Randy Savage was always destined to be a star athlete. He was the son of Angelo Poffo, who was a well known professional wrestler, and who also set a world record in 1945 by completing 6,033 sit ups in four hours and ten minutes. However, despite his father’s ties to professional wrestling, Savage’s first love was baseball. He was drafted out of high school by the St. Louis Cardinals, and started playing in their minor league system, but he couldn’t escape the lure of being a professional wrestler. Savage would begin wrestling part time during the 1973 off season. After a small debut run as “The Spider,” Randy would adopt the last name Savage on the suggestion of Georgia Championship Wrestling booker, Ole Anderson. Anderson had said the name Poffo didn’t fit a man who “wrestled like a savage.” The “Macho Man” nickname came from Savage’s mother, who had read it in a magazine and had suggested it to Savage, believing it would become a new popular term. In 1974, after 289 minor league games, in which he batted .254, hit 16 home runs, and drove in 66 runs, he quit baseball to focus on wrestling full time, it would prove to be the right decision. Savage would begin working shows in different territories including his father’s ICW promotion, and Jerry “The King” Lawler‘s Continental Wrestling Association. His big break came when he began feuding with Lawler over the AWA Southern Heavyweight Championship. The feud would end with Savage losing a “loser leaves town” match to Lawler, and being forced to leave the promotion. Macho Man‘s next move however, would lead him to the top wrestling promotion in the country and help make him a household name.
