FEW people who grew up in the 1980s and ’90s will be unfamiliar with Randy Savage.
‘Macho Man”s rise to superstardom coincided with a boom in popularity in professional wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation (or World Wrestling Entertainment as it is known now) in particular.
Born Randy Poffo, both his father Angelo and brother Lanny were also wrestlers, though if Savage had his way, he would have made his name in a different field.
It was baseball, rather than wrestling, which was Savage’s primary obsession as a youngster.
A fascinating paradox of Savage’s life is that those who knew him pre-fame remembered a quiet and unremarkable child a million miles away from the loud, charismatic, larger-than-life figure he would come to personify. He was athletic but spindly and far from the physical behemoth he would become at his peak. Some people who went to school with the future superstar did not even realise the ‘Macho Man’ and Randy Poffo were the same person until years later.
A new book by author Jon Finkel, ‘The Untamed, Unbelievable Life of Randy Savage,’ gives a fascinating insight behind the man who would become a pop culture icon.
“Almost everybody that I interviewed, who knew him as a kid would never have ever predicted the ‘Macho Man’ character being somebody who he could even create,” Finkel tells The 42.
“He was very focused on baseball for almost all of his childhood. He was not an outgoing, outspoken kid. And so many people who knew him growing up referred to the ‘Macho Man’ as ‘the other guy’ because that was not who they grew up with.”
His parents met at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois, with his mother also a talented athlete who was on the swimming and diving teams there.
Savage was a sports-mad kid while Finkel describes the vibe of the house he grew up in as “just as much a 24 Hour Fitness as it was a family’s place to live. They had the equipment. They had the workout routines. They even had the health food and nutritional mindset that wouldn’t be widely accepted by athletes and trainers for decades.”
The house also had a swimming pool in the backyard and a wrestling ring in the basement. Yet there was one sport that mattered above all else.
“He loved baseball with every fibre of his being,” says Finkel. “It was what he wanted to do with his life.”
And Savage was talented to a point, ultimately making it to the minor leagues just below the elite level of the sport.
The soon-to-be ‘Macho Man’ played four seasons, featuring for the St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds and the Tampa Tarpons during the early 1970s.
“He had all the all the heart you would need, he had all the tools to be very good at minor league,” says Finkel.
“But [the people who played with and coached him] mentioned that he didn’t have that one thing that pushes you from a minor leaguer to a major leaguer. He was close. He could hit with power, he was a pretty good catcher until he got hurt.
“And then he famously had to teach himself to throw with his opposite arm, which is an incredible feat, anyone who’s ever thrown anything with their dominant arm can imagine when you’re playing baseball, the level of which you need to throw a baseball, 90 miles an hour.
“Getting an injury where you can’t throw and instead of retiring, learning how to throw with your opposite hand [was incredible]. He threw 1,500 balls a day, every day, against the wall. So he was able to do that, which is kind of an insane thing to do. And it prolonged his career.
“But at the end of the day, the main reason why he didn’t make it is he simply wasn’t good enough.”
The consensus among people that Finkel spoke to was that even if Savage managed to avoid that catastrophic injury, he would only have probably extended his career in the minor leagues at best. Although the author adds: “Perhaps [he would have] gone on one of those streaks that happens where he gets hot and a major league team calls him up and then you never know. I mean, he had the physical ability to do it.
“Sometimes it takes guys three or four years [to get to the majors], or sometimes guys spend nine years in the minors and never make it. But he wasn’t one of those guys where everybody thought he would be a superstar.”
After 289 games, when it became apparent his baseball dream would fail, the mental impact it had on Savage was considerable.
He had spent his entire childhood planning for a career in the sport and suddenly, this ambition was no longer feasible with no teams willing to take him on.
Savage, by then in his early 20s, did not respond well to the news that he was being cut from the team.
Finkel writes: “Randy went, well, savage. He threw equipment, smashed bags and although an actual log of the destruction has been lost to history, teammates watched him nearly decimate the entire locker room.”
Savage spent the night on the couch of a friend’s house in Florida before driving the 1200 miles home the next day to Downers Grove, a suburb 20 miles west of Chicago.
“He was essentially building up the mentality of putting his baseball career behind him, it wouldn’t do them any good to hang on to something that was never going to happen,” Finkel recalls.
