The Time Macho Man Randy Savage Got Into A Rumble At Waffle House
Macho Man Randy Savage is perhaps best known for his Hall of Fame career in the wrestling ring, but he had a few side gigs going on outside the squared circle as well. He once cut a rap album and even filmed a few episodes of a cooking show that, alas, wasn't deemed ready for prime time. He also spent much of the '90s convincing us that snapping into a Slim Jim was the most badass way to fight off hunger pains. He was such a great pitchman that he may have single-handedly saved the Slim Jims brand.
There's one food chain, though, that probably had little interest in having Savage as their spokesman, even at his peak: Waffle House. Why would they want to pass on the Macho Man? Not because he'd never dissed their food – in fact, as far as we know, he was quite fond of a budget-priced waffle or three. It's just that, according to fellow wrestler Dutch Mantell (via ProWrestling Stories), a Nashville Waffle House was the site of a not-so-royal rumble starring Savage, an unnamed man, and several of Nashville's finest.
How the match went down
In the late 1970s, Savage had just wrestled a sold-out house show and, according to Pro Wrestling Stories, he stopped by the local Waffle House for a late-night bite with fellow wrestler Rip Rogers. The Macho Man wasn't just hungry, he was downright angry. When the Waffle House staff turned away from their hash brown-slinging duties for a moment to congratulate a regular customer who'd just announced his upcoming wedding, Savage was having none of it. He yelled out "Who gives a f***!" The customer took offense.
That other man must have been pretty macho himself, as he decided to square up against the wrestler and even pulled out a knife. Savage grabbed his own weapon from behind the Waffle House counter, which turned out to be a butter knife. Still, he managed to ward off the other man long enough for the police to arrive.
Macho Man fought the law and the law (eventually) won
When the police showed up, the cowboy fled, but Savage belligerently insisted that he was the wronged party. Waffle House workers didn't back him up on this, so the police attempted to take him in. No way was Macho Man going to make that easy for them. It all went down so badly that one of the police officers maced another. The un-maced one then tried to use his club to subdue Savage, but Savage used a club he'd taken from the downed officer to parry the blows. To Savage's credit, Pro Wrestling Stories reveals he did not use the club to attack the officer.
Finally, one brave canine officer put an end to the melee by chomping down on Savage's rear. Savage was hauled off to night court and booked on a whole bunch of charges including disturbing the peace, resisting arrest, failure to comply, and assault on an officer.
The aftermath of the infamous Waffle House incident
Savage didn't stay behind bars for all that long, though. His dad, retired wrestler Angelo Poffo, bailed him out within a few hours and hauled him off to the hospital to get that butt bite treated. His injuries, nasty as they looked, only kept him out of the ring for a few days. However, they did leave one heckuva scar in a place the sun did not shine upon.
It seems, however, that Savage did learn his lesson from the incident. As he later told The Tennessean (via CBS Sports), "I realize I was a little hyper," but granted that his canine opponent "got in a pretty good shot." He also advised Mantell never to pick a fight with a K-9 officer, describing them as "quite serious animals..." (via Pro Wrestling Stories). As Savage learned, no waffle in the world is worth risking the wrath of a police dog. Better to snap into a Slim Jim, instead.