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Did Savage give Hogan the black eye at WrestleMania IX?
WWE’s 2013 urban-legends article rejects the claim that Savage punched Hogan and caused the black eye Hogan appeared with at WrestleMania IX. WWE reports that Hogan attributed the injury to a Jet Ski accident in the days before the event, placing it the day before WrestleMania. The account also says Hogan reportedly told a doctor the black eye was not real so he could compete.
That establishes WWE’s position on the rumor and the alternative explanation Hogan gave in his autobiography; it does not independently prove the accident beyond dispute. The careful verdict is that WWE labels the punch story false, while the Jet Ski explanation is Hogan’s reported account.
Did Savage show up at Jerry Lawler’s home looking for a fight?
WWE recounts Jerry Lawler’s memory of Savage arriving at Lawler’s Nashville home and calling for him to come out. Lawler recalled being at an event in Memphis when Savage sought his attention. WWE places the episode amid the late-1970s and early-1980s rivalry between Lawler’s Continental Wrestling Association and the Poffo family’s International Championship Wrestling.
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The available account is Lawler’s retrospective recollection as presented by WWE. It does not supply independent corroboration, so it is more accurate to say Lawler remembered the confrontation than to present every detail as documented fact.
Did Savage wrestle Hogan at WrestleMania V with an infected elbow?
In a WWE interview for the 25th anniversary of WrestleMania V, Hogan recalled that Savage had a damaged, infected bursa sac at his elbow and wrestled anyway. Hogan said, “He had a bursa sac that was broken and infected with Staph.” He also recalled Savage insisting, “Oooooh, not Randy Savage, brother. I’m wrestling Hogan.”
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- Publication Date: 2002-09-10
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Both statements come through Hogan’s later recollection; the interview does not cite a medical record or a doctor’s account. The anecdote is therefore evidence of what Hogan remembered and said about Savage’s condition, not medical documentation of the injury.
What is the truth about Savage’s baseball career?
WWE’s biography says Savage, born Randy Poffo, was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals as a catcher after high school, played in the minors, injured his throwing arm in a home-plate collision, and began wrestling as “The Spider” in 1973. Biographer Jon Finkel offers a more detailed correction to a common version of the baseball story: after injuring his right arm, Poffo returned throwing left-handed and tried to adapt, playing outfield and first base. Finkel says he was never a left-handed catcher.
These accounts need not be treated as a fully documented baseball-record audit. WWE gives a broad career summary; the left-handed-catcher correction is Finkel’s account as biographer.
Why do stories about Savage change over time?
Finkel describes how wrestling anecdotes can shift as they are retold: “So over time, one version of the story gets a better reaction and that becomes the version. And then you add a little twist to it to make it even better. And before you know it, 20 years passed and the truth is gone. And this is now the myth.” He says he used hard evidence where available and presented multiple versions when the evidence did not settle a story.
That is a useful standard for assessing colorful wrestling lore. A participant’s memory, an official company retrospective, and a contemporaneous record are different kinds of evidence. Repetition can show that a story became popular; it does not, by itself, establish that every detail happened as told.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Savage’s career in brief
WWE’s biography traces Savage from baseball into wrestling, notes his WWE arrival in June 1985 and later WCW tenure, and records his 2015 WWE Hall of Fame induction. WWE credits him with two WWE Championships, four WCW World Championships, and an Intercontinental Championship reign it describes as 14 months. These are WWE’s career figures, rather than independently recalculated title statistics.
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