Former WWE and WCW star Lex Luger provides details about what led to himself becoming paralyzed

Former WWE and WCW star Lex Luger did an interview with Chris Van Vliet. During the interview, Luger commented on suffering a nerve impingement in his neck that led to temporary paralysis in 2007. Here are the highlights courtesy of ChrisVanVliet.com…

“I’m headed to San Francisco for an appearance. I had to get in that one last heavy workout and shower and run to the airport for an overnight red-eye flight from Atlanta into Frisco. I get in at like midnight or something. So I got in a heavy shoulder trap and neck workout, which they say may have been a factor, might not. So that was my last heavy workout ever. I was on the airplane, I was talking to somebody next to me and my head turned right after that workout. I turned my head back. This is just my theory. The neurologists aren’t sure that this had anything to do with it, but I kind of feel like it did, and they think it might have. I turned my head back to the front and I had this burning, stabbing pain between my shoulder blades. But football, wrestling, we get aches and pains, little pinched nerves all the time. So I go, man that didn’t feel good, that didn’t feel right. I got to the hotel, I checked in, and I woke up, I’m not sure what time it was. It was just pre-dawn, and I had the worst burning, stabbing pain in my lower neck, shoulder blade area, unbelievable. It was so bad. I’m a side sleeper. I was on my side towards the nightstand, and I was trying to get to a phone, so I figured maybe I’d get to the phone like a seal hit it with my nose. I didn’t know. I was in so much pain. I fell off the bed down to the floor. When I was on the bed, I actually felt like I was in those old metal diver suits you see, metal helmet from back in the mid-1900s. I felt like I was in one of those suits and there’s magnets pulling me from underneath, almost through the mattress. I didn’t know what being paralysed felt like. So I can move my head and shoulders, but that threw me off the bed. Now am up against the nightstand, my chin down to my chest, and I didn’t know this either. When you have a cervical high spinal cord it affects your breathing, which didn’t help my breathing. My breathing was already compromised, so I thought I was gonna suffocate. So now I’m up against the nightstand. I can’t move. I feel like I’m being pulled by magnets through the floor now, and I feel like I’m suffering. I thought that was it. And I tell people this, the Lord came into that room, proverbs three, five and six. I was a brand new believer. I didn’t even know I had a verse memorized in the Bible. But Proverbs, three, five and six, trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not upon your own understanding. Acknowledge me in all your ways, and I’ll make your path straight. It was so calming when I felt like God was actually almost speaking to me. I didn’t hear a voice or anything, but that resonated so much to me that my breathing calmed down, my heart rate and I laid there probably for hours until they came for my appearance. When I didn’t answer my door they had to knock my door down. I locked my door. I put the extra lock on my door, which I don’t normally do.”

“I couldn’t scream because my breathing was compromised. I can’t believe the guy heard me. He knocked on the door. I’m like, help. But they knew when I didn’t open the door and it was locked, I had to be in there. So that’s when they called 911 they came in and bashed my door down. And who’s there? Let’s go full circle back, DDP, who’s there out in Frisco for the appearance was there as well. DDP comes into the room and he convinces me. The medics had picked me up off the floor and sat me in a chair. I’m paralyzed in a chair, and I’m like, No, I’m okay. I think I’m dehydrated maybe. He [DDP] looks at me and says, ‘You gotta go the hospital. You gotta go with these guys, man, this ain’t dehydration, bro.’ So they took me downstairs. The medics were big wrestling fans, a guy and a girl. They looked at each other, I’m laying there. I can’t move up, but I’m listening to them. They go, where do we take him? They’re naming these hospitals, and they go Stanford, which is like almost an hour from the airport. The guy goes, ‘Oh man, we might get fired if we do that, but let’s do it.’ They drove me all the way to Stanford, which is a world-class medical facility. They were unbelievable. Ran every test you could possibly do. Once again, getting back to your original question, I’ve given you a really long answer. But they said it could have been the workout. We saw a little bit of stenosis, nothing from your wrestling and football career that necessarily made this happen. We see this in people all the time that never did sports or any high collision stuff. We put it in a category, kind of like a category we don’t know what you have or what cause of transverse myelitis, swelling of the spinal cord, massive swelling from C5 down to T5 and that’s lights out from there down. That’s it for the rest of your life. Because when they were telling me my prognosis a few weeks later, when I got to Atlanta, which was an unbelievable story, how I got to Atlanta, there weren’t any planes to get me there. I got to Atlanta and Shepherd Center, which is a world-class facility right here in Atlanta where I was living at the time. Which was a miracle. They put me in room 316, John 316. I go I must be in the right place. The two nurses were Grace and Hope. When I came into the room the name tags. I’m like, Oh my gosh.”