It's been a tough weekend for me. Not because of anything work related, in fact, work was great. We now have the high school baseball and softball playoffs all set, so that will keep me busy the next few weeks. But what made it so tough was how I felt all weekend like I lost a piece of my childhood with Friday's shocking news that Randy "Macho Man" Savage died in a car accident. Although he hasn't made many public appearances in the last decade, the Macho Man was one of my idols growing up, and seeing him pass at 58 years old is tragic.
I haven't watched wrestling on a regular basis since the death of Chris Benoit, but I certainly have a lot of old tapes and DVDs of the classic days when Macho Man was one of sports entertainment's biggest stars. I remember going over to my best friend's house to see Wrestlemania IV and rooting for Randy to win the WWF title tournament, which he did, beating Butch Reed, Greg Valentine, the One Man Gang and Ted Dibiase along the way. I remember seeing him at the old Boston Garden, taking on Bad News Brown and dropping that amazing flying elbow to secure the victory. I remember reconvening with the same friends who saw Wrestlemania IV a year later to see Macho defend the title against Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania V, and how mad I was when he was forced to give up the title he worked so hard for, so Hogan could keep his pants up with that belt around his waist.
I could go on for hours about all the great matches and moments I'll remember about the Macho Man. His reunion with Miss Elizabeth at Wrestlemania VII after losing a "career ending" match with the Ultimate Warrior, still one of the most underrated 'Mania matches ever, brings tears to the eyes of most wrestling fans. His feud with Jake "The Snake" Roberts that started up Macho's wrestling career again, will always be remembered for that cobra nibbling on Randy's arm. That's still hard to watch, even today. His series of matches with Ric Flair, specifically at Wrestlemania VIII, as he won his second WWF title. His numerous commercials for Slim Jim. His jump to WCW and feud with Diamond Dallas Page. His cameo as "Bonesaw McGraw" in the first Spiderman movie. ("Bonesaw's ready!!") His hilarious rap album, in which he both takes jabs at Hogan ("Be a Man") and also pays tribute to Mr. Perfect ("Perfect Friend"). And finally, his promo for the recent WWE All-Stars game, in which he appears as he died, as a roided up Santa Claus. (It's a compliment, really!)
Those are far from the only memories I'll remember about the Macho Man, but the rest are just too numerous. I've been watching a lot of his matches from my video library the last few days, and like many have done, here is a list of my favorites.
1. vs. Ricky Steamboat, Wrestlemania III, 3/29/87 - There just gets no better than this. It was the greatest match in Wrestlemania history, and maybe of all time. Savage was the most hated man in the world, even more than Andre the Giant, who faced Hogan that same night in the Silverdome, because of what he had done to Steamboat. Weeks earlier Macho had used a ring bell to "crush" the throat of his challenger. Steamboat ended up coming back and taking Macho's Intercontinental title after a series of near falls so amazing, you really just didn't know who would win. The loss of his title ended up being a blessing for Savage, though, because he became a main event star as a result.
2. vs. Ted Dibiase, Wrestlemania IV, 3/27/88 - These two actually had much better technical matches, but I put this one this high because it was the first time I'd ever seen Macho in the ring and he won the championship. He did get help from Hogan to win it, but that's wrestling. The outcomes are predetermined, and it set up the ongoing storyline of friendship and then rivarly between the two biggest stars of the late 80s/early 90s.
3. vs. the Ultimate Warrior, Wrestlemania VII, 3/24/91 - As I already mentioned, it's the most underrated Wrestlemania match ever, with both guys giving their all, probably the last time you could say that about Warrior, and nobody knowing how it would end. That part of it was probably the weakest, with Savage "knocked out" and Warrior stepping on him for the cover. And the aftermath was great, with Elizabeth rescuing Savage from a beating by Scary Sherri was classic. Plus, I don't think I've ever seen Macho give anyone the flying elbow drop as many times as he gave it to Warrior here.
4. vs. Ric Flair, Wrestlemania VIII, 4/5/92 - Just over a year after Savage's career "ended" at the hands of Warrior, he was not only back in the ring, but facing Flair for the title. Props to the Nature Boy, Mr. Perfect and Bobby Heenan for selling the bad guy angle leading up to this match. Heenan and Gorilla Monsoon's commentary is classic, especially duirng Flair's intro. "Bobby: If you want to be fair to Flair, you gotta be fair and say that's a helluva a robe. And only a man as fair as Flair would show up at Wrestlemania... Gorilla: Will you stop!!" Macho won with a rollup to earn his second world title. OOH YEAH!!
5. vs. Tito Santana, Boston Garden, 2/8/86 - This is the start of Macho's first title regin, the Intercontinental title, which lasted over a year, in one of my favorite places, the old crappy Boston Garden, home of the Celtics and Bruins. I love seeing all those banners hanging up in the background. It's funny because I heard Savage reference this match while doing a radio interview with Eddie Andleman and Dale Arnold of WEEI in Boston when Macho was doing PR for WCW's first ever visit to Boston for Monday Nitro at the Fleetcenter in 1997. "Dale: Macho Man Savage has got to be on the list of greatest athletes to win in Boston. Sure Larry Bird won a championship and Bobby Orr won the Stanley Cup, but did either of them ever bash Tito Santana over the head with a foreign object to win the Intercontinental title? Randy: It wasn't a foreign object! Dale: Well, what did you hit him with? Randy: My 22-inch arms. Eddie: Pythons right? Randy: No, my rattlesnakes, got to go with another snake, python's not cool." I still have this recorded on cassette and it was classic, complete with several bashings of Hogan, with whom he was buddies with in the nWo at the time. But the match with Tito is great, too. Still don't quite know what that object was Macho hit him with...
