ESPN.com’s Bill Simmons posted a lengthy and outstanding tribute to “Macho Man” Randy Savage. It’s pretty much the best Randy Savage article you’ll ever read. In addition to the expected “SportsGuy” humor, Simmons adds some thoughtful observations on Savage’s career. Here’s my favorite funny passage:
Nobody — repeat, nobody — was more fun to imitate. Savage said everything in quick bursts, with his voice dropping low, then turning loud, then low, then loud, and any time he couldn’t figure out how to end a point, he just screamed, “Ooooohhhhhhhhh yeah!” He used “ooooohhhh yeah!” as a noun, verb and adjective. It never stopped being funny. I could never decide whether the Macho Man was in on the joke. I’m also not sure it mattered.
And here’s my favorite insightful passage:
The scope of his career can’t compare to those of Shawn Michaels or Ric Flair, but you won’t find a more meaningful apex: He peaked right as wrestling peaked, ushered in a more athletic era and introduced eye candy (Elizabeth) to a fan base that desperately needed it. We look back at the ’80s ironically now — everything is much funnier now than it was then, whether it’s outfits, haircuts, movie plots, political incorrectness or even a sweeping lack of self-awareness. Savage tapped into those faults better than anyone. He was the ’80s, for better and worse.
It’s just excellent, excellent stuff. I highly recommend giving it a read.
Yeah, I read this article yesterday. It was extremely good.
Interesting point: Randy Savage, in both WWF and WCW, never dropped the world title to anyone other than Ric Flair or Hulk Hogan, and he's and Ric Flair are the only men to swap the title back and forth (win it from and then lose it back to the same man) in both companies. That's an interesting legacy, only losing the big belt to arguably two of the best and most celebrated guys in the history of the business.
Great article there. I'm gonna go Macho elbow one of my dogs in his honor.
Great article.
I love the part where they were in college and had that blind date ball and they kept sneaking away to watch the Hogan-Savage break-up.
My favorite line:
"And Bird and I were in my room going crazy watching it … at least until my door opened and Bird's date was standing there. Uh-oh.
Did either of us get lucky that night? Of course not. Although we did get to re-enact the entire "You got jealous eyes!" scene at 3 a.m. for our floormates, after about 45 beers apiece, with our pal Nick Aieta playing Miss Elizabeth."
That totally sounds like something me and my stupid friends would do in college. In all fairness, we did much dumber things.
-M