I’m almost embarrassed to say this, but when I first started watching wrestling, I was a huge Leapin’ Lanny Poffo fan.
No no – it wasn’t his mega gay poetry that made me look forward to his appearances. Nor did I ever catch a Leapin’ Lanny frisbee (although my best friend did).
It’s that his style was so far removed from the boring brawlers of the day that even moves such as his “one foot on the second rope, one on the top pseudo moonsault” would get me to jump out my seat and cheer.
I always wondered why Poffo never got a push. He was a lot more fun to watch than the muscle-heads that populated the WWF landscape. I kept hoping that one day Poffo would get his chance to shine.
And when he got it, I wished he never did.
He became “The Genius, The World’s Smartest Man”, a character that used his flowery poetry to garner heel heat. He was paired up with Mr. Perfect and the Beverly Brothers. He rarely wrestled – he was more a mouthpiece than anything. He did, however, hold a count-out victory over none other than Hulk Hogan.
So the next time you start talking about how Hogan’s always out for himself, how he’s a completely selfish leach, how he’s an arrogant jackass who doesn’t know when to hang it up…
Remember, he JOBBED TO THE GENIUS.
If that’s not a friend (Poffo was Randy Savage’s brother), I don’t know who is.