Randy Savage
Randy Mario Poffo, better known by his ring name "Macho Man" Randy Savage, was an American professional wrestler and professional baseball player. He is best known for his time in the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling.
Savage was described by sportswriter Bill Simmons as "one of the greatest pro wrestlers who ever lived"a statement echoed by multiple industry performers. He was recognizable by wrestling fans for his distinctively flamboyant ring attire and raspy voice, intensity exhibited in and out of the ring, use of the finale from "Pomp and Circumstance March no. 1" by Elgar as his entrance music, and signature catchphrase, "Oooh yeah!" For most of his tenures in the WWF and WCW, Savage was managed by his real-life wife, Miss Elizabeth.
Savage had ten world championship reigns during his 32-year career, including two as WWF World Heavyweight Champion and four as WCW World Heavyweight Champion. As WWF Champion, he held similar drawing power as Hulk Hogan. A one-time WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion, he was named by WWE as the greatest titleholder of all time and credited for bringing "a higher level of credibility to the title through his amazing in-ring performances".
Savage was the 1987 WWF King of the Ring and the 1995 WCW World War 3 winner. He headlined many pay-per-view events throughout his career, including WrestleMania IV and WrestleMania V, two of the first five SummerSlam shows, the 1988 Survivor Series and Starrcade 1995. He was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame upon its inception in 1996, with a posthumous WWE Hall of Fame induction following in 2015.
Early life
Randy Poffo was born on November 15, 1952, in Columbus, Ohio, the eldest son of Judith and Angelo Poffo. His father was Italian American and his mother was Jewish American; Poffo was raised Catholic. Randy's father was a well-known wrestler in the 1950s and 1960s, and his younger brother Lanny Poffo also went into wrestling.The Poffo family lived in Zanesville, Ohio, where Randy attended Grover Cleveland Middle School. He graduated from Downers Grove North High School in the Chicago suburb of Downers Grove, Illinois. Poffo later moved to Staten Island, New York, before moving to Lexington, Kentucky, where he lived for many years. He was an alumnus of Southern Illinois University–Carbondale.
Baseball career
Savage was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals organization as a catcher out of high school. He was placed in the minor leagues to develop, where he mostly played as an outfielder in the Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds farm systems. Savage was 18 when he began playing minor league baseball; one of his teammates on the 1971 Gulf Coast League Cardinals was Larry Herndon, who was also his roommate. Savage would swing a bat into a hanging car tire to strengthen his hands and utilize his legs during swings. The technique was so effective that Herndon used it during his career as a baseball coach. Savage injured his natural throwing shoulder after a collision at home plate, and he learned to throw with his left arm instead. Savage's last season was 1974, when he played for the Class A Tampa Tarpons in the Reds organization. He played 289 games over four minor league seasons, batting.254 with 16 home runs and 129 runs batted in.Professional wrestling career
Early career (19731985)
Savage first broke into the wrestling business in 1973 during the fall and winter of the baseball off-season. His first wrestling character, The Spider, was similar to Spider-Man. He later took the ring name Randy Savage at the suggestion of his longtime friend and trainer Terry "The Goose" Stephens and Georgia Championship Wrestling booker Ole Anderson, who said that the name Poffo did not fit someone who "wrestled like a savage". Savage eventually decided to end his stalled baseball career and join his father and brother to wrestle full time. He wrestled his first match against Midwest Territory wrestler "Golden Boy" Paul Christy. Savage worked with his father and brother in Michigan, the Carolinas, Georgia, the Maritimes, and the eastern Tennessee territory run by Nick Gulas.After a while, his father felt that his sons were not getting the pushes they deserved so he started the "outlaw" International Championship Wrestling promotion in the mid-American states. Eventually, ICW disbanded and Randy and Lanny entered the Memphis scene, joining Jerry Lawler's Continental Wrestling Association. While there, Savage feuded with Lawler over the AWA Southern Heavyweight Championship. He also teamed with Lanny to battle The Rock 'n' Roll Express; this feud included a match on June 25, 1984, in Memphis, where in the storyline, Savage injured Ricky Morton by piledriving him through the timekeeper's table, leading to the Express winning by disqualification. Later in 1984, Savage turned babyface and allied with Lawler against Jimmy Hart's First Family alliance, only to turn heel on Lawler again in early 1985 and resume the feud with him over the title. This ended when Lawler beat Savage in a Loser Leaves Town match on June 7 in Memphis, Tennessee.
World Wrestling Federation (1985–1994)
Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion (1985–1987)
In June 1985, Savage signed with Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation. He made his WWF debut on the July 6 episode of Championship Wrestling, defeating local competitor Aldo Marino. Billed as "the top free agent in pro wrestling", Savage's first appearances on Tuesday Night Titans featured several established managers offering their services to Savage. He declined their offers and chose Miss Elizabeth as his new manager on the August 24 episode of Championship Wrestling. His gimmick was a crazed, ego-maniacal bully who mistreated Miss Elizabeth and threatened anyone who even looked at her. He made his pay-per-view debut for a 16-man tournament at The Wrestling Classic on November 7, defeating Ivan Putski, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, and the Dynamite Kid before losing via countout in the finals to Junkyard Dog.In late 1985, Savage started a feud with then-Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion Tito Santana over that title. During the November 2 episode of Saturday Night's Main Event III, he unsuccessfully challenged Santana for the title. In a rematch on WWF on NESN on February 8, 1986, he won the WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship at the Boston Garden by using an illegal steel object stashed in his tights to knock out Santana. Early in his WWF career, Savage also won three countout victories over his future tag team partner WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan as well as engaging in feuds with Bruno Sammartino and George "The Animal" Steele.
