Video: Macho Man Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan and Buster Douglas in .

I've expressed this before, but like many I grew up a major pro wrestling fan. I was of the perfect age back when the then-WWF was hitting what was at that period an all-time high behind Hulk Hogan in the mid-to-late 1980s, and I won't tire you with how by the sentence I was 8 or 9 years old in the early 90s, I'd found out that I far preferred the more awesome NWA/WCW to the stupid WWF (because I'm such a genius), so let's go on to the place here.

Today, all-time great pro wrestler Macho Man Randy Savage died in Florida at the age of 58. He was a main rival and friend of Hogan during those golden years, and alike in boxing or any other form of amusement or sport, a big hero does better when encountered with a great villain. Savage was a great villain in the cartoon world of pro wrestling. There was nobody quite like him, ever. Everything you want to get to be a sensation in the wrestling business, Savage had.

On February 11, 1990, a fairly lightly-regarded James "Buster" Douglas stopped Mike Tyson in Tokyo in one of the great upsets in boxing history. That character is all very well-known to boxing fans, of course, but for those who didn't follow pro wrestling at the time, or never have, it wound up sending shockwaves through that industry as well. The WWF had signed Tyson to a big contract to serve as a guest referee for an upcoming network television match between Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage in Detroit, to be aired on February 23.

Once Tyson lost, his value dropped dramatically, and suddenly Buster Douglas was the wizard in demand. Everyone wanted a bit of the man who stopped the unstoppable Tyson. So the WWF scrambled and signed Douglas to replace Tyson for the event, the inaugural big issue of Douglas' short-lived but eventful post-Tyson superstardom.

Boxing and pro wrestling, of course, have a long story of crossovers. Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Scott LeDoux, and a great many others have been involved with wrestling at one point or another, and the great Gorgeous George was a primary charm of Ali's promotional personality.

Here's a look backwards at that night for those with any interest, with an awkward Douglas side-by-side with the over-the-top theatricality of the brilliant Randy Wolf and that goof Hulk Hogan, in four parts.