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Elizabeth Hulette
Statistics
Ring name(s)	Miss Elizabeth Elizabeth
Debut	May 1985

Elizabeth Ann Hulette (November 19, 1960 – May 1, 2003), known best as Miss Elizabeth, was a U.S. professional wrestling manager. She gained international fame during the late-1980s and early-1990s in the World Wrestling Federation, and the mid-1990s in World Championship Wrestling in her role as the ever-demure and graceful counterpart to the wild and brash pro wrestling character "Macho Man" Randy Savage.

Hulette was originally from Frankfort, Kentucky. She graduated from Franklin County High School in 1978 and held a communications degree from the University of Kentucky.

Contents [hide] 1 Early career 2 World Wrestling Federation (WWF) 2.1 1985-1987 2.2 1988-1989 2.3 1990-1992 3 World Championship Wrestling (WCW) 3.1 1996-1998 3.2 1999 3.3 2000 4 Later life 4.1 Death 5 Notes 6 References 7 External links

 

[edit] Early career

While working at International Championship Wrestling shows, Hulette met Randy Poffo, a wrestling performer with the stage name "'Macho Man' Randy Savage". They married in December 1984, and their relationship led to a prominent on-air role for Hulette as Savage's "manager", i.e. spokesperson and "lighter side" of the wrestling persona. Departing from the traditional manager-as-mouthpiece role, Hulette, now known as "Miss Elizabeth", very rarely spoke or appeared alone on-camera — Savage's character did not require a sidekick to communicate effectively for him. Often, just as Miss Elizabeth was about to respond to comments or questions directed at her by the host or other on-camera characters, Savage would cut her off. Savage also acted very possessively toward Miss Elizabeth.

 

[edit] World Wrestling Federation (WWF)

 

[edit] 1985-1987

In 1985, the WWF was doing an angle where all the managers in the promotion were bidding for Randy Savage's services. During a match on July 30, 1985, several managers were at ringside in hopes that he would name one of them as his new manager. After the match, Savage thanked the managers for their consideration and then asked that his new manager come to ringside. An unnamed woman then came down to the ring, and announcer Bruno Sammartino remarked, "She must be some sort of movie star." It would later be revealed that her name was Miss Elizabeth. Elizabeth's WWF debut aired on the August 24, 1985 edition of WWF Prime Time Wrestling, and from that point on, she was the manager of Randy Savage.

Miss Elizabeth's first major angle was during Savage's feud with George "The Animal" Steele in 1986. In the angle, Steele fell in love with Miss Elizabeth, angering Savage and leading to a series of matches. Their feud was one of the WWF's most popular of the 1980s; it carried on for more than a year, thanks to the feral Steele's continued crush on Elizabeth. She also figured prominently in Savage's 1986 feud with Hulk Hogan and Ricky "the Dragon" Steamboat.

After injuring Steamboat's larynx, Savage lost his Intercontinental Title at WrestleMania III on March 29, 1987 to Steamboat. The Savage-Steamboat match concluded after 19 attempted pinfalls, with Steamboat finally taming the Savage. Steamboat later lost the title to The Honky Tonk Man. Honky's constant harassment of Miss Elizabeth instigated a challenge by Randy Savage. In the match, which aired on NBC's Saturday Night's Main Event in October 1987, Miss Elizabeth persuaded Hulk Hogan to rescue and join Savage to form The Mega Powers, defeating The Honky Tonk Man and his allies, Bret "The Hitman" Hart and Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart.

 

[edit] 1988-1989

The year 1988 would be a pivotal one for Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth. Hulk Hogan, who had been the Champion and the foundation upon which the WWF's popularity was built, lost the WWF World championship belt in a match against André the Giant. André the Giant then sold the belt to the "Million Dollar Man", Ted DiBiase. This resulted in a championship tournament at WrestleMania IV, which Randy Savage won. With Miss Elizabeth alongside him in the spotlight, she was the first female manager-valet to ever reach such a successful plateau.

