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With "Macho Man" Randy Savage finally being inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame this year, you might have presumed that this would finally lay to rest the rather incredulous rumour that Vince McMahon held a grudge against Savage for having an affair with his daughter Stephanie McMahon when she was around 17 years old.
But no, of course, Vince Russo had to suggest that Vince McMahon personally chose Hulk Hogan to induct Savage as a mean-spirited rib, so he could get the last laugh on the late wrestler, which naturally led to the rumour raising its ugly head again.
Naturally, with wrestling fans being wrestling fans, the subject was also raised in Lanny Poffo's PWTorch Livecast Interview with Wade Keller on Friday when a caller named Lewis asked him to put an end to all this horrid talk about his brother Randy having illicit relations with young Stephanie.
Admirably, Lanny answered the question directly, but he couldn't give Lewis quite the answer he was looking for, as although he denied that Randy did anything illegal with Stephanie, he was as much in the dark as everybody else as to whether the two had a consensual relationship at some point:
Lanny Poffo: "Now, let's talk about Stephanie, OK. First of all, it's a good question for Stephanie because Randy and I were very close, but every time he ejaculated my head didn't blow off, OK. In other words, Randy never did kiss and tell with anybody. Actually he was very strict about that. He had remarked to me that a person's reputation is all they had and he didn't want to be one of those guys boasting in the locker room. In other words, he wasn't insecure enough to need to do that.
But I will say one thing about [the rumour], if Randy had done anything illegal, Vince McMahon must have a hundred lawyers on a retainer. Do you think for one moment he wouldn't have pressed charges legally against Randy if he had done something illegal? Well, since he didn't, I'm gonna guess Randy didn't do anything wrong. Do you know what the legal age of consent in Minnesota is?"Wade Keller: "No, I don't right off, honestly."Lanny Poffo: "Well, I googled Connecticut's and it's 16, and it's 18 in Florida, so usually it's one or the other or 17. See what I mean? And according to the letter of the law if a girl from Connecticut goes to California, Connecticut's rules apply....
First of all, I don't know what happened between the two and Randy never told me, and to be quite honest with you, if he had told me, I wouldn't tell you because that is a little bit personal....
If you saw the DVD I actually said 'What was the trouble?'. After they did all that Billionaire Ted crap, you know what I mean, The Huckster and The Nacho Man. Then there was the magazine, I don't remember the name of the magazine but it was not a wrestling magazine, it was like a mass market magazine, I don't know what it was, I don't remember, and Triple H was in there and they asked him 'What do you think of The Macho Man and Hulk Hogan?', and he said 'They're great but they're dinosaurs.' And Randy knew Triple H and liked Triple H alot, and he felt very terrible when he said that. 'Ooh man, he called me a dinosaur.' You know, there was a book by Dr. Carlson [called] 'Don't Sweat the Small Stuff', well Randy never read that book, he sweat the small stuff, OK? Hulk got called a dinosaur and it was all water off the duck's back, right...?OK, Lewis, I'm going to ask you to do something for me? I can't answer your question, but I want you to go to YouTube, after the show is over, and look up Randy Savage present day, because I mentioned on the DVD that Randy made a video and put it on his website, but I couldn't believe that they actually showed some of it on the DVD, because Randy was angry about being called a dinosaur, so I say look at that and instead of listening to the young brother who knows nothing, you're better off getting it from the horse's mouth. A video was made, you must believe it because it is The Macho Man. See what I mean? I'm just going to mitigate the story. He is the man that [made] the video, and he was very angry and hurt. He thought it was hurting his brand name to be called [a] dinosaur, and his MO was that if I'm that old, let's have a shoot, you know what I mean...?See I didn't have the guts to ask Randy when he was alive, so why would I have the guts to come on Wade Keller's program and lie about it, because the fact is I don't know? And if you want to know, there was only one other person allegedly in the room and that's Stephanie, so ask her."
The YouTube video Lanny mentioned just sees Savage cutting promos on Triple H for calling him a dinosaur and claiming he'd steal Hunter's girlfriend Stephanie in revenge. Not that he'd already been with her, which makes it less racy than most WWE storylines involving relationships.
The picture Lanny paints of his brother was someone who held grudges to the grave, someone who was still bugged that Vince McMahon didn't book his father Angelo Poffo in an old timers Battle Royal at the Meadowlands in late 1987 when his Dad died over two decades later, and took the Billionaire Ted character assassination personally. Equally, Vince had good reason to hold a grudge against Savage too for taking the lucrative Slim Jim advertising deal with him to WCW at a time when his company was struggling financially. That sounds like reason enough to me for a lengthy impasse, especially as Savage was completely shot as a worker by the end of his WCW run.