On this week's podcast, we travel back in time to February 17th 1998. On this momentous date, Randy ‘Macho Man’ Savage of the nWo was honored as the Harvard Lampoon’s Real Man of the Year in a ceremony on campus – the highlights of which aired on the March 5th edition of WCW Thunder – but Mr. Savage was not alone on this trip. Rather, he was accompanied by the esteemed feature producer for World Championship Wrestling, Mr. Neal Pruitt. Neal explains all in Episode 23!!!
By
RODRIGO CRUZ, CONTRIBUTING WRITER February 18, 1998
In a ceremony that incorporated such disparate elements as ninjas, people in gorilla outfits and a mariachi band, the Harvard Lampoon bestowed upon professional wrestler Randy "The Macho Man" Savage its annual Real Man of the Year award yesterday afternoon.
The Lampoon, a semi-secret Bow Street organization that used to occasionally publish a so-called humor magazine, presented the award to Savage inside a makeshift wrestling ring that had been erected in front of the steps of its castle.
Savage, who distinguished himself first as a member of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and now in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), is a former winner of the WWF's Intercontinental Title as well as the WWF and WCW's respective heavyweight championships.
He is the first wrestler to receive the Lampoon's Real Man of the Year award.
The ceremony honoring Savage was the culmination of a day's worth of highly publicized activities by the Lampoon that included a parade down Mass. Ave. and an introduction by Nobellaureate and Baird Professor of Chemistry Dudley Herschbach.
The 45-year-old Savage, whose real name is Randy Poffo, arrived for the event in a silver Dodge Viper, dressed in a black leather jacket, spandex pants and a t-shirt with the word "MADNESS" emblazoned on it.
Spectators, both students and Cambridge locals,lined Savage's parade route as he and members of the Lampoon hurled Slim Jim snacks at the crowd.
When asked during the parade if he would like to say anything to his fans, Savage replied, "Snap into a Slim Jim!" -- referring to the brand of beef jerky sticks the flamboyant wrestler endorses.
Whether by design or by chance, the Lampoon's event was scheduled for the same day as a ceremony honoring the Hasty Pudding Theatrical Society's Man of the Year, Kevin Kline.
Seizing upon this coincidence, Savage challenged Kline to a wrestling match in the Lampoon's ring, questioned his courage and insinuated that Kline and Savage's estranged tag-team partner Hollywood Hulk Hogan were"dating".
Lampoon officers even provided Savage with a telephone, inviting him to call Kline at the Hasty Pudding to issue his challenge directly.
In the ensuing dialogue between Savage and a voice that purported to be Kline, the wrestler called the actor out, saying "take your beating like a man." Kline, however, did not present himself.
Later that evening, at a news conference held at the Hasty Pudding Theatre, Kline initially professed ignorance about Savage's challenge, but then assented to it, saying, "I'm Man of the Year.It's sour grapes. I will accept his challenge, but I won't wrestle him."
In lieu of Kline, the Lampoon staged a tag-team bout that pitted Savage and Grimace, a McDonalds character, against a group of costumed spectators culled from the audience. These included a cowboy,a ninja, the philosopher Socrates, a cadre of Revolutionary War soldiers and the Grim Reaper.
Without Savage's assistance, Grimace dispatched his adversaries with seeming ease.
But when the purple-clad mascot turned against his own partner, Savage felled Grimace with one blow, opting for an arm hack to the head rather than his signature move, the "flying elbow from the top of the ropes."
Despite Savage's victory, wrestling fans at ringside agreed that his appearance at the Lampoon comes at a crossroads in the middle-aged wrestler's personal and professional life.
"He's not the same as he was at Wrestle mania III back in '86," said Savage admirer John E.Connolly '00.
In the past five years, Savage has switched his affiliation from the WWF to the WCW and been divorced from his wife and current manager, Lady Elizabeth.
More recently, he alienated himself from his gang, the New World Order (NWO), as a result of his feud with Hogan.
Responding to a question about a possible schism within the NWO, Savage said, "Sure, they're all tense and I'm feeling great."
Still, Savage's youngest fans remain his most ardent admirers.
"As many times as Macho Man gets knocked down he always gets back up," said seven-year-old Brian Devenne of Cambridge.
The afternoon's proceedings came to a climax when Lampoon President Matthew J. Murray '99 and Narthex Nicholas A. Stoller '98 handed Savage the silver cup that represents their Real Man of the Year Award as well as a self improvement cassette Savage identified as "How to Have Sex Up to One Time a Night."
Savage, apparently touched by the recognition,expressed his appreciation and said he would use the award as an incentive to "really get serious and kick ass from now on.
