy about Liz joining WCW in 1996 he must have handled it well. Remember they were pretty much tied at the hip the first 5-6 months she arrived, she debuted as his manager, brought back at his request in the storylines to help thwart Flair & The Four Horsemen, only to have her double cross him, align with Flair, with clear implications of a romantic as well as monetary relationship, and was the main reason Flair beat Savage in a cage match at SuperBrawl 96 to win the WCW Title.

Flair & Liz tortured Randy onscreen for months afterward, especially with their series of "This One's On Randy" promos in which they would talk about the luxurious items they bought with Randy's money courtesy of her divorce settlement. In fact, I think the whole "Catered RingSide Buffet" skits were paid for by Savage in the storyline, his money used for Flair to set up expensive buffets, and champagne stations at ringside when ever he wrestled.

If Savage was unhappy he must have handled it like a pro's pro because that would have been pretty hard to take.
 

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