Randy Mario Poffo, better known by his ring name "Macho Man" Randy Savage, was an American professional wrestler best known for his time in the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling.
87 Facts About Randy Savage
2.
Randy Savage had six world championship reigns during his 32-year career, including two as WWF World Heavyweight Champion and four as WCW World Heavyweight Champion.
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Randy Savage was the 1987 WWF King of the Ring and the 1995 WCW World War 3 winner.
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Randy Savage headlined many pay-per-view events throughout his career, including WrestleManias IV, V, and VIII, two of the first five SummerSlam shows, and 1995 Starrcade.
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Randy Savage 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.
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Randy Savage Poffo was born on November 15,1952, in Columbus, Ohio, the eldest son of Judy and Angelo Poffo.
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Randy Savage's father was Italian American and his mother was Jewish; Poffo was raised Catholic.
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Randy Savage's father was a well-known wrestler in the 1950s and 1960s, and his younger brother Lanny Poffo went into wrestling.
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The Poffo family lived in Zanesville, Ohio, where Randy Savage attended Grover Cleveland Middle School.
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Randy Savage graduated from Downers Grove North High School in the Chicago suburb of Downers Grove, Illinois.
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Randy Savage was signed by the St Louis Cardinals organization as a catcher out of high school.
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Randy Savage was placed in the minor leagues to develop, where he mostly played as an outfielder in the Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds farm systems.
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Randy 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 his roommate.
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Randy Savage would swing a bat into a hanging car tire to strengthen his hands and utilize his legs during swings.
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Randy Savage injured his natural throwing shoulder after a collision at home plate, and he learned to throw with his left arm instead.
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Randy Savage played 289 games over four minor league seasons, batting.
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Randy Savage first broke into the wrestling business in 1973 during the fall and winter of the baseball off season.
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Randy Savage's first wrestling character, The Spider, was similar to Spider-Man.
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Randy Savage 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".
20.
Randy Savage eventually decided to end his stalled baseball career and join his father and brother to wrestle full time.
21.
Randy Savage wrestled his first match against Midwest Territory wrestler "Golden Boy" Paul Christy.
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Randy Savage worked with his father and brother in Michigan, the Carolinas, Georgia, the Maritimes, and the eastern Tennessee territory run by Nick Gulas.
23.
Randy Savage 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.
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Later in 1984, Randy 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.
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In June 1985, Randy Savage signed with Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation.
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Randy Savage's gimmick was a crazed, ego-maniacal bully who mistreated Miss Elizabeth and threatened anyone who even looked at her.
27.
In late 1985, Randy Savage started a feud with then Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion Tito Santana over that title.
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Early in his WWF career, Randy Savage 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.
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At WrestleMania 2 on April 7,1986, Randy Savage defeated Steele in a match to retain his Intercontinental Heavyweight Title.
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Randy Savage resumed his feud with Steele in early 1987, culminating in two Intercontinental Heavyweight title matches, both won by Savage.
31.
On March 29,1987, Randy Savage wrestled Steamboat at WrestleMania III in the Pontiac Silverdome.
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The match was extremely choreographed, as opposed to the "on the fly" nature of most wrestling matches at the time; Randy Savage was a stickler for detail, and he and Steamboat laid out and rehearsed every spot in the match prior to WrestleMania.
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Steamboat and Randy Savage were seen cheering with and hugging other wrestlers after the match.
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Randy Savage won the King of the Ring tournament later in 1987.
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Randy Savage's 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.
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Randy 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 Andre the Giant.
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Randy Savage and Hogan got into a heated argument with Randy Savage declaring that Hogan was an inferior wrestler to him and that he wanted to steal Elizabeth from him.
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Randy Savage 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 for the first time since 1987.
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Randy Savage adopted the moniker "The Macho King" after defeating Jim Duggan for the King of the Ring title in September 1989.
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The "Macho King" and Hulk Hogan met one last time, when Randy Savage got a shot at Hogan's WWF World Heavyweight Championship on February 23,1990, at The Main Event III.
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Outraged, Randy Savage promised revenge, which he got during the Slaughter-Warrior title match.
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However, halfway down the aisle "The Macho King" Randy Savage attacked the champion, resulting in the Ultimate Warrior having to crawl to the ring.
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Later in the program, Randy Savage failed to appear in the Royal Rumble which led to speculation that he and Sherri had fled the building in order to avoid The Warrior.
44.
Randy Savage wrestled a number of times following WrestleMania VII and the WWF's official story was that out of respect, Warrior generously allowed him to see out the final months of his contract before he was forced to retire.
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Randy Savage then began an on-screen feud with WWF Champion Ric Flair, who claimed that he had been in a prior relationship with Randy Savage's wife Miss Elizabeth, going as far as presenting pictures of Elizabeth and Flair together.
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Randy Savage then formed a tag team with Warrior known as the "Ultimate Maniacs", and after his title loss shortly after, an injured Savage backed Warrior to dethrone Flair.
47.
Warrior was fired from the WWF weeks before the event, so Randy Savage chose Mr Perfect, executive consultant to Flair, as his partner to replace Warrior.
48.
When Monday Night Raw began in January 1993, Randy Savage served primarily as a color commentator.
49.
