Even in the over-the-top world of pro wrestling, the Macho Man Randy Savage was significantly
larger than life, and larger than many of his opponents.
The Macho Man took his role to an extreme and even tried to stay in character outside
the ring.
Here's the truth about Macho Man Randy Savage.
Like father, like son
Born Randy Poffo in 1952, Randy Savage was the son of Angelo and Judy Poffo and the older
brother of Lanny Poffo, known to WWE fans as The Genius.
As Sports Illustrated detailed, Angelo, an academic by day, was a detested wrestler at
night known as "the Masked Miser" or "the Carpet Bagger."
Before wrestling, Angelo played college baseball and dreamed of going pro.
Savage followed closely in his father's footsteps, first pursuing baseball and then becoming
a pro wrestler.
Angelo also set a world record for sit-ups, doing 6,033 in four hours and 10 minutes while
in the Navy.
A teammate of Savage's, who played with him for the St. Louis Cardinals' minor league
affiliate, also claimed in an interview with Sports Illustrated that Savage had a habit
of doing 1,500 sit-ups every morning.
Angelo never came close to achieving the level of success in wrestling that Savage did, but
they aided each other's legacies.
Angelo founded his own wrestling promotion and helped launch his sons' careers.
According to Bleacher Report, WCW supposedly inducted Angelo into its wrestling Hall of
Fame "as a favor to Savage."
He pistol whipped another wrestler
Randy Savage rose to stardom in the heyday of kayfabe, when wrestling was meant to seem
unscripted.
For Savage, that meant staying in character outside the ring.
Before joining the WWE, he worked for his father's promotion ICW.
As wrestler Dutch Mantell recalled, whenever you saw Savage,
"He was always in full-blown, wide-open Macho Man mode."
Savage's unhinged Macho Man persona was so convincing that even other wrestlers thought
he was crazy.
CBS Sports reported that in 1978 he brawled with a newlywed at a Waffle House.
When police intervened, he was reportedly uncooperative enough to be pepper sprayed,
beaten, and bitten by a police dog.
He also supposedly pistol-whipped Australian wrestler Bill Dundee.
Dundee worked for a rival wrestling promotion, and in 1982, he and Savage got into it outside
a restaurant.
After Dundee reportedly pulled a gun, Savage disarmed him and fractured his jaw with it.
Dundee was on the shelf for several weeks and Macho Man bragged about it frequently.
Dundee denied that Savage pistol-whipped him, alleging that Macho Man sucker-punched him.
He said Savage had help from three other guys and ran away when he saw the gun.
"Randy and I's had our ups and downs.
We weren't the greatest of friends."
He body slammed a fan
In March 1988, Randy Savage won the WWE world title at WrestleMania.
By that time, he was widely a beloved hero.
But just weeks before his crowning achievement, the Morning Call reported that the soon-to-be-champ
was being sued for attacking a fan on the street.
In May 1986, David Peschel drove home after a wrestling show and saw Savage driving a
Mercedes.
He stopped Savage at a red light and asked for an autograph.
According to Peschel and eyewitnesses who were in his car, Savage hoisted him into the
air and slammed him on the ground, fracturing Peschel's back and bruising his ribs.
Then he stood over the injured fan, flexed, and said,
"How's that for an autograph, boy?"
A policeman noted that the fan was "hurt and dazed."
Savage denied the accusations, claiming he at most pushed Peschel.
They settled out of court.
At the time of the incident, Macho Man was arguably the most savage villain in the WWE.
Per CBS Sports, his character was a heel who infamously crushed Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat's
throat.
As wrestling great Kurt Angle noted, Savage "never broke character."
He was so consistent that Angle believed the man born Randy Poffo started thinking he was
the Macho Man in real life.
No wedding invitations
The often volatile onscreen relationship between Macho Man and his valet Miss Elizabeth, played
by real-life wife Elizabeth Hulette, created some of the most emotional moments in WWE
history.
