Professional wrestler (and one-time Staten Island resident) "Macho Man" Randy Savage (born Randall Mario Poffo) died Friday while driving in Florida. Early reports say he suffered a heart attack while driving and then crashed the car. His wife was also in the car and suffered minor injuries. Savage was 58.
Oddly enough, of the Poffo boys, I was probably more of a fan of Leapin' Lanny (also known as The Genius). But there was no denying the awesomeness of the Macho Man, coming to the ring to the strains of "Pomp and Circumstance" (thus making everyone's graduation a little cooler) and later flying from the top rope in his three-star wrestling trunks and landing that elbow time after time. Men of a certain age (mine) will fondly recall his match with Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat at Wrestlemania 3 as being one of their all-time favorites.
And, of course, almost everyone I know (or at least the ones I like) has done a Randy Savage impression at one point or another. As fine as the matches were, the talking was where the Macho Man shone. To wit: (kudos to the still-living Mean Gene Okerlund for his fine work here, too):
And it was a little after my interest in wrestling started to wane, but he also should be commended for taking a pretty nasty snakebite:
I had the pleasure of meeting the Macho Man when he was promoting his rap CD (yes, that's right) at the FYE in NYC. That moment is captured above, and, despite the fact the photo was taken when I was 26, it is probably the most youthful and excited I've ever looked in a picture. I guess all those flying elbow drops meant more to me than I'd thought.
RIP, Macho Man.
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