Lanny Poffo recently shared his review of A&E’s “Biography: ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage” and how it portrayed the life of his brother Randy, the late WWE Hall of Famer.
The program has garnered plenty of criticism for various reasons. Namely, many viewers felt that it portrayed Savage in a negative light, whereas the series’ other specials have been much more kind to their respective subjects.
In a post on Pro Wrestling Stories, Poffo shared his thoughts on the documentary about his brother. In a nutshell, Poffo explained that while most of the documentary was “great”, it is quite problematic.
“I want to say that 75% of the A&E Biography episode on Randy was great, 20% of it was lousy, and 5% was just horrible,” wrote Poffo. “The people responsible for the 5% are Stephanie Bellars (Gorgeous George, Frankenstein, whatever) and Bubba the Love Sponge.
“These are two people that speak with authority with absolutely no validity. Bubba, for instance, speculated on who Randy loved all his life, yet he wasn’t even on Randy’s Christmas list, so how was he going to know that?”
Poffo then echoed the sentiment that the specials about Roddy Piper and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin “glorified” the subjects, but Savage’s documentary “vilified him.”
In a strong statement, Poffo argued that his brother was practically made out to be a monster.
“Randy was made to look as bad as Chris Benoit, but I don’t remember my brother murdering anybody,” wrote Poffo.
He also disputed various aspects of the documentary; for example, he *rejected the claim made by Bellars that Savage was taking steroids.
“[Gorgeous George] also mentioned that my brother took steroids, wrote Poffo. “No, it wasn’t steroids because that was illegal at the time. It was human growth hormones. That’s how Randy got massively large for the movie ‘Spider-Man.'”
Poffo also criticized Jerry “The King” Lawler’s discussion of Savage’s marriage, and he also corrected a claim Bruce Prichard made on the show.
“…The former ‘Brother Love’ Bruce Prichard said in the A&E Biography of Randy Savage that my mother was from Germany during the rise of Hitler,” wrote Poffo.
“While that’s a good soundbite for a creative writer in wrestling, it is simply not true….My mother is Jewish, but her mother was from Belarus, and her father was from Lithuania. On my father’s side, both of my grandparents were from Lucca, Tuscany, Italy.
“So there you are with some actual facts. It’s probably not as interesting as what Bruce Prichard said, but embellishment is usually more fun than the truth.”
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Update: *Pro Wrestling Stories clarified that Lanny was referring to Randy’s activity while he was with Gorgeous George, and not denying his use of steroids in general. “Lanny would be the first to admit Randy took steroids,” Pro Wrestling Stories wrote. “(Randy himself admitted to it on Arsenio) but emphasizes it was while steroids were still legal.”
