Lanny Poffo Discusses Damien Sandow, Highlights From His WWF Run, WCW, Macho Man In HOF

Wrestling 101 recently interviewed Lanny Poffo, brother of the legendary "Macho Man" Randy Savage. Here are some highlights:

Damien Sandow and his gimmick as "The Intellectual Saviour of the Masses": "Actually Joe Gomez who is a really good friend of mine and was a really good friend of Randy's called me up and told me about this guy in Florida Championship Wrestling that wanted to meet me. I live about twenty, thirty minutes away from where they do their shows so I drove there and I'm really glad I did because Dusty Rhodes, Steve Keirn, and Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat were there to pass on their condolences about Randy and my father.

They are all trainers at FCW and they then introduced me to Damien Sandow, he was a very nice person and he asked me if I minded him stealing my gimmick. I told him, that I had stolen the gimmick as well, I wasn't the first wrestler to wear a cap and gown, I can name you about five or six, my father was one of them, my brother did it, many years before Dean Malenko's father was the Professor Boris Malenko etc

Anybody can get a cap and gown and go into the ring, I don't consider that stealing a person's gimmick and I just told Damien Sandow, 'you just do the best you can'. I went on to tell him about Jay Lethal's impressions of Randy, and how Randy felt complemented, not only did he steal Randy's gimmick but he did such a great job of it."

Highlights from his WWF run: "First of all, the time I was on Tuesday Night Titans, which was a talk show with Vince McMahon as the host and Lord Alfred Hayes was his sidekick. I was afraid that I would be boring and that they would never allow me to go on the show again, so I decided to write a poem for the occasion and then when they went to a commercial break Vince came up to me and said, "Lanny that was fantastic and from now on do a poem before every match." That was the day I became not just a wrestler but a wrestler with a gimmick, and without a gimmick you really aren't a wrestler, I mean in this world of sports entertainment.

"The second was right before WrestleMania III and I was involved in a dark match, in the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. As you can imagine when I was a boy dreaming of money and glory, I didn't hope I was going to be in a dark match someday, that was not my goal. Before the match Gorilla Monsoon pull me off to the side and he told me there was going to be a battle royal and Andre The Giant needs to get heat because he was going to wrestle Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania III. Monsoon said, 'I want to bat for you, I hope you don't make a monkey out of me,' to which I replied 'I would never make a monkey out of a gorilla.' In the match Andre head-butts me and I do something very special for Andre as the sacrificial lamb.

"Then of course, a few years later I got to wrestle Hulk Hogan on NBC, and then after that match we worked all over the place, usually it was Mr. Perfect and myself against Hulk Hogan and Brutus 'The Barber' Beefcake or Big Boss Man. I had an opportunity to be in the main event at Madison Square Garden and in all the arenas for four months in a row. If you asked me was it worth it to be a jabroni for all those years, to bask in the sunshine of success, drink from the silver chalice, the answer is of course yes. Even if I had never wrestled Hulk Hogan and be a main eventer for four months it still would have been worth it because I enjoyed every moment of it and the WWE was very good to me."

Working for WCW for four years but never being used on television: "Well naturally I'm the brother of the Macho Man Randy Savage and that was a tremendous advantage. Chris Jericho had written in one of his books, that he was working very hard and making less money than me, I did not know that but I'll tell you what if I was Chris Jericho I would be very upset about that and I do not blame him for being upset.

"Here is my side of the story, my brother had an idea that I was going to be Gorgeous George. I got a contract, and I was going to get started, I was practicing, watching Gorgeous George videos and I was really interested in doing this but the phone never rang. At WCW there were too many chiefs and not enough Indians, they had about 20 bookers, 20 people making decisions and everybody hating each other."

When Randy Savage will be inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame: "Well I would like to see that happen but do you know what I would really like, somebody from the WWE to extend me some condolences, nobody has done that yet except one guy, Howard Finkel.

"People from all over the world sent their condolences, wrestling fans, friends, I got phone calls from great people like Bret 'The Hitman' Hart and The Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase. The first guy I called when I found out the news of Randy's death was The Mouth of the South Jimmy Hart.

"I know that there was some rivalry and heat, but since my daughter is 28-years-old and my mother is still alive at 85-years-old, I would like to have some condolences if not flowers how about a nice card. Here we are a year and a half since Randy died and we're talking about the Hall of Fame, I'm talking about how I would like some condolences from the WWE.

"My Brother didn't want to go into the Hall of Fame unless his little brother and his father also went in, that's what he wanted and that's what I'm sticking to."

Source: Wrestling 101