Before They Were Stars: Randy “Macho Man” Savage Cuts a Batshit Scary Promo in 1980

Yesterday was a very tragic day for wrestling fans as one of the profession’s all-time greats, Randy “Macho Man” Savage, was killed in a car accident at the age of 58 after suffering a heart attack while driving. The Macho Man was such a larger-than-life personality that even non-wrestling fans knew who he was, and needless to say, wrestling fans like myself absolutely worshiped the guy. There shall be a bunch of tribute posts to the Macho Man on The Back Row this week, but for starters, I shall give him the “Before They Were Stars” treatment today. Before breaking into the World Wrestling Federation in 1985, Savage worked for a smaller promotion called International Championship Wrestling, which was run by his father, Angelo Poffo. In this rare piece of footage from 1980, you can see a younger Macho Man freaking out and cutting a very angry, whacked-out and flat-out SCARY promo against his hated rivals. My God, most professional actors could never even DREAM of welling up the amount of intensity that he displays here! Needless to say, it was obvious from the outset that Randy Savage was a truly one-of-a-kind talent who was destined for great stardom in the wrestling business.