Career
He ran International Championship Wrestling for a number of years, holding cards in Tennessee, Kentucky and Arkansas. He was the father of "The Genius" Lanny Poffo and "Macho Manitoba" Randy Savage. Poffo started wrestling in 1948 at Karl Pojello"s gym in Illinois.
His first match was in 1949 against Ruffy Silverstein.
He sometimes wrestled as The Masked Miser and managed other wrestlers as the Miser. He became a villainous character for the first time in 1950.
In the mid-1950s, Bronco Lubich acted as his manager. He formed a villainous tag team with Chris Markoff called "The Devil"s Duo" in 1966, and they were managed by Bobby "The Brain" Heenan.
Prior to that, in 1964 he briefly teamed with Nicoli Volkoff (often confused with Nikolai Volkoff, who did not begin wrestling in the United States until 1970) and held the WWA tag team championship.
In 1973, he formed the team "The Graduates" with Ken Dillinger. He wrestled under a yellow mask with a dollar sign on the forehead and a blue sequined ring jacket with a big dollar sign on the back. In addition, Poffo ran International Championship Wrestling from 1979 to 1983 in Kentucky.
Lanny Poffo claims that this decision caused an early rift in the relationship between McMahon and Poffo"s other son, Randy Savage.
His last match was in 1991 against Luis Martinez. He was once attacked by "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair, who put him in a figure four leglock.
In 1995, he was inducted into the WCW Hall of Fame. Finishing moves
Front facelock
Neckbreaker
Managers
Bronco Lubich
Bobby Heenan
Solomon Weingeroff
Cauliflower Alley Club
Other honoree (1996)
International Championship Wrestling
ICW Television Championship (1 time)
NWA Chicago
NWA United States Heavyweight Championship (Chicago version) (1 time)
NWA Detroit
NWA World Tag Team Championship (Detroit version) (1 time) – with Lanny Poffo
Southwest Sports, Incorporated.
NWA Texas Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Bronco Lubich
World Championship Wrestling
WCW Hall of Fame (Class of 1995)
World Wrestling Association
WWA World Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Chris Markoff (2), Nicoli Volkoff (1).
