Miss Elizabeth Obit

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 remembered as 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 the woman 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 star, 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, something that has never been confirmed, but has
been hinted at in shoot interviews over the last decade. 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 fo 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 are riddled with drug use to combat the physical and
emotional toll that the constant travel, the need to perform 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.