Incubator escapee wiki

Angelo Poffo

Article Discussion

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox professional wrestler Angelo John Poffo (April 10, 1925 – March 4, 2010) 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 is the father of "Macho Man" Randy Savage and "The Genius" Lanny Poffo and the father-in-law of Miss Elizabeth.

Early life, family and educationEdit

Poffo was born in Downers Grove, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago), to Italian immigrants.<ref name=oww/><ref name="SPTimes"/> At the time of beginning first grade, he spoke no English.<ref name="TampaBayTimes"/>

Poffo enlisted in the United States Navy during World War II. He served as a pharmacist's mate at Naval Base San Diego. While in the Navy, Poffo began weight training.<ref name="TampaBayTimes"/> On July 4, 1945, he set a world record for sit-ups.<ref name=slam/> He completed 6,033 sit-ups in four hours and ten minutes. According to his son Lanny, after 6,000 sit-ups he did 33 more, one for each year of Jesus's life.<ref name=slam/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

After leaving the Navy, Poffo attended DePaul University and was a catcher for the DePaul Blue Demons baseball team.<ref name=slam/> He studied physical education and was a competitive chess player.<ref name=slam/>

Professional wrestling careerEdit

Poffo started wrestling in 1948 at Karl Pojello's gym in Illinois.<ref name=slam/> His first match was in 1949 against Ruffy Silverstein. He sometimes wrestled as "the Masked Miser" (an in-joke about Poffo's real life extreme frugality with money) and managed other wrestlers as "the Miser".<ref name=slam/> He became a villainous character for the first time in 1950.<ref name=slam/> In the mid-1950s, Bronco Lubich acted as his manager.<ref name=slam/> He won the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship (Chicago version) in 1958.<ref name=slam/>

He formed a villainous tag team with Chris Markoff called "The Devil's Duo" in 1966, and they were managed by Bobby "The Brain" Heenan.<ref name=slam/> 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.<ref name=slam/>

Poffo wrestled in the 1970s and 1980s under a mask as the "Carpet Bagger" for Emile Dupree's Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling in the Maritime Provinces of Canada. He also bought into the promotion, when his sons were old enough to join.<ref name=slam/> 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.<ref name=slam/> From 1983 to 1985 he worked for Continental Wrestling Association.

According to Poffo's son Lanny, 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 Poffo's other son, Randy Savage.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His last match was in 1991 against Luis Martinez.<ref name=slam/>

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 son's feud with 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.<ref name=slam/>

Personal lifeEdit

During Poffo's time in college, he met another student at DePaul, Judith (Judy) nee Sverdlin<ref name=slam/> from Naperville, Illinois; they wed on June 6, 1949.<ref name= Mom /> They were married for more than 60 years, and together they had two sons, Randy (1952–2011) and Lanny (1954–2023), both professional wrestlers.<ref name=slam/> After retiring from professional wrestling, Poffo taught physical education in Illinois.<ref name=slam/> His son Randy would support his parents, sending them on trips abroad until they were too old to travel. On Angelo's 70th birthday in 1995, Randy paid $50,000 (Template:Inflation) to buy his father a yellow Cadillac automobile, the same car Poffo had purchased in 1959 and drove around the wrestling circuit for 200,000 miles. When Poffo was sick, Randy installed an invalid toilet and walk-in bathtub in his parents' home.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was also known for saving money to help provide his family.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

On March 4, 2010, Poffo died in his sleep at age 84. His son Randy told the Tampa Bay Times, “I have always been proud to call Angelo Poffo my father, he is a great example of a self-sacrificing, hard-working man who always put his family first. He has always been my hero and my mentor, and the priceless gifts he gave I will have and cherish forever.”<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Poffo is buried at Queen of Heaven Catholic Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois, near his hometown of Downers Grove.

Championships and accomplishmentsEdit

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

External linksEdit

Template:NWA World Tag Team Champions (Detroit version) Template:NWA World Tag Team Champions (Indianapolis version) Template:WCW Hall of Fame

Retrieved from "https://zalansite.site/mediawiki/index.php?title=Angelo_Poffo&oldid=617753"