Review of "Macho Man"

This book was selected as me as part of a reading challenge - one person picks books for another person to read.  This one was selected for me to read from a list of various books, all on sports or entertainment.  I guess this one is good since it included both!  Here is my review of "Macho Man."  

Title/Author:

“Macho Man: The Untamed, Unbelievable Life of Randy Savage” by Jon Finkel

Rating: 5 of 5 stars (excellent)

Review:

Any wrestling fan knows about Randy “Macho Man” Savage (real name Randy Poffo), who was one of the most popular figures in the business in the 1980’s and early 1990’s.  His legendary wrestling career, mostly with the then-World Wrestling Federation (WWF) is captured in great detail in this biography by Jon Finkel.

Through extensive research and interviews, the reader will be taken through Savage’s wrestling career, which was a humble beginning in a minor company in Kentucky.  When he, his brother Lanny and father Angelo Poffo created their own wrestling association to compete with the bigger, more reputable Continental Wrestling Association of Jerry Lawler, they failed to make much headway and had to fold the company.  This turned out to be a turning point for Randy as after sending a sincere letter to Lawler, Lawler referred him to Vince McMahon.  And the rest, as they say, is history.

As many know, Savage/Poffo was a professional baseball player before entering professional wrestling.  He played in the minor league systems of the St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds (his favorite team as a kid) and Chicago White Sox.  While he never made the major leagues, no one questioned his work ethic or the length to which he went to show everyone what he would do to make the big leagues. This includes learning to throw left handed when an injury prevented him from throwing with his natural right side.

As glad as I was that Finkel covered Savage/Poffo’s baseball career as well as he did, the coverage of his wrestling career was excellent.  This includes his time before and during his height of popularity with WWF.  This section includes some excellent insight into the business and the dialogue between wrestlers during the show, even while performing. One specific exchange that was very enlightening to me was early in Savage’s time with WWF when he was concerned that one of his patented elbow drops and a subsequent blow to the neck of his opponent hurt that person.  The other wrestler quickly said that no, he was selling the injury.  This was just one small example of the complete writing done on both careers of Savage/Poffo.

 After his time with WWF was complete, he did some time with the WCW and reunited with some of the other stars at that time, but it was not as complete as the other areas of Poffo’s life. Which was fine as there was plenty of material to enjoy and absorb in this excellent biography of the man who told us to “step into a Slim Jim!”

I wish to thank ECW Press for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley.  The opinions expressed are strictly my own.

Link: Amazon.com: Macho Man: The Untamed, Unbelievable Life of Randy Savage: 9781770417588: Finkel, Jon: Books