I was scanning through books available on Hoopla and this cover caught my eye. Though not a fan of “conversion” stories, I DID want to read about his childhood and what went on behind the curtain of his wrestling life, so I was excited to read this short book, “Wrestling With The Devil: Lex Luger” about the man billed as The Total Package.

Throughout my childhood and into adulthood I was a fan of “Professional Wrestling”, better known these days as “Sports Entertainment” and I even wrestled for a local promotion in Central Florida for a short amount of time.

So I was VERY familiar with the name Lex Luger. I was watching Florida Championship Wrestling when he made his debut and subsequently followed his career through his ascent into WCW and WWF over the years. I also followed the news of his descent into drug abuse and the tragic death of Elizabeth Hulette while she was with him in his apartment.

I happen to be the type of person who likes to know what goes on behind the scenes. How does that magic trick work? What went into that person making that decision? What caused that action to happen? So, of course, my curiosity was aroused at the prospect of reading about Lawrence Pfohl’s early life and transformation into Lex Luger. My interest lay in reading about what happened in the dressing room and on the road, because I already knew what had taken place in the ring itself.

His self-proclaimed “redemption” that was trumpeted on the cover really had no interest to me at all.

While reading this book you have to remember that everything in it is from Lawrence Pfohl’s point of view and that carries with it his own built-in survival instincts. In other words, I’m not entirely sure he is completely honest in his recollection of events. And it appears that lots of things you would expect to see in a person’s memoir are missing.

But that may also be because Pfohl, in his writing, appears to live up to the moniker of “The Narcissist” that WWE’s Vince McMahon gave him when he began wrestling for that promotion. This book is VERY self-centered and that self-centeredness oozes through every word, sentence, and paragraph. Other family members or friends are just there to prop up what Pfohl is writing about himself. There is no bigger picture here, only the spotlight he seeks.

For instance, when he writes about not being able to get into Canada because of “forgetting” to check in with his parole officer, he completely leaves out that he and other wrestlers were involved in a dispute on the plane that caused law enforcement to be summoned.

And once family members of friends have completed their “role” in his story, they are never heard from again. His father, siblings, children, fellow wrestlers he worked with are left to the ether. We never know what happened to them and I think it’s because they don’t matter to him, personally.

I’d like to think I’m wrong and that maybe it’s just crappy writing, but…

What REALLY stuck out to me when I finished was this; once Elizabeth Hulette has died from an overdose in his company and he exclaims to a police officer, “Elizabeth’s dead??” he never mentions her again. He doesn’t attend her funeral or memorial service, if there was one, and never expresses how her death affected him. I know, I know, he was in jail and probably couldn’t attend a funeral or memorial, but to never even mention her?? Again, it seemed she was just a “walk on” character in his story about him, him, HIM.

I don’t know the man personally. He may be an absolutely wonderful human being. If he is, the book does not reflect that.

So, if you want to read about his childhood and how he got into wrestling, there may be something here for you. But the rest of it is just wasted space and time.