Randy Savage competed in the 1994 Royal Rumble match on January 22, but was eliminated by Crush, leading to a Falls Count Anywhere match on March 20 at WrestleMania X, where Savage defeated Crush.
50.
At SuperBrawl V on February 19,1995, Randy Savage and Sting defeated Avalanche and Big Bubba Rogers.
51.
Randy Savage participated in the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship tournament, defeating The Butcher in the first round and "Stunning" Steve Austin in the quarterfinals.
52.
Randy Savage then interfered in Flair's match against Alex Wright, attacking Flair and causing Wright to get disqualified, which set up a tournament semi-final in which the winner would face the winner of the Sting and Meng match for the title at The Great American Bash.
53.
Later that year, during part of the storyline in which Arn Anderson and Ric Flair turned on each other, Flair tried to recruit Randy Savage to be his partner.
54.
Randy Savage won his second WCW World Heavyweight Championship back from Flair on the January 22,1996 episode of Nitro.
55.
Flair claimed that Elizabeth gave him a sizable amount of Randy Savage's money, taken in their divorce settlement, which he used to set up a "VIP section" at Nitro events.
56.
Randy Savage threatened Hogan for months, often being attacked by the nWo.
57.
Randy Savage left WCW following the event, as he was unable to reach a new deal with the company.
58.
Randy Savage returned to WCW on the January 20,1997 episode of Nitro hijacking the show, claiming to have been "blackballed" and refusing to leave the ring until Sting showed up, and the two left together.
59.
Randy Savage appeared again with Sting over the next couple Nitro shows roving and watching events from the crowd as "free agents".
60.
Randy Savage began feuding with Diamond Dallas Page and his wife Kimberly.
61.
On January 24,1998, at Souled Out, Randy Savage lost to Luger.
62.
However, an interfering Bret Hart attacked Randy Savage and preserved the victory for Hogan.
63.
Randy Savage then joined with Nash and others to form the nWo Wolfpac, a split from Hogan's group.
64.
Randy Savage made only one more appearance in 1998, helping Ric Flair defeat Eric Bischoff for the Presidency of WCW on the December 28 episode of Nitro.
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Randy Savage returned in April 1999, debuting a new look and theme music, sporting a slicked-back ponytail, earrings, and a new villainous attitude, as well as introducing his new valet, Gorgeous George.
66.
Randy Savage disappeared from WCW programming following his feud with Rodman and would make two more appearances: first on the October 25,1999 episode of Nitro, when he appeared in the ring with Gorgeous George and talked about passing the torch forward.
67.
On November 7,2004, Randy Savage returned to professional wrestling at Total Nonstop Action Wrestling's Victory Road by confronting Jeff Jarrett.
68.
Randy Savage was the celebrity spokesman for Slim Jim snack foods in the mid-to-late 1990s.
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In 1998, Randy Savage accepted an award from Harvard University's humor society Harvard Lampoon as Man of the Year.
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Randy Savage appeared in many television shows in the mid-to-late '90s.
71.
Randy Savage appeared on a wrestling-themed episode of Baywatch that aired in 1996 with fellow WCW wrestlers Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Big Van Vader, and Kevin Sullivan.
72.
Randy Savage appeared in his first theatrical film in 2000 making an appearance as his Macho Man character in the movie Ready to Rumble where David Arquette daydreams a sequence fighting Randy Savage at a gas station.
73.
Randy Savage voiced the rogue alien wrestler "Rasslor" in the Dexter's Laboratory shorts Dial M for Monkey.
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Randy Savage provided his voice in many other shows including the voice for "Gorilla" in an episode of King of the Hill and the voice of Space Ghost's grandfather in an episode of Space Ghost Coast To Coast.
75.
Randy Savage served as the voice of "The Thug", in Disney's Academy Award-nominated 2008 animated film Bolt, which was his last theatrical film appearance.
76.
Randy Savage reprised the role in Super Rhino in 2009 for the short film featuring the cast of Bolt.
77.
On October 7,2003, Randy Savage released his debut rap album titled Be a Man.
78.
Randy Savage promoted Be a Man with a concert tour featuring Brian Adams as his bodyguard and Ron Harris as touring manager.
79.
Randy Savage met Elizabeth Hulette, better known as Miss Elizabeth, at a gym in Lexington in 1982, and they married in 1984.
80.
On May 10,2010, Randy Savage married Barbara Lynn Payne, who he previously dated in the early 70s.
81.
Randy Savage had a dog named Hercules, a German Shepherd that was given to him by Hercules Hernandez.
82.
Randy Savage had never been treated for heart problems and there was no evidence that he was aware of his heart condition.
83.
Five days after his death, Randy Savage was cremated, and his ashes were placed under a favorite tree on his property in Largo, Florida, near his mother's development.
84.
When Randy Savage's brother asked why, Randy Savage stated that it was because he wanted him to remember that spot, since he wanted his ashes to be poured there as well.
85.
Later that night, CM Punk paid tribute to Randy Savage by wearing pink trunks and yellow boots complete with white stars on the trunks during a tag team match with R-Truth against John Cena and Rey Mysterio.
86.
Randy Savage was never inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame during his lifetime and he was frequently described as being one of its most noticeably absent figures.
87.
Randy Savage is a subject of "The Match Made in Heaven", the first episode of Viceland's Dark Side of the Ring, that premiered on April 10,2019.