Welcome to Last Word on Mania month at Last Word on Sports! All month long we will be doing articles to build up for Wrestlemania 31 on March 29, 2015. Be sure to read everything this month by clicking this link. Enjoy!
Nobody really deserves to be in the WWE Hall of Fame. It’s really just a way to pay tribute to some superstars of the past and maybe mend some bridges. It isn’t a real Hall of Fame. There’s no physical location, no requirements, no benchmarks and certainly no governing body. Nobody votes people in like the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame and again, you can’t visit it like Cooperstown. It’s just a thing we celebrate around WrestleMania to pay tribute to some legends of the past.
But Macho Man Randy Savage? He truly deserves it. Fans have been clamouring for it. And finally, he enters the Hall after his passing in 2011.
Born Randy Poffo in 1952 to the son of wrestling legend Angelo Poffo, the future Randy Savage’s first love was baseball. Signed by the St. Louis Cardinals out of high school as a catcher, Randy was only 18 when he began playing minor league baseball. Beginning a wrestling career and following in the footsteps of his father in 1973, he soon changed his name from just Randy Poffo to Randy Savage, at the suggestion of Georgia Championship Wrestling booker Ole Anderson. “Macho Man” came from his mother after reading it in a Reader’s Digest as a “hot term” people would eventually use. Leaving his dream of baseball behind, Savage dedicated his full career to pro wrestling.
Being the son of a famous wrestler, the baggage of your father might end up carrying with you. Despite the perks and advantages one gets as a next generation wrestler, Angelo felt his sons Randy and Lanny Poffo were just not getting the shots he deserved. Determined to see his sons be the superstars he expected them to one day become, Angelo Poffo began International Championship Wrestling, a wrestling promotion not sanctioned by the National Wrestling Alliance. By not being a part of the NWA it meant that ICW would be breaking territorial codes with the NWA, as well as the American Wrestling Association as well as the World Wrestling Association. This was called being an “outlaw” promotion, a status that made your company looked down upon as rebels and traitors. Sharing the spirit of the Portland Mavericks of minor league baseball, ICW dodged lawsuits and signed up wrestlers who were once contractually obligated to the NWA. Savage and Lanny Poffo were the top stars of course as the promotion was all about increasing their stardom. Savage particularly evolved during this time, becoming one of the hottest professional wrestling properties that nobody could touch due to the outlaw status of ICW. While some names such as Ox Baker, Bob Orton Jr. and Ronnie Garvin made trips to ICW to wrestle the Macho Man, fans waited for the days of ICW to tick down and Savage to become a free agent. This happened in 1984, with assets purchased by direct competitor Jerry Jarrett and Jerry Lawler. By doing this, Macho Man entered the Memphis territory to feud with Jerry Lawler and is well known as one of the most anticipated feuds of the 1980s.
With Angelo’s plan succeeding and his sons becoming stars, Macho Man soon made his way not to the NWA but to a company invading territories on a larger scale in the World Wrestling Federation and it seemed like a perfect fit. First entering without a manager and catching the eyes of every available manager in the WWF as a free agent, Macho Man soon brought in his wife Elizabeth to be his valet and manager. Elizabeth and Macho Man were the first power couple of the WWF and in less than a year, Macho Man Randy Savage captured the WWF Intercontinental Title against Tito Santana. Savage would make his first WrestleMania appearance at WrestleMania 2, defeating George “The Animal” Steele and defending the title. Savage continued to hold the title for over a calendar year before squaring off against Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat at WrestleMania III in what is still to this day one of the greatest matches in WrestleMania history. It was so great that despite Savage trying to spill Steamboat’s brains over the wrestling concrete just weeks before the event, the two men wrestled so well that people weren’t sure about booing Savage anymore.
Savage didn’t like it when the current Intercontinental champion Honky Tonk Man proclaimed himself the greatest IC champ of all time and Savage tried to beat him for the title to break the dubious claims. That ensnared him the ire of “The Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart, who lured Savage into a match with Honky Tonk at Saturday Night’s Main Event, only for the Hart Foundation to come out and put the boots to him. This led to Elizabeth finding none other than Hulk Hogan to save Savage, leading to the formation of the Mega Powers. It would be the start of a strange, long relationship between Savage and Hogan.
The Mega Powers were the biggest names in wrestling, with Hogan losing the WWF World championship and that opening the door for Savage to win his first WWF World championship at WrestleMania IV. While it was a relationship created due to his manager Miss Elizabeth, Savage grew increasingly suspicious, paranoid and jealous of Hulk Hogan. This soon came to a head at WrestleMania V, as the two squared off in the main event. Hogan won, like he’d do every time the two faced off at each other. It was strange Savage never got his win back.
