In a recent Torch Talk with Wade Keller, "The Genius" Lanny Poffo talked at great length about his father, Angelo Poffo (who reportedly died this morning), and growing up in the wrestling business with his brother, Randy Savage.

Read an excerpt from this August 2008 Torch Talk with Lanny Poffo as part of the long-standing Torch Talk series that has included interviews the biggest names in pro wrestling over the last 20+ years.

Wade Keller: Let's begin with a discussion about your life before you were a wrestler. Talk to me about what it was like growing up in a wrestling family, and how do you think looking back on it as a mature adult now it was different than the average kid experienced?

Lanny Poffo: I really wouldn't know what it was like not to be in a wrestling family. It all seemed normal to me. Being the youngest in the family, my father was a wrestler and that was pretty exciting and other people's father's weren't; I didn't understand that. So I got into it and I thought it was a fantastic thing to do. My father was not a malcontent in wrestling. When I got to be wrestler myself I ran into a lot of malcontents. In other words, they're complaining about wrestling, they hate wrestling, all they probably do is criticize it, yet they're still in it. You know Red Bastein? He was one of the most fantastic people I've ever met. We used to ride in the car back in Charlotte, N.C. and he befriended me. He said, "Lanny, there's two kinds of buses - the happy bus and the sad bus. And I'm on the happy bus and I suggest that you get on there, too. He was right. He talked positively about the business; he didn't knock the boys, he didn't knock everything. Now that I'm out of wrestling - I'm only in ancillarily . For example, every once in a while Wade Keller interviews me and every once in a while I accept a booking to go somewhere. I still wrestle once in a while, but I warn the promoter that I'm 53 years old and if he's looking for somebody to jump off the balcony into a cup of water, I'm just not the man. So I'm very lucky to be Angelo Poffo's son and lucky that I didn't have to pay anybody money to smarten me up and get me in the business. There's a lot of sharks in the water and not everybody loves you, you know. Sometimes they just take your money and steal your dreams.

Keller: It had to be good to have a dad to warn you about twist and turns and teach you from a young age what the business was about.

Poffo: Let's face it. He didn't know any of that stuff [when he started]. It took him years to learn. Then he passed it on to us. Now he's 83 years old and I just came back from another visit. He has less and less memory-wise. I'm just telling ya'. My mom has been married with him for almost 60 years. June the Fifth, 1949. You do the math. Next summer it will be 60 years. I was divorced after 12 years. My daughter is already divorced and she's 24. No children. It's just, ah, not only is it rare, it's phenomenal that they've stayed together that long - and still drinking out of the same cup, which is amazing. Anyway, back to what I was saying. I feel lucky to have been a wrestler. I refuse to criticize wrestling and definitely am not going to knock the stars today because it's their turn to make a buck and I don't want to urinate in their soup just because I've had enough.

Keller: When you were a kid, you said your dad was not a malcontent. Did he convey he was just living a great life getting to be a wrestler and of course eventually a promoter?

Poffo: What happened was, in 1945, my father was in San Diego on board a ship and they travelled to Guam and Okinawa. I'll just give you the poem:

Back in 1945 on Independence Day
The Nazis had surrendered
Japan was on its way
My dad was in the Navy
As history will tell
As he was bleeding through the mats
A world record fell
He did six thousand sit-ups with an extra 33
To glorify our Savior, who died for you and me
And Robert Ripley's feature celebrated this event
Giving credence to success i s not an accident
It's always been his motto
Through times both good and bad
He's a real Hall of Famer
And the world's greatest dad

So, I did this poem for him when he was in the Italian American Sports Hall of Fame. He was nationally recognized by "Ripley's Believe it or Not." If you go on my website, LannyPoffo.com, I put that cartoon in there. "Ripley's Believe it or Not," you know, it's huge. And then he's playing baseball. He's on the G.I. Bill, going to college after the war at DePaul University which is where he met my mother. It's also where he met a man named Karl Bingstrom. He's playing baseball. He gets beamed in the side of the head. And then he ran to third base thinking it was first base. Then he collapsed. And he was unconscious for 72 hours; he almost died. And then after that he couldn't hit anymore because he was afraid of the ball. So Karl Bingstrom took pity on him; first the amateurs, then the smokers semi-pro, then the professionals. And then little by little he figured out the wrestling. He had quite a career. So he feels that wrestling saved his life.

Keller: As a child, when he was your dad going off to work and coming back from work, your childhood memories are he loved the business. It was a career that he was almost perpetually happy with?

Poffo: I never heard him complaining. I'll tell you what, when we finally settled down in 1962 or '63, I was in the second grade in Downer's Grove, Illinois. He decided to use his college education and began a physical education teacher getting all his benefits and everything and getting shots [wrestling bookings] on the side. He was able to be semi-retired for several years, not making his living through wrestling, but definitely improving his life through it and being able to keep one foot in the wrestling. Then the only thing is, in 1973, neither Bruiser, Snyder, or Gagne wanted to book my brother or myself. My brother signed in 1971 with the St. Louis Cardinals. He wanted to ignore his contract and wrestle in the winter time because he loved wrestling, too, and certainly it's a lot of fun and good money. That's why we went on the road. We were unable to live in Downer's Grove and wrestle for Bruiser, Snyder, and Gagne.

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