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Video Obit: Wrestler 'Macho Man' Randy Savage Dies In Car Crash, Wife Injured
Champion professional wrestler, Slim Jim immortalizer, and 1970s minor league catcher, "Macho Man" Randy Savage died in a Florida car accident on Friday at the age of 58, reports the Associated Press.
Savage, whose legal name was Randy Mario Poffo, lost control of a Jeep Wrangler, veered over a concrete median, crossed into oncoming traffic and collided head-on with a tree around 9:25 a.m. in Pinellas County, according to Florida Highway Patrol. The former wrestler, who comes from a family of wrestlers, may have suffered a "medical event" leading to the accident, according to police, notes the AP. An autopsy is planned.
56-year-old Barbara L. Poffo, identified as his wife by a statement from World Wrestling Entertainment, suffered minor injuries in the crash. According to police, both were wearing seat belts.
He was a champion in Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation, and later Ted Turner's now-defunct World Championship Wrestling. Poffo was under contract with WWE from 1985 to 1993 and held both the WWE and Intercontinental Championships. Savage defined the larger-than-life personalities of the 1980s World Wrestling Federation (now WWE). He wore sequined robes bejeweled with "Macho Man" on the back, rainbow-colored cowboy hats and oversized sunglasses, part of a unique look that helped build the WWF into a mainstream phenomenon.