“And he pulls into his house, shatters all of his bats against the tree in front of his house, says ‘I’m done with them’ and from what everyone in his family said, the very next morning, he dedicated himself to wrestling.
“I think he had already learned how to prepare and train with the best of them in baseball so he can swing that over to wrestling.
“But where he was really able to transfer his energy and power was his drive to be the best. He never made it in baseball, but in his mind, he would be the best baseball player who ever lived, the best catcher — he wanted to be like his hero, Johnny Bench, Pete Rose and these guys.
“When it came to wrestling, he instantly wanted to be the greatest wrestler of all time, and he had already trained his body and mind to prepare.”
With his father acting as a mentor, Savage seamlessly rose through the ranks of the industry. He joined the WWF in 1985 and was soon elevated to main-event status, winning the world title in 1988 and again in 1992.
Savage came of age when steroids were not just less of a taboo topic but also legal in the US before being banned in 1990.
The star’s physical appearance and his dramatic transformation from the lean teenager he once was led to drug-related rumours throughout his career.
Moreover, in the 1970s, Savage was one of many wrestlers who openly admitted to trying steroids as he was looking for any edge he could get over his rivals.
However, once the drug became illegal and some of the side-effects such as rage, acne and liver disease became widely known, Savage insists he stopped taking them.
“[According to] all the people I spoke to, no one saw him doing anything after that,” adds Finkel. “And then he famously went on Arsenio Hall [a popular American late-night talk show] at one point and acknowledged that he used them and tried to explain the dangers for kids [and warned them] not to use steroids.”
A popular character in WWF during his nine-year stint, one of the most compelling aspects of Savage’s story was his relationship with Elizabeth Hulette, or Miss Elizabeth as she was known to fans.
Hulette was introduced to viewers as Savage’s manager and girlfriend. The pair’s troubled romance in front of the cameras was mirrored in real life.
Savage was portrayed in storylines as jealous and paranoid about Elizabeth around other men — issues with more than a ring of truth.
The pair were legally married in 1984 and their equivalent wrestling characters tied the knot in 1991, though just a year later, they were divorced and the couple went their separate ways onscreen too.
“It was difficult once he became a superstar, once they were on the road and in the public eye and their real-life mixed with art,” says Finkel.
“They were both travelling 300 days a year, there was no normalcy, no settling down, there was a time when she had mentioned she wanted a family, but that was never going to happen with them being on the roster at the same time.
“[Jealousy] was one of the bigger factors he couldn’t handle… I think the relationship couldn’t handle it.
“They were having their real-life play out in front of everybody in wrestling. They’re creating all these angles with Hulk Hogan and obviously, every angle that works the best has a little hint of real life.
“And I think it’s fair to say that Macho, how he behaved around certain storylines, just got lost in the plot sometimes and it seems like he was so far into it that once he got all revved up in the ring, and in front of the camera, he had a hard time just flipping the switch when he got off.”
There was a similar love-hate relationship with the other iconic superstar from that era — Hulk Hogan.
“They were best buddies and then didn’t talk and best buddies and didn’t talk,” says Finkel. “Luckily, they reconciled towards the end of Randy’s life.
“But there was also a genuine rivalry there. I mean, the whole time ‘Macho Man’ became a champion, Hulk was in the ring. He had his moment and was the standard bearer, but he only had it when it was very much Hulk’s time. There was no Macho era.”
Savage left the WWF in 1994. Around that period, he had taken some time off to heal both physical and mental wounds — the former from years of wrestling relentlessly and the latter owing to his divorce from Elizabeth.
To compound these personal problems, WWF owner Vince McMahon felt Savage was past his best as an athlete and instead decided to put him in the commentary booth.
Savage was on the verge of turning 42 when his contract expired and he left to sign with a rival company, World Championship Wrestling (WCW).
“Vince famously wanted to have a youth movement,” adds Finkel. “And that was it, leaving WWF for him was not a choice. It was: ‘Where can I wrestle? If they’re not going to let me do it, I’ll go to WCW.’”
Savage subsequently had a relatively successful run in WCW but by the end of his six years there, it was clear the ageing star was a shadow of the athlete that had wowed fans at his peak.
“The guy had been, aside from baseball, just absolutely punishing his body for 30 years, almost. And one of the things he liked about the WCW was that the ring was a little smaller so that he was faster.
