Macho Man: The Legend that was Randy Savage

The Macho Man himself

On May 20, 2011, the entire professional wrestling industry was shocked and sorrowed to find out that one of the biggest names in the business, Randall Mario Poffo, or ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage, met his demise in a car accident at the age of 58.

Randy Savage was, well, a superstar in his own league. He won the WWE Championship twice and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship four times apart from numerous other titles. The WWE has named Savage the greatest Intercontinental champion of all time and credited him for bringing “a higher level of credibility to the title through his amazing in-ring performances.” Randy Savage was one of the most colourful superstars to ever step inside the ring. His extremely flashy ring attire and an equally intense attitude- perfectly punctuated by his entrance theme “Pomp and Circumstance” was outshined only by his performance in the ring.

A second generation superstar, Randy Savage started off his career in various wrestling promotions including Jerry Lawler’s Continental Wrestling Association. He was signed by Vince McMahon in 1985, and immediately hired ‘Miss Elizabeth’ Hulette as his manager (The two would go on to marry in real life. They got divorced in 2010). In the initial years of his career, he was engaged in various feuds with superstars like George ‘The Animal’ Steele, Tito Santana and Ricky ‘The Dragon’ Steamboat, all of them over the Intercontinental Championship. Savage and Steamboat wrestled in what is widely considered to be one of the greatest matches in wrestling history at WrestleMania III, which saw as many as 19 near-falls!!

Randy Savage with Miss Elizabeth

The big break in Savage’s career came in 1987 when, after winning the King of the Ring tournament, he joined Hulk Hogan to form one of the most formidable tag teams of all times, The Mega Powers. Hogan would help him win his first-ever WWF Championship at WrestleMania IV, a title which Savage held for no less than 371 days (No champion after him could hold the belt for more than a year, until John Cena accomplished the feat nineteen years later).

Savage and Hogan broke off soon after that, and entered into a major feud throughout 1989. Later on he engaged in ever bigger rivalries with ‘The American Dream’ Dusty Rhodes and the Ultimate Warrior. Savage was forced to quit the ring after losing to the Warrior at WrestleMania VII. It took immense public encouragement and some serious goading by Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts to bring him back to wrestling. Savage would go on to win his second WWE Championship by defeating ‘Nature Boy’ Ric Flair. Savage lost the title to Flair a few months later and after a short stint as colour commentator, left the WWE for its major competitor brand, World Championship Wrestling (WCW).

Randy Savage joined the likes of Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair in the WCW, and had his first major match at SuperBrawl V (WCW’s answer to WrestleMania), where he teamed up with Sting to defeat Avalanche and Big Bubba Rogers. His stellar performance in the match easily caught the fans’ attention, and he soon became one of the major players in the company. Savage would go on to capture his first WCW heavyweight championship at the first ever 60-man, three-ring battle royal (WCW’s World War 3).

Savage went on to introduce Miss Elizabeth into the company as his manager. He was one of the major enemies of the newest faction formed by Hulk Hogan and ‘The Outsiders’, which would go on to become the most dominating faction in all of professional wrestling, the nWo. But after being abused by the nWo for almost a year, Savage figured that if he couldn’t beat them, he better join them. He won the WCW Championship a couple more times as a part of the faction, much to the dismay of Hogan, who felt entitled to the belt as the leader of nWo. This caused a major rift in the group, which resulted in them splitting up into the groups Wolfpac (nWo black and red) headed by Savage and Kevin Nash, and Hollywood (nWo black and white), headed by Hogan. Savage had a few short feuds with Kevin Nash (whom Savage beat for his fourth WCW Championship) and Flair, and finally left the company in 1999.

Randy Savage returned to wrestling for a very short period in Total Non-Stop Action (TNA) wrestling, where he teamed up with AJ Styles to defeat the ‘Kings of Wrestling’ (Jeff Jarrett, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall) at Turning Point 2004. He was scheduled to have a TNA World Championship match at the next PPV, Final Resolution, but was forced to quit due to personal reasons.

There’s a very popular urban legend that Savage took Stephanie McMahon’s virginity when she was fourteen and that’s the reason Vince McMahon hates him so much. However, there’s never been any proof behind this story and neither Stephanie nor Randy have commented on it. The most that has been said by WWE themselves is from an interview with Jim Ross, who calls the rumour ‘complete garbage’.

In February 2009, it was announced that WWE would produce a DVD collection based on Savage titled Macho Madness: The Randy Savage Ultimate Collection. Hosted by Maria Kanellis and Matt Striker, the three disc set contains over eight hours of matches and promos but no biography or documentary.

In July 2010, Mattel signed a deal with Randy Savage to be a part of their “WWE Defining Moments” action figure line-up. To promote the figure a video-message was shown of Savage cutting a classic “Macho Man” promo while holding the figurine, which was dressed in the same outfit he wore at Wrestlemania VII, the first promo under his Macho Man character to be seen in years by fans. It is also worth noting that this will be the first Randy Savage action figure released under the WWE in over 15 years.

Randy Savage was, and will always be remembered as one of the greatest performers to have ever graced a wrestling ring.