That Was Then 3.2.07: The History Of The Madness Part 3 – A Matter Of Pride

Part I: Trust Me

The Randy-Liz wedding became a much-hyped affair leading up to Summerslam, and in fact became half of a sort of double main event with the handicap match that was the headlining wrestling match. The entire night was spent building to The Match Made In Heaven, as the wedding came to be known, and they even had a hotline which viewers could call to hopefully get a chance to talk to Liz or Randy before the wedding. They inserted little vignettes in between matches of Randy on the phone as he got ready for the wedding. After the handicap match (which was called The Match Made In Hell) ended, it was finally time for the grand affair. The Macho Man came out in his best, shiniest wrestling gear, and Elizabeth came out in a beautiful dress, and they stepped up to the altar (which was actually the ring with the ropes taken off). They exchanged their vows and were declared man and wife.

The PPV went off the air at that point to send the fans to bed happy, but we found out on TV next week that the Savages had some unwelcome visitors at the reception, which was held backstage at Madison Square Garden. No sooner had Randy and Elizabeth made it to the reception when Jake Roberts and the Undertaker crashed the party and attacked Savage. Luckily, Savage’s new friend Sid Justice was there to run Roberts and the Undertaker off, but they had succeeded in ruining Savage’s special night. Savage was livid and wanted to get his hands on Jake Roberts for orchestrating the attack, but his career had ended after the Retirement Match and would not be allowed to get in the ring with Roberts. This didn’t stop Savage from heavily campaigning for reinstatement, even using his spot as an announcer on WWF Superstars as advertising space, wearing outfits that had his new slogan, “REINSTATE MACHO MAN” plastered all over them. This went on for weeks, but WWF President Jack Tunney would not budge. Savage had lost the Retirement Match and would have to stay out of the ring.

A couple of weeks before Survivor Series, Jake had just won a squash match on WWF Superstars and began taunting Savage, daring him to come to the ring. Savage got up despite the protestations of Vince McMahon and Roddy Piper, saying he was just going to go down there and talk to Jake. He got in the ring, but was the victim of a sneak attack by Roberts, who tied him in the ropes and then went for the bag. To the horror of the fans, Roberts pulled out a king cobra and made the snake bite Savage on the arm. Savage was helpless to do anything but writhe in agony as the cobra gnawed away at his arm for several minutes. WWF agents and even Elizabeth came to ringside out of concern for Savage, but Roberts chased them all off with the cobra. Savage used this opportunity to release himself from the ropes, but the venom had affected him badly, and each time he took a swing at Jake, he fell flat on his face. Finally, Roddy Piper was able to get