The Madness of a Macho Man!

OK, I know I said I'll be writing about Roman Reigns and why he's being booed at, but I think that with Randy Savage entering the Hall of Fame this year, I'll cover this first, as I guess that the WWE Universe vs. Reigns would in a way resemble the Cena Sucks train of thought too much at this point, plus I still want it to develop a bit more (it's possible that Wrestlemania had the positive impact on the Samoan star that the creative writers were looking for).

So this year, finally, Macho Man entered the WWE Hall of Fame. Finally! I cannot repeat this enough. He deserved to enter the Hall of Fame a long time ago. The things he had done for the industry are just incredible.

He was able to learn the business from early on, with his father Angelo Poffo being a wrestler, who (to quote Hogan's HoF introduction speech) always wore canary yellow tights. He was also a very religious man and the man who held the sit-up record of 6033 sit-ups within ten minutes. And he was also a chess player (so who ever says that you either use your body or your head - a quote from Rocky - is here by proven wrong).

And Randy had his younger brother with him in the business as well. Sure, you'll say that The Genius was no prominent figure in WWF (it was when the F word was still in use), but hey - I still remember Leaping Lanny Poffo and the Frisbees he threw (I simply loved that gimmick... being a kid and all and always trying to get a Frisbee off the neighbour’s garage - and here was a guy just throwing them away at the public). And never forget that before joining the WWF the Poffo brothers were quite a violent tag team, breaking announce tables and taking it outside the ring long before extreme became awesome.

So no wonder Macho injured the Dragon with the ring bell - he was taking it outside the ring (Ricky Steamboat is another story that I'll cover at one point or the other - especially since he's one of few guys to always portrait babyfaces) and allowed for the legendary match, many still consider the greatest wrestling match in Wrestlemania history (well, there's been better matches, but this was among first great ones).

But Randy's contribution to the industry was not only the matches... it was his approach to them. When George "The Animal" Steel talked about it, he said he was offended that a relative new comer came up to him with a thick script of how the fued and match will play out. But look at George's matches from before - and look at his match with Macho Man! I mean George vs. Kamala was a 12 minutes of stare-down, with a few foot stomps. No match, no fighting - still entertaining - but I mean, how would you feel today if two guys would just be seizing each other up, not doing anything and ten minutes and one move later the match would be over?

It was Macho Man who was putting energy into matches from the first time he entered the WWF ring, right down to the last time, when he jumped from the commentary into the ring - to get "kicked from WWF," only to continue in WCW with excellent matches against DDP long after Vince decided not to give him a program with the Heartbreak Kid.

Want to see a match, which probably features the most in-ring talent gathered in a match? Find yourself the tag match between Sean Michaels & Ric Flair vs. Bret Heart & Randy Savage.

I mean, everybody always talked about Hulkamania and how Hogan was always fighting monster heels... but it was the Macho Madness that really made Hogan shine! For once there was no monster giant heel (like Andre or Bundy) nor was anybody putting people in a stretcher (like Earthquake or Psycho Sid were doing)... there was even not anti-American character (like the Sheik or Slaughter). It was Macho Man, who accused the Hulkster or eyeing Elisabeth (and I guess most people were - she really was a beauty and Randy's real life wife that he did get over protective and jealous about at times), but that made the story into something people could relate to!

Macho, along with Snuka, were the two fliers at the time when wrestling was quite static. Randy was an energetic head on colourful character that did not seem like a cartoon, but like something out of this world in a form of an almost average human. He wasn't among biggest guys in the industry, but he made it believable that he could beat anybody... and it never hurt him to lose to anybody either. That's why he wasn't beyond doing jobs and putting people over - he just made sure that he came out looking better for it, even after a lost match (just remember him and Warrior in a career ending match at Wrestlemania - one of the best matches I could think of).

Savage really did set the bar for most of the wrestlers to follow. So if you weren't 7 foot tall or over 500lbs you fell into the category of the Macho Man and had to prove you can perform on that level of intensity and in-ring speed - not to mention the other stuff he did. Choreographing the matches to perfection, always trying for something new, but still suiting the characters in the match (think Warrior with 5 shoulder blocks after his standard finisher didn't work). Think of him on the mic commenting other people in the ring. That's about as close as Vince came to finding a substitute for Ventura. And think of all the promos Randy cut. Now they were way out there - even if compared to the Ultimate Warrior (OK, guess I'll have to cover the Warrior next, since I'm mentioning him so often - and I really think the Warrior also relates to Wrestlemania 31 even though he passed away about a year ago today).

I mean - Macho was living the industry and made it grow in and out of the ring, in front of the camera or with no camera in sight (just listen to Marty Jannetty telling how Macho saved the Rockers from getting arrested). So it really was about time, to pay respect to him and have him enter the Hall of Fame.

So until next time - when I explain how I believe the Ultimate Warrior should have been fighting HHH at Wrestlemania 31, and some other time, when I cover Roman Reigns being booed, keep following!