The Lanny Poffo interview

[Guest Trivia247]

This past week on the No Holds Barred radio show we caught up with Lanny Poffo and below are the highlights from the interview.

 

Lanny started the interview by saying that he was devastated by the news of Elizabeth's passing and he said her death following Curt Hennig's makes it really hard to handle. He added that Randy Savage has also been deeply effected and they are trying to do whatever they can to help out the family.

 

He looked back at Elizabeth's career and said that she was never late, never missed a shot, was always professional and she was always beautiful inside and out and very nice to anyone who approached her. He finished the statement by saying he is heart broken over her passing.

 

Lanny said that despite petty things that happen between those who work in the business everyone rallies together during a time of tragedy and he himself has always tried to focus on the positives rather then dwell on the negatives.

 

He said his motto is that it's always better to take a minute off your life rather then take your life in a minute and when it came to partying he never wanted to do anything that made him feel bad in the morning.

 

He told us that he is now working for a bank as a debt consolidator and is doing better financially then he's ever done but the one thing he thinks is unfair is when people blame the wrestling business for the personal problems that exist with certain wrestler's lifestyles. He feels every individual is different and he hears the same weekend partying stories from those he works with that he's heard from boys in the business. He says that maybe wrestlers have too much time on their hand or too much money in their pocket but every person has a choice and he himself doesn't choose to follow the crowd.

 

He says that the grind of being on the road can definetly effect a wrestler to the point of not making the right decisions only if they are weak but not if they are strong.

 

He talked about the effect Miss Elizabeth & Curt Hennig had during their time in the wrestling business and said that when fans came to see each of them they not only got their money's worth but they should have also been given a rebate because they got more entertainment then what they paid for.

 

He mentioned that he has never met Lex Luger but he had tremendous respect for what he accomplished in the business. He said all he knows about Lex is what has been reported so far and he will wait to see how the investigation unfolds before passing judgement.

 

He talked about Randy Savage and his resilient personality and says that many feel he's just an overnight success but that is definetly not the case. He compared Randy to Vince McMahon, Ted Turner and Rupport Murdoch by saying that each of them are difficult not to be jealous of. He said that Randy and other successful people get bashed because of their success and more people die from jealousy then heart attacks, cancer and car wrecks combined. He brought up Randy deciding to enter professional wrestling as a skinny guy and many thinking that just because he made it to Madison Square Garden within 10 years that he was an overnight success story. He says that if anyone thinks that they can go to hell and he hopes he can be the kind of brother to Randy as Randy has been to him. He finishes his statement by saying he wouldn't have had a career it if it weren't for Randy and Randy wouldn't have had a career if it weren't for their father.

 

Lanny says he hears wrestlers from his generation knocking the guys who work in the business today however he feels today's talents are bigger, quicker, better and giving the fans more bang for their buck then the older generation ever did. He says that by making that comment it will probably make him unpopular with those he worked with. He gave an example by saying that Bruno Sammartino was the greatest star of his time but he never got over the fact that Hulk Hogan had taken the helm and whenever he spoke to the media he knocked him. He added that by doing that it didn't do the business any good because all the fans wanted was something for their money and if they weren't getting it then they would spend their entertainment dollars elsewhere.

 

Lanny ended the interview by saying that he has a new project in the works which consists of about 150 limmericks which stemmed from the inspiration he's gotten from his daughter never having smoked cigarettes during her life. He is currently trying to find a publisher and says the name for the project is "Smoking Sucks". He even gave us a classic Lanny limmerick and Macho Man impression before saying goodbye.

 

To hear the entire interview log on to www.noholdsbarredwrestling.com and check our Audio Archive section. The No Holds Barred radio show is hosted by Jason Barrett and George Farmer and airs every Sunday night from 9pm-11pm on 101.5 WPDH in parts of NY, NJ, CT and PA.

 

Recap by George Farmer

[Guest dreamer420]

Good to hear from Lanny. I thought he had fallen off the face of the earth but he popped up so that was pretty cool. I hope that Randy is dealing with the Liz tragedy all right.