A 30-year-old interview with Randy Savage is going viral because of his awesome take on masculinity
"I've cried a thousand times and I'm gonna cry some more."
"Macho Man'"Randy Savage during a 1992 appearance on "The Arsenio Hall Show."
A surprisingly wholesome video clip of the late iconic professional wrestler "Macho Man" Randy Savage is going viral for the surprisingly vulnerable answer he gave when asked if he ever cries.
The 1992 interview with Arsenio Hall began with Hall joking that Savage's "middle name is macho," and asking if he ever cried. If you're not familiar with professional wrestling in the 1980s and early '90s it was common for the biggest names of the day—Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Ultimate Warrior, Mr. Perfect and, of course, Macho Man—to take on personas that often embodied what we might now call "toxic masculinity." Many of them were after all what they call "heels," in wrestling circles, aka the bad guys.
So, it was pretty surprising to see the downright deep and wholesome response Savage gave to Hall without hesitation.
"It's OK for macho men to show every emotion available," Savage says in the clip. "I've cried a thousand times and I'm gonna cry some more."
This explanation of macho men being able to show all emotions was probably just as relevant then as it is now. The notion that it's not just OK, but completely normal and acceptable for men to cry goes against everything that some masculine norms have told boys from a young age. Not being able to express authentic emotions outside of anger can lead to mental health issues in men.
Watch the full clip below:
"I've soared with the eagles, I've slithered with the snakes and I've been everywhere in between," Savage continued. "Understand this: Nobody likes a quitter. Nobody said life was easy. So, if you get knocked down, take the standing eight count, get back up and fight again!"
As a public figure that boys, teens and young men looked up to, it was pretty incredible to see Savage appear on national television and dispel the myth that tough guys don't cry. Taking it one step further by proudly stating that he himself had cried "a thousand times" was powerful.
While this interview was filmed in the '90s, boys and men today are still fighting against the cultural norm of the hyper-masculine male image that includes bottling up emotions and not asking for help. All men experience a range of emotions, including sadness, because men are people and Macho Man is here to remind everyone it's OK to cry. Even when you're "macho."