Friday, May 20, 2011

RIP Randy “Macho Man” Savage

By Rick Morris

The shocking and horrible news came out this morning with Randy “Macho Man” Savage (aka Randy Poffo) having suffered an apparent heart attack behind the wheel and perishing in a car accident. He was 58.

When you think about the most famous pro wrestlers, there were few if any who embodied more of the signature traits of the industry than he did. His interviews and catchphrases were notorious, but like a Ric Flair, he brought the excitement and workrate in a way that plodders like Hulk Hogan could not.

When we ranked the top 50 pro wrestlers of all time last month – based purely on money drawn, which, after all, is the industry’s most important factor – he came in 13th. As today’s tributes from many, many quarters are demonstrating, he influenced pop culture in a way that few from his business ever did.

Sadly, he had just celebrated his first wedding anniversary with his bride, Lynn, who was at least fortunate enough to make it through today’s crash.

He was known in the business for meticulously mapping out his matches, leaving very little to chance in the ring. His methods paid off, as he was one of very few wrestlers to have an epic encounter with the Ultimate Warrior and he had tremendous big-time matches with so many of the greats, including Flair, Jerry “The King” Lawler, Ted Dibiase, Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat and Jake “The Snake” Roberts.

We at FDH send our thoughts and prayers to the Poffo family in their time of grief and wish to celebrate his life by some of the great moments he gave us. RIP.

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