In the early 1980s, Elizabeth Ann Hulette took a job as an on-camera host for International Championship Wrestling, a promotion out of Lexington, Kentucky owned by Angelo Poffo, father of Randall Poffo, who would later adopt the ring name Macho Man Randy Savage.
Savage and Hulette married in 1984, a year before they would both debut in the World Wrestling Federation. Savage was an athletic, flamboyant, high-energy heel driven by “the madness.” Hulette was cast as his manager, “Miss Elizabeth” to fans. Onscreen, she acted everything Randy wasn’t—shy, soft-spoken, delicate. She was a damsel under his control. What kept Savage a villain despite his ability, his gift of gab, and his lovable look was his brutish treatment of Elizabeth.
Of course, pro wrestling is fake. Elizabeth Hulette and her husband were actors. But one of the beautiful and terrible facets of pro wrestling as an artform is when lines blur between story and fact, between the characters on the videoscope and the character of those tasked with portraying bad behavior.
I don’t know of any hard evidence that Savage was physically abusive to Hulette when the cameras were off. However, peers who knew the couple will note how protective Savage was of her, how he kept her away from “the boys” in the locker room like a bird in a cage, and how he had a short, jealous fuse. They’ll talk about the blurry line between what was happening onscreen and off.
Miss Elizabeth is written exactly as you would expect her character would be written by Vince McMahon and company in the 1980s and 90s. It’s difficult to watch in 2023. It’s made more difficult knowing what happens. The highpoint of Elizabeth and Randy’s onscreen relationship came in 1991. Savage and Elizabeth had broken up as wrestler/manager, Savage replacing her with the Sensational Sherri—an accomplished wrestler in her own right who was far more physically imposing than Miss Elizabeth. After losing a retirement match to the Ultimate Warrior at Wrestlemania VII, Sherri attacked Savage for his failures, literally kicking the man while he was down. Elizabeth, watching from the crowd, rushed to the ring and threw the bigger, stronger Sherri out. Elizabeth and Randy embraced, reconciling. Randy, moments away from supposedly leaving the ring forever, hoisted Elizabeth on his shoulder and celebrated with their fans.
A bit later, Randy holds open the ropes for Elizabeth’s exit. In this single moment of chivalry, Savage seems to make amends for years of chauvinism. Famously, the camera cuts to audience members who are openly weeping with joy. Are these fans reacting to one of the best emotional payoffs in pro wrestling history, or are these actors planted in the crowd? Who could say for sure? That’s pro wrestling, baby.
The WWF followed this with a proposal and in-ring marriage between Savage and Elizabeth later that year—but all of that lacked the pathos of Elizabeth, the perpetual damsel in distress, coming to Macho’s rescue. It’s complicated and difficult to watch, knowing that Hulette and Poffo would divorce the following year. One can assume the state of their actual relationship while their characters were finally showing healthy affection. It’s hard to watch knowing that, 12 years later, Elizabeth Hulette would die at age 42 from a toxic mix of alcohol and painkillers in the home of pro wrestler Lex Luger—a man who did, allegedly, beat her.1
Miss Elizabeth is not mentioned in any of the songs on Be a Man, which debuted 5 months after her passing. In the track “My Perfect Friend,” Savage does eulogize Curt Hennig, a wrestler who died of cocaine intoxication at age 44 in February 2003. When asked about Hulette’s death in an interview around that time, Savage explains that they divorced and hadn’t spoken for several years, but that they had achieved closure. He says he feels bad for her and her family and then pivots to Hennig and their friendship.
I think it’s to Savage’s credit that he didn’t exploit his relationship with Hulette for his album. Compare that to Luger, who talks about Hulette’s passing in his autobiography and on The 700 Club and a hundred other places. “Remember Me,” the 6th track on Be a Man, nonetheless recalls her. It’s the first song on the album with female backing vocals. The hook repeats, “remember me.” Savage is talking about himself, of course, claiming he’s still “the same old Macho that I used to be.” But I’m thinking of the woman he lifted effortlessly onto his shoulder. I’m thinking about whether reading her as a victim of professional wrestling strips her agency, casts her in real life far too similarly to the men who puppeteered her character.
The song is okay. Macho’s quieter approach to his lines is a welcome change of pace. The hook isn’t terrible, but it does trail off into “la la la’s” as if they couldn’t think of lyrics to complete the rhyme. Macho calls out his legendary match against Ricky Steamboat in Wrestlemania III at the Pontiac Silverdome, the now-demolished NFL stadium that played an outsized role in my football-centered youth. The nostalgia hits very hard.2 The song is funniest when Savage raps an acrostic of his “Macho Man” nickname—the “O,” naturally, standing for “Oh Yeah,” and the M in Man standing, hilariously, for “Macho.”
The song begins and ends, “How could you forget me / Forget all about me?” There doesn’t seem to be many interviews with Hulette out there. In one I found, the interviewer notes that most people don’t know a lot about her and that she seems to avoid the spotlight more than some other wrestling managers. Hulette replies, “The show’s about wrestling and about the guys. I have no desire to try and steal any bit of the limelight. I enjoy what I do, and if I enhance what’s going on, then that’s great, but…” and then her voice gets lost in the terrible quality of the clip.
3 out of 5 weeping fans.
Sensational Sherri Martel died of a drug overdose in 2007 at age 49. Macho Man Randy Savage, as we’ve discussed, died of a heart attack while driving in 2011 at age 58. Lex Luger is still alive.
Upon writing, I was sure that the Silverdome had been torn down. Checking Google Maps to confirm, it was appropriate to discover that the site is now an Amazon fulfillment center.