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Farewell
To The First Wrestling Diva
05-01-03
This has
already been a tough year for wrestling around the world.
From the deaths of Curt Hennig and Ray Mendoza to the injuries
that have kept careers in constant jeopardy, 2003 may be the
darkest year in memory.
And perhaps
the darkest day of the year is May 1st, when police were called
to the home of Larry Pfohl (Lex Luger) to respond to a sick
woman. The unidentified woman was taken to the hospital and
died there shortly after arrival. It turns out that she was
Elizabeth Ann Hulette, better know as Miss Elizabeth.
Born in
Kentucky in 1960, Elizabeth attended the University of Kentucky.
While attending school, she was an occasional announcer for
some wrestling groups, and there are many videos of her doing
the ring announcements.
According
to several versions of the story, Elizabeth met Randy Poffo
(Savage) a year or so prior. The two married in May 1984,
just as Savage was starting to be viewed as the hottest available
property in wrestling as the effects of the blacklisting he
earned by working for his father's promotion were wearing
off.
The two
entered the WWF in 1985, and quickly Savage became one of
the biggest stars, winning the Intercontinental title and
holding it until 1987. Elizabeth was his manager, and one
of the ways in which he got heat was to act rough towards
her.
It worked,
as by WrestleMania 3 he was probably the most over heel in
the company after Andre and Bobby Heenan. During a good deal
of this period, Elizabeth was making a big splash, selling
lots of posters and being the first real WWF Diva. She was
certainly the first valet to get major mainstream attention
in the WWF.
As the
years went on, various troubles began to form in the Poffos'
marriage, including many folks believing that Liz had an affair
with Hogan. That affair has never been confirmed, but has
been hinted at in shoot interviews over the last decade.
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Lex Luger,
Miss Elizabeth, and Kevin Nash
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The two
divorced in 1992, and Elizabeth was out of wrestling for several
years. She returned in June 1996, during the height of the
WCW/WWF wrestling war. She eventually joined up with the NWO
and later became Luger's manager. The two apparently began
a relationship towards the end of her WCW stint and that relationship
lasted until the end of her life.
Elizabeth
was one of the big reasons so many young girls got into wrestling
in the late 1980s. She was a very well-received face on the
charity circuit in the South, often working with the Starlight
Foundation and Special Olympics. I can remember passing through
the Atlanta airport in 2001 and seeing her face on the front
page at a charity cook-off for an AIDS charity.
There
are a lot of senseless deaths in wrestling, but this one has
so many things wrong with it. Wrestling (and all sports, for
that matter) is riddled with drug use to combat the physical
and emotional toll that the constant travel, the need to perform
and the need to stay in top aesthetic form puts on people.
The situation
is growing worse every year, and more deaths like this are
bound to happen. I only hope that one of these days that folks
will take a hint and do something about it.
No charges
have been filed in the death, though an investigation continues.
Foul play has been ruled out.
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