Original subtitles

If you were to try to package intensity and electricity and

just pure explosiveness into one package, that would have been the Macho

Randy Savage.

Oh, my God.

Macho Man.

It's a stick of dynamite. It is lit. The fuse has gotten very short.

A hundred percent of men will come at you with a hundred percent. The macho

Randy Savage. He was loud.

The cream of the crop. He was colorful.

He was intense.

Oh, yeah.

Miss Elizabeth was not.

Elizabeth was an icon and a role model for so many women. Her character was

something that brought a lot of feeling and emotion to the matches.

Elizabeth, I love you.

Randy Macho Man Savage and Miss Elizabeth were wrestling royalty, and

rollercoaster romance captivated audiences around the world.

It's Bonnie and Clyde, it's Romeo and Juliet.

They were the first, you know, male -female package that was created in that

WWF model.

They were the first and they were the best.

Dysfunctional, as it may have been in some respects, but I saw it.

It's a love story.

On this episode, Art imitates life as we examine a fictional love story

surrounding a real -life marriage that explodes beyond the ring with tragic

consequences.

Well, first, actually, tell us who you are.

I don't want to do that. Okay.

Look at how ripped I was. Look at that belly. Good God.

It's in fighting shape right there.

My name is Bruce Pritchard, and I have actually worked in the wrestling

for about 45 years.

First time I met Randy Savage was in 1987 in Houston, Texas.

Randy got into the wrestling business. He's a second -generation wrestler. His

father, Angelo Poffo, was one of the greats. And Angelo had a wrestling

territory. It was considered...

Back in the day in outlaw wrestling territory.

Can't do nothing against the macho man, yeah. Number one professional wrestler.

Complete mental insanity, yeah. What a champion, Randy.

You're going down in history as the greatest. Yeah. The greatest. I also

this chair by sitting down.

Then all of a sudden, it's time for Randy Savage to appear.

Jimmy, baby, the best thing that you can do is probably just stand back and let

the macho man talk because there's nothing that you could say that I

say better myself.

There was a period in the wrestling business where if you were crazy on

you were crazy off screen.

You had to live your gimmick. And Randy played crazy really well.

He lived it 24 -7.

Just... Personally, do you think it'd be okay if I came out that Randy was a

bedwetter?

What was it like growing up with Randy and the brother?

He's the same as any other alpha male, except his dial is not only past 10, but

it's broken and it's gone off the hinges.

I was upstaged every day, but I knew it was getting over, so I was proud to be

holding the rope.

He had a dream that he could be a villain, a bad guy.

a ruffian. He wanted to be an antagonist because he felt he had more creativity

than just being the pawn of the villain.

Randy would take a lot of risks.

He would say, yeah, stare into a candle for two hours.

Stare into a candle for about two hours and cut my head together.

Some people loved him, some people hated him, but everybody respected him

because when you see that kind of athleticism, you have to buy into it.

So this is my autograph table.

Okay, this was another night where, like, I think everybody was drinking too

much red wine. And right here is that little thing.

Never know what he meant by it, but that's what Macho carved into the table,

he used to say, whatever it takes.

I'm Linda Bollea, married to my ex -husband, professional wrestler Hulk

for 25 years.

Oh, that was back when we loved each other.

In the olden days.

So once I met Miss Elizabeth, we ended up being friends because I was really

only other female on the road.

Elizabeth was from Frankfort, Kentucky.

Good upbringing. She addressed her mom as mother, and she said, we were broke.

My dad left early. It was just me and my mom and my brother, and money was

always really tight.

There was a gym called Sintay Sports Center, and Randy worked out there, and

then one fine day...

A new girl came, and that was Elizabeth Hewlett. And she said Randy was in the

gym about 6 in the morning, and she's working the front desk.

And he comes in, and she goes, oh, my, your eyes are so red.

And he goes, you should see them from this side.

And I looked at Liz and said, that did it for you? That one line, like, reels

you in?

My name is Scott Oliver Hall.

I also was wrestled as Razor Ramon, the bad guy.

I don't know. If I was a chick, I'd have banged Randy. I thought he was cool as

hell.

Randy would always tell the story that it was love at first sight.

Yeah, she saw me and fell in love.

What more could she want?

Liz would always be like, eh, it took a little while to get used to it.