At the first ever SummerSlam, The Mega Powers teamed up against André The Giant and Ted DiBiase, with Jesse Ventura as the referee. Most of the pre-match build-up centered around Elizabeth, who by this time was at the peak of her popularity. The tease for the match was that if things got bad, Elizabeth, billed as the secret weapon of The Mega Powers, was going to wear a bikini under her fancy clothes. Towards the end of match, André and Dibiase were in control, so Elizabeth got up on the apron and ripped her skirt off to reveal a red bikini bottom, which distracted both André and DiBiase. The Mega Powers quickly took advantage of the situation and won the match after Ventura made a reluctant three-count.

Miss Elizabeth became the catalyst for the breakup of the Savage–Hogan relationship. During a 1989 tag team match that pitted the Mega Powers against The Twin Towers (Akeem "The African Dream" and The Big Bossman), Savage was thrown onto Miss Elizabeth, knocking her unconscious on the outside of the ring. Seeing this, Hogan scooped her up and, as the match continued, carried her to the backstage area for medical attention. Upon his return to the ring, Hogan was greeted with anger from Savage for having abandoned him in the midst of a match. Savage slapped his partner and left the ring area. Hogan continued the match, winning singlehandedly. Hogan exited the ring and reached the backstage area, where Savage attacked him, turning Savage heel.

 

[edit] 1990-1992

Savage remained a heel for several years, eventually taking on Sherri Martel as his manager and dubbing himself "The Macho King" after defeating "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan for the "king of the ring" tournament crown in 1989. Miss Elizabeth was a full-time valet and did not officially wrestle in a single match. However, she engaged in a notable feud with Sherri Martel, including several catfight segments. When Savage and Martel began a heated feud with "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes and Sapphire, Miss Elizabeth came to their aid and joined forces with them. This came to a head at WrestleMania VI, where the two couples were engaged in the WWF's first mixed tag-team match. When Martel attempted to help Savage double-team Rhodes, Miss Elizabeth grabbed Martel by the hair. While the two women faced off, Sapphire took advantage of the situation, kneeling down behind Martel just as Miss Elizabeth pushed her. Martel lost her balance and gave Sapphire enough advantage to pin Martel for the win.

Miss Elizabeth disappeared from WWF television until WrestleMania VII, when Savage lost a retirement match to The Ultimate Warrior. Upon his loss, Martel began beating him, kicking the defeated man, until Elizabeth, who was sitting at ringside, entered the ring and defended Savage. Elizabeth grabbed Martel by the hair and threw her out of the ring, reuniting Savage and Elizabeth.

The couple then held a heavily promoted on-air wedding billed as "The Match Made In Heaven" at SummerSlam 1991 in New York's Madison Square Garden (the couple were officially married in 1984). At the wedding reception, Elizabeth opened a gift package containing a live snake, which frightened her. This led to Savage coming out of retirement for a feud with Jake "The Snake" Roberts. Moments later, Roberts and The Undertaker crashed the reception and assaulted Savage. At the Tuesday in Texas pay-per-view, Savage pinned Roberts. Following the match, Roberts beat down Savage, then forced Elizabeth to beg him to stop the beating. Apparently dissatisfied with her begging, Roberts grabbed her by the hair and slapped her across her face. On a February 1992 episode of Saturday Night's Main Event, Roberts, with a steel chair in tow, was waiting in the backstage area for Elizabeth and Savage to come through the curtain after a match. Roberts was about to strike Elizabeth with the chair, but Undertaker stopped him. This started Undertaker's feud with his former ally.