“But he was a shell of himself physically. You think about the thousands of times his knees and hips landed on the ground with a flying elbow, his legs and knees and ankles with a double axe handle, and for the first seven, or eight years of doing that, it wasn’t even on the higher quality WWF rings with some padding.
“These were not high-end rings that they could get in there that were built for maximum safety for the wrestler. They were built for maximum efficiency to move and transport, and all that took its toll.
“He hung around a little bit in TNA [Total Nonstop Action Wrestling] but at that point, as much as I hate to say it as someone who revered him, he was kind of just like an old man shouting.”
There were a couple of notable post-wrestling endeavours — an appearance in the acclaimed and much-loved Tobey Maguire-starring ‘Spider-Man’ film in 2002. Less successful was the release of ‘Be a Man,’ a 2003 rap album that was panned by critics and disappointed commercially, selling roughly 15,000 copies, well short of the 15 million Savage’s brother claims he thought it was going to shift.
However, the star spent most of the last decade of his life away from the spotlight.
“He realised, at some point, that there was nothing else he could achieve through his wrestling persona, in other media,” says Finkel.
“But he’s still living in the public eye on the beach, people could just wave to him at his condo. And he was still very visible. And, I think it was probably the natural inclination at that age to pull back a little bit.”
Savage still worked out regularly in this period and could make plenty of time for his elderly parents, which had been impossible at the height of his fame. His father passed away in 2010 aged 84 just over a year before Savage’s death, while his mother outlived them both, dying at 90 in 2017. His brother Lanny, a key figure assisting Finkel with the biography, died of heart failure last year at 68.
“Not that he ever lost touch, but [in later life] he could do it in person daily — be with his family and parents in particular,” says Finkel.
“He reconnected with [a former girlfriend and] the woman who became his [second] wife. He did a tonne of philanthropy, and that’s one of the nice things to learn about Macho — he was incredibly philanthropic, especially with anything involving kids.”
It was on May 20, 2011, when Savage, while driving a Jeep Wrangler near his home in Seminole, Florida, became unresponsive, causing the vehicle to crash into a tree.
Paramedics found the 58-year-old dead at the scene while his wife, who was in the passenger seat, only received minor injuries.
Per a report in the Tampa Bay Times, an autopsy revealed that Savage “had an enlarged heart with severe atherosclerosis of his coronary arteries and more than 90% blockage. The cause of death was determined to be atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease or heart disease.”
The story adds: “The four-page autopsy report showed he suffered only minor scrapes and bruising from the crash. But it also documented markings on the 255-pound, 6-foot-2 former wrestler’s body that spoke of a life in the ring: a trail of tiny scars from his scalp and forehead to his chest, arms and legs. The report also noted ‘mildly deformed’ knuckles.”
Finkel believes it is “very likely” that the notoriously unforgiving lifestyle a professional wrestler is invariably subjected to played a part in Savage’s premature death.
“He was not fond of doctors, he probably could have gone more regularly for checkups and heart cardiology stuff.
“Ultimately, I don’t think there’s a medical ‘this is what happened,’ but [the wrestling lifestyle] definitely contributed. And it’s sad how we know what could have been done differently.”
Tributes poured in following this sad loss, while Savage’s astonishing and unique body of work was widely recognised.
“He is one of the most unique entertainers we have ever had in modern society,” says Finkel. “He’s a man who created a voice, style, size, persona, and charisma from nothing into a character that hundreds of millions of people instantly [recognise]. When you hear his name, his voice pops into your brain, and an image, whether a purple outfit or a neon hat, jumps into your mind.
“He created a character out of nowhere, beloved by millions of kids worldwide. He transcended wrestling with Slim Jim and some other things. So his legacy is just one of incredible effort, willpower, and a desire to entertain and transform his life, and his life’s work, into something that people would enjoy.”
So as devastating as the end of his baseball dream was, it proved a blessing in disguise.
“Imagine Randy Poffo as a guy who spent seven years in the minors, then three years coming in and out of Major League Baseball clubhouses barely making it. And all of a sudden, he’s 31, he probably doesn’t have the energy and willpower at that point to start a wrestling career. So in some ways, his failure to make that became everyone else’s reward.”
Macho Man: The Untamed, Unbelievable Life of Randy Savage is published by ECW Press. More info here.
