Randy "Macho Man" Savage's presence and charisma in professional wrestling were undeniable. His raspy voice, over-the-top interviews, and flamboyant ring entrances (which included "Pomp and Circumstance" as his entrance music) made him a crowd favorite whether he played a good guy or a heel. Macho Man is considered by many professional wrestling aficionados as one of the greatest wrestlers of his time. His 32-year career included two WWE World Heavyweight Championships and four WCW World Heavyweight Championships. But even though Macho Man held similar drawing power to Hulk Hogan during the heyday of his career, his life and career was riddled with tragedy.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Macho man Randy Savage seemed larger than life, but being a pro wrestler is no picnic,
00:05and the man behind the persona had his share of difficulties.
00:08This is the tragic real-life story of Randy Savage.
00:10Athletic, bombastic, and loud as he was, Macho Man Randy Savage seemed like a man who was
00:15born, or perhaps constructed, to be a professional wrestler.
00:18However, his original aspirations were quite different.
00:21As Bleacher Report tells us, young Randy Poffo nursed dreams of becoming a professional baseball
00:25player.
00:26In a 2012 interview with IGN, Savage made it clear how much he'd loved his time in the
00:30minor leagues, saying,
00:31"...I was a catcher.
00:32It was really cool.
00:33I loved every second of it, every bus ride, all my teammates, every game."
00:36Savage made the rounds in the minor leagues, trying to make it with the Cincinnati Reds,
00:40St. Louis Cardinals, and Chicago White Sox.
00:43According to Sports Illustrated, he even overcame a potentially career-ending shoulder injury
00:46by painstakingly teaching himself to throw left-handed.
00:49Unfortunately, his grueling work was in vain.
00:52None of the organizations he played for were willing to pick him up for the major leagues,
00:56and when the Sox cut him in the spring of 1975, it became apparent that he wasn't going
01:00to make it.
01:01To say that he took it extremely hard would be an understatement.
01:04In 2015, Savage's mother, Judy, said,
01:06"...when Randy got released, he broke all his bats and got rid of all his equipment.
01:10It was horrible."
01:12As CBS Sports tells us, Randy Savage's Macho Man mode wasn't always limited to the ring
01:16and interviews.
01:17According to fellow wrestler Steve, the Brooklyn brawler Lombardi, Savage was very intense
01:21and retained his distinctive Macho Man persona both on and off the camera.
01:26In his interviews, when he spoke, it was not just on TV.
01:28He spoke like that in real life.
01:29Oh, yeah!
01:30Let me tell you something, brother.
01:32Per Sports Illustrated, pro wrestling legend Stone Cold Steve Austin has expressed a similar
01:36sentiment.
01:37His intensity, his promo style?
01:38He was the Macho Man, 24-7, 365, and he was that before he got to the WWF.
01:43Sadly, Savage's constant intensity also manifested in less savory ways.
01:48In 1978, he was involved in a massive brawl at a Waffle House and was so out of control
01:53that the police needed to use their batons, mace, and a police dog to take him down.
01:57Savage later admitted that he was, quote, a little hyper.
02:00According to The Morning Call, another, even worse incident landed him in court in 1988.
02:04Allegedly, a fan approached him when he was idling at a red light and asked for an autograph.
02:09Savage's alleged response was to get out of the car, punch the fan in the face, and body-slam
02:13him before reportedly saying,
02:14"'How's that for an autograph, boy?'
02:16Jake the Snake Roberts is one of the more tragic figures in the pro wrestling community,
02:20and when he crossed paths with Randy Savage in 1991, dark clouds loomed on the horizon.
02:25Roberts' gimmick involved live snakes, and as Pro Wrestling Stories tells us, it soon
02:29became evident that Savage wasn't happy when he found out that his upcoming match with
02:33Roberts would end with him getting bitten by a snake.
02:35In fact, Roberts says that he eventually had to let that snake bite him in the locker room
02:39to convince Savage that the snake wasn't dangerous.
02:41When the match took place, though, things went awry.
02:43Though the snake bit Savage as planned, it soon became apparent that the animal wouldn't
02:47let go.
02:48As Roberts put it,
02:49"'I'm trying to pull it off.
02:50I'm trying.
02:51And the snake's just gnawing on his arm.
02:52It's going on for like a minute now, you know?"
02:54In a 2004 interview with IGN, Savage discussed the aftermath of the incident, which ended
02:59up hospitalizing him.
03:00"'About five days later I had a fever and went to the hospital with 104-degree fever.
03:04It's unbelievable to walk into the hospital and tell the doctor I had a snake bite.'"
03:08Macho Man ultimately survived his ordeal, but curiously, Jake's snake died soon after
03:12the incident.
03:13Savage gave us the obvious explanation.
03:15He was de-venomized, but maybe I wasn't.
03:17For a long time, the most important figure in Randy Savage's professional and personal
03:21life was the same person, Elizabeth Ann Hewlett, whom you probably know better by her wrestling
03:26moniker Miss Elizabeth.
03:27As Sports Illustrated tells us, Macho Man and Miss Elizabeth were a wrestler and his
03:31valet, but also husband and wife.
03:33This actually applied to both their in-ring roles and real-life situation.
03:36They got married for real in a small ceremony in 1984, and their characters followed suit
03:41in a rather more opulent in-ring ceremony at 1991's SummerSlam at Madison Square Garden.
03:46Unfortunately, their doubly committed union didn't turn into happily ever after.
03:50Savage was an extremely jealous man and tried to protect, or as it often appeared, hide
03:55Elizabeth from the prying eyes of fellow wrestlers.
03:57As Hulk Hogan described it,
03:58"'If you even looked at Elizabeth the wrong way, then holy s**t, Randy would freak out.
04:02If you ever wanted to get him lit up, you'd just have to look at Liz.'"
04:05Despite, or perhaps because of this, Miss Elizabeth filed for divorce in 1992.
04:10To add insult to injury, Savage's later WCW tenure used their divorce as part of a storyline.
04:16"'Randy, how's Miss Elizabeth doing?'
04:18"'Well, bottom line is we got a divorce.'"
04:22It's almost impossible to talk about Randy Savage without bringing up his most famous
04:26tag team partner, Hulk Hogan.
04:28As TalkSport tells us, Macho Man and the Hulkster started out as bitter in-ring enemies.
04:32But in 1987, the powers-that-be decided to pair the two superstars.
04:36The ensuing tag team was very fittingly known as the Mega Powers, and judging by the fact
04:40that Hogan was the man who inducted Savage into the WWE Hall of Fame, it's easy to think
04:45that these two pillars of pro wrestling remained buddies for life.
04:48Alas, as is so often the case, the reality was far unhappier.
04:52In 1992, Savage's marriage with Elizabeth Hewlett fell apart.
04:56Hogan ended up receiving a lot of heat about this thanks to an incident that happened soon
04:59afterward.
05:00Hewlett was a family friend, and the Hogans took her with them for a trip to Miami.
05:04According to Pro Wrestling Stories, Hewlett was dating an acquaintance of Hogan's at the
05:07time.
05:08And when a furious Macho Man eventually turned up, the situation got nasty enough that some
05:12say Savage actually gave Hogan the black eye he had in WrestleMania 9.
05:16After this incident, Savage had plenty of unpleasant things to say about Hogan, and
05:19even stated that the pair were never friends.
05:21Hogan, on the other hand, has been more mellow, and he's even stated that the pair ultimately
05:25reconnected and reconciled.
05:27In 2008, Bleacher Report wrote that Macho Man Randy Savage was blacklisted from the
05:32WWE.
05:33The idea of one of the biggest names in pro wrestling being banned from working with the
05:36biggest wrestling promotion is a strange one, and begs the question, what exactly did Savage
05:40do to get on WWE owner Vince McMahon's bad side?
05:44In an industry as rife with rumor as professional wrestling, it may be impossible to ever find
05:48out the truth behind the story.
05:50However, it's clear that the relationship between Savage and the WWE became rather strained
05:54around the year 1994, when the WWE was known as the WWF.
05:59At the time, Savage's contract was nearing its end, and he was seemingly happily pulling
06:03double duty as a color commentator and occasional mid-card wrestler.
06:06However, Savage split for the rival promotion, WCW, the second he could.
06:10Some say that this broke a verbal agreement he had with McMahon.