In her final WWF angle, WWF Champion Ric Flair bragged that he dated Elizabeth before Savage met her. Flair's tagline was, "She was mine before she was yours." He showed photos of himself with Elizabeth in casual situations, which would later be printed in an issue of WWF Magazine. Flair, with Mr. Perfect as his "executive consultant", said that they were going to show a nude photo of Elizabeth on the screen at WrestleMania VIII, although this did not occur. Instead, Savage regained the belt in a match with Flair at the event, and WWF Magazine would later reveal that the photos were doctored, as other photographs showed Elizabeth in the exact same poses and situations, but with Savage. Elizabeth's final WWF appearance took place on April 19, 1992 during an overseas tour of England. Randy Savage pinned Shawn Michaels after Miss Elizabeth, who had earlier been sent backstage, returned to prevent Sherri's interference.

Elizabeth walked out of her real-life relationship in the summer, and when she did, with no fanfare, she was gone from the WWF for good. It also caused a real-life rift between Hulk Hogan and Savage which continued on for years. Whether true or not, Savage blamed Hogan and his wife Linda for influencing Elizabeth to seek a divorce from him. Apparently, Elizabeth did not bother to return home to Savage as she was hiding out from him. Their divorce became official in 1992, and WWF Magazine acknowledged the divorce in an issue that year.

 

[edit] World Championship Wrestling (WCW)

 

[edit] 1996-1998

In January 1996, Miss Elizabeth would return to wrestling as a valet for Savage. She would later turn against Savage and become Ric Flair's valet in the Four Horsemen. She later turned against the Four Horsemen and joined the New World Order (nWo) alongside Savage and Hogan. In June 1998, she parted ways with Savage once again by joining Hogan's side of the nWo, nWo Hollywood. Then, for the next few months she would often accompany Eric Bischoff on his way to the ring.

Elizabeth briefly married to a non-wrestler, Cary Lubetsky, a South Florida attorney, in December 1997. The wedding was held at the Cuban Hebrew Temple in Miami Beach. The marriage was short-lived, as the couple were divorced in 1998.

 

[edit] 1999

On the January 4, 1999 episode of Nitro, Elizabeth was seen talking to police detectives. She claimed that Bill Goldberg was stalking her and that he even accosted her by the water cooler. She then filed charges against Goldberg. Goldberg was arrested later that night for aggravated stalking and taken into custody by police. However, later that night, Elizabeth admitted that she was lying. As it turned out, Elizabeth was a pawn for the nWo so that Goldberg wouldn't be able to have his scheduled title match with Kevin Nash later that night. Due to Goldberg's apparent absence, the returning Hulk Hogan took Goldberg's title shot in the infamous match that would be known as "The Fingerpoke of Doom". Soon after, Elizabeth would accompany Lex Luger and sometimes Kevin Nash to ringside. However, Luger injured his biceps at a February 1999 house show and they soon took time off the road.

Behind the scenes, the real-life Elizabeth was going through a divorce with Cary Lubetsky, a South Florida attorney, and started seeing Luger socially. In January of that year, she received a sizable breast augmentation. She once strutted down to ringside, baring her enlarged chest wrapped in a tight velvet blouse. Despite that one-off moment, Elizabeth was not planning on going down the "T & A" route, popular at the time. In a 1999 interview WOW Magazine conducted with Elizabeth, she said, "There's obviously an audience for everything, especially the titillation of 'let me show you what's under my top' approach. You will never see me in an evening gown match or anything like that where someone's going to rip my clothes off. I just don't think it's necessary. For those people that it works for, good for them." ^[1]

 

[edit] 2000

In February 2000, Elizabeth managed the short-lived partnership between Luger and Ric Flair. The three of them would be known as Team Package. The trio's main goal was to take down Hulk Hogan, whom Luger had been publicly challenging for the previous few weeks. During the February 2, 2000 edition of WCW Thunder, while Hogan's back was turned, Elizabeth came into the ring, bat raised. However, Hogan quickly turned around and easily out-muscled the bat from her possession. As a receipt for her dastardly act, and in a throwback to his attacks on Sensational Sherri in the WWF, Hogan picked up Liz and held her up high in the air and delivered his patented atomic drop. However, Elizabeth no-sold the maneuver and quickly rolled out of the ring. Shortly thereafter, Team Package went their separate ways as they fought various members of The New Blood. Elizabeth would engage in short-lived feuds with Vince Russo and Kimberly Page.

