Randy Savage: Remembering and Honoring WWE and WCW Legend Macho Man

May 20, 2012 marks the year anniversary of the death of WWE and WCW legend Macho Man Randy Savage. Savage died tragically behind the wheel of his jeep after suffering from an apparent heart attack brought on by atherosclerotic heart disease.

While Macho Man had been away from the ring for a number of years, the 58-year-old wrestling hero still had plenty of life to live. As wrestling fans, this was one of the more somber moments in the history of the sport.

Instead of letting the sadness beat us, we as the loyal Macho Man fans need to remember and honor the star for all of the blood, sweat and tears he gave to the wrestling business over his time.

Please look back with me on one of the most illustrious careers the business has ever seen.

The WWE Days

After being trained by his legendary father, Angelo Poffo, Randy Savage entered the WWE with his charisma and athleticism and instantly became a star. While he was a bit smaller than the prototypical WWE star in the mid-80s, his sheer ability in the ring made him a viable champion.

Savage was one of the first undersized stars to really get over and broke through the stigma that everyone in wrestling had to be huge. It was the match against Ricky Steamboat at WrestleMania III that really proved that point.

Throughout Macho Man’s nine-year tenure with the WWE, he was involved in the some of the most well-publicized feuds of the time. Not only did Macho Man overshadow Hulk Hogan at times and hold the WWF Championship twice, this was a man that took on arguably the greatest of all-time in Bruno Sammartino.

It was during his time in the WWE where Savage began his run with Hogan as a teammate with the Mega Powers, Hogan as an opponent and his love affair and divorce from Miss Elizabeth. Those storylines have become the template that wrestling companies use when building creative direction.

While the ending of Savage’s relationship with WWE and his public feud with owner Vince McMahon spoiled a few fans love for the star, most others followed him to WCW and enjoyed even more Macho Man.

The WCW Days

After leaving the WWE and turning to the rival World Championship Wrestling, Savage found himself once again thrust into a storyline with foe Hulk Hogan. After real-life tension ended their storyline on television, Savage went on to work one of the greatest feuds of all-time against Ric Flair.

The combination of the Nature Boy and the Macho Man was what wrestling was all about. With amazing in-ring abilities and mic work that would make the stars of today look like chumps, this was arguably the greatest period in wrestling history.

After a successful run as a member of the nWo, Macho Man started to pull back from the wrestling business as injuries started to take their toll.

Savage finally left WCW after four World Championship reigns in 2000 and never returned to the WWE after the WCW was bought by Vince McMahon.

While Savage did appear in TNA wrestling, it was nothing. Just like what TNA has become.

The Macho Man Legacy

With all of the history that surrounds the Macho Man, it’s hard to look anywhere in the wrestling world without seeing influence of Randy Savage.

From the homage CM Punk currently pays to Macho Man every time he gets up on the top rope to the storylines WWE still uses to this day, Macho Man’s influence is soaked into the business.

Whether Vince McMahon wants to admit it or not, Randy Savage is arguably the greatest wrestler of all-time and he is not in the WWE Hall of Fame. What the WWE hierarchy needs to realize is that it was Macho Man that created the anti-hero gimmick that Stone Cold used and CM Punk is currently using.

The company owes Savage an unfathomable amount of gratitude.

While Macho Man was a face for the majority of his career, he never came off as the baby face that Hogan was and he never wanted to. Savage always tried to be the anti-Hogan, which, in turn, created the anti-hero style that the stars more recently have run with.

Along with being a mainstream star because of his wild attire and his Slim-Jim commercials, Randy Savage was the reason many wrestling fans fell in love with the sport. We need to remember his greatness and never let the flame of his influence be extinguished.

Macho Man elbowed-dropped his way into our hearts, and that’s something we can never forget.

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