"Macho Man" Randy Savage seemed larger than life, but being a pro wrestler is no picnic,
and the man behind the persona had his share of difficulties. This is the tragic real-life
story of Randy Savage.
Athletic, bombastic, and loud as he was, "Macho Man" Randy Savage seemed like a man who was
born — or perhaps constructed — to be a professional wrestler. However, his original
aspirations were quite different. As Bleacher Report tells us, young Randy Poffo nursed
dreams of becoming a professional baseball player. In a 2012 interview with IGN, Savage
made it clear how much he'd loved his time in the minor leagues, saying:
"I was a catcher. It was really cool. I loved every second of it, every bus ride, all my
teammates, every game."
Savage made the rounds in the minor leagues, trying to make it with the Cincinnati Reds,
St. Louis Cardinals, and Chicago White Sox. According to Sports Illustrated, he even overcame
a potentially career-ending shoulder injury by painstakingly teaching himself to throw
left-handed. Unfortunately, his grueling work was in vain. None of the organizations he
played for were willing to pick him up for the major leagues, and when the Sox cut him
in the spring of 1975, it became apparent that he wasn't going to make it. To say that
he took it extremely hard would be an understatement. In 2015, Savage’s mother Judy said:
"When Randy got released, he broke all his bats and got rid of all his equipment. It
was horrible."
As CBS Sports tells us, Randy Savage's Macho Man mode wasn't always limited to the ring
and interviews. According to fellow wrestler Steve "The Brooklyn Brawler" Lombardi, Savage
was "very intense" and retained his distinctive Macho Man persona both on and off the camera.
"His interviews, when he spoke, it was not just on TV. He spoke like that in real life.
'Ohhhhh, yeahhhhh! Let me tell you something, brother ...'"
Per Sports Illustrated, pro wrestling legend "Stone Cold" Steve Austin has expressed a
similar sentiment:
"His intensity, his promo style — he was the Macho Man 24/7, 365 — and he was that
before he got to the WWF."
Sadly, Savage's constant intensity also manifested in less savory ways. In 1978, he was involved
in a massive brawl at a Waffle House and was so out of control that the police needed to
use their batons, Mace, and a police dog to take him down. Savage later admitted that
he was, quote, " a little hyper". According to The Morning Call, another, even worse incident
landed him in court in 1988. Allegedly, a fan approached him when he was idling at a
red light and asked for an autograph. Savage's alleged response was to get out of the car,
punch the fan in the face, and body slam him, before reportedly saying:
"How's that for an autograph, boy?"
Jake "The Snake" Roberts is one of the more tragic figures in the pro wrestling community,
and when he crossed paths with Randy Savage in 1991, dark clouds loomed on the horizon.
Roberts' gimmick involved live snakes, and as Pro Wrestling Stories tells us, it soon
became evident that Savage wasn't happy when he found out that his upcoming match with
Roberts would end with him getting bitten by a snake. In fact, Roberts says that he
eventually had to let the snake bite him in the locker room to convince Savage that the
snake wasn't dangerous.
When the match took place, though, things went awry. Though the snake bit Savage as
planned, it soon became apparent that the animal wouldn't let go. As Roberts put it:
"I'm trying [to pull it off] — I'm trying. And the snake's just gnawing on his arm. It's
going on for like a minute now, you know?"
In a 2004 interview with IGN, Savage discussed the aftermath of the incident, which ended
up hospitalizing him:
"About five days later I had a fever and went to the hospital with a 104-degree fever. It's
unbelievable to walk into the hospital and tell the doctor I had a snake bite."
Macho Man ultimately survived his ordeal — but curiously, Jake’s snake died soon after
the incident. Savage gave us the obvious explanation:
"He was de-venomized, but maybe I wasn't."
For a long time, the most important figure in Randy Savage's professional and personal
life was the same person: Elizabeth Ann Hulette, whom you probably know better by her wrestling
moniker, Miss Elizabeth. As Sports Illustrated tells us, Macho Man and Miss Elizabeth were
a wrestler and his valet, but also husband and wife. This actually applied to both their
in-ring roles and real-life situation — they got married for real in a small ceremony in
1984, and their characters followed suit in a rather more opulent in-ring ceremony at
1991's SummerSlam at Madison Square Garden.
Unfortunately, their doubly committed union didn’t turn into "happily ever after." Savage
was an extremely jealous man and tried to protect — or, as it often appeared, hide
— Elizabeth from the prying eyes of fellow wrestlers. As Hulk Hogan described it:
"If you even looked at Elizabeth the wrong way, then, Holy s--t. Randy would freak out.
If you ever wanted to get him lit up, you'd just have to look at Liz."
Despite, or perhaps because of this, Miss Elizabeth filed for divorce in 1992. To add
insult to injury, Savage's later WCW tenure used their divorce as part of a storyline.
“Randy, how’s Miss Elizabeth doing?”
“Well, bottom line is we got a divorce.”
It's almost impossible to talk about Randy Savage without bringing up his most famous
tag team partner, Hulk Hogan. As Talksport tells us, Macho Man and the Hulkster started
out as bitter in-ring enemies. But in 1987, the powers that be decided to pair the two
superstars. The ensuing tag team was very fittingly known as the Mega Powers, and judging
by the fact that Hogan was the man who inducted Savage into the WWE Hall of Fame, it's easy
to think that these two pillars of pro wrestling remained buddies for life. Alas, as is so
often the case, the reality was far unhappier.
