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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Savage
Randall Mario Poffo (born November 15, 1952)[2][1][3] better known by his ring name "Macho Man" Randy Savage, is a former American professional wrestler and actor Savage is best known for his time with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and most notably World Wrestling Federation (WWF). For much of his tenure in the WWF, he was managed by his real life wife, "Miss Elizabeth" Hulette.[3]
Savage became instantly recognizable by wrestling fans for his distinctively deep, husky voice, colorful attire (often comprised of sunglasses and a bandanna, gaudy robes and/or a cowboy hat), intensity exhibited in and out of the ring, his catch phrase "Oooh, yeah!" and his strange interviews which often digress into cryptic nonsense.[3]
Savage is a six-time world champion, with four WCW title reigns and two WWF title reigns. In WWF, he was a 2 time WWF Champion,[4][5] a 1 time Intercontinental Champion[6][5] and the winner of 1987 King of the Ring tournament.[7][5] In WCW, he was a 4 time WCW World Heavyweight Champion[8][5] and the winner of 1995 World War 3 battle royal.[9][5]
Early life
Savage was born in Columbus, Ohio to Angelo Poffo, an Italian American, and Judy, a Jewish American.[10]
He is a graduate of Downers Grove North High School in a suburb near Chicago, Illinois. Randy Poffo attended Southern Illinois University and graduated in 1971. After college, Randy was a minor league baseball catcher in the St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds, and Chicago White Sox farm systems.[1] He injured his natural (right) throwing shoulder at one point so he learned to throw with his left arm instead. When Poffo played for the St. Petersburg Cardinals minor-league baseball team in 1971, one of his teammates was Keith Hernandez. The team was managed by Jimmy Piersall.[11]
Career
Early career
He is a second-generation professional wrestler; his father Angelo Poffo 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.[10] Randy's brother Lanny had a moderately successful career as a wrestler, too, most notably under the names "Leaping Lanny Poffo" and "The Genius."[10]
Randy first broke into the business in 1973 during the fall and winter of the baseball off season.[3] His first wrestling character, "The Spider Friend", was similar to Spider-Man.[3] It is interesting to note that he would appear as a wrestler in the first Spider-Man film in 2002. His name change from Randy Poffo came at the suggestion of Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW) booker Ole Anderson, who said that the name Poffo didn't fit someone who "wrestled like a savage".[3] During this transition from Poffo to Savage, he also toyed with the idea of wrestling as a blue clad medicine man named "The Big Geno", rumors were spread of a drug problem during his first few matches, as was common with early independent wrestlers, and Savage quietly put to rest the short lived Geno.[3] To this day Savage refuses to answer questions regarding The Big Geno and, eerily enough, he seems to become visibly shaken when this pseudonym is brought up.[3] When he decided to abandon his baseball career, he became a full time wrestler working with his brother and father.[3] Savage wrestled his first match against Midwest territory wrestler, the "Golden Boy" Paul Christy. Randy worked with his father and brother in Michigan, the Carolinas, Georgia, the Maritimes, and the eastern Tennessee territory run by Nick Gulas.[2]
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.[1] 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 one infamous match on June 25, 1984 in Memphis, where Savage (kayfabe) injured Ricky Morton by piledriving him through the timekeeper's table, leading to the Express winning by disqualification. Later in 1984, Savage turned babyface and allied with Lawler against Jimmy Hart's First Family stable, only to turn heel on Lawler again in early-1985 and resume the feud over the title.[3] This ended when Lawler beat Savage in a Loser Leaves Town match on June 8 in Nashville, Tennessee.[3]
World Wrestling Federation (1985-1994)
Early heel push (1985)
In June 1985, Savage signed with Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation (WWF). One of Savage's first appearances was on Tuesday Night Titans, where the established WWF managers all made their cases to offer their services to Savage (including Bobby Heenan, Jimmy Hart, and "Classy" Freddie Blassie).[1] Savage eventually rejected all these offers in favor of his new manager, the debuting Miss Elizabeth.[2][1] He made his pay-per-view (PPV) debut at The Wrestling Classic on November 7, 1985, where he defeated Ivan Putski,[12][13] Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat,[12] and the Dynamite Kid[12][13] on his way to finishing runner-up to Junkyard Dog in a sixteen man tournament.[13] Junkyard Dog beat him by countout in the finals.[12]
Intercontinental Champion (1986-1987)
In late 1985, Savage started a feud with Intercontinental Champion Tito Santana over the title. On November 2, 1985 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, he unsuccessfully challenged Santana for the title (Savage won the match by countout but not the title because a title does not change hands by countout)[14] before defeating Santana in a rematch on February 24, 1986 (taped February 8) edition of Prime Time Wrestling to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship at the Boston Garden by using an illegal steel object stashed in his tights.[15][16] Early on in his WWF career, Savage also won two countout victories in Madison Square Garden over his future tag-team partner WWF Champion Hulk Hogan (although the belt did not change due to the countout) and engaged in historic feuds with Bruno Sammartino and George "the Animal" Steele.[2]
Savage's feud with Steele began on January 4 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, when Steele began a crush on Miss Elizabeth.[17] At WrestleMania 2, Savage defeated Steele in a match to retain his Intercontinental title.[18] His another major title challenger was Jake "The Snake" Roberts, with whom he battled to a double disqualification on November 29 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event.[19] He resumed his feud with George Steele in early 1987, culminating in two IC title matches, both won by Savage.[20][21]
Savage wrestled in what is widely considered to be one of the greatest matches in North American wrestling history when he faced Ricky Steamboat at WrestleMania III in the Pontiac Silverdome. The match was the culmination of a long and bitter feud (which saw Savage crush Steamboat's larynx in kayfabe), and featured tremendous athleticism and in-ring storytelling. After nineteen two-counts, Steamboat pinned Savage (with help from George Steele, who pushed Savage from the top rope seconds before he was pinned) to end his near 14 month reign as Intercontinental champion.[22][23] The match was extremely choreographed, as opposed to the "on the fly" nature of most wrestling matches at the time.[3] Savage was a stickler for detail, and he and Steamboat laid out and rehearsed every spot in the match prior to WrestleMania, at his home in Florida.[3] The highly influential match was considered an instant classic by both fans and critics and was named 1987's Match of the Year by both Pro Wrestling Illustrated and the Wrestling Observer. Steamboat and Randy Savage were even reported cheering and hugging with other wrestlers after the match.[2][3]
