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the genius wasn't built enough for wwf but he had a good character. smug heel you'd want to boo but he played it well. vince was a size queen so he wasn't going to get the push his brother had and also, macho was an institution.
he even rapped. "be a man hogan!"
I don't know if it was that. Not sure what they were billed at in their WWF runs but in reality Lanny was about the same size as Randy (he might have even been a little taller actually), though he wasn't nearly as defined. It's been said that Vince signed the Poffos to cripple Memphis as much anything, and though he was definitely courting a southern audience at the time I don't necessarily buy that either. Randy was coming off a red-hot program with Lawler and Memphis itself was still pretty damn hot in 85. Vince just really wanted Randy because he was the hottest available free agent and was willing to give his brother a job to make it happen. For some reason Vince seemed to have a grudge against Angelo, which is sometimes postulated as the reason Randy was never honored by the WWF (alongside the much more popular theory that he got caught fucking a barely legal Stephanie).
Wrestling was still a family business in a lot of ways and Vince was still somewhat abiding by his father's wishes and "taking care of the boys" at that point. It wasn't a unique situation by any means though, you'd see guys like Barry O (Bob Orton's brother) or Kendall Windham or Vic Steamboat or Sam Houston (Jake's brother) etc working as preliminary guys and making up the numbers for the touring schedule in all the major promotions at the time.
All that being said, I don't think Vince ever expected Savage to get over the way he did and never really appreciated or took him as seriously as he should have. In a lot of ways he had to succeed in spite of his promoter rather than because of him.
There was always a weird animosity between the two and if it weren't for the slim Jim deal things probably would have gone sideways even faster than they did.
“Weird animosity” - you’ve heard the Stephanie rumors?
Yeah i mentioned that, but I actually mostly meant before that took place...the shit with Angelo and the legends battle royale, the Commentary thing, the weird rivalationship he had with Hogan who was basically Vince proxy at the time, and the rumors he bitch slapped Vince, the stories about him not trusting Vince to the point he was scared he would use an actual cobra in the wedding storyline and made Jake take a bite from it first etc.
Steph didn't turn 18 until the year he left (94), so there was a lot of shit that happened even before he allegedly cleared out a parking spot for HHH. I don't really buy that story, but if it is true as best I can tell it would have most likely happened in the summer of 94 between her graduating high school and leaving for college and him leaving for Atlanta in the fall. There was a lot of acrimony even before that and if it is true that he managed to fuck his boss' hot ass coed daughter as a way to get back at him for years of mistreatment then it certainly adds to the legend of the Macho Man. I don't think it's super likely, but then again who the fuck knows with the McMahon family. Vince would have probably sold her to the Saudis for forced marriage when she was 13 if that had been an option.
Edit - almost forgot... Check out what I stumbled on this morning.. Start at 6:00 if you just want to skip to the moment.
https://youtu.be/Gt6JfZSuHGIFirst off the whole show is interesting because it has Percy Pringle (Paul Bearer) doing babyface commentary which is kinda cool, but as far as I can tell this is the wrestling world's first real introduction to the Steve Austin name. Kinda cool to see this young cocky blonde dude with hilarious tights and a flowy as fuck mullet knowing what he would become. Even back then you could see the beginnings of the stomp that would become one of his signature moves.