She was beautiful, she was phenomenal, and she was excellent.

What a nice person, too.

And I think that came across on television.

Elizabeth got involved in ICW as an announcer, and she also helped with the

editing. Because it was a mom -and -pop shop, we did everything.

And she was adaptable and brilliant and very quick to learn.

Their first wedding was in Frankfort, Kentucky, at the home of Elizabeth's

mother.

And that was about six months before Randy made his debut with WWE.

All right, this is going to be a Jimmy Hart one. Here we go.

He's a mouth of the towel, Jimmy Hart. The sun is shining. Life is great.

There's Randy and myself and Hulk and WCW when I managed them for a few

The rest was history. He goes, how's New York? I said, it's great. I said, look,

they just saw your tapes.

They want you in New York. The module man, Randy Savage, who is quite a

competitor, making his World Wrestling Federation debut.

Vince and Linda McMahon had come down to Florida to...

Get the contract signed before WrestleMania 1.

Is that Vince?

Oh, my gosh.

Whoa. When Vince took over, he went around every territory and took the very

best of what was available. He made you bigger than life.

Vince was taking it to a whole completely new level that none of us

ready for or even knew about or used to. And we were all in for a big, huge

learning curve. You know, when Macho came on board, Vince was like, well, you

know, we really want your character to have a valet, a woman, a manager.

I think Randy probably just sat down and said, look, you know, I want to come up

here and I think I can make you money in the territory.

Can we work a spot out for Liz? Because she's going to go with me on the road.

She's going to be with me.

Randy, if he loves somebody, whether it was his brother or whether it was Liz or

whoever, he was going to be very loyal to them.

And we've got to know who the manager is going to be.

They fell in love with her as soon as she opened up the door and stepped into

wrestling history.

Oh,

my.

Liz was very demure, very quiet, gentle soul.

The person and the character were really one and the same. As far as the...

persona of the macho man and the package of the macho man and miss elizabeth was

they were two opposites and randy so intense and elizabeth so subdued they

wanted you to love elizabeth and hate randy picture of elizabeth no picture of

the macho man that's very very very bad elizabeth randy would have bring her out

She'd stand at ringside, he'd get in the ring, he'd circle around, then he'd get

out. No, I told you to stand here.

And people were hating Randy just for browbeating the beautiful young girl.

Like, you could do better than him, honey, get away from him.

And there would be times that Randy would give Liz a look and just turn his

and give her those eyes, and she would almost be subservient.

Macho man Randy Savage, isn't that right, Liz?

That's right, Randy.

Shut up and keep piloting. If I lose tonight, it's your fault. Each time he

it, they'd say, oh, you sorry son of a, you know, and that's exactly what they

wanted. And you want Liz to see the light, but Liz, underneath this, you're

seeing, man, she loves her man.

And you infer that Randy mistreats her, but he never really does.

He's just a little intense.

By the spring of 1987, Elizabeth and Randy are red hot and are about to make

history in front of a record -breaking crowd of 93 ,000 fans.

WrestleMania III was, at the time, the largest indoor attendance record. I

the largest gathering indoor of any event in the world.

Oh, Jesus.

It's unbelievable, man.

90 ,000 people.

I had Alice Cooper with me. I mean, the electricity from the crowd was just

unbelievable.

I mean, your skin is crawling.

It feels like your hair is growing.

The Randy Savage, Ricky Steamboat match, WrestleMania 3, I think a lot of people

consider one of the greatest matches of all time.

Two of the greatest athletes that I have ever seen in my life.

All that athleticism, all the drama, all that excitement, it killed him that he

could never surpass that match. He was a perfectionist, and perfectionists are

never happy.

The thing with Savage, I learned later on, of course, when I started working

with Savage, was trying to hold him down.

Because he always wanted to give more.

Well, sometimes you can give too much.

Two years after their debut, Randy and Elizabeth are taking the WWF by storm.

But a surprising twist in their storyline would propel them to the top

wrestling world.

I pulled out a bunch of pictures I tried to find that had Liz and Randy. This is

sweet.

This was just at the condo. We were just hanging out in Florida.

Polaroid picture.

Macho. Little picture of Elizabeth.

So sweet.

So Macho Man, he always kept Elizabeth in the dressing room, so nobody really

knew her.

Then one night, Macho came into our dressing room and said, Where's Linda?

