Let me tell you something, brother. The MACHO maaAAAAAnn Randy Savage is not OOOONLY the loooOOOOsest of caaaanons, ooooh NOOOO, ohhh NOOO my friends. This CrAAAAZy guYYyyYY is a'headin to the WWE Hall of Fame..... I said the WWE HhaaaaaLLLL ooooFF FaaaMMMMeee- OOOOOOOOHHH YEEEEAAAAHHHHH!!!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX8TVGY3sCU Not without controversy, of course. WWE easily could have made this happen before Randy Savage died, and they easily could have chosen somebody more sensible than Hulk Hogan (real-life former friend turned bitter enemy) to give the induction speech. Then, of course, there are those crazy, crazy rumors about why it was that Macho Man was completely blacklisted from the WWE for the last two decades. I've mentioned before that I stopped watching wrestling over a decade ago, but I can't help but to be interested in stories like these that relate to the interests that took up the bulk of my childhood :redface: I was a huge fan of Savage and felt sad when he died. It's cool that the fans, new and old alike, can have a moment to remember and honor his career. Here is his entrance theme. It might sound familiar to this crowd of life-long academics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9k1EvSX7W0
A previous job in the mid 1990s had me traveling frequently and as I lived in St. Petersburg, FL, at the time I was a frequent visitor to the Tampa International Airport. As I soon learned, many professional wrestlers lived in the St. Pete Beach area and also frequented the airport. On one flight from Atlanta I was waiting at the gate in Atlanta and noticed a few familiar faces from the pro wrestling world. One was Randy Savage. Incidentally, his TV image was as a 'bad guy' at the time, whereas people like Hulk Hogan were 'good guys'. As I sat and watched from a distance, and number of people walked up to him and asked for autographs. He signed every one. When we landed in Tampa and were walking from the gate to the tram which would take us to the terminal, again a number of people walked up to him for autographs. He had several carry-ons (looked like protective cases for his flamboyant cowboy hats; not kidding), but he still stopped and signed every autograph. As luck would have it, I was in the same tram as Randy Savage for the short ride to the terminal. He seemed much bigger in person than he appeared on television, at least to me. When I got the taxi area to get a ride home, I saw he met a small, older woman. An employee in the area of the taxis told me that the woman was his mother. Apparently she often picked him up at the airport. Thus ended my brush with fame.
Cool story I never had the chance to see him in person, or even at live event. All I know of him is from his performances and several stories I hear from various sources. One amusing story, the truthfulness I can not attest to, is about his trademark voice. Supposedly, he spent so many years putting on that characteristic raspy eruptive scream that he completely ruined his vocal chords to the point where his on-screen voice actually became his normal speaking voice. Funny, if true, and not dissimilar to stories I've heard of old-time wrestlers who played foreign characters and "forgot" how to speak in their natural American accents for several years after retirement. Re:the cowboy hats. Really, what more can we say about someone whose flashiness actually stands out as particularly flashy in a business like wrestling where insanity and flamboyance are par for the course. His character was an absolute masterpiece.
