Early career Huguelet broke into the wrestling business in the
independent circuit in
western North Carolina. He was trained initially in a garage in
Waynesville, North Carolina, by Chuck Justice, a high school friend. Savage then wrestled every independent show he could before getting his first television break with
South Atlantic Pro Wrestling in 1991 in a televised match against Chief
Wahoo McDaniel. Savage then trained briefly under the "Russian Bear"
Ivan Koloff at his school in Indian Trails, North Carolina.
Professional Wrestling Federation Huguelet went to work for the
Professional Wrestling Federation owned by
Gary Sabaugh (The Italian Stallion) and
George South. Savage would compete against
Nelson Knight and
Bobby Knight before the pair went to the
World Wrestling Federation as
Men on a Mission. He also wrestled "Mean"
Mark Canterbury.
World Championship Wrestling Sabaugh booked Huguelet with
World Championship Wrestling where he would perform at several television tapings in 1992, but was used as a
jobber. Huguelet left WCW at the advice of friend and mentor
Jimmy Valiant, to wrestle for
Jerry Lawler's
United States Wrestling Alliance.
United States Wrestling Alliance Huguelet would only work for USWA for a week due to a desire at that point to leave professional wrestling and begin preparing for a career in law. While working for Lawler, Huguelet feuded with
Skull Von Krush. He would also wrestle
Tommy Rich,
Eddie Gilbert, and
The Moondogs. Huguelet had the opportunity to work with
The Rock 'n' Roll Express, where he would build a friendship with
Ricky Morton. After Huguelet left the USWA, he began to focus more on college and wrestled on the independent circuit to pay his bills. He toured with Jimmy Valiant for several months. Huguelet also tried a brief, unofficial cross-promotion with 1980s
glam metal band
Quiet Riot, but the venture was not a success.
National Wrestling Alliance Huguelet wrestled for the
National Wrestling Alliance, where he was booked by former
Four Horsemen member
Tully Blanchard, and was managed by former
Freebird Michael P.S. Hayes. Huguelet had formed a tag-team with a biker gimmick called the
Hard Riders with Frankee Lawless (Mark Cavnar) and the pair became the leading "heel" tag-team in the new NWA wrestling federation based out of the
Sportatorium in
Dallas, Texas, and run by pioneer professional wrestling promoter
Jim Crockett, Jr. The Hard Riders feuded with brothers
Chris and
Mark Youngblood. The Hard Riders also competed against
Ahmed Johnson,
Greg Valentine,
Chris Adams,
C. W. Anderson and the
Junkyard Dog. Huguelet and Lawless met an obscure brother duo at this time that would influence Huguelet's later career. The team was
Matt and
Jeff Hardy. Huguelet would work closely with the Hardy's for the remainder of his time in wrestling. The Hard Riders drifted apart after Crockett folded in 1996.
Extreme Championship Wrestling In 1996, after getting his
bachelor's degree from
Western Carolina University, Huguelet and travelling partner
Kid Kash rode to
Philadelphia to get work with
Extreme Championship Wrestling at the suggestion of Savage's friends
New Jack and
Rob Van Dam. Huguelet wrestled several house shows as
Shane Douglas' Bounty Hunter in an ongoing feud with
The Pitbulls.
Paul Heyman had Huguelet change his name to
Ric Rage to avoid any conflicts with
WCW over "Macho Man"
Randy Savage. Huguelet left ECW after a few months, but Kash stayed on. After ECW, Huguelet went back to the independent circuit. During this time he made a regional television promo with
Rickey Medlocke of
Blackfoot, now the lead guitarist of
Lynyrd Skynyrd. The promo was aimed at curbing
domestic violence against women in
western North Carolina but never aired. Huguelet also made some regional talkshow appearances as well.
Independent circuit Huguelet and Cavnar reunited The Hard Riders when
Ric Flair offered the team a shot to try out for WCW where they had a
dark match the following week at Center Stage in
Atlanta. The gimmick did not go over with WCW fans and was dropped. Huguelet then went back to the independent circuit as a single's wrestler and changed his look to a
grunge rocker. His old friend from the NWA
Ahmed Johnson introduced him to
Chief Jay Strongbow at a WWF show. Strongbow scheduled a dark match for Savage in
Fayetteville, North Carolina. But Strongbow suffered a massive heart attack and was released from the WWF before he could return. Huguelet's dark match fell through the cracks.
National Championship Wrestling Huguelet teamed for a while with
Bull Buchanan in a team called "Body Count" in
National Championship Wrestling which was a promotion owned by Huguelet's longtime manager and friend Steve Martin. But Buchanan was first signed by
Jim Cornette's
Smoky Mountain Wrestling and later by the
World Wrestling Federation causing him to leave Body Count. Huguelet then teamed in Body Count with
David Young and Rusty Riddle. Riddle turned on Huguelet and joined
Kid Kash and feuded with Huguelet and Young for the NCW world tag titles. It was in 1996 that Huguelet partnered with Martin in National Championship Wrestling, and Huguelet began to help create the wrestler's characters, storylines, and do interview coaching. NCW did monthly television tapings from Huguelet's hometown of
Sylva, North Carolina. Notable wrestlers that worked for NCW during that time are
Matt and
Jeff Hardy,
Brad Cain (Lodi),
Shannon Moore,
Ricky Morton of the
Rock and Roll Express, Bull Buchanan,
Kid Kash,
Jason Arhndt (Joey Abs of the
Mean Street Posse),
Rick Michaels, and
Chris Hamrick. NCW later became
NWA Wildside and was briefly syndicated after Huguelet left the promotion.