In 1992, Savage's marriage with Elizabeth Hulette fell apart. Hogan ended up receiving
a lot of heat about this, thanks to an incident that happened soon afterward. Hulette was
a family friend, and the Hogans took her with them for a trip to Miami. According to Pro
Wrestling Stories, Hulette was dating an acquaintance of Hogan's at the time ... and when a furious
Macho Man eventually turned up, the situation got nasty enough that some say Savage actually
gave Hogan the black eye he had in WrestleMania 9.
After this incident, Savage had plenty of unpleasant things to say about Hogan, and
even stated that the pair were never friends. Hogan, on the other hand, has been more mellow,
and he's even stated that the pair ultimately reconnected and reconciled.
In 2008, Bleacher Report wrote that "Macho Man" Randy Savage was blacklisted from the
WWE. The idea of one of the biggest names in pro wrestling being banned from working
with the biggest wrestling promotion is a strange one and begs the question: What exactly
did Savage do to get on WWE owner Vince McMahon's bad side?
In an industry as rife with rumor as professional wrestling, it may be impossible to ever find
out the truth behind the story. However, it's clear that the relationship between Savage
and the WWE became rather strained around the year 1994, when the WWE was known as the
WWF. At the time, Savage’s contract was nearing its end, and he was seemingly happily
pulling double duty as a color commentator and occasional mid-card wrestler.
However, Savage split for the rival promotion, WCW, the second he could. Some say that this
broke a verbal agreement he had with McMahon. Others have speculated that the WWE owner
was bitter because Savage's departure meant the company also lost the Slim Jim ad dollar,
since the meat snack was so associated with the Macho Man. Some suggest that another factor
may be that Savage signed with a bitter enemy just as his WWE magazine cover issue came
out. As SportsKeeda reports, there's even an odd rumor that Savage had an affair with
McMahon's daughter, Stephanie.
Regardless of what really provoked the WWE's ire, the promotion basically purged all mentions
of Savage for years.
Randy Savage was a great many things, but perhaps above all, he was a man who loved
his father. According to Bleacher Report, his relationship with Angelo Poffo was by
far the most important in his life, and he molded his life after his father's teachings.
Considering that Angelo was a tough-as-nails wrestler who once held the world record in
sit-ups with no fewer than 6,000 reps, this was no easy feat, but Macho Man inherited
his father's perseverance.
Savage's frugality — also a lesson learned from his father — didn't extend to his parents,
whom he lavished with so many expensive gifts and luxurious vacations that they eventually
had to tell him to stop. Unfortunately, even beloved patriarchs get old, and the strong
and determined Angelo slowly succumbed to dementia. Though he cared for his father until
his death in 2010, the situation was extremely hard for Savage. As mother Judy put it:
"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."
"Macho Man" Randy Savage lived an intensely physical life, and he suffered his share of
nasty injuries over the years. According to Sports Illustrated, his first major injury
came before he even started wrestling. In 1973, he was still trying to make it as a
baseball player when an incident described as a "home plate collision" wrecked his right
shoulder. As Bleacher Report tells us, Savage's actual wrestling career wasn't much kinder
to his body. In fact, toward the end of his life, he often talked about the daily pains
he lived with.
“Kid, I’m not gonna lie to you. I’m in a tremendous amount of pain.”
Curiously, one of the worst injuries of the Macho Man's life had nothing to do with his
dangerous in-ring endeavors. It came from acting, of all things. In 2002, Savage played
a fearsome wrestler called Bonesaw McGraw in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man. In this role, he
got to battle a superhero –
“We got this guy called, uh, Spider-man. Beat ‘em up, knock ‘em out!”
– but the price for this prestige was high. The fight required several takes of a particularly
nasty bump that involved McGraw landing on his head. Being a professional wrestler, Savage
refused to use a stuntman. As a result, his neck was more or less irreparably wrecked.
Savage’s brother Lanny explained:
"He needed a lot of physical therapy. But he was never the same. Instead of turning
his neck to see you, he turned his torso."
Even wrestling legends can't live forever. As the Los Angeles Times tells us, Randy Savage
died at the wheel on May 20, 2011, after losing control of his vehicle in Pinellas County,
Florida, and crashing into a tree. However, Bleacher Report notes that there was more
to the story. The medical examiner found that the 58-year-old Savage was suffering from
atherosclerosis and also had an enlarged heart, which gave out as he was behind the wheel.
Before the incident, he'd complained to his wife, Lynn, that he was about to lose consciousness.
Despite this, Savage refused to relinquish the wheel — until he fainted and the car
crashed. Thankfully, the impact was fairly light, and Lynn got away with only minor injuries.
At the time of his death, Macho Man was a much more reserved figure than the colorful
character the world knew and loved. He had gradually turned into something of a hermit,
who lived behind a fence, shunned the company of most people, and essentially refused to
keep in touch with the wrestling community. He also seemed eerily certain that he'd meet
an untimely fate and was quick to tell his loved ones that he didn't want a large funeral.
Then again, he also seemed to enjoy the small tasks and errands of life and appeared to
be at a peace of sorts. As his brother, Lanny, put it:
"He was getting closure for everything."
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