RIP - Macho Man Randy Savage.....

Wow, been a long time since I blogged on here. Lots of other stuff going down and the blog just wasn't high on the priority....and now, with the passing of Randy 'Macho Man' Savage I have a few minutes to post. The Macho Man passed away yesterday in a solo car accident. If you don't know who 'macho man' was, he was a professional 'wrastler' who made his name in the WWF (World Wrestling Federation....later changed to the WWE because the World Wildlife Foundation had dibs on the acronym 'WWF'...some history for you). To get a flavor for what the 'macho man' was about.....here is a short video:



Wrestling fake? No way....it was all real and Randy "Macho Man" Savage played a big role in the Wraslin world. Heck, he even had his own action figure.....so you know he was real.

While I was not a big WWF fan as I had kind of 'grown out' of the watching a bunch of steroided guys curse each other with ridiculous plot lines; I grew up with Vern Gagne's AWA, a midwestern wrestling organization run out of Minneapolis. In fact, back then the show was local and every Saturday, a bunch of buddies and I would run over to the Channel 11 studios where they would tape their promo shows.....after waiting in line for an hour or so we would be let in and - like a Who concert - fight for front row festival seats with the others who had come up to be part of the studio audience crowd.

Mean Jean Okerlund would do the interviews, Roger Kent was ring side, and Marty Miller was wearing the stripes in the ring.....we saw all the AWA legends; Bockwinkle, Da Crusher, Jesse "the Body" Ventura, Vern Gagne, The 'High Cryers' - Greg Gagne and Jim Brunzell, Jerry Blackwell, Adrian Adonis, Mad Dog Vachan, Sheik Adnan Al Kasey....jeez, this list could go on for a while.

Was I a big wrasslin fan? Nah...or, er, maybe...ok yes. What I did enjoy was the humorous characters that they would conjer up and then the corny soap opera story lines of good verses evil played out on the TV set each week leading up to the 'big match' at the Minneapolis Auditorium. It was entertaining for a kid and provided several years of entertainment. Much better to have kids yelling on weekends at 'wrasslers' than out getting in trouble of one kind or another.

So thank you Randy 'Macho Man' Savage. You entertained a certain demographic in this country....what demographic that is is somewhat hard to define! You came on the scene just as I was losing interest in the turnbuckle soap operas, but you were mighty entertaining and you sold a lot of Slim Jim's. You provided many folks with interesting memories as you played out your role in the ring.....and to all you doubters out there......Wrasslin ISN'T fake!

Here is another deceased wrestler....Captain Lou Albano with Cyndi Lauper...enjoy: