Angelo Poffo

Angelo John Poffo was an American professional wrestler and wrestling promoter He ran International Championship Wrestling for a number of years holding cards in Tennessee Kentucky and Arkansas He was the father of The Macho Man Randy Savage and The Genius Lanny Poffo Poffo started wrestling in 1948 at Karl Pojellos gym in Illinois His first match was in 1949 against Ruffy Silverstein He sometimes wrestled as the Masked Miser and managed other wrestlers as the Miser He became a villainous character for the first time in 1950 In the mid1950s Bronco Lubich acted as his manager He won the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship Chicago version in 1958 He formed a villainous tag team with Chris Markoff called The Devils Duo in 1966 and they were managed by Bobby The Brain Heenan1 Prior to that in 1964 he briefly teamed with Nicoli Volkoff often confused with Nikolai Volkoff who did not begin wrestling in the US until 1970 and held the WWA tag team championship In 1973 he formed the team The Graduates with Ken Dillinger Poffo wrestled in the 1970s and 1980s under a mask as The Carpet Bagger for Emile Duprees Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling in the Maritime Provinces of Canada He also bought into the promotion when his sons were old enough to join He wrestled wearing a yellow mask with a dollar sign on the forehead and a blue sequined ring jacket with a big dollar sign on the back In addition Poffo ran International Championship Wrestling from 1979 to 1983 in Kentucky According to his son Lanny Poffo Vince McMahon declined to include Poffo in a 1987 World Wrestling Federation event featuring legends Lanny Poffo claims that this decision caused an early rift in the relationship between McMahon and Poffos other son Randy Savage His last match was in 1991 against Luis Martinez He made a few appearances in World Championship Wrestling WCW in 1995 managing his son Randy Savage At Slamboree 1995 Poffo became involved in his sons feud with The Nature Boy Ric Flair who put him in a figure four leglock At the event he was inducted into the WCW Hall of Fame as a member of the class of 1995 Poffos parents were Italian immigrants Poffo was a catcher for the DePaul University baseball team In college he studied physical education and was a competitive chess player While serving in the US Navy in 1945 he set a world record for situps He completed 6033 situps in four hours and ten minutes According to his son Lanny after 6000 situps he did 33 more one for each year of Jesus Christs life In college he met his future wife Judy whom he married on June 6 1949 They were married for more than sixty years and together they had two sons Randy and Lanny After retiring from professional wrestling Poffo taught physical education in Illinois