Speaking to The UK’s Sun, Chris Jericho insisted Macho Man’s absence had been “a huge omission” and the posthumous induction was “much deserved”.
“I think that him not being in the Hall of Fame was a huge omission and almost made the Hall of Fame not legitimate for me, much in the same way of Deep Purple not being in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was not legitimate for me, so I’m super-excited about it.
It is much deserved and now, finally, I feel the WWE Hall of Fame is legit.
Everybody that needs to be in there — and wasn’t because of politics or petty b******* — is now in there, including [Bruno] Sammartino, Bret Hart, the Ultimate Warrior and now Randy Savage being the last on that list.”
Despite being a childhood favourite and formative influence, the star revealed his and Savage’s paths hardly crossed when they both worked for WCW.
“Maybe we had one or two conversations but I never worked with him,” Jericho said. “Never was in the ring with him. Never even stood across the ring with him in a battle royal, as far as I can remember.
But he was one of my biggest influences, one of my favourites when I was a kid. The first wrestling T-shirt I bought as a kid was the purple ‘Macho Man’ shirt and the reason for that was because I didn’t like the Ricky Steamboat one!
Most of the chicks in my high school thought it meant I was a Village People fan and I had to set them straight. I almost became embarrassed to wear it because I wanted it to say ‘Randy Savage’ on it.”
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
