 Some competitors just have that look, which will guarantee them massive success in the wrestling business. And there's no better example than Lex Luger. During his heyday, the total package, headlined more pay-per-view shows, sold more tickets, and appeared on more magazine covers than all but a select few superstars of his era. He was also chosen to be THE guy to carry the two wrestling companies he represented. Another accomplishment that only a handful of wrestlers can stake a claim to. Musically speaking, Lex's entrances consisted mainly of chiseled hard rock bangers that fit his style and appearance better than a pair of Rue's shoes. This documentary will chronicle Luger's wrestling career and also take a special look at the music that made the man. From stars and stripes forever to slammer, let's take a look behind the themes of Lex Luger. Possessing a sculpted body that was juiced to the tits thanks in part to Dr. Feelgood, Lex knew that he had better used what his mama gave him before it was too late. After a failed college football career that saw Luger kicked off the Miami Hurricanes when he took a little walk on the wild side and caused a hotel ruckus, he tried his luck in the pros of Canada, playing close to his home sweet home of Buffalo, New York for the CFL's Montreal Allouettes. Lex spent a couple of years there before returning to the States when he signed with the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League. However, Luger never played in a game and thus is not listed on the Pack's all-time roster. In 1984, Luger finished up his football career playing in the United States Football League for the Tampa Bay Bandits, Memphis Showboats, and the Jacksonville Bulls. So seeking some stability in his life, Lex walked into the Tampa offices of Championship Wrestling from Florida, where he was introduced to legendary Japanese wrestling trainer and breaker of legs, Hero Matsuda. Matsuda mentored some true icons of the business, like Hulk Hogan, Mr. Wonderful Paul Arndorf, and Ron Simmons, and allegedly wouldn't let wrestlers train with him unless they did 1,000 push-ups and 1,000 squats. This, of course, was no sweat for the total package, and Hero agreed to help kickstart Lex's career by becoming his trainer and mentor, and Luger would soon make his debut with this motley-crewed masher as his entrance theme. Breaking into the business when wrestling was enjoying one of its biggest booms ever meant that promoters were constantly on the lookout for the next big thing. In the mid-1980s, many promoters equated big muscles with big potential success, pointing to the superhero-like stature of wrestlers like Hulk Hogan, Superstar Billy Graham, and the road warriors Hawk and Animal. Boasting a phenomenal physique, Luger fit that mold better than a tight t-shirt, but it wasn't long before people began referring to him as the next Hulkster Brother. Bursting onto the wrestling scene like no other before him in the Florida Territory, Luger quickly became number one with a bullet, a modern-day Superman, so to speak, which is ironic since Luger's adopted ring name was inspired by the man of steel's nemesis, Lex Luthor. Luger's rapid rise saw him win the prestigious pro-wrestling-illustrated Rookie of the Year award in 1986, and that meant that ultimately his star power burned brighter than the CWF. And just in case the prospect of leaving the territory wasn't tempting enough already, an infamous solid steel cage match with a wild and crazy bruiser Brody helped Lex decide to high-tail it out of there faster than a speeding bullet. During the match, Brody just stopped working, stopped selling, stopped doing anything, leaving Luger confused, terrified, and wanting out in the worst way. The workers there couldn't get the cage door open, so Luger leapt out of there like he was leaping a tall building in a single bound. The next stop on the Lex Express was when Luger was brought into Jim Crockett Promotions in 1987. Thrust into the spotlight, everyone quickly learned that sexy Lexi was indeed the total package, and aligning Luger with the legendary four-horseman as a replacement for that crusty old bastard, Ole Anderson gave Lex instant credibility. Luger's look and his strength added another element to the heel faction that they had never had before, a big muscle dude. And with announcer David Crockett as giddy as a schoolgirl whenever Lex began to flex, the NWA fans soon started to cheer him on, which led to Luger leaving the faction for a babyface singles run chasing Flare and the big gold belt. But unfortunately for the total package, big gold proved to be as elusive as his first NWA entrance theme, which has evaded the wrestling theme song community for decades. It's obviously from a production music library of some