Wrestler known as 'Macho Man' dies in Fla. wreck (AP)

Friday, May 20, 2011 10:01 PM By dwi

Randy "Macho Man" Savage, the professional combatant famous for his raspy voice, the spectacles and bandanas he wore in the anulus and the young blackamoor named Miss Elizabeth who often accompanied him, died in a automobile break Friday in Florida. He was 58.

A Florida Highway Patrol break inform said the past combatant — whose legal study was Randy Mario Poffo — was dynamical a Jeep Wrangler when he forfeited curb in Pinellas County around 9:25 a.m. The Jeep veered over the upraised concrete norm divider, crossed over the eastbound lanes and crashed head-on into a tree.

Police said he haw have suffered a "medical event" before the accident, but the inform did not elaborate, and it said officials would requirement to perform an examination to undergo for sure.

The inform said a blackamoor in the vehicle, identified as Barbara L. Poffo, 56, suffered secondary injuries. A evidence from Stamford, Conn.-based World Wrestling Entertainment said the passenger was the wrestler's underway wife. Both were wearing their seatbelts, according to the personnel report.

"Poffo module be greatly uncomprehensible by WWE and his fans," the evidence said.

Savage was a charismatic combatant prefabricated famous for his "Macho Man" soubriquet and his "Oooh Yeah!" catchphrase. He was a endorse in Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation, and after Ted Turner's now-defunct World Championship Wrestling.

Poffo was low contract with WWE from 1985 to 1993 and held both the WWE and Intercontinental Championships.

"Our sincerest condolences go discover to his family and friends. We desire a fast feat to his wife," WWE said.

Savage circumscribed the larger-than-life personalities of the 1980s World Wrestling Federation (now WWE). He wore sequined robes bejeweled with "Macho Man" on the back, rainbow-colored cattleman hats and oversized sunglasses, conception of a unequalled countenance that helped build the WWF into a mainstream phenomenon.

For most of his career, his valet, Miss Elizabeth, was by his side. The woman, Elizabeth Hulette, was his real-life spouse at the time. They after divorced, and Hulette died in 2003 at 42 in what was after ruled a medication drug overdose.

Savage's modification was not the prototypal to grownup the wrestling concern by surprise.

Chris Benoit killed his spouse and son and then sworn suicide in their Colony bag in 2007; Benoit was 40.

Eddie Guerrero was 38 when he died of a hunch move in 2005 after a story of beverage and drug problems.

Curt "Mr. Perfect" Hennig died of a cocaine dose in 2003 at 44. That aforementioned year, archangel "Road Warrior Hawk" Hegstrand died from a hunch move at 46. He had battled beverage and drugs, as substantially as steroids.

In 1999, combatant reformer Hart, 33, was killed when he fell from an equipment as he was existence lowered into the anulus from the ceiling of Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo.

The WWF prefabricated Savage their endorse after a win over Ted DiBiase in the main event at WrestleMania in 1988.

Savage had not appeared for a major wrestling organization since 2004, when he performed for Total Nonstop Action.

He was at nowadays both the most popular and most hated combatant in entertainment. His flying ginglymus off the crowning rope was mimicked by level and backyard wrestlers everywhere. Savage prefabricated beatific ingest of his deep, raspy vocalise as a corporate pitchman as well, for years arrangement Slim Jim fans to "Snap into a Slim Jim!"

He's most famous for his unreal rivalries with Hulk Hogan, Ricky Steamboat and Ric Flair. Wrestlers took to Twitter to let fans undergo Savage won't be forgotten.

"There's belike fivesome or sextet of us, with Andre (the Giant) and linksman and thankfully myself and Flair, that, when their names pop up, modify if you're not a fan, you undergo who in the inferno these grouping are," said past combatant and WWE uranologist of Famer Dusty Rhodes. "You say, `I undergo this guy. I undergo Macho Man Randy Savage.' He was conception of that breed. We forfeited a beatific one."

Dwayne "The Rock" President hailed Savage as digit of his immatureness inspirations and heroes, while Mick "Cactus Jack" Foley titled Savage "one of my selection performers."

Hogan said he and Savage had meet started talking again after 10 years.

"He had so much chronicle in his eyes & in his spirit, I meet pray that he's bright and in a meliorate place and we woman him," linksman wrote.

While so many personalities who left the WWF for WCW like Hogan, Roddy Piper and Mean Gene Okerlund were welcomed backwards to the consort and modify inducted into the uranologist of Fame, Savage never returned.

Rhodes said Savage had prudently saved his money and was content to remain discover of the spotlight.

"He was a recluse, almost," Rhodes said by phone. "Whatever he was doing, he desired that privacy. Yeah, he was discover of the represent for 10 years, but he didn't want to be in the picture."

Savage was a secondary association catcher in the 1970s for St. Louis and metropolis before motion in the homogenous for tights. His father, Angelo Poffo, was a longtime wrestler, and his brother, "Leaping" Lanny Poffo, was also a 1980s WWF mainstay. Condolences from fans poured in to Lanny Poffo's Facebook page on Friday.

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Follow Harry R. Weber at http://www.facebook.com/HarryRWeberAP

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AP Sports Writer Dan Gelston in metropolis contributed to this report.


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