When Randy Savage taught the world it’s okay for Macho Men to cry

A clip of Randy “Macho Man” Savage on The Arsenio Hall show in 1992 is going viral for all the right reasons.

Hall: Your middle name is “Macho,” but I’m wondering if you ever cried. Has Macho Man ever cried?

Savage: Yeah, uh huh, it’s okay for macho men to show every emotion available, because I’ve cried a thousand times and I’ll cry some more — but I’ve soared with the eagles and I’ve slithered with the snakes, and I’ve been everywhere in between and I’m gonna tell you something right now: There’s one guarantee in life — there are no guarantees. And understand this, nobody likes a quitter, nobody said life was easy. So if you get knocked down and you take the standing eight count, you get back up and you fight again. That’s the Macho Mania, dig it?

Randy “Macho Man” Savage lived a thousand lives in one. He went from being a promising baseball prospect in the Cardinals farm system before being injured, to becoming one of the biggest stars in wrestling history, to finding peace in retirement before his untimely death. At the time of this interview few knew about his baseball career, the world was unaware of his real-life divorce from on-screen wife Miss Elizabeth, or that behind the veneer of unmatched masculinity was a man wracked with jealousy, anxiety and addiction.

That’s what makes this so much more poignant to revisit now. These aren’t the hollow words of a wrestler trying to amp up a crowd, or inspire fans — but a man being very serious about his life philosophy. He’s was unafraid to cry, he knew what it was like to get knocked down, and his legacy soared above it all.