And Liz needs some help with her hair.

And she had her hair kind of, like, coiffed and tightly curled, and it was

sort of church girl. And I said, bitch, you need to just bring that stuff out,

you know? And so I started, like, getting her hair teased up and kind of

it out. She's like, oh, yeah, I like that.

Once we all realized that, hey, I live in Tampa. Oh, you live in Tampa? Yeah, I

live in Kluwer. I live in Largo.

We all kind of lived in this area, so we thought, hey, let's all get together.

It was nice because when we did get a few days off, I could call on her and

could call on me and we could either go shopping or we could hit the beach.

And it was just great because at least you had somebody to do something with.

Hulk would have big parties over there and invite everybody, you know, and

and Liz would go to it.

And it seems like that's when she was the most happiest, when she could be out

around the people and kind of be herself.

You know, we'd be barbecuing in the backyard the weekend before. Terry would

always, like, kind of lay it out. Here's how I want to run it. And then Randy

would throw in some ideas, you know, and Liz would always just go along with

whatever, talking about the angle.

The hotter the heel and people after a while will begin to respect you. And

Randy was so good.

He was hard to boo.

The audience liked him, and it was hard to ignore.

Randy Savage was really catching on as a babyface, and people had grown to

really love the Macho Man.

By the end of 1987, the fans' love for Randy Savage inspires a revelation in

Vince McMahon, a partnership with the company's top hero to create a team

anything pro wrestling has ever seen.

The two biggest names in the wrestling business at that time. Going to combine

forces. You know, the madness in Hulkamania combining forces, brother.

With the madness and the maniac mega powers, yeah.

I mean, who's going to match up against them?

By the summer of 1988, Hogan and Savage with Elizabeth as their manager appear

invincible. They've destroyed all challengers and the only place left to

on each other. What we knew is that we would have the mega powers explode. You

create the mega powers for the mega powers to explode.

Especially when one is a paranoid schizophrenic and the other is the all

-American dude.

And what is the easiest thing for two men to argue?

A woman.

SummerSlam 80.

Randy hoists Liz up on his shoulder and goes around. And when he does, there's

like a little slip.

Hulk puts his hand up, steadier.

Freeze it! Look at how long his hand is on Elizabeth.

Nobody touch you.

Uh -oh. There was Hulk. Say your prayers. Take your vitamin.

You know, here's the American flag. And here's Randy going, you know, I don't

think you're as truthful as everybody thinks you really are.

They don't realize that underneath, he's been boiling.

You got luck. You really hit in your black heart for Elizabeth.

Randy is the jealous, raving lunatic, and Hulk is the best friend who's trying

to screw his best friend's girl.

Picked her up and put Elizabeth where she has never been before, on top of

another man's shoulder.

It's easy for him to blow it out of proportion because you can tell the

side of him.

He's blinded by love and he's blinded by rage.

He's paranoid.

He's got the championship. He's got the whole world on his back.

So, of course, everybody's trying to knock him off.

Even his best friend. His best friend's not only trying to knock him off, he's

trying to take my girl.

They were really playing off of Randy's paranoia, and it was real. So that's

what made it really work.

The Twin Towers, Big Boss Man, and Akeem, again, you know, Randy and Hulk,

mega powers. But there was a point in the match where Randy took a bump out

ended up taking Liz out.

Hulk sees that she's hurt, carries her back to get her help.

You're hovering over, over the bed. How dare you?

I'm out there fighting for my life.

But you're more concerned about her. It all makes sense now.

When you take a look at the madness's eyes, all you're going to see is

and utter rage.

Match made.

What corner is Elizabeth going to be in?

Well, a lot of people wondered, did Randy really control her in and out of

ring? Absolutely.

Randy.

Very protective of my God.

You have no idea.

And he would get visibly upset with anybody that tried to talk to her or

on a conversation with her. He just did not like it. When they would be getting

ready for an event, we didn't want any malfunctions. The wardrobe, though, he

would literally take the tape.

and, like, wrap it all around her whole body. And then the other big thing was,

because she was always in a short dress, was getting into the ring and entering

the ring over the robe. And was she going to go over the second robe? Should

go under it?

This was all a big, huge thing for Randy because this was his wife. He loved and

respected her, and he didn't want anybody to be making fun of her. He was

definitely in charge of that relationship, and she was just the tag

I think that that started to grow on her. I think that started to just

her. That may have been where a lot of the rules would start.

