Various: Lex Luger on He Didn’t Kill Miss Elizabeth But Takes Responsibility for Being Contributing Factor, NXT’s Oro Mensah Makes Appearance on 2/27 TNA Impact Show & More TNA News, Indies/Misc.

Feb 27, 2025

Lex Luger Comments on He Didn’t Kill Miss Elizabeth But Takes Responsibility for Being Contributing Factor

A recent episode of the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast featured wrestling legend and former WWE and WCW wrestler Lex Luger as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Luger’s thoughts about Miss Elizabeth’s death in 2003 and his role in her passing.

“I had too much time and money on my hands and got messed up on drugs and alcohol. I was a complete trainwreck. Tragic passing of Elizabeth. People go, ‘You killed Elizabeth.’ I didn’t kill her, but was I a contributing factor to the lifestyle I was living and her being around me all the time and she overdosed? Absolutely.”

Luger also gave his thoughts about him taking responsibility for what had happened leading to Miss Elizabeth’s death.

“Absolutely. For sure. There is always collateral damage to lifestyles like that and she was part of it, absolutely. Sadly.”

Luger also gave his thoughts about if Miss Elizabeth’s death was the rock bottom moment in his life.

“You’d think it was, but that led me to even more depression where I felt completely unlovable. I was never going to be able to be part of wrestling again after that happened. I hate to admit who I was back then, but instead of grieving over the loss of Liz, I was thinking what this would do to me and my career more so. I hate to admit it, back then. ‘Well, I’m done in wrestling.’ After wrestling, I was going to be a big fitness nutrition guy and have my own nutrition company. ‘No one is going to want that from me now.’ I went into a massive depression and darkness, and did more drugs and alcohol. It wasn’t until, at that point, I had dug such a deep and dark hole, I always thought that I could somehow work or be smart enough to get out of it, but I knew I was at the bottom of the pond with no light and I was drowning in darkness. That’s when I turned to God.”

Luger also stated that he was able to forgive himself after he was saved.

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

TNA News & Notes

Thursday’s TNA Impact! show featured WWE NXT talent Oro Mensah making an appearance on the show. Mensah competed in a singles match against Mike Santana, which was won by Santana.

Thursday’s TNA Impact! show also featured Spitfire (Jody Threat & Dani Luna) defeating Heather & Ash By Elegance to retain the TNA Knockouts World Tag Team Championship. This match featured the special stipulation of the losing team becoming the personal concierges for the winning team for 24 hours.

Thursday’s TNA Impact! show also featured Tessa Blanchard defeating Kelsey Heather in a singles match. This match featured the special stipulation of if Blanchard refused to wrestle, then she would get fired from TNA as a punishment. This was Blanchard’s first match in TNA since April of 2020.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that tickets sales for TNA Wrestling’s Sacrifice 2025 event on Match 14th in El Paso, Texas is currently expected to surpass the total ticket sales for their Victory Road 2024 event in San Antonio, which sold over 2,000 tickets. Johnson reported that the advance tickets sales for Sacrifice 2025 and the following night’s Impact! taping on March 15th will likely be the largest paid attendances for individual events in the United States in years.

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that TNA officials are currently planning to hold a new set of Impact! television tapings on June 20-21 at the Moon Township in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was reported that a TNA Vice President had visited the area earlier this month before an official decision was made.

Musician Krystall Poppin recently announced on Instagram that she will be performing Tessa Blanchard’s “Undeniable Forever” entrance theme song live at TNA’s upcoming Sacrifice 2025 event.

TNA announced four new matches for the card of next week’s Impact! show on Match 6th on AXS TV and Sportsnet 360:

Six-Man Tag Team match – Ace Austin & The Rascalz (Trey Miguel & Zachary Wentz) vs. The Northern Armory (Eric Young, Judas Icarus, & Travis Williams)
The Hardys (Matt & Jeff Hardy) vs. The Colons (Eddie & Orlando Colon)
Xia Brookside vs. Savannah Evans
Mike Santana vs. John Skyler
WWE NXT Champion Oba Femi to speak

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

Former NJPW wrestler Osamu Nishimura passed away on Thursday at the Age of 53. Nishimura’s passing was first announced by the Cauliflower Alley Club who stated that Nishimura had passed away following a battle with esophageal cancer. Prior to his passing, Nishimura had been battling stage four esophageal cancer since March of 2024. Nishimura’s professional wrestling career spanned from 1991 to 2024 and was most known for his time in NJPW. Besides NJPW, Nishimura also had notable stints in ECW, WCW, and All Japan Pro Wrestling. Nishimura’s notable career achievements and accolades includes him being a two-time IWGP Tag Team Champion and winner of the 2003 G1 Tag League with Hiroyoshi Tenzan.

WrestleCon announced that Ronda Rousey will be making an appearance for the company at their WrestleCon Las Vegas convention on April 18-20 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Major League Wrestling recently announced that Paul Walter Hauser and Satoshi Kojima are the next official competitors for this year’s Battle Riot match at their Battle Riot VII event on April 5th in Los Angeles, California.

In a recent interview with New Japan Pro Wrestling’s official website, current IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Hirooki Goto gave his thoughts about being surprised over how many foreign fans were happy for him following his title victory. Goto stated “Just ‘I’m waiting in America!’ [laughs]. I got a few messages from other wrestlers, foreign wrestlers over there I wrestled before. I was surprised how happy so many foreign fans were for me.“

Josh Barnett announced that Simon Gotch and Shinya Aoki will be making an appearance for Game Changer Wrestling’s Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport XIII event on April 17th in Las Vegas, Nevada.

GCW recently announced that they will be holding a new event on June 22nd in Kansas City, Missouri. This will be GCW’s first ever event in the city.

GCW also recently announced one new match for the card of their Just Being Honest event on March 2nd in Mesa, Arizona: