RIP Randy "Macho Man" Savage

[Sea Bass]

Lanny has probably already written a poem about it.

 

[Huggy]

Even Lanny Poffo's Wikipedia is updated with the death:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanny_Poffo

He's the Genius Lanny Poffo, the World's Smartest Man!

 

[Huggy]

Massive. I knew of two pro wrestlers with sizable endorsement deals in the 1980s-90s -- Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage. And any of today's "entertainers" (to use a little WWE-ese) who don't credit Savage with some kind of inspiration or aid in developing their own in-the-ring personas is either stupid, lying or ungrateful.

None of the clowns today are as remotely talented as he was on the mike and in the ring.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

So, let's see...

King Kong Bundy - Alive
George The Animal Steele - Alive
Bobby Heenan - Alive
Iron Sheik - Alive

Andre the Giant - Dead
Adrian Adonis - Dead
JYD - Dead
One of the British Bulldogs - Dead
Gorilla Monsoon - Dead
Miss Elizabeth - Dead

 

[apeman33]

He's reunited with Miss Elizabeth.

Wait, Miss Elizabeth is dead, too?

She died in 2003. OD at Lex Luger's house.

And for Moddy's question: Right now on my Facebook, 7 of the first 8 posts I see are about Macho Man.

For me, the top wrestling icons of the 80s would be
1) Hulk Hogan
2) Randy Savage
3) Sgt. Slaughter
4) Wendi Richter/Cyndi Lauper/Captain Lou Albano
5) Gorilla Monsoon/Jesse Ventura announcing WWFE matches (Did they ever work together? I remember that Ventura worked with Vince).

 

[Lucas Wiseman]

Macho Man was one of my favorite wrestlers growing up... right up there with Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

****, ****, ****, one of my favorites from the 80s.

To answer your questions, yes, his real name is Randy Poffo. He did play in the minors with the Cardinals, as well as a couple of other teams, but didn't make the majors. I think he did end up with the big club in spring training, though.

He was one of the biggest names in the 80s. I'd say he was one of several wrestlers who would fill the No. 2 role behind Hogan in terms of recognition. Piper, Flair (even though he was in the NWA) and Andre the Giant were the others. I'd say if you ranked them in terms of recognition, it'd be Hogan, Andre, Flair, Piper and Savage.

Yes, Miss Elizabeth is dead, too. They were married in real life, and divorced in the early 90s. She shacked up with Lex Luger, and supposedly died of a drug overdose in the early 2000s.

One report had Leaping Lanny (his real life brother), saying Savage had a heart attack and crashed the car.

Savage was one of the most talented wrestlers ever. Especially in ring, compared to Hogan, he was a breath of fresh air, and was great both as a good guy and as a heel.

He should have been in the WWE Hall of Fame by now, but wasn't inducted, supposedly because he had a fling with a teenage Stephanie McMahon, which infuriated Vince. There had been a thawing of relations between Savage and Vince recently, and there had been rumors he not only would have been inducted, but that he also would have had a match at Wrestlemania.

RIP again. OOOOOH YEAHHH! DIG IT!!!

 

[bumpy mcgee]

I think an appropriate tribute would be for every graduation from now on to play Pomp and Circumstance when the graduates walk down the aisle.

 

[Moderator1]

Is Argentine Apollo dead?

 

[I Should Coco]

Damn ... one of the more famous graduates from Downers Grove North H.S. in the western 'burbs of Chicago.

Didn't know him personally, but loved his act in the 1980s. And it was cool knowing he was from my part of the world.

RIP, Macho Man.

 

[sgreenwell]

Definitely a huge deal in the wrestling word, and in the popular culture world too - They were talking about it for around 20 minutes on the local sports talk radio in Boston today, despite the fact that the Bruins and Red Sox both won in dramatic fashion yesterday. But once that news came out, they got a whole string of Randy Savage calls.

As others have alluded to, he was a great athlete, and spent some time playing minor league baseball. Although Hogan had more of an effect on the "style" aspect of the business, with guys copying his promos and mannerisms, Savage had a much bigger impact on in-ring action. His match with Ricky Steamboat at Wrestlemania III is considered one of the greatest of all time.

 

[Sea Bass]

5) Gorilla Monsoon/Jesse Ventura announcing WWFE matches (Did they ever work together? I remember that Ventura worked with Vince).

They did work together. A friend notes the two of them did yeoman's work calling WM IV, which featured the grueling 16-man elimination tournament for the then-vacant WWF World Heavyweight Championship.

 

[Huggy]

5) Gorilla Monsoon/Jesse Ventura announcing WWFE matches (Did they ever work together? I remember that Ventura worked with Vince).

I remember them well, they were one of the best announcing teams around.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Ventura and Monsoon definitely worked together...

 

[bigpern23]

****, ****, ****, one of my favorites from the 80s.

To answer your questions, yes, his real name is Randy Poffo. He did play in the minors with the Cardinals, as well as a couple of other teams, but didn't make the majors. I think he did end up with the big club in spring training, though.

He was one of the biggest names in the 80s. I'd say he was one of several wrestlers who would fill the No. 2 role behind Hogan in terms of recognition. Piper, Flair (even though he was in the NWA) and Andre the Giant were the others. I'd say if you ranked them in terms of recognition, it'd be Hogan, Andre, Flair, Piper and Savage.

Yes, Miss Elizabeth is dead, too. They were married in real life, and divorced in the early 90s. She shacked up with Lex Luger, and supposedly died of a drug overdose in the early 2000s.

One report had Leaping Lanny (his real life brother), saying Savage had a heart attack and crashed the car.

Savage was one of the most talented wrestlers ever. Especially in ring, compared to Hogan, he was a breath of fresh air, and was great both as a good guy and as a heel.

He should have been in the WWE Hall of Fame by now, but wasn't inducted, supposedly because he had a fling with a teenage Stephanie McMahon, which infuriated Vince. There had been a thawing of relations between Savage and Vince recently, and there had been rumors he not only would have been inducted, but that he also would have had a match at Wrestlemania.

RIP again. OOOOOH YEAHHH! DIG IT!!!

No way were Flair or Piper bigger than Savage. An argument could be made for Andre. I'd always put Savage at No. 2 behind Hogan.

 

[Iron_chet]

5) Gorilla Monsoon/Jesse Ventura announcing WWFE matches (Did they ever work together? I remember that Ventura worked with Vince).

I remember them well, they were one of the best announcing teams around.

Loved this duo, my all time fave announcing team. I remember when Monsoon once said that "Koreans can't be trusted" in reference to Tiger Chung Lee and a few of my buddies still reference this 20+ years later if the subject of Korea comes up.

As others have noted the match with Steamboat at Wtrestlemania was awesome.

I don't follow wrestling much now but was into it until the late 90's, my best friend was in WWF/E and ECW so met quite a few of the guys and heard lots of the crazy stories.

 

[Sea Bass]

5) Gorilla Monsoon/Jesse Ventura announcing WWFE matches (Did they ever work together? I remember that Ventura worked with Vince).

I remember them well, they were one of the best announcing teams around.

Loved this duo, my all time fave announcing team. I remember when Monsoon once said that "Koreans can't be trusted" in reference to Tiger Chung Lee and a few of my buddies still reference this 20+ years later if the subject of Korea comes up.

As others have noted the match with Steamboat at Wtrestlemania was awesome.

I don't follow wrestling much now but was into it until the late 90's, my best friend was in WWF/E and ECW so met quite a few of the guys and heard lots of the crazy stories.

Tiger Chung Lee. That's a great pull.

 

[Smallpotatoes]

I guess I'm going to have to snap into a Slim Jim in his honor.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Savage was much more popular than Roddy Piper. Piper faded away pretty quickly in the mid 1980s when wrestling was getting bigger and bigger.

I went to two live WWF matches when I was a kid. Savage was the main event both times, beating Ricky Steamboat once and beating the guy who would use the full nelson as his final move. I can't remember his name.

 

[Gutter]

5) Gorilla Monsoon/Jesse Ventura announcing WWFE matches (Did they ever work together? I remember that Ventura worked with Vince).

Yes, in fact they called the Savage-Steamboat match at WM3

Second half of that match:

And, any list with wrestling icons of the 80s has to include Ric Flair.