In so many of five, are you going to be a Lomato man?

Randy Savage is cornered. When you take real -life situations and you put it in

front of the camera, it's great because it's usually very relatable.

No! No!

However, when you take your real -life feelings and you put them on camera and

you make it a part of a storyline, they don't know you.

They don't know what you guys do when the doors shut at night. They have no

clue.

But... They know you're really married and they know what you said on TV, you

sorry son of a bitch.

Like imitating art?

And sometimes art imitates life.

And then you get really... Being

on the road 24 -7 with your spouse, it's not an easy task. You know, Elizabeth,

as his wife, had those same duties as I did.

I did travel with Randy and Liz a lot, and their relationship was that of a

married couple on the road. They didn't go out and party, went back to the room,

went to bed, and they had their privacy.

You'd get back to the room, and she would have to scrub the blood off the

like I did to have to tarry from their wrestling match.

You know, you'd put the wrestling boots in the bathtub of the hotel and wash

them off, get all the blood off, because they had to wear them the next night.

And I'm sure he probably wanted to get laid, and I'm sure she probably didn't.

You know, and maybe she did and he didn't. Then her, unlike me, she has to

about herself.

What the hell dress is she going to wear?

I had my wife involved for a while, man, and it's brutal, man, having your wife

around the guys.

They did practical jokes that were cruel.

I'm telling you, they used people's suitcases as toilets.

There were no boundaries. That was the problem with me. You know, cutting

somebody's hair off while they're passed out.

I mean, I wouldn't want my wife around that shit.

The pattern seemed to be that Randy wanted to keep Elizabeth away from the

as much as possible. I don't blame him, really.

Randy being so intense and being so watchful over her, she couldn't have

freedom. And I think you can't smother somebody all the time like that.

Elizabeth wanted to leave the road.

and she wanted Randy to quit. Randy wasn't done yet. Randy was still

it. I knew she needed to have more socialization and more friends, and she

missed having the normal life, but Liz apparently was looking for something

than that. Then I realized it's time.

By 1990, an exhausted Elizabeth asked for some time off the road, and the WWF

sees this as an opportunity to reinvent the Macho Man into a new.

kind of villain we did randy as the heel we made randy the macho king and

thought that sensational sherry to be his manager another female and make the

queen sherry was a women's wrestler and the guys loved working with sherry

because she could take it she was tough as nails queen sherry has a whole new

dimension to the macho man's character but the fans demand to see wrestling

first lady back in her rightful place Every day that Randy spent with Sherry,

everybody said, let's bring Elizabeth. Where's Elizabeth? Where's Elizabeth? I

mean, the people hungered for Elizabeth.

Going into WrestleMania, Randy was looking to take the summer off. He and

were looking to spend time together as husband and wife, not being on the road

all the time. So the idea was WrestleMania 7 have a career match with

Ultimate Warrior.

If Boyer lost, he was gone. If Randy lost, he was gone.

We had shown earlier in the night that in attendance that night was Elizabeth

the crowd, sitting like in the fourth row. And when Sherry started to kick

and go after Randy, Liz made her way to the ring and pulled Sherry off. And, you

know, they're fighting for a man. And people are slowly applauding, and you

grown men with tears in their eyes.

That's emotional. That's good stuff. We got them.

Because they felt it, and people could feel that too, getting back together,

getting back to the one you really love.

Elizabeth, will you marry me?

Despite being married in real life for seven years, which was kept secret from

fans, Randy and Elizabeth's characters finally tied the knot on live television

on August 26, 1991.

And they were excited. I mean, they were like two kids planning for their

wedding. I think it was just the first time you ever saw the macho man break

down and have a human emotion other than anger. You saw him actually happy, and

you saw him emotionally care for someone outwardly, which you had never seen

before.

Liz and Randy are having this beautiful wedding ceremony.

Now cue the devil.

And did the reception and bullshit.

Put the snake in the box and all that crap.

And I got it started and I kicked it off.

14, 15 foot king cobra.

Look at that son of a bitch.

A beautiful, beautiful animal.

Randy came to me and said, so tonight I hear we're going to do something a

little different.

I'm like, yeah, man, the snake's biting you. He's like, yeah.

Has the snake been fixed?

Yeah. It's a cobra, you dumb shit. Of course it's been fixed.

Maybe it has and maybe it hasn't.

How about the snake biting you first?

What? You, man. Oh,

you don't want it to bite you?

Because if you won't let the snake bite you, that tells me it hasn't been fixed.

He's dead serious, man, so...

I went and got the snake, rolled up my pants leg, and let it bite me.

And he's like, don't move, don't take no pills, don't take no antidote, don't

take no serums, no nothing, brother.

For like 20 minutes, man, he's like, I'm going to get you okay.

How do you feel, man? I'm pissed off right now, to be honest with you. So it

time for that snake to bite him. I got the snake out and turned my back to him,

and I paintbrushed the shit out of that snake.

pissed it off.

And then whenever I turned around, that snake was just, you know, he was ready.

And I got him close to Randy and he latched on and would not let go.

I mean, the time that you see it on television was nothing to the real time.

It went on forever.

Vince wound up sending a list of it down.

Get the snake off of it. Get it off of it, Vince, now.

I'm like, I'm...

Trying. And I'm pulling on the snake and it wouldn't let go.

It's just chewing on it.

And it's like anything else. First time it's ever been done. Shocks people, man.

The visual, you know.

Bottom line is nobody ever felt sorry for Randy. They felt sorry for her.

And it's not a good situation like with me whenever I slapped Elizabeth.

And then they tried to go home to see her family.

Grandpa meets him on the porch and says, you're not coming in this house, boy.

He promised us he'd always protect our little girl.

The only way he could gain access back into their home was basically kicking my

ass and getting even, so to speak.

These are Tennessee folks, bro.

You know, wrestling's real. People are fake.

What was the state of their relationship at the time that they were getting

married again? I would say tumultuous.

I'm the verge of breaking up.

So, Terry had been cast in a movie called Mr. Nanny.

It required us to be down in Miami for about eight weeks. So, Liz called and

goes, when are you going to be back home? And I said, I'm going back the

week. She's like, oh.

She's like, Randy, can I please go? I heard her talking to him on the back of

the phone. She's like, can I please go? I want to go help Linda with the kids. I

just want to go see them and hang out with Nick and Brooke in the pool and

stuff. And he's like, well, only if you're going to be babysitting and

going to be with Linda.

She flew down with us. It was so much fun. She helped me unload the kids.

We got the toys. We were hanging out.

We're all going to go out to dinner, you know. I said, so I'll just go get

ready, do whatever, come back from your workout or whatever.

And 7 .30, I'm thinking, like, aren't we going to do our makeup together and our

hair together, which is what we always did. So I'm kind of, like, knocking on

her door, and I see the light is on.

I can see under the door, but she's not answering.

In 1992, leaving her husband Randy Savage behind, Elizabeth travels alone

Miami to stay with Hulk Hogan and his wife Linda.

Terry had to film the next morning, and the whole next day goes on, and I see

her at the pool. I'm like, Liz, where were you?

You know, we were worried about you. And she's like, oh, well, I met this other

gentleman that lives in the building, and he has an extra room here in the

building, and he thought maybe I'd want to take it.

The way I heard the story was that Liz wanted away from Randy.

And so she contacted Hulk's wife, Linda, and went and stayed with them.

Now, meanwhile, Randy is freaking out because he doesn't know where the love

his life is.

Randy kept calling my room, wanting to talk to Liz.

And I was like, Liz is not here.

I didn't say she had her own room. I just said, she's not here. I think she's

with friends or something like that. He goes, well, where is she? I was like,

she's not here. She's not here.

Randy was like, I'm going to fly down.

You know, don't tell her because I don't like this. You know, she's never like

missed my calls and she should be answering or she should at least be

back. Three hours later, he lands, comes in blazing in the door, blazing, guns

fired, looking for Liz.

And I'm sitting there and he's like, where's Liz?

I was like, Randy, look, I don't know.

He's like, what?

You know, where do you think she is?

You know, who was she with last?

What did you guys do?

I'm going to go find Liz.

And I want you sitting here in the chair.

And if you so much as leave this chair and you smarten her up and tell her that

I'm here looking for her, you're going to hear about it. I'd never seen Randy

like this before in my life because I'd never even seen him argue or fight.

Seriously, I really hadn't.

So him and Terry went out the door and...

I didn't know what was going on. I just knew I wasn't leaving the chair. And I

guess he found her.

Terry came back to the room and said, I left them on their own. They're sorting

it out. So they got in their rental car and they drove back home. And he

basically told Terry in so many words or less, like, Liz is not coming back to

Miami. And there's no more hanging out. Party's over. This is ridiculous.

She just went too crazy, you know. I think Randy felt, you know, again, life

imitating art, that Hulk was taking Liz's side.

Well, that was the beginning of the end for them, but the beginning of the end

for Randy and Hulk, too, because Randy always thought that Hulk had something

do with it.

I've been Hulk for 39 years. Hulk had nothing to do with that. He was shooting

the dadgum movie.

I think that when you separate and, like, she's at home and he's on the

that all of a sudden it's a newfound freedom, and that's a whole brand -new

on both parts.

You know, it's just a normal day. I was just home with the kids.

Beautiful day out. And this is probably like five, six weeks after we wrapped

filming and we left Miami.

You know, hard line phones. I'm in the kitchen. I'm giving Nick a bottle or

whatever. And Liz, I'm like, hey, Liz. God, I miss you. How are you? You know?

And it was like dead silent on the other end of the phone.

I was like, Liz?

She's like, Linda?

I left Randy.

I was listening to her, and she sounded like she was at a gas station or

something, like your car is going by on the freeway, you know. I was like, oh,

my God. She goes, I'm done. I left him.

And I said, oh, my God. I said, are you home? Can I come help you? Can I talk to

you? I was like, I need to talk some sense to this girl, you know.

And she wasn't home. She goes, nope, I'm halfway to Miami. I'm going back.

I met some people there, and I've got a place to stay.

She goes, promise me you don't tell Randy that I'm on the road.

She had a convertible little red Cadillac.

The mental picture in my mind was her like a country music video or something

with two suitcases in the back of her just driving her convertible down to

with the wind blowing through her hair.

Probably feeling free and relieved the constant submission that Randy had on

her. And it wasn't that he was trying to do it out of being mean or anything. It

was his protective way, but she had just had enough of that suppression.

When Randy and Liz split up, You could tell there was a change in the macho

You know, he was a little drawn back.

He really wasn't as intense as he was when they were together.

Once he was gone, he really kind of just went silent. He lost all,

he didn't really care about the business. You know, it was like the

on, but nobody's home. Sad, but yet there was that exterior that was, okay,

got to move on.

I think Randy was tormented.

You know, I mean, he had all the money, all the stuff and all that, but he

always was never, I don't know, he was always so wound up. And I'm thinking,

Mach, like, you've made it, bro.

Like, what's missing? Like, what's it going to take to make you happy?

One day, we were sitting in the car, waiting for Vince to come down, take him

forever. And Vince gets in the car and shuts the door and says, Gentlemen,

Savage is now the proud property of World Championship Wrestling.

And we're like, what happened?

WCW was owned by Ted Turner, competition to the WWF. Ted Turner had started

to try and lure talent from the WWF over to WCW.

Hulk Hogan was the first talent.

That made the big jump. The Macho Man, Randy Savage, he's interested in coming

over. Because in WWE, Randy had been put out to pasture by Vince McMahon.

Vince McMahon basically said, Randy, you're too old. Your gimmick's over.

stick is done.

You're going to be a color commentator. And that hurt Randy. I didn't want to

reinvent a wheel that I believed already worked.

And by the way, when Randy Savage came over...

$750 ,000 a year of Slim Jim money came with him.

And Slim Jim wasn't interested in changing Randy Savage.

WCW has given the macho man a renewed career, but his protective nature won't

allow him to leave his one true love behind.

Randy called her up and said, come on in, you can be a part of the storyline,

make some money. He's divorced from Elizabeth at this point, but cares about

enough that he gets her a $250 ,000 a year contract.

Just to kind of stand around and look pretty. She wasn't even on camera much.

But he wanted her looked after.

Except this time, she was the villain and Randy was the baby fake. It was

perfect. She had changed so much. She wasn't like the same little quiet girl I

remember. She was more talkative. So I said, well, what's happening? I go, were

you dating anybody?

She goes, well, I'm kind of like seeing Lex.

And I go, you're like seeing Lex. I go, Lex is married.