Savage stayed a top star in the WWF into the 90s before attempting a retirement to try to mend the fence with his real wife Elizabeth. The WWF even had them perform an on-screen marriage. Savage soon returned to the ring, even being WWF World champ again and facing off against “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair. Soon, Savage was looking to wind down his career, now in his 40s. It was at the behest of Vince McMahon, who wanted Savage to be his “Babe Ruth” while he ushered his “New Generation” of WWF talents. However, Savage was born to be a wrestler and unhappy with simply appearances in the USWA in Memphis and wrestling in Japan. Savage wanted more than the random wrestling match. In 1994, Savage’s contract expired and wanting to be a full time wrestler again, jumped to World Championship Wrestling where his old rival Hulk Hogan had been making waves.
Savage was welcomed in WCW, working side by side with Hogan on numerous occasions and feuding once again with Ric Flair. Savage passed the WCW World’s Heavyweight championship back and forth with Flair in late 1995 and early 1996, before coming head to head with the New World Order in mid 1996. After taking some time off when his contract expired, Savage returned in early 1997, looking to be a free agent in the fight between WCW and nWo along with Sting ended up eventually joining the New World Order.
Savage’s biggest moment as a member of the New World Order ended up being his feud with Diamond Dallas Page, a rookie despite his age building a reputation as the people’s champion. After rejecting the nWo, Page was in a bitter feud with Savage. At one point, Randy Savage had to face luchador La Parka and thought it’d be a cake walk until fellow nWo member Scott Hall was distracted, where he was suddenly hit by La Parka with a Diamond Cutter. It turned out to be DDP in disguise. Savage did become a prominent member in leading to the breakup of the New World Order with one faction staying with Hollywood Hogan and the other going with Kevin Nash. Savage went with Nash due to his WCW Worlds Heavyweight championship feud with Hogan, but eventually moved to other opponents like Bret “The Hitman” Hart.
Savage took some time off, only to return in 1999 with a new image and a bigger physique. It was around this time he spent his last days in WCW as a main eventer, where his bulkier weight led to him not being the same great wrestler he once was. Savage made an appearance in the film Ready to Rumble, a movie featuring WCW wrestlers. Savage was already well known for making guest voice appearances in animated features such as Dexter’s Laboratory and Space Ghost: Coast to Coast (his work as Leonard Ghostal is one of my all-time favourites due to how quotable it was. “Have you ever met Haystacks Calhoun? He was a mountain of a man!”) but upon finishing up his full-time wrestling career, made an iconic appearance in the first Spider-Man film in 2002 as Bonesaw McGraw. It’s interesting because the producers on Spider-Man made sure to seek out Savage despite the original name of the wrestler Spider-Man fought was “Crusher Hogan”. It should be noted that when WCW was purchased by the World Wrestling Federation, Savage talked about trying to buy World Championship Wrestling himself but never got the chance.
In 2003, Randy Savage made the surprising choice to try to start a hip-hop career, releasing “Be A Man” which included diss tracks towards Hulk Hogan and a tribute to “Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig. Today the rap career was considered a flop but the remix of “Uptown Funk” featuring Savage’s rap track is an absolute classic today.
Savage had a quick stint in TNA Wrestling which never really went anywhere as before his first match, he didn’t feel comfortable of being everything he’s known to have been. Following this, Savage went back to animation work including King of the Hill and Walt Disney’s Bolt. The entire time, wrestling fans waited with baited breath on the chance of Macho Man Randy Savage returning to the WWE. There had always been rumours abound as to why he wasn’t being inducted, everything from adultery to a poor relationship with Vince after leaving to WCW. Nothing ever came out official as Randy Poffo passed away on May 20, 2011 from a heart attack while driving with his new wife Barbara Lynn Payne. Vince McMahon wrote an obituary tribute for Savage in TIME Magazine.
With Savage now gone, the word was now that Savage only gave WWE his blessing if they also inducted Lanny and Angelo Poffo, his brother and father. It seemed the two sides were to a standstill until WWE announced on January 12, 2015 that Savage would be going into the WWE Hall of Fame. It seemed as though Lanny was no longer going to fight it and approved of the situation. Savage will be the main event of the WWE Hall of Fame, exactly where he should be.
I spent a lot of time detailing Savage’s career and little of what made Randy special. Randy Savage was a character unlike nobody prior or since. Savage was also a great all-around wrestler who could compete against speed, strength and skill with the very best. Savage was also a proponent of planning his wrestling matches out, which at one point was considered sacrilegious to “pure” wrestling types. To this day, matches at major events like WrestleMania are now more planned than ever. Savage was an innovator, an originator, one of the best all-around workers, one of the greatest talkers and while he still dealt with the shadows of Hulk Hogan, with exception to his rap career he never devalued the name of Macho Man. He always stayed a man of the people, both fans and wrestlers until his passing and forever. He’s not just the Macho Man, he’s one of the greatest icons of the 20th century. OHHHHHH YEAHHHH!
