Randy Savage

Randy Mario Poffo (November 15, 1952 – May 20, 2011), better known by his ring name "Macho Man" Randy Savage, was an American professional wrestler and occasional color commentator best known for his time in World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Savage held 20 championships during his professional wrestling career. He held six world titles between the WWF and WCW, having won the WWF Championship twice and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship four times. He also won the ICW World Heavyweight Championship three times and the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship once. A one-time WWF Intercontinental Champion, WWE (formerly WWF) has named Savage as the greatest champion of all time and credited him for bringing "a higher level of credibility to the title through his amazing in-ring performances." He was also the1987 WWF King of the Ring and the 1995 WCW World War 3 winner. A major pay-per-view attraction in the 1980s and 1990s, Savage headlined WrestleManias IV, V and VIII, as well as four of the first five SummerSlam shows, the 1995 edition of WCW's Starrcade, and many other events. Hulk Hogan, face of the WWF during the professional wrestling "Golden Era" of the 1980s and early 1990s, described Savage as being "so influential in this business, especially in the WWF", and recalled, "[H]e's the only guy we could pass the belt to, and we wouldn't lose money...things would stay the same, or get better." For most of his tenures in the WWF and WCW, Savage was managed by his real life wife "Miss Elizabeth" Hulette. He was recognizable by wrestling fans for his distinctively deep and raspy voice, his ring attire, intensity exhibited in and out of the ring, his entrance music, 'Pomp and Circumstance', and his signature catch phrase, "Ooh yeah!". Savage died of cardiac arrhythmia while driving with his second wife Barbara Lynn Payne, in Seminole, Florida on the morning of May 20, 2011. --- Randy Mario Poffo was born in Columbus, Ohio on November 15, 1952, the elder son of Judy and Angelo Poffo. His father was Italian American and his mother was Jewish. Angelo was a well-known wrestler in the 1950s and 1960s, who was featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not! for his ability to do sit-ups for hours on end. His younger brother is professional wrestler Lanny Poffo, better known by his ring names "The Genius" and "Leaping Lanny Poffo." Randy also lived in Zanesville, Ohio where he attended Grover Cleveland Middle School. He graduated from Downers Grove North High School in a suburb near Chicago, Illinois. He later moved to Lexington, Kentucky and lived there for many years. 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 St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, and Chicago White Sox 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 as a regular training exercise in order to strengthen his hands and make sure he utilized his legs during swings, the technique was so effective that Herndon adopted it and used it during his own career as a baseball coach. Savage injured his natural (right) throwing shoulder after a collision at home plate, and he learned to throw with his left arm instead. The team was managed by Jimmy Piersall. Savage's last season was 1974, when he played for the Tampa Tarpons. He played 289 games in four minor league seasons, batting .254 with 16 home runs and 66 RBIs. --- 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 Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW) booker Ole Anderson, who said that the name Poffo did not fit someone who "wrestled like a savage". Savage eventually decided to end his baseball career and become a full-time wrestler, working with his brother and father. 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 (ICW) promotion in the mid-American states. Eventually, ICW disbanded and Randy and Lanny entered the Memphis scene, joining Jerry Lawler's Continental Wrestling Association (their former competitors). 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 pile driving him through the timekeeper's table, leading to the Express winning by disqualification (though Savage's brother Lanny later said that Morton was not injured in the attack). 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 8 in Memphis, Tennessee. --- Savage was cast in the 2002 film Spider-Man as the wrestler Bonesaw McGraw (based on the comics character Crusher Hogan). He made an appearance as himself in the movie Ready to Rumble and played character Jim Davies in Velcro Revolver. As a voice actor he voiced the rogue alien wrestler "Rasslor" in the Dexter's Laboratory shorts 'Dial M for Monkey". He provided the voice for "Gorilla" in an episode of King of the Hill. He also provided the voice of "The Thug", an agent in Disney's 2008 animated film Bolt, his last film appearance. --- Savage married Elizabeth Ann Hulette on December 30, 1984. She later became his valet in the World Wrestling Federation. They separated in the summer of 1992. On May 10, 2010, Savage married his long-time girlfriend, Barbara Lynn Payne. --- On the morning of May 20, 2011, Savage died after suffering a sudden heart attack while driving with his wife in Seminole, Florida, a town on the Pinellas County side of the Tampa Bay area. He was 58 years old. Savage became unresponsive and lost control of his Jeep Wrangler, crashing into a tree. Initial reports of his death indicated that he had been killed in the collision, when in fact he and his wife had been wearing seatbelts and suffered only minor physical injuries in the crash. An autopsy performed by the Pinellas-Pasco County medical examiner's office found that he had an enlarged heart and advanced coronary artery disease (more than 90% narrowed). The only drugs found in his system were a prescription painkiller and a small amount of alcohol. Savage had never been treated for heart problems and there was no evidence that he was aware of his heart condition. It was unclear whether he had suffered a blockage in his coronary arteries or cardiac arrest from lack of oxygen to the heart muscle. The cause of death was officially ruled as "atherosclerotic heart disease".