Retirement After suffering from a left
knee reconstruction, and three lower back surgeries, Huguelet retired from professional wrestling in 1997. Initially, he moved to
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where he performed a live storytelling presentation called
Haunted Gettysburg for author Bob Wasel at the now defunct Conflict Theater. It was in Gettysburg that Huguelet met his wife Rita. They have three children and two recent grandchildren. In 1998, Huguelet moved his family to
New Jersey, where they lived until moving to Virginia in 2009. Huguelet is very interested in American history, in particular the
Civil War. He is an avid artifacts collector, and maintains a website that assists collectors in identifying fake Civil War and
World War II relics. He enjoys metal detecting across the country for historical artifacts. Since 2007 Huguelet has written a column for
American Digger magazine called
The Savage Facts that provides tips on identifying fraudulent Civil War and other militaria collectibles. He has done lectures for Civil War roundtables, metal detecting clubs, and other historical organizations across the
United States on avoiding the pitfalls of buying fake or misrepresented militaria items. It was announced on August 10, 2011, that
Spike TV bought 13 episodes of the new reality show,
American Digger, featuring Huguelet and his team of artifact recovery experts. However, the concept of the show is being protested by a number of archaeological and historical institutions, including the Society for American Archaeology and the American Institute of Archaeology, as promoting illegal looting and destroying shared cultural history. In April 2013, American Digger magazine stated that they would no longer have any association with Rick Savage, saying, "We won’t lie, our dropping his association was in great part because of the controversy his TV show has created, and the confusion that American Digger Magazine had anything more than a passing association with the Spike TV series which shares our name." According to
Huffington Post, the American Anthropological Association sent Spike TV a letter "urging [the network] to withdraw or modify the contents" of "American Digger" because it "wrongly represents archaeology as a treasure-seeking adventure, in which our collective heritage is dug up and sold for monetary gain."
Savage Family Diggers (previously American Digger) In 2012
American Digger debuted on Spike TV. The show performed well and drew an average audience of 1.2 million viewers weekly. Huguelet and his crew of artifact recovery experts dug on private property in Tombstone, AZ, Brooklyn, NY, Detroit, MI, Mechanicsville, Jamestown, and Middletown, VA, Chicago, IL, Venice, LA, St. Augustine, FL, Asheville and Sylva, NC, Girdwood, AK, and Aiken, SC. It was announced in August 2012 by Spike TV that another 13 episodes of
American Digger had been ordered and would be filmed in the fall and winter with a planned airtime in spring 2013.
American Digger is produced by Gurney Productions who also produce
Duck Dynasty,
Auction Hunters,
American Guns,
Hollywood Treasure and
Haunted Collector as well as many
Shark Week specials. One of the signature points on the show is when Huguelet yells his catch-phrase "boom baby" after a significant discovery. The phrase is popular with show fans and has been made into both T-shirts and ringtones. In December 2012, Spike TV announced that
American Digger would be renamed
Savage Family Diggers for its second season premiering January 30, 2013, saying the name change better reflects the crew which adds Savage's wife Rita and son Nick to the dig team. Highlights from the second season would be a dig with Emmy nominated actor
Bill Paxton and his son James, a dig lead to Memphis, Tennessee from
Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist
Rickey Medlocke, a hunt for
Blackbeard's treasure, and a tour of one of America's
Gilded Age havens, loaded with mansions of the early elite.
The Savage~Turner Rock Express Radio Show/Podcast In November 2013, Ric Savage and Erik Turner of '80's powerhouse Band,
Warrant (American band), joined forces to create
The Savage~Turner Rock Express Radio Show. The show airs Saturday and Sunday nights at 10p EST on the KZOI / KZOY FM stations located in Sioux City, Iowa and Sioux Falls, SD. The show streams worldwide at Sunnyradio.com. The show consists of Savage and Turner interviewing guests from a diversity of fields from rock musicians to professional wrestlers. Guests have included:
Rickey Medlocke of
Lynyrd Skynyrd, actor Peter Sherayko,
Gary Hoey,
Matt Hardy, and other notable personages from all genres of entertainment. The interviews are punctuated with music from artists from the '80's through today. The show used to contain a weekly fitness tip from
Todd Howard, star of Spike TV's Worlds Worst Tenants, and also a special segment with Rock legend
Carmine Appice, former drummer for Rod Stewart,
Ozzy Osbourne, and Vanilla Fudge. He is currently the drummer of The Rascals. The radio show became a podcast in 2016, and it is hosted on
SoundCloud. Guests have included
Nick Searcy,
John Moyer of
Disturbed, Ambassador Scott Brown and more.
“Born to be Wild” Single and Video In March 2016 Ric Savage teamed up with
Danger Danger frontman
Ted Poley and
Trixter guitar wizard Steve Brown to do a heavy metal remake of the iconic
Steppenwolf hit,
Born to be Wild. They were joined by the legendary Carmine Appice on drums, “The Fretless Monster”
Tony Franklin from
Whitesnake on bass, and
Mike Orlando of Adrenaline Mob on lead guitar. The single was released by Rocker Records, and the video was shot in New Jersey and is available on YouTube. Greg Smith, bass player for
Ted Nugent played the bass track on the video. ==Championships and accomplishments==