Randy Savage And André The Giant Had Real-Life Beef Due To Baby Oil

Now that the André the Giant HBO documentary is official, we’re going to be flooded with a whole new round of André stories. And to that I say: good. Because André stories are usually the best stories. And we have a very, very good André story to tell you, courtesy of “Macho Man” Randy Savage‘s brother, Lanny Poffo.

In a new interview with the Tampa Bay Times, Poffo shared his memories of “The Eighth Wonder of the World.” It was no secret that André and Savage clashed in real life, but the source of their animosity, according to Poffo, was … baby oil.

The relationship between Poffo’s brother Randy Poffo — ring name “Macho Man” Randy Savage — and Andre was not as good. The reason: Andre thought the “Macho Man” lathered his body in too much baby oil prior to every match.

“Andre hated baby oil,” Poffo said. “But Randy wouldn’t stop wearing it. He stubbornly said Andre’s gimmick is being a giant and mine is baby oil. He never backed down from Andre and they never got along because of it.”

BABY OIL RUINED A POTENTIAL FRIENDSHIP. I wonder whether Joey Ryan has any thoughts about the matter. God only knows how many giants HE’S irritated with his personal lubricant over the years.

For whatever it’s worth, André’s daughter has her own take on why the two didn’t get along in real life: André couldn’t abide steroids and had “no tolerance” for them. According to his daughter, he was never able to get over his disdain for the Macho Man when Savage got caught with steroids. So take either story with as many grains of salt as you wish. You’d think the list of 1980s wrestlers who got on André’s bad side would be wayyyyyyy longer if PEDs were his hangup.

But who knows? The only thing I know for certain is that the baby oil story is infinitely more fun and silly and endearing. So that’s the one I’ll keep in my heart.

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