When they reunited at WrestleMania VII, fans wept.
At the following SummerSlam, Macho Man and Miss Elizabeth tied the knot in front of 20,000
fans during a fictional wedding billed as a "Match Made in Heaven."
But by then the couple's real-life union was on its last legs.
When the pair married in earnest seven years earlier in 1984, Savage didn't even want his
own family to be there.
According to Sports Illustrated, Savage planned on eloping with Elizabeth.
But his future mother-in-law refused, so they wed at her house.
Savage only invited his parents.
Even his brother, Lanny, wasn't there because he had a wrestling match, and Savage "would
have been furious" if Lanny attended the wedding instead.
As Savage's mother Judy explained,
"He didn't want anybody to know that it was so special to him, so he was quiet about the
whole thing."
The madness
Between matches, Savage was deeply paranoid about people stealing his wife.
That made life complicated for George "The Animal" Steele, who literally tried to steal
Elizabeth as part of a storyline feud.
Steele told ThePostGame,
"Honestly, Randy was the most jealous man I ever met."
Steele wasn't the only wrestler who grappled with Macho Man's insane jealousy.
Speaking with Sports Illustrated, Hulk Hogan said Savage would freak out if someone else
even looked at Elizabeth.
"Mean" Gene Okerlund called Savage a "loose cannon" who made a lot of wrestlers uneasy.
The person who suffered most was Elizabeth, whom Savage locked in dressing rooms to keep
her away from other guys.
In 1991, just months after their onscreen characters married, Elizabeth and Savage divorced.
Heat with Andre the Giant
Savage dripped with charisma, intensity, and baby oil.
The baby oil part didn't sit well with Andre the Giant, who dwarfed Savage and wasn't afraid
to throw his weight around in the ring.
Savage's brother Lanny said,
"Andre hated baby oil, but Randy wouldn't stop wearing it.
He stubbornly said Andre's gimmick is being a giant and mine is baby oil."
In HBO's documentary Andre the Giant, Hulk Hogan recounts how Andre "just beat Randy
to death."
He pulled Savage's hair and slapped him hard.
According to Andre's daughter Robin Christensen-Roussimoff, the giant didn't ravage Savage over baby oil.
The real issue, she said, was Savage's use of steroids, which Andre detested.
Witnessing the effects of steroids must have been especially frustrating for Andre, whose
body grew uncontrollably on its own, causing debilitating health problems.
A macho rap album
According to his brother Lanny, the Macho Man was a real big fan of hip-hop.
Savage kept current with slang from the genre and frequently used phrases like "true dat."
He tried to flex on the mic himself with a 2003 rap album, Be a Man, which is easily
the greatest hip-hop composition ever created by a 50-year-old wrestler.
Savage didn't reach Eminem levels of creativity, but he still showed his appreciation for the
genre with references to acts like Ice Cube, Biz Markie, and A Tribe Called Quest.
The biggest highlight of the album is the title track, "Be a Man," which disses Hulk
Hogan with pointed lyrics such as, "like Rodney Dangerfield you gets no respect."
"Be a Man" might sound like one wrestling great poking fun at another in a musical promo,
but the animosity was sincere.
In addition to being Hogan's onscreen nemesis, offscreen, Savage had more beef than a Slim
Jim.
Radio host Bubba the Love Sponge loved disparaging Savage's family, and Hogan regularly appeared
on his show.
A life-altering stunt
Whenever Savage was on camera, it was almost impossible not to focus on him.
Not only did he usually wear hyper-colorful clothes, but also his unique speaking style
and animated mannerisms were naturally entertaining.
Even now, if you need a little excitement, you can watch him snap into a Slim Jim in
an old commercial or snap opponents in half in a classic match.
It's unsurprising that Macho Man was cast as fictional wrestler Bonesaw McGraw in 2002's
Spider-Man.
Though it wasn't a huge role, seeing him compete against Peter Parker was pure magic.