sort, but no one has been able to locate the title of this track or the name of its composer ever. Now for reference, this audio was recorded from a VHS tape of the 1988 Great American Bash that I bought for the low low price of $30. That was the price of freedom back then, folks. And no, I will not be explaining what a VHS tape is or what a VCR does. Ask your parents, kiddos. Shipping and handling not included. It's easy to forget just how big a star Luger was, but if you just close your eyes and listen to this track, you should be transported back in time to when pro wrestling could only be watched on Saturdays and Sundays. And if you don't remember that, well then you must have been born after Al Gore created the internet. This underrated late 80s theme titled Overdrive features, in my humble opinion of course, one of the nastiest opening guitar riffs in wrestling-themed song history. Simple, effective, and yet so memorable, it all meshed together to form the total packages persona. The guy with a human torture rack finisher who had classic matches with future WWE Hall of Famers like the Nature Boy Ric Flair, Ricky the Dragon Steamboat, Stan the Larry at Hansen, and the Undertaker aka Mean Mark Callis, no relation of course, will be forever linked to this theme music for me, and also linked to the WCW United States title, which he won an incredible five times. Luger cemented his name in the record books as he held the US belt for a record setting 523 days before winning his first WCW World Championship. Although technically he won the NWA Western States Heritage title, that had been altered to resemble the world title after the Nature Boy took big gold to the WWF. Wrestling is a sport of bodily extremes, the aesthetics of which dictate that wrestlers who are fat are really fat and wrestlers who are shredded are ridiculously shredded. Luger was always a physical freak during his in-ring career, an egotistical slab of meat who spent as much time flexing in the mirror as he did wrestling. And boy, did Lex love to flex. The dude was always on TV, bouncing his boobies back and forth and back and forth. So when Luger negotiated his release from WCW in 1992, Vince McMahon was quick to snatch him up, but it wouldn't be for Lex's wrestling ability. Oh no, rather it was to become the poster boy for Vince's latest pet project, the ill-fated bodybuilding organization known as the WBF. However, an unfortunate motorcycle accident put Lex on the shelf for a while, and by the time he was healed up and ready to go, the WBF was already out of business. So now it only made sense for McMahon to bring him in as a full-time WWF competitor. Now the gimmick of the narcissist was the brainchild of Hall of Famer Pat Patterson, who could tell that playing an arrogant self-centered heel would be right in Luger's wheelhouse because of his inherent love-fest with himself and his physical perfection. And here's a little fun fact piece of trivia for you. This masterpiece of an entrance theme created by Jim Johnston was used to introduce The Rock's quote-unquote high school sweetheart during mankind's famous This Is Your Life Skip back in 1999. And bonus points for you if you can remember her name and leave it in the comments down below. Perhaps no superstar was pushed so hard and so fast, then the total package was after Hulk Hogan's WWF departure in 1993. Poised to pick up where the Hulkster left off, Luger arrived via helicopter to the deck of the USS Intrepid on America's birthday to body slam, or possibly hip toss, the 600-pound-plus heavyweight champion Yoko Zuna and set up a much-anticipated Summer Slam showdown. Cementing himself as one of the good guys now, Luger became an American original, bathed in patriotic decor. He quickly embarked on the now-infamous Lex Express nationwide tour, traveling the country in a red, white, and blue painted bus, shaking hands, and kissing babies. And while Lex emerged victorious over Yoko at Summer Slam, it was due to a count-out, which I guess everybody except Luger know didn't lead to a title change. But for whatever reason, the babyface locker room sprinted to the ring and celebrated like Lex had won the belt, sorry, title, and that the mission was accomplished. With stars and stripes forever echoing throughout the building, this befuddling booking decision went over like a lead balloon for most fans, and soon all the air fizzled out of his face turn. Although Luger did go on to become a co-winner of the 1994 Royal Rumble and co-main event WrestleMania 10, for all intents and purposes, the Lex Express had officially crashed and burned. Not even Luger's feel-good All-American patriotism could salvage the man that Vince McMahon had hoped would lead the WWF's new generation. Instead, the WWF universe took a liking