And she goes, I know.

That's the problem.

I go, that's not good.

Lex Luger was oftentimes considered, you know, the second coming of Hulk Hogan.

Lex had a million -dollar body, and he had a great look.

Lex Luger is one of the top names ever in the professional wrestling industry.

He's easy to hate because it's like there's nothing wrong with him. She was

over heels over him.

I could tell that.

Paired together as part of a wrestling storyline, Elizabeth and Lex Luger's

professional relationship evolves into a secret love affair.

They were a very happy couple. They'd go work out in the gym together. They

would spend a lot of time together.

They were being a little bit sneaky with the joining rooms and stuff.

And I guess you can't help who you're attracted to and who you fall in love

with. And I always liked Lex and I always liked Liz. And hey, if you guys

each other happy, go for it. So when the idea started bouncing around about...

Blurring the lines, if you will, between scripted and reality with regard to

Elizabeth's relationship with Randy and their marriage and their divorce.

I was really shocked at first

that Randy would entertain some of those ideas.

He was still very protective of Elizabeth, but in a much different way.

watched Lex like a hawk. It wasn't just that they were in a relationship.

Lex was married and had kids.

Everybody knows that that's going to end badly one way or the other.

Where are you living? Do you have an apartment or whatever? She's like, no,

got another place. He's keeping me in, but the weird thing is that it's in the

same complex as where he and his wife live. I go, oh.

I said, this is not good.

It was pretty apparent also that

They were both, um, they were pilled up.

They were just spending too much time doing too many drugs.

I've never witnessed her doing any kind of drugs or pills, and in fact, when

we'd go out and drink, she'd have two glasses of wine, and she'd be already,

like, feeling it. I'm like, oh, time to go home, you know? Thing is, Liz doesn't

weigh 270 like me and Lex.

Liz weighs about 85 pounds.

So she's taking the same amount of pills that the 300 -pounder's taking. You

know, they had some kind of a fight, and she fell down the stairs, and she ended

up with two black eyes.

In April of 2003, squad cars respond to a domestic disturbance at the home of

Lex Luger.

Upon their arrival, the police notice Elizabeth has bruised eyes.

At first, she denies the injuries are from Luger, but she eventually admits to

the authorities that he did hit her.

Luger was charged with misdemeanor count of battery and released on bail.

I thought falling down the stairs gave her two black eyes.

Talk about the idea of getting Lex Luger on your podcast and talk about that

process and what you want to talk to him about. When Nick, my producer and co

-host, suggested that we bring Lex on, you know, I had mixed emotions because I

still, honestly, Lex, I'm sorry, but I still had some resentment.

during the time we were making the call. But Lex rose to the occasion. He was

brutally honest.

I'll never forget.

It was actually early morning hours.

We were having just an evening watching movies together and kicking back and

sipping on some vodka and popping pills. And literally before

the 911 call,

I realized she had stopped breathing.

Okay, what I want you to do, I want you to go over and see if she's breathing.

Please send somebody here so we know what they're doing.

I understand that, sir. I have somebody on the way. But if she's not breathing,

you need to help her breathe.

You need to find out whether or not she's breathing.

Go over to her, sir.

Oh, my God.

Lay down and check to see if she's breathing. Look at her chest.

Terry called me and he just said, you know, really, really bad news.

Liz is dead.

And, like, when he said that, I just felt like somebody poured a bucket of

on me.

Oh, I was at home in Atlanta.

Heard it on the morning news.

I was pissed.

I was pissed because I saw Lex.

manipulating and exploiting a vulnerable person and using prescription drugs to

do it.

They told me that Elizabeth had just passed. I thought she was going to make

and she was going to go to the hospital and regret that she didn't make it. And

then I was arrested on, I think, 17 felony counts and all the drugs they

in my house.

I thought I had the drugs under control, but I ended up getting control of

Elizabeth and I. The tragedy of that...

To witness that firsthand, it was a very dark time, without a doubt.

I knew he was telling the truth. I knew he was being honest and accepting

responsibility. I look at him so differently now.

I respect him.

I never thought I'd hear myself say.

I want to ask you about, you know, Miss Elizabeth, you know, her loss and

everything.

