Regular viewers of this site know I am a Wrestling fan, but more than anything I love old school wrestling.  Way back in the day I saw Hulk Hogan and started watching wrestling.  But more than anyone besides maybe Ricky Steamboat, one of the guys that kept me watching was Randy "Macho Man" Savage.  I was very saddened by the news that Savage had passed, he was a guy I imitate at home all the time.   When something goes right I just go "OOOOH YEAH!" in front of my family which always is great for a laugh.  I have missed Savage in the ring for a long time and was hoping he would get inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame soon, now it will probably posthumously.

One of my earliest wresting memories was the match between Savage and Tito Santana in which Savage basically stole the Intercontinental Title from Santana.  I admit that as a kid I was a total mark and booed Savage's victory.   After that came Ricky Steamboat.  Savage attacked Steamboat on Saturday's Night Main Event and supposedly Steamboat had a crushed thought.  This lead to their legendary match at Wrestlemania III

This match really set the stage for modern wrestling in my opinion.  It was a great showing by both men in a back and forth battle in which Steamboat came out on top, but the way it was played it could have gone either way.  Some have called this one of the greatest matches ever and you would be hard pressed to find a way to argue this fact.  As great as Hogan and Andre the Giant were this match helped cement Wrestlemania III as one of the greatest shows in wrestling EVER.  It also cemented me as a long time wrestling fan.  While I loved seeing Hogan and Andre, Savage and Steamboat was the necessary greatness that was the only thing that could help hold my interest long term.  

When Bruiser Brody was tragically stabbed, there was a rumor that Savage and Brody had met on a plane.  Savage was trying to impress Brody and was acting like a jerk to the flight attendants.  Supposedly Brody walked up to Savage, introduced himself, shook his hand and squeezed so hard that he broke a few of Savage's fingers.  Savage supposedly slumped in his seat and remained quiet the rest of the flight.  I am not sure how true that is as many wrestling stories are just that, stories.  Still I vividly remember reading that in one of the reports of Brody's death and later I wondered about it.  

Later, Savage became a good guy and of course I was young and went along.  "Savage is good now" I would think.  I can't even remember how that happened but I do remember cheering for Savage from that point forward.   I will fully admit I was watching wrestling for the big matches with Hogan but I kept watching for guys like Savage, Steamboat, ect.  But once Savage won the WWF Championship in a tournament he began to become almost as popular as Hulk Hogan.  

Some "insiders" point out that Hogan's ego came into play which lead to their bought at Wrestlemania V.  Hard to say for certain as this was not their first fight but realistically where else could the storyline go.  If Hogan and Savage never fought there would be a lingering question of who would win.   To me Hogan should have won as he did, but I admit at the time I was torn cause I loved both of these guys equally and just couldn't decide who to route for.  Still Hulk seemed unstoppable back then and his victory came as no surprise.   However I will always view this match as being much, much bigger than Hogan and Andre, might be just me but I can't help but think that this was the point of the apex of wrestling in my view.   I am hard pressed to think of a bigger match emotionally for me ever in wrestling because never before or since have I wanted both guys to win so much. 

One of the odd things about Savage's carrier at this point was he kind of floundered a bit.  He had a small feud with Honky Tonk Man over Honky's comment about being the greatest Intercontinental Champ ever is one of the few memorable moments besides Hulk/Savage.  But somehow in a way I cannot remember why, Savage wasn't sticking out to me. 

Don't get me wrong, he was still on of my favorites but honestly nothing really became notable to me until his feud with Ric Flair if only because the two were evenly matched in almost every way. 

There are other memories and matches that I often get out of order, his fights with Jake Roberts (getting bit by a cobra), the retirement match with Ultimate Warrior (which I felt should have went the other way and force the Warrior to try to get back into the WWF), but one consistency is that his matches were generally great and worth watching regardless of the circumstances. 

Eventually Savage went on to follow Hulk to WCW.

When Hogan signed with WCW it raised an eyebrow for me just because we finally would see Hogan vs. Flair (to this day I think canceling that match was the stupidest move WWF and Vince ever did).  But when Savage came in it was like "OH I have to watch this now" and despite all the bad WCW did I wasn't disappointed in Savage in the least.  Savage came in and renewed his feud with Flair and to me had some much better matches with Flair.  But it was later I felt he really began to shine. 

Savage had many notable feuds in WCW.  Honestly one of my favorites was his feud with Diamond Dallas Page and I think it made Page very notable in WCW from that point forward.  The first two fights they had were just great and really pulled the best out of both men.  The third fight was a total cluster fuck which I think is why this feud isn't as noteworthy as it should be.  I blame WCW for the that one though (you can look it up if you like). 

Another notable Macho Man moment in WCW was his cage match with Hulk Hogan.  This match had absolutely not one wrestling move and was just two guys beating the crap out of each other.  The major failing of this match was the interference by Sting at the end that made no sense whatsoever and cause the match to have no clear winner, but the fight itself was one of those that stick out in my mind as both Hulk and Savage were bloody messes at the end. 

The downside of Macho Man's time in WCW was the fact that he had TWO one day title reigns as Champ.  The first one was not so bad as Savage was supposedly hurt and the reign matched up with the storyline at the time.  The second time was just insulting to Savage in my opinion and he should have had a longer run with that title reign.  Then after a long absence Savage came back on WCW Thunder to kick butt and then disappeared, never did understand what WCW was doing there but I will admit that move kept me watching WCW a few more weeks than I would have in the hopes Savage was coming back once more, which never came to be. 

Of course to mention Savage you automatically think of his manager, Ms. Elizabeth.  I won't say much about Liz just because her death was so tragic and unnecessary.  But I would be remiss if I didn't mention her somewhere.

I am not sure what else to say, Savage was a huge star in my mind.  Generally when I got a copy of the latest Smackdown vs. Raw game Savage was one of the first superstars I created in Create-A-Wrestler mode.  I just didn't feel like it was a true wrestling game without him in the mix somewhere.  Great is too small a word for the Macho Man.  He is missed and will be missed for a very, very long time.  Still he must be thanked for giving me so many great, great moments in my life.  He was really one of my heroes when I was young and now he still is.  Goodbye Macho, you are missed.