‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage captivated fans for decades, but nobody knew him quite like his brother Lanny Poffo. In footage shared by Dark Side of the Ring: Unheard, Poffo, also known to wrestling enthusiasts as The Genius, revealed a personal side of the Macho Man that only he experienced.
“Growing up with Randy it was like he was my second father. He was in charge of discipline, he could lecture… But he did it in such a way that I felt good about myself.”
Randy served as a second father to Lanny because their biological father, Angelo Poffo, was a professional wrestler who frequently traveled throughout the United States. Years later, Lanny would apply what he’d learned from both his father figures when he and his ex-wife welcomed their daughter Meghan into the world.
Like many wrestlers’ sons, Randy and Lanny developed a complicated relationship with Angelo. In the recording, Poffo recounted the day he and Randy buried their father in March 2010, and a poignant conversation the brothers shared about who had been the better son.
“Randy got drunk after the funeral and said ‘You were a better son than I was.’ I said ‘I don’t think I was.’ He said ‘Oh yeah you were.’ I said ‘Look what you did for our dad. You gave him that high-end hospital toilet seat and that bed that go, you know all that with your credit card, you did all that. And when they were younger you sent them on first-class trips to Israel, Japan, Hawaii, every place in Europe until they begged you ‘Please stop sending us places, we’re tired.’ And I said ‘You were a better son than I was.'”
“[Randy said] ‘No, you’re a better son because no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get that battle royal for dad.'”
The battle royal in question was the 1987 WWE Legends Battle Royal, an event that Angelo Poffo was not selected to participate in. Despite all his financial and career achievements—successes Randy ensured his father witnessed—Savage considered his inability to secure his father’s place in the match a profound personal failure.
Lanny Poffo passed away in February 2023, nearly eight years after inducting his late brother into the WWE Hall of Fame. Today, both brothers are fondly remembered by wrestling enthusiasts for their distinctive, though markedly different, personas.