Earlier in your career, you guys...

helped each other out in your careers yeah we were actually married and we got

divorce like which happens in life sometimes and we had separation we had

closure but i really feel real bad for her and her family and uh situation

we hadn't seen each other in about maybe five six years but you know we had

closure and we said hello and everything was all good but i feel bad for her

family elizabeth tragically passed away at the age of 42 But grieving fans would

have no idea that this epic saga was approaching its final chapter.

This is my brother getting married for the second time to the lovely Lynn Payne

Poffel. In 2010, seven years after Elizabeth's death, Randy Savage finds

once again.

He, you know, weathered the storm through his divorce, and he was finally

of on his feet. He was remarried and just starting to kind of really enjoy

life. When Randy retired from wrestling, he was able to devote a lot of his time

to the Special Olympics. That was his passion, and he enjoyed his final years

as a sedentary person. I was supposed to go to San Jose, California.

American Airlines stopped in Dallas.

I turned on my phone and there was a message on there and it said, this is

Medical, your brother and his wife were in a...

automobile accident.

And she's banged up and your brother's in critical condition. But the way they

said it, I knew. I got a phone call early that morning from Lanny Papa.

yeah, Lanny, I hadn't had time to call yet because it's early. He goes, no,

listen, I'm coming back home. Why? And I could tell his voice was really shaky.

He goes, what? He goes, I just got a phone call.

He said, my brother just got killed.

We want to share some breaking news with you now regarding Randy Macho Man

Savage. You may know him well. He is a pro wrestler.

We have just confirmed that Randy Macho Man Savage has died. Coming from the

Florida Highway Patrol, there was a car accident.

I was literally on my way to the airport to leave Clearwater when I got the

phone call from Hulk or Terry.

He crashed into a tree and died as a result of a heart attack.

It's hard to believe. Even now, sitting here doing this interview, it's hard to

believe it's true because he was so full of life. He was so full of energy,

brother. It's hard to imagine that he's not here, really.

We're going to the site where my brother lost control, and you're going to see

the tree. They've still got a few flowers, although they've taken some of

down. It's been seven years, you know.

I judge people by the way, for example, Randy treated my kids. Oh, and that was

it for me. If I start thinking about that too much, I'll cry.

He went out of his way to be really, really good to kids, and that's how I

people.

He loved Brooke, and he loved kids. I'm sure he probably would have said yes at

any time and loved to have kids with Liz. I think it's a shame Liz isn't in

Hall of Fame.

I think that she was called the first lady of wrestling for a reason. She was

the first significant female star who never wrestled. Because he had her at

side made him even more special because she was the special.

She was the first female that was depicted in a powerful role. She was

beautiful, quiet, but she was class.

Elizabeth was class.

Maybe a boy named Timmy would come up with his father, and they'd say, May I

have your autograph, sir?

He'd say, Oh, yeah, here's the deal.

Timmy, I'm going to sign your autograph, but you've got to do something for me.

Well, what's that?

How are you doing in school, Timmy?

How are you doing in school? Are you doing your best? Because, Timmy, I'm

to sign your autograph.

But if you don't do well in school, if you don't do your best every single day,

it's going to be real, real bad for you.

Randy and Elizabeth were greater than the sum of their parts. They were

undoubtedly key to each other's legacy.

Fans had never before experienced a more emotional and relatable storyline on

the complexity of love.

Together, they transcended television and, well, wrestling, too.

Even after the divorce,

They still had a tremendous amount of love and respect for each other. They

true, true celebrities and icons.

There's not one person on the whole planet Earth that doesn't know who they

were. From a wrestler's point of view, she's one of the greatest performers

ever, you know.

While both passed too soon, they left their legions of fans with an epic love

story that will last long after they're gone.

To me, Randy Savage is on the Mount Rushmore of wrestling.

Could perform, could do an interview, had the right look.

He was the macho man. He was an innovator. He was a creator.

And he made the business better, in my opinion.

I would call Randy Savage one of the all -time greats without a doubt.

And the real human being, Randy Poffo, was really a very good man and a loving

man. There was a lot of art imitating life. You know, sometimes in the world,

what really happens... It's not really planned.

After you roll with it, then all of a sudden you really turn into that

character, turn into that dilemma that takes place.

I think people always want to think of her as Miss Elizabeth, the one that came

with Randy.

You don't want to remember her being with somebody else. It just doesn't seem

right.

I mean, that's what we were fed, you know, that's what we believed.