to Bret Hart, and Vinnie Mack had no choice but to make the hitman the main man. With Lex's main event run all but over, Luger was left to linger in the lower midcard, feuding with the likes of Evil, Finnish environmentalist Ludwig Borga, Shakabra, Kona Crush, and that million-dollar corporate sell-out to Tonka. This theme lasted, Lex, about a year or so, until it was remixed into a bangers and mash-up, so to speak, for a new patriotic tag team. Coming off a failed singles push, where Luger performed admirably as a babyface, and although he wasn't the greatest in-ring worker, he wasn't incredibly offensive either. However, the beginning of the end of his WWF tenure saw Lex placed into a tag team. Sticking two struggling single-stars together, Luger joined forces with the British bulldog Davy Boy Smith to form the Allied Powers. A nod to the relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom. Not quite on the level of FDR and Churchill, the duo's only success would come over beating jobber tag teams like Men on a Mission, Jacob and Eli Blue, and Well Done. Unable to capture the WWF tag team titles from Owen Hart and Yokozuna, during the summer of 1995, soon dissension began to be teased between Luger and the bulldog, most likely leading to yet another America versus a foreign heel storyline. But Lex's WWF contract expired to the knowledge of freaking no one, and he left the company becoming the proverbial first shots fired in the new Monday Night War. Luger has always felt more like a WCW guy to me. And of all the themes that Lex had during his wrestling career, this energetic thumping guitar-laden track is probably the one that most hardcore fans remember. This song definitely had a throwback feel to it that tipped its cap toward the bygone, hair-metal genre. Luger used this music when featured as both a babyface and as a heel, which is fine when you consider that its generic nature works for either type of character. When Luger re-debuted for WCW on the inaugural episode of Monday Nitro, it was as a traitor in a frilly, puffy shirt returning to where the big boys played. He was a tweener, someone who was simultaneously Sting's BFF and a loose associate of Jimmy Hart and the Dungeon of Doom, cheating to win his matches and plotting to end Hulkamania. However, by 1997 and for a brief moment, the total package was the company's hottest white meat babyface, and the man responsible for taking the WCW Championship away from Hollywood Hulk Hogan and the NWO, if only for five days. Once a sworn enemy of the New World Order, Luger shocked the world and joined the face version of the Wolfpack alongside Kevin Nash and the macho man, Randy Savage. Not someone who'd you consider to be a hip-hop aficionado, this song slaps harder than slammer and lets fit in well with the group and became the pack's head recruiter, eventually convincing the Stinger to join the faction. The reveal of Sting now representing the red and black with the Wolfpack shirt received a massive pop and was the group's top moment, but then WCW being WCW blew the big money match fans were waiting on between big sexy Kevin Nash and Hollywood Hulk Hogan. The finger poke of Doom heard round the world was the moment the Wolfpack jumped the shark and WCW never recovered. As a self-proclaimed Lex Luger Mark, watching Lex's final few years were very difficult for me. Calling himself just the total package as his ring name instead of Justin Nickname as part of the insanely stupid rebirth of the total package storyline, Way to go Russo, basically Luger dies and his ghost comes back to narrate his funeral, then the light stem, Miss Elizabeth appears and Flexi Lexi is in the center of the ring with this futuristic music playing, while doing all of his famous poses in a skit that was strangely reminiscent of his WWF debut. This is some real wrestle crap at its finest here, and the aging process also hurt Luger's overall athleticism, so he was put in tag teams with The Nature Boy, aka Team Package, and Buff Bagwell, aka Totally Buff. And so on a side note as we wrap up this documentary, it needs to be said that Lex Luger deserves to be in the WWE Hall of Fame. The magnitude of his star power necessitates his inclusion, and while it's true he's had some tough times both emotionally and physically. He's no longer the total package of old, but a kind and humble man devoted to God full of positivity and grateful for his fans. And that's it for this documentary. I hope you've enjoyed this episode and I look forward to taking you further behind the themes in future documentaries. Now if you have any suggestions or recommendations for us, please leave a comment down below and don't forget to give this video a massive thumbs up. 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