06:13Others have speculated that the WWE owner was bitter because Savage's departure meant
06:18the company also lost the Slim Jim ad dollar, since the meat snack was so associated with
06:22the Macho Man.
06:23Some suggest that another factor may be that Savage signed with a bitter enemy just as
06:27his WWE magazine cover issue came out.
06:30As Sportskeeda reports, there's even an odd rumor that Savage had an affair with McMahon's
06:34daughter, Stephanie.
06:35Regardless of what really provoked the WWE's ire, the promotion basically purged all mentions
06:40of Savage for years.
06:42Randy Savage was a great many things, but perhaps above all, he was a man who loved
06:46his father.
06:47According to Bleacher Reports, his relationship with Angelo Poffo was by far the most important
06:51in his life, and he molded his life after his father's teachings.
06:54Considering that Angelo was a tough-as-nails wrestler who once held the world record in
06:58sit-ups with no fewer than 6,000 reps, this was no easy feat, but Macho Man inherited
07:03his father's perseverance.
07:04Savage's frugality, also a lesson learned from his father, didn't extend to his parents,
07:08whom he lavished with so many expensive gifts and luxurious vacations that they eventually
07:12had to tell him to stop.
07:14Unfortunately, even beloved patriarchs get old, and the strong and determined Angelo
07:18slowly succumbed to dementia.
07:19Though he cared for his father until his death in 2010, the situation was extremely hard
07:24for Savage.
07:25As Mother Judy put it,
07:26"[Randy prayed for Angelo to die because he suffered so much.
07:29But when he did die, Randy went home and punched holes in the walls."
07:33Macho Man Randy Savage lived an intensely physical life, and he suffered his share of
07:37nasty injuries over the years.
07:39According to Sports Illustrated, his first major injury came before he even started wrestling.
07:43In 1973, he was still trying to make it as a baseball player when an incident described
07:47as a home plate collision wrecked his right shoulder.
07:49As Bleacher Report tells us, Savage's actual wrestling career wasn't much kinder to his
07:54body.
07:55In fact, towards the end of his life, he often talked about the daily pains he lived with.
07:58Kid, I'm not gonna lie to you, I'm in a tremendous amount of pain."
08:02Curiously, one of the worst injuries of the Macho Man's life had nothing to do with his
08:05dangerous in-ring endeavors.
08:07It came from acting, of all things.
08:09In 2002, Savage played a fearsome wrestler called Bonesaw McGraw in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man.
08:14In this role, he got to battle a superhero.
08:16And we got this guy called, uh, Spider-Man.
08:19Beat him up, knock him out.
08:21But the price for this prestige was high.
08:24The fight required several takes of a particularly nasty bump that involved McGraw landing on
08:28his head.
08:29Being a professional wrestler, Savage refused to use a stuntman.
08:32As a result, his neck was more or less irreparably wrecked.
08:35Savage's brother, Lanny, explained,
08:37"...he needed a lot of physical therapy, but he was never the same.
08:40Instead of turning his neck to see you, he turned his torso."
08:44Even wrestling legends can't live forever.
08:46As the Los Angeles Times tells us, Randy Savage died at the wheel on May 20, 2011, after losing
08:51control of his vehicle in Pinellas County, Florida, and crashing into a tree.
08:55However, Bleacher Report notes that there was more to the story.
08:58The medical examiner found that the 58-year-old Savage was suffering from atherosclerosis
09:02and also had an enlarged heart, which gave out as he was behind the wheel.
09:06Before the incident, he complained to his wife, Lynn, that he was about to lose consciousness.
09:11Despite this, Savage refused to relinquish the wheel, until he fainted and the car crashed.
09:15Thankfully, the impact was fairly light, and Lynn got away with only minor injuries.
09:19At the time of his death, Macho Man was a much more reserved figure than the colorful
09:23character the world knew and loved.
09:25He had gradually turned into something of a hermit who lived behind a fence, shunned
09:28the company of most people, and essentially refused to keep in touch with the wrestling
09:32community.
09:33He also seemed eerily certain that he'd meet an untimely fate, and was quick to tell his
09:36loved ones that he didn't want a large funeral.
09:38Then again, he also seemed to enjoy the small tasks and errands of life and appeared to
09:42be at a peace of sorts.
09:43As his brother, Lanny, put it,
09:44"...he was getting closure for everything."