Savage's feud with Steele began on the January 4 episode of Saturday Night's Main Event IV, when Steele developed a crush on Miss Elizabeth. At WrestleMania 2 on April 7, 1986, Savage defeated Steele in a match to retain his Intercontinental Heavyweight Title. He resumed his feud with Steele in early 1987, culminating in two Intercontinental Heavyweight title matches, both won by Savage.
His next feud was with Ricky Steamboat, where in October, Savage crushed Steamboat's throat against a guardrail. On March 29, 1987, Savage wrestled Steamboat at WrestleMania III in the Pontiac Silverdome. After 19 two-counts, Steamboat pinned Savage to end his near 14-month reign as Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion. The match was extremely choreographed, as opposed to the "on the fly" nature of most wrestling matches at the time; Savage was a stickler for detail, and he and Steamboat laid out and rehearsed every spot in the match prior to WrestleMania. The match was named 1987's Match of the Year by both Pro Wrestling Illustrated and the Wrestling Observer and is regarded as one of the greatest WrestleMania matches of all time. Steamboat and Savage were seen cheering with and hugging other wrestlers after the match. The two continued to feud on house shows, including in steel cage matches. During this part of his career, he became known for his stage costumes, which were created by Florida designer Michael Braun.
WWF Champion (1988–1989)
Savage won the King of the Ring tournament later in 1987. His popularity was rising to the point that he was being cheered by a majority of the fans despite being a heel, so he became less hostile towards the fans and Miss Elizabeth. When The Honky Tonk Man declared himself "the greatest Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion of all time", Savage began a feud with him to get the title back, becoming a fan favorite in the process. On the October 3 episode of Saturday Night's Main Event XII, he got his shot at The Honky Tonk Man and the Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship, but lost out on the title when The Hart Foundation, who along with Honky were managed by "The Mouth of the South" Jimmy Hart, interrupted the match, getting Honky disqualified. In the ensuing beatdown, Miss Elizabeth ran back to the locker room and brought Hulk Hogan out to the ring to save Savage, leading to the formation of "The Mega Powers". Savage would lead a team of five against Honky's team of five at the first annual Survivor Series on November 26, where Savage's team was victorious, avenging Elizabeth's honor. His feud with Honky continued into early 1988, where in their last high-profile matchup, Savage defeated Honky by count-out after he shoved Honky away from Elizabeth and into the ring post.At WrestleMania IV on March 27, 1988, he participated in the 14-man tournament for the vacant WWF World Heavyweight Championship. During the tournament held at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, Savage defeated "The Natural" Butch Reed, Greg "The Hammer" Valentine and the One Man Gang on his way to the finals, where he defeated "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, pinning him with the help of Hogan. Savage retained the WWF World Heavyweight Title for a little over a year, defending it against the likes of One Man Gang, Big Boss Man and André the Giant.
The Mega Powers' first feud was against The Mega Bucks, whom they defeated on August 29 in the main event of the first ever SummerSlam pay-per-view. The match, refereed by Jesse Ventura, was famous for Miss Elizabeth jumping up on the apron of the ring late in the match and removing her skirt to show red panties. This allowed both Savage and Hogan to get back in the ring and get the pin on DiBiase with Savage pushing a reluctant Ventura to the 3-count. The Mega Powers then began feuding with The Twin Towers. In the case of the latter feud, Savage frequently became involved in Hogan's matches involving one of the two villains ; the two rival factions captained opposing teams in the main event of the Survivor Series on November 24, which was won by the Mega Powers.
Problems between Savage and Hogan developed in early 1989 after Hogan also took Elizabeth as his manager. On January 15, 1989, at the Royal Rumble, Hogan accidentally eliminated Savage from the Royal Rumble match and they started to fight until Elizabeth separated them. During the February 3 episode of The Main Event II, Savage and Hogan faced the Twin Towers, but Elizabeth accidentally got injured at ringside. Hogan carried her to the back, which enraged Savage to the point that he abandoned Hogan later in the match. Savage and Hogan got into a heated argument with Savage declaring that Hogan was an inferior wrestler to him and that he wanted to steal Elizabeth from him. He then proceeded to attack his partner and attacked Hogan's friend Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake as he tried to intervene, before being separated by security, turning Savage heel.
On April 2 at WrestleMania V, Savage dropped the WWF World Heavyweight Championship to Hogan after a reign of 371 days. Prior to the match, Savage had actually been hospitalized with an infected elbow but checked himself out of the hospital in order to wrestle Hogan and despite wearing a heavy bandage over the elbow and being sick as a result of the infection, still managed to put on a high quality showing. Later that month, he replaced Elizabeth as his manager with former WWF Women's Champion Sensational Sherri. Savage co-main evented SummerSlam on August 28, teaming with "The Human Wrecking Machine" Zeus, against The Mega-Maniacs, with the Mega-Maniacs winning after Hogan hit Zeus with Sherri's loaded purse to get the win. Savage and Zeus faced Hogan and Beefcake in a rematch contested in a steel cage at No Holds Barred on December 27, but were again defeated.