Elizabeth had already undergone a sizable breast augmentation by the time of her black and leather-clad, "nWo meddling manager" storyline. Russo often tried to devise angles in which private, shy Elizabeth would at long last end up in her undergarments before TV cameras and an arena full of fans. Russo then created an angle in which he would control Elizabeth and her contract against her will. Russo's original intent for the angle was for Elizabeth to engage in promiscuous situations on-camera, and later, took part in her first wrestling matches. She squared off against Madusa, Daffney, and Rhonda Singh, all having far more athletic ability and in-ring experience than Elizabeth, and all resulting in humiliating losses. By June 2000, Larry Pfohl, aka Lex Luger, who had a 7-figure, guaranteed contract, had such a strained relationship with WCW management, that he and Elizabeth were told not to return to work - while still collecting their full paychecks. However, Elizabeth's contract had to be renewed every 90 days; WCW released her from her contract on August 17, 2000, in what was officially labeled a cost-cutting move.

 

[edit] Later life

Despite being let go by WCW, Elizabeth and Luger stayed together as a couple. Friends of Elizabeth said the two were planning on getting married sometime in 2003. Elizabeth began working the front desk at Main Event Fitness in Marietta, Georgia, a gym that Luger had owned for years after he and Steve Borden opened it during their wrestling heyday. Elizabeth never made another wrestling appearance after her release from WCW, although she was booked to appear alongside Luger on a December 2002 European tour with the World Wrestling All-Stars promotion. Elizabeth went on the trip, but never appeared on a WWA show for undisclosed reasons. While on the trip, she never left her hotel room, except to get on the bus or plane to the next show. Shortly thereafter, both strangely stopped going to the gym.

On April 19, 2003, police responded to a call about a fight in the garage of the couple's townhome. When police arrived, Elizabeth had two black eyes, knots on the forehead, and a split lip. She claimed she had fallen down while trying to control the family dog, but police didn't buy her story. Luger was charged with misdemeanor battery for allegedly striking Elizabeth during a domestic dispute. He was released on $2,500 bond. Two days later, Luger was arrested on a DUI charge after his 2002 Porsche rear-ended another car near his home. According to the police report, Luger had slurred speech, bloodshot eyes, and he couldn't find his driver's license. Elizabeth, with him at the time, was sent home by police in a taxi. Luger's license had been suspended on March 5, 2003 after he failed to appear for a court charge on charges of driving with expired tags and no proof of car insurance.

 

[edit] Death

On May 1, 2003 in Marietta, Georgia, Luger called 9-1-1 from his home and reported that Elizabeth was not breathing. She did not respond to mouth to mouth resuscitation, and paramedics rushed her to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead at age 42. (Luger's phone call was later aired on an episode of WWE Confidential.)

Police launched an investigation. Two weeks prior to her death, Lex Luger had been arrested on charges of domestic violence. In the home he and Elizabeth shared, police found pills of hydrocodone and alprazolam (Xanax), as well as anabolic steroids, testosterone, and Saizen. The subsequent autopsy showed that Elizabeth died of an accidental drug overdose, having ingested some of the medications with vodka. Though Luger was cleared of any wrongdoing in connection with her death, he was charged with felony drug charges.

In her honor, a slideshow of her career was shown on WWE SmackDown!.

While some websites and news sources have reported her being buried somewhere in Georgia, her final resting place is in Frankfort, Kentucky, at the Frankfort Cemetery next to her grandparents, the Sorgs.^[2]

 

[edit] Notes

 

[edit] References

• Tributes II by Dave Meltzer, 2004, ISBN 1-58261-817-8

 

[edit] External links

• misselizabeth.com
• SLAM! Sports Wrestling - Miss Elizabeth Dies