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Lanny Poffo wows Sports Night Crowd with Knack for Poetry

Posted: Apr 2nd 2007 By: CMBurnham

From the top turnbuckle he flew, to a fight against smoking he remains true, the crowd took in all the knowledge he blew.

Who has taken on Hulk Hogan and written two award-winning children's books, too? Lanny Poffo, that's who.

Poffo, known to pro wrestling fans as ?Leaping Lanny? and ?The Genius? - also a poet - treated everyone to his craft Saturday at the 34th Annual Sports Night.

When asked about going up against Hogan on the TV show Saturday Night's Main Event, Poffo offered up some prose about the night in 1989.

?The Genius was victorious against the mighty Hulkster,? Poffo said. ?The World Wrestling Federation fell. For a million Hulkamaniacs, who live and die for Hogan, saw The Genius triumph at the bell.

?The saw their hulking hero as he wallowed in self pity like the victim of a somewhat heinous crime,? he added, ?and now he has a partner even stupider than he is, so I'm sure he'll be the loser one more time.?

Poffo won the match against Hogan with the help of the late ?Mr. Perfect? Curt Hennig.

?I'm very appreciative even now to Hulk Hogan for selecting The Genius to be a part of that,? Poffo said. ?He didn't lose to a lot of people, and if it were real I couldn't even beat him to the bathroom. His skeleton weighs more than I do. He made me look good.?

When asked by a kid getting an autograph why he dressed up like a graduate, Poffo told him he wanted to stand out from the other wrestlers.

?I'm not real big. I never had muscles,? he said. ?I wanted to be colorful, and that's a real colorful outfit. No one else was doing that I could pretend like I'm somebody special

?If I had an eyeball in the center of my head,? he added, ?I wouldn't have to wear a cap and gown.?

Lanny is not the only wrestler in his family. The ?Macho Man? Randy Savage is Lanny's brother, and his father, Angelo, also competed in the squared circle. Angelo was featured in Ripley's Believe it or Not! for setting the world record for sit-ups with 6,033 in four hours and 10 minutes.

?We all support each other. It's a very tight-knit family,? Poffo said. ?(Angelo) was inducted into the Italian-American Sports Hall of Fame.?

Poffo's literary career took off after a meeting with children's author Shel Silversein. The meeting pushed Poffo toward his dream of making a book of antismoking limericks, ?Limericks from the Heart (and Lungs!).? He also has written poems for the Jerry Lewis Telethon and the Special Olympics - which benefits from part of the proceeds from Sports Night.

?I have a daughter that's going to be 23 years old on May 29. She doesn't smoke,? Poffo said. ?I'm really glad she doesn't, that means I've had some influence on her.

?It sets you up for the five nightmares of youth which are bad grades, dropping out of school, teenage pregnancy, drugs and suicide,? he added.

Poffo said he has seen the tone of professional wrestling change from the start of his career in the late '80s to now. When Poffo wrestled in the WWF, now World Wrestling Entertainment, Wrestlemania was in its inception. The 23rd installment of the yearly spectacle took place Sunday at Ford Field in Detroit with over 70,000 people in attendance.

?It was g-rated when I was doing it,? Poffo said. ?If someone said a bad word, they would get fined.

?Now they are appealing to the 18-35 demographic,? he added.

Recently, several wrestlers were brought up in a steroids investigation. Poffo said steroid usage was prevalent, but is something he strayed away from.

?I was always a non-conformist,? he said. ?I never did steroids. Because of that, perhaps, I had to do an outrageous gimmick to get over it. I never had the muscles. No one ever accused me of being on steroids, because I never looked that good.

?But by not looking that good when I was younger, now I don't look so bad when I'm older,? he added. ?I'm 52 years old, and I'll take my shirt off next to all those guys. You can't keep doing that. It's a horrible thing to do. You'll never get away with it.?