6. vs. Jake the Snake, Saturday Night's Main Event, 11/29/86 - Obviously the later feud between the two was great, but at this time both were super heels and Savage was the I-C champ. In the SNME DVD, Jake says that Dick Ebersol, head of NBC Sports, called the two into his office before the event and said "if the ratings drop commercial to commercial, this will be the last time you'll be on SNME and you'll be back in Poughkeepsie doing TV tapings." Apparently that didn't happen, because this was a great match between two masters. The fans actually got behind Jake big time in this match, chanting "DDT," Jake's finishing move. It was probably because of the match that both were turned face within a few months. I hadn't yet discovered wrestling when this match actually aired, but I'm guessing it was exciting, and at that time, you never saw a bad guy vs. bad guy or even good guy vs. good guy match, ever!
7. vs. the Honkytonk Man, Saturday Night's Main Event, 10/3/87 - The odds were stacked against Macho, with Jimmy Hart and the Hart Foundation helping out Honky in this match, so what did Elizabeth, Macho's manager, do? Bring out Hulk Hogan for the first time to help her man. Everyone in the crowd knew it would happen, but still, it was one of those old school OMG moments that you love to watch again. Plus, the postmatch interview with the new "Megapowers" team is amazing, when Savage says, "The Mega-yeah, the Mega-yeah, the MEGAPOWERS!!"
8. w/Hogan vs. Akeem and the Big Bossman, The Main Event, 2/3/89 - This match actually sucked, big time. It had the kind of ending I loathed, with Hogan coming back from a beating he never should have survived, to win. Looking back, I still don't understand how could anyone have supported Hogan in the storyline. He did exactly what Savage accused him of, which is stealing his woman/manager and the title from Macho nearly two months later, at Wrestlemania V. (I didn't put that match on this list because of the horrible ending, but it was a great main event.) During this match, Akeem throws Savage into Elizabeth (which they had to do twice because Liz moved right before Akeem threw Macho the first time), knocking her out. With both Randy and Liz down, what does Hogan do? Picks up Liz and carries her to the back, leaving Macho to the wolves. Who does that? They have medical personnel to help Liz! But it was funny to hear Hogan practically humping Liz's hand in the back. I love Vince McMahon and Jesse Ventura's commentary when Hogan finally came back and Savage slaps the taste out of Hogan's mouth. "Vince: Hulk Hogan reaching for the tag, Randy Savage not tagging out. What's he, OOH what a slap! Jesse: Wow! Vince: What was that for? Jesse: I don't know, but Savage struck Hogan!" The postmatch drama made it even more hilarious, and obvious that Hogan couldn't improv his way out of a paper bag, and neither could Liz, not to mention Brutus Beefcake coming in too early to save Hogan. Macho saved what was otherwise would have been the dumbest segment ever. "If want to come after me man on man for the belt, I will beat you one, two, three, that would be okay with me."
9. vs. Hogan, the Main Event, 2/23/90 - One year later, Hogan was the champ and Savage was the "Macho King," after beating "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan for the "King of the Ring" title. (Why was Jigsaw Jim given a title? So he could lose it to Macho Man!!) This match was basically the same as all Hogan-Savage matches during this time, except that James "Buster" Douglas was the outside ref. For anyone who doesn't remember, Douglas had surprisingly knocked out Mike Tyson just 12 days prior to that, to become the World Heavyweight Boxing Champ. Tyson was scheduled to be the ref for this match, but backed out at the last minute. How the WWF was able to get Douglas on such short notice is still amazing to me, and while he wasn't much of an actor, he played the cheesiness as well as he could. Yes, he did end up giving Hogan the win on a fast count pin, but it was Macho Man's reaction that was priceless. He bobbed and weaved around the ring, ready to box Buster, and in the end, Hogan showed how low he really is, by pushing Savage into a knockout punch by Douglas. Hilarious!
10. Any match vs. DDP. Savage's time in WCW was, for the most part, a big waste of time. He did have a great series with Flair, but none of those matches were as good as Wrestlemania VIII. And every time he fought Hogan he was forced to lose. It was really ridiculous. The one guy that seemed to bring the best out of the Macho Man was the up and coming DDP, who was becoming a star, one of the few decent guys that WCW built themselves in the mid to late 90s. Their match at Spring Stampede 1997 was great, because Savage lost the match while "snapping," specifically at WCW/nWo boss Eric Bischoff. That summer Savage and Page fought again, with Scott "Razor Ramon" Hall getting involved, and then again that October at Halloween Havoc in a "Las Vegas Sudden Death Match." Page just seemed to be the only one in WCW that brought the inner fire and that old school intensity out of Randy.
Well, there you have it. It's been very sad, thinking about the passing of the Macho Man. I would say that it's a travesty that he's not in the WWE Hall of Fame, but seriously, they're so screwed up it doesn't even matter. The one good thing they did was produce the Savage DVD Collection, releasing it right around the same time as the Best of Saturday Night's Main Event, which featured many classic Randy moments as well. Thanks to these clips I will always remember one of my favorite entertainers and how much I will miss him. OOH YEAH!!
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