Bill Apter Opens Up About Being Spit On By ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage & Reveals Hulk Hogan’s Role In Smoothing Things Over

Legendary wrestling journalist Bill Apter was Sean Mooney’s latest guest on the Prime Time with Sean Mooney podcast. Apter shared a myriad of wrestling related stories and shed some light on an intense encounter with late WWE Hall of Famer “Macho Man” Randy Savage,

“We had published in Pro Wrestling Illustrated and I called him to make sure this was OK. He was making his comeback. He was coming in. He was gonna win the WCW title and we were sitting around, all the editors, and said, ‘Let’s come up with an angle. He won the title, so let’s come up with an angle.’ So one of the editors came up with – we had editorial meetings every Friday, we’d sit down with photos and come up with stories for the photos we had – and somebody said, ‘You know, he’s getting older, so why don’t we say that some fan called him an old man and that spurned him on to get really PO’d and that he was gonna win the title and show this fan and everybody else that he’s not old. He’s better than ever.’ So, I called him when we were in the headline meeting and he said, ‘If you think it’s gonna be good, go ahead with it brother. I trust you.’ So we did it and then I was at the Inoki Peace Festival in Los Angeles and Eric Bischoff was checking into the hotel the night before and he looked at me and he said, ‘How are you doing? By the way Randy Savage wants to kill you.’ So, I knew that Randy was gonna be in Philadelphia. The show was two weeks later, so I was going to that show – it was either Phily or Baltimore – with the Comeback of the Year plaque or something like that and he was coming down the hallway in the dressing room with Elizabeth and a whole bunch of other people and I had the plaque in my hand and I said, ‘This is for you.’ He said, ‘Oh, this is for me? Oh, really? I don’t give a sh*t about this.’ And he took the plaque – this is an $85 plaque – and he threw it against the wall. He says, ‘Old man, huh? I thought he was gonna kill me. I really did.”

Host Sean Mooney then chimed in, “There was a few times when I was working where I thought that physical harm could come to me and a couple of them were with Randy and I’ll leave it at that as well.”

Apter followed up with,

“During the matches that night, I went out there and he was wrestling Ric Flair and Nancy Sullivan (Woman) was at ringside and I adored her. I absolutely loved her. We were at ringside and Savage and Flair hook up and Savage stops the match, walks over to where I’m shooting pictures and spits in my face like a Bret Hart/Vince McMahon spit. I couldn’t believe it.”

The story wouldn’t end there, as WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan, well known for his own personal feuds with Savage, would be an unlikely hero in patching things up between the two,

“I went over to visit [Hulk Hogan] at home when I was doing a story for WOW Magazine when I was working at WOW Magazine and he said, ‘Before we go to my house, brother, I’ve got somebody that wants to talk to you.’ And he drove me to a gym and there sitting on a bench alone in a gym, was disguised, I had no idea who it was and he turned around and it was Randy. I thought I was being set up and Randy came over to me and said, ‘Hey man, I’m really sorry. Demons. I’m really sorry, man. It was all the demons. It ended well.”

Apter continued, “I think you would agree that you never knew what day which Randy you were gonna get.”

Mooney responded,

“Oh, absolutely. Along those same lines was The [Ultimate] Warrior for different reasons; but, you’re right. With Randy, I’ll tell you with that, there are few Superstars that I liked as much or respected as much as Randy because every time that guy went out there, he gave it everything he had. There’s a few I hold with that high esteem and Randy is one of them.”

Apter replied,

“He was one of the few guys during the magazine ban, he’d see one of my photographers knowing that he shouldn’t have done this – if he’d see my photographers somewhere around, he’d stand and pose for one or two quick shots, ‘Tell Bill I said hello.”

(Transcription Credit: Michael McClead, WrestleZone)

Apter’s book Is Wrestling Fixed? I Didn’t Know It Was Broken is available HERE.

Apter also opened up about his role in Hulk Hogan’s portrayal of Thunderlips in Rocky III, as well as what it was like interacting with Vince McMahon during the PWI days. Readers can listen to all that and more below:

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