He was considered the first major US athlete to have a steady stream of real GH before it was easy to find. Also smacked around the Barbarian Brothers for being pigs in the gym, and disrespecting him and his generosity. The story goes that he let them use an apartment he had and they gave it back all busted up, so he was already annoyed with them. It was broken up before it got really violent. Lyle also was one of the guys that helped Platz get away from Jeep Swenson when Platz cheated with his girlfriend.
Many times when you hear these old 80's Gold's Venice fight stories, Alzado and Mike Christian are the two guys playing bouncer the most.
As for the gay thing, the cancer he had - CNS lymphoma, was rare in the general population, but seen somewhat frequently in AIDS patients of the era. Depending on who you talk to that was around Gold's at the time, the rumors were maybe, to he just dabbled a little, to he was firmly in the closet.
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