Remembering the Macho Man

Macho Man Randy Savage by ~spicypeanut on deviantART

No music cue for this entry. I just thought I would reminisce a little about one of my favorite wrestlers of all time; The Macho Man Randy Savage aka Randy Poffo. He passed away from a heart attack last Friday & thinking back on it all this week I can definitely say I lost a big part of my childhood. I just wanted to draw something that would give an adequate homage to one of my favorites. I did the color as just his famous pink that he'd wear to the ring. Almost did the whites in the yellow he wore with it but decided against it.

For as long as I can remember I've loved wrestling. I've had my years of drifting in and out of it but I always remember Savage's era fondly as watching it with my Dad and brother. Then getting worked up and wrestling with Dad in the living room or on the bed. Much to Mom's chagrin. I was 6 years old when the first Wrestlemania happened and the same age when Randy debuted in the WWF. I'm trying to pick out all the stuff I concretely remember because I also have a lot of nerdy stuff like GI Joe, Transformers and Voltron clogging up those memories.

It's funny, with my Dad we always watched WWF. And when I went down to visit my uncles in Lubbock we always watched NWA. I got more figure four leg locks there than I care to remember!

But getting back to Randy I just really remember him standing out sooooo well. Throughout his entire career the man stood out. But especially in the 80s. That insane voice. How he opened so many promos with his back to the camera. The weird color choices that no other wrestler would run with (well aside from Flair and maybe Valentine. Oh and Rick Martell... maybe). Plus I just remember Savage being quick! In the era of the big, lumbering slow men Randy brought the speed. And of course Ms. Elizabeth. Oh manzies... it was so insane that he had a female manager. I loved that they built up to her with all the male managers courting Randy. That was just an awesome angle! Just the intensity... so amazing, slightly making no sense but amazing intensity. Time distortion anyone?

What I think really made me actually bummed out & sad about all of this is the fact that Savage was so engrained in my childhood. I mean, these days you just get numb to the fact that wrestlers die way too often. I don't even want to think about how many of these guys have died due to substance abuse - mainly from issues stemming from back pain. Falling on your back often most days of the year no matter if there is a mat or not is going to make your back hurt a lot. I know, I've seen it - especially when we used to run Fusion here in Colorado. You'd see how guys would walk after that adrenaline wears off. So sadly you kind of get used to it. But with Randy it's different... I was just reading how his brother was saying that he was happy, newly remarried and how he'd never return to the ring again. But man was I ever hoping to see him one last time at a Hall of Fame induction or something along those lines. So hearing that he's happy and living his own life after this amazing career... it's kinda just nice to hear about something finally ending nicely for a wrestler.

But no one really walks off into the sunset, and life is tough like that. But what I can say is that I was always entertained by Randy and will continue to. The day I heard he died I came home and watched hours of videos of his on YouTube and his WWE dvd. It was great then, and it's still great today. He's had amazing runs with virtually all of my favorite wrestlers and I can faithfully say that I was entertained by every one of those feuds. Especially the big Flair feud. And the amazing Michaels match that followed after the Wrestlemania finish. I could go on and on, but I think I'll let what I've said above be the extent of it.

Heartbreaking.

R.I.P. Macho Man Randy Savage and thank you. Check out the WWE video below if you haven't seen it and you'll know what I mean.