The following are highlights from a Shining Wizard Podcast interview with Lanny Poffo:
On letting WWE induct Randy Savage into the Hall of Fame against Randy’s wishes, and the general lack of respect shown to him: “It occurred to me that I decided “what a minute, I’m not going to be put in the middle of all this.” The thing is the WWE did not ask my permission to run the parody of the Huckster and the Nacho Man, and I don’t have a battery of lawyers on retainer, so my belief is, do what you want. You want to honor him? Go ahead. This is the same company that didn’t send its condolences to my mother who is going to be 87 in January. Now I know they made a nice video tribute, but don’t you understand that that’s just PR. Just like when they fire you, they wish you luck on your future endeavors? That’s PR, they have a public relations department. So naturally, when somebody dies, and everybody always has, you know, because it’s either suicide or an overdose. In Randy’s case it was one of the few honorable deaths they’ve had. His toxicology report was crystal clear. Clean. And that meant a lot to me. Well, name a wrestler that died and they’ve all got something wrong with their toxicology report… Remember the Huckster and the Nacho Man? Everyone says “What’s the matter? Can’t you take a joke?” Well, some of those jokes were a little bit… like they accused Hulk Hogan of doing Elizabeth. Remember that one, when they did the Larry King one? And I thought that was- they said “How was Elizabeth?” “Not too good.” The guy imitating Hulk Hogan and Randy looked at each other. And they made fun of his balding, and that was a little bit of lack of respect. So I said wait a minute, it’s true that Randy wanted the Poffos to go in as a family but you can’t make them do that. So I figured, rather than put myself in the middle for the rest of my life, I said hey, go ahead and do whatever you want. I only have two requests. Leave me out of it- don’t invite me- and please don’t pay me, because I don’t need the thirty pieces of silver. That was the amount Judas Iscariot took to betray Jesus.”
On whether he was an innovator: “I like to consider myself just a guy that was in the right time and at the right place. Everybody says I invented the moonsault. Well, the truth is I invented it like moments after I saw video of Tiger Mask doing it to the Dynamite Kid. I thought, wow, I think I can do that. I don’t know if he innovated it. And then people say “you mind if I do the moonsault?” I said hey, I stole it, too. Just don’t get hurt and don’t hurt anyone, because those are possibilities. I don’t know if I innovated anything, except I can honestly say that every poem you ever heard me recite, I wrote on my own. I don’t consider plagiarism to be a joke.”
On owing his career to Randy and becoming the Genius: “Let’s get something straight. Anything good that happened to me was indirectly or directly because of my brother. If I weren’t the brother of the “Macho Man” Randy Savage, you wouldn’t know who the hell I was. He opened doors for me. We were in the car discussing gimmicks. And he was always on my team trying to help me. We came up with this Genius thing and he was a stickler for details. He presented it, he got it done. I tried to follow through with it and did the very best I could to try to recreate myself. To reshuffle the deck and try to make the people forget that was ever “Leaping” Lanny by changing my personality. And I did my very best to entertain the people; it is sports entertainment… one of the people I really stole from was Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther… It was a one-joke movie. “I knew that, you idiot. I was only testing you.” I thought the Genius would be a good character if he was not that smart, just thought he was. Because if I was really that smart, I would have to be a babyface. But if I’m a heel I would like to be a buffoon genius- to be something hilarious in a business that was very serious at the time. Now they’ve got other comedians sometimes I’ve noticed, but I was like the only one. I have to say, God bless Bobby Heenan, you know he’s a cancer survivor and I hope he’s doing well. He didn’t raise any objection to me being the Genius. After all, he was already the Brain. But what was I going to do? Point to my arms? I have garden-hose arms compared to Hercules Hernandez, the Warlord, the Barbarian, Hulk Hogan, the Ultimate Warrior, “Macho Man” Randy Savage. My arms are just as long, but much thinner. I couldn’t point to my arms… I had to point to my head because I didn’t have what they call a body in wrestling.”
The circumstances of Randy’s death: “First of all, he didn’t die from an automobile accident; he had ventricular fibrillation… the heart is divided into the left and right atrium and left and right ventricle. That’s four chambers. And the bottom chamber, which is v-shaped, fibrillated, which means it quivered, which meant he wasn’t getting enough oxygen into his blood; the blood wasn’t going everywhere, and he said “I think I’m going to pass out.” And that was his last words… And his wife, she was the hero because when he passed out at the wheel, his foot was on he accelerator, and she grabbed the wheel of the Jeep Wrangler and steered it into a tree, because they would’ve hit a motorcyclist and behind that was a bus. So when they’re going the wrong way going about 35-40 miles per hour- and that’s just what happened. When you have a heart problem, it would be nice if you’re not driving at the time, but that’s what they were doing, and Lynn was the hero.”
On Randy leaving for WCW and his relationship with Slim Jim: “Randy wanted to work with Shawn Michaels. He wanted to have a two-year program with him. They said they were having a youth movement, and that’s why he quit. He said “I think I’ll get a second opinion on that.” He would’ve lost the match to Shawn Michaels, at WrestleMania, but his goal, and one of the things that bothered him the most, was that he was never able to have a match as good as the one he had with Ricky Steamboat. He felt, even his his advanced years, I guess he was 41, that he could have a Ricky Steamboat-caliber match with Shawn Michaels. I don’t know if he could or if he couldn’t any more that if, you know, if he was already too old or whatever, but wouldn’t you love to see him try? He would’ve put him over, in the middle of the ring, and retired to the announce booth… but instead he went to the WCW and guess what he brought with him? Snap into a Slim Jim. And Vince doesn’t like to lose even one round. You know the difference between WWF and Slim Jim? Slim Jim sent to me and my mom and Randy’s widow? A beautiful bouquet of flowers, and best wishes, and condolences. And we didn’t get anything from the WWE. The only condolences I got are from two guys. They are Howard Finkel, and last month I got a call from Steve Lombardi. Now in these two cases, this is not management, this is labor. So there’s a little bit of a difference there. If I embarrass anybody then so be it. You know what? I’m gonna be 59 years old December 28th… and I’m gonna say exactly what’s on my mind all the time.”
Why wrestling is better now: “First of all, I don’t watch it now. But there’s two reasons why wrestling is better now than then. Number one, we didn’t have iPhones back then, so, you know, that Google Maps? I really love my Google Maps. Before, I couldn’t find my ass with two hands. Now I don’t have to worry about “turn left, stupid.” The other one is I really didn’t like when I wrestled, that all the fans were allowed to smoke cigarettes and whatever, and we had to breathe in all that second-hand smoke. Now almost all the venues are non-smoking. I wish they had been that way when I was breathing in all that smoke.”
Check out the complete interview online at www.shiningwizards.com.
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