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The Inside Story of 'Macho Man' Randy Savage Taking a Snake Bite Is Wild

Also in Traina Thoughts: Caitlin Clark draws big rating; MLB players share food takes; Anthony Edwards needs a better excuse and more.

Jimmy Traina

1. "People to this day say, 'How the hell did they do that with the snake?'"

"I'm like, 'Well, Jake put the snake up close enough to bite Randy's arm and the snake bit Randy's arm.' "

"'Yeah, I know, but how did they do it?'"

"I'm just telling you, the snake BIT Randy's arm."

That was The Undertaker, on A&E's excellent series, WWE Rivals, talking about how wrestling fans to this day wanting to know how the WWE "faked" the memorable bite from 1991 when Jake "The Snake" Roberts had his cobra bite the arm of "Macho Man" Randy Savage.

I was one of those fans. I've always believed the WWE did something to rig the snake so that there would be no harm done to Savage. For 30-plus years I was wrong.

Before I get into the details, one of the reasons I'm leading with this topic today is to plug WWE Rivals and A&E's Biography: WWE Legends. New episodes of each are airing on Sunday nights and both shows are a must-watch for any old-school WWE fan.

This past Sunday's episode of Rivals covered the Jake The Snake-Macho Man feud. Obviously, the highlight of this feud was when Roberts' snake, Damian, bit Savage. One of the things that made this moment so memorable was that the WWE blurred out the actual bite, which added to the drama and intrigue.

On Rivals, several WWE superstars share the inside details of what took place during that wild scene.

"Blood started to come out and Randy's yelling, he's selling it pretty good, you know," said Roberts.

"So I grab hold of the snake and I pull, he doesn't let it go. I pull again, he doesn't let go."

The snake, which drew a significant amount of blood from Savage's arm, was devenomized, but that didn't mean much to Cody Rhodes.

"The weird thing is they're talking about, 'There's no venom, there's no venom.' They're not scientists, they're not veterinarians. It's a venomous snake, y'all. There's some element of venom and that's the sacrifice you're willing to take for the fans, for the world over, for the WWE Universe to sell this story? Lunacy." 

Hulk Hogan and Savage's brother, Lanny Poffo, shared details about the aftermath.

"Randy was very sick afterward," said Hogan. "Fever, chills, just really sick."

"A few days later, Randy got a 104 degree fever and the snake died," revealed Poffo. "And Randy would always say, the snake was devenomized, but I wasn't."

Here is the promo for the Roberts-Savage episode from Rivals.

And here's a clip from A&E's Biography episode on Savage from two years ago that covers the famous snake-bite storyline.

2. Caitlin Clark's final regular-season game this past Sunday was a big ratings draw for Fox. 

3. We need more food content from athletes. Here we have MLB players giving us their takes on how they like their steak cooked and what foods they hate. Freddie Freeman came in hot by revealing that he hates chocolate.

4. Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards missed the beginning of last night's game against the Trail Blazers because he "lost track of time." Come on, Anthony. You gotta have a better excuse than that.

5. The NFL is a rough business. At around 11:30 a.m. Monday, the Jaguars wished defensive tackle Foley Fatukasi a happy birthday.

Two hours later, the Jaguars released Fatukasi.

6. The latest episode of the SI Media with Jimmy Traina podcast features an interview with WFAN/CBS Sports Network morning radio host, Gregg Giannotti.

Giannotti, who co-hosts the highly successful Boomer & Gio show, talks about how he balances doing a radio show for a New York audience and a TV show for a national audience, explains how he formats the show and reveals why Boomer Esiason never knows the opening topic before the show begins.

Giannotti also discusses the importance of covering non-sports stories, the recent mishap when his show booked the wrong Randy Moss at the Super Bowl, how he assesses ratings and much more.

Following the interview with Giannotti, Sal Licata from WFAN and SNY joins us for the weekly "Traina Thoughts" segment. This week's topics include whether you should tell your significant other if you have a huge gambling win, the We Are The World documentary on Netflix, the court-storming controversy in college basketball and more.

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated’s YouTube channel.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Today marks the 24th anniversary of The Sopranos "Full Metal Jacket" episode. The beauty of The Sopranos was something as meaningless as an ugly leather jacket could cause a full blown war.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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