Behind the scenes, he apparently also made a memorable impression.
Castmate Bruce Campbell of Evil Dead fame had a trailer adjacent to Savage's.
In a 2015 interview, he claimed that when Savage wasn't on set, he could be heard engaging
in some vigorous activity with his girlfriend on the other side of the wall.
The film is notable for leaving a lasting mark on Macho Man, literally, with the wrestler
injuring his neck at one point while performing a stunt.
His brother told Bleacher Report that after landing on his head mid-flip, Macho Man could
no longer properly turn his head and had to turn his body instead.
A heartbreaking loss
In May 2010, Savage tied the knot with Barbara Lynn Payne, a woman he first dated in 1972,
per Bleacher Report.
Two months before marrying, Savage said goodbye to his father, Angelo.
Savage absolutely idolized his dad and was adamant about sharing his success with the
man who raised him.
He funded trips to Europe for his parents and bought Angelo a Cadillac on his 70th birthday.
When Savage renovated a weight room at a prep school, he stipulated that the room had to
be named after his dad.
As Angelo got older, dementia took hold, so Savage took it upon himself to have medical
equipment installed in his folks' home.
But not even Macho Man's muscles and limitless love were strong enough to stop Father Time.
His mother, Judy, described how painful it was for Savage to see his lifelong hero deteriorate:
"Randy prayed for [Angelo] to die because he suffered so much.
But when he did die, Randy went home and punched holes in the walls."
Bad, good, gorgeous
In May 2011, Randy Savage was driving with his wife, Lynn, when his heart suddenly stopped
beating.
The car crashed, and Savage passed away from heart disease.
Macho Man didn't like funerals, but he had a special request for his own: He didn't want
his wrestling entrance music, "Pomp and Circumstance," to be played.
It was his way of honoring Gorgeous George, a wrestler who mentored Savage's father and
used "Pomp and Circumstance" as his own theme music.
Savage felt guilty for attaining greater fame than George and perhaps for another ugly chapter.
Savage and his brother bought the rights to the name "Gorgeous George," and in the late
1990s, Savage licensed the name to then-girlfriend Stephanie Bellars, who was his valet in WCW.
According to Bellars, Savage was possessive not just of the name but of her, too.
She said he made her hide in broom closets to prevent other wrestlers from making eye
contact with her.
She claimed he hid cameras in her home, tapped her phone, and had her followed.
After they broke up, Savage allegedly threatened to sue Bellars for using the name "Gorgeous
George."
The LA Times reported that in 2000, he sued the producer of the Pamela and Tommy Lee sex
tape for using the Gorgeous George moniker for an adult video that Bellars appeared in.
Snubbing the Hall of Fame
Wrestling fans may debate about who belongs on the shortlist of all-time great performers,
but Randy Savage indisputably earned a spot.
Wrestling legend Jesse "The Body" Ventura called Savage's WrestleMania III showdown
with Ricky Steamboat the greatest match he ever saw.
That contest alone made Savage a legend.
So when the WWE went well over a decade without inducting him into the Hall of Fame, fans
were baffled.
Per the Washington Post, it was long rumored that Savage and WWE Chairman Vince McMahon
had a falling out.
Before leaving the WWE in 1994, Savage supposedly promised to re-sign with the company, but
changed his mind.
Relegated to doing color commentary, he apparently wanted a match with Shawn Michaels, but was
told he was too old.
He jumped ship to WCW, at which point WWE callously mocked his age and made light of
his real-life divorce from Miss Elizabeth.
Savage publicly said he wasn't offended, though his brother, Lanny, suggested otherwise.
Rumors also circulated that Macho Man slept with Vince's daughter, Stephanie McMahon.
According to Lanny, the reason for Savage's delayed Hall of Fame induction was much less
salacious, Savage didn't want to be inducted alone, but as a trio with his brother and
father.
Lanny eventually agreed to let Macho Man be inducted in 2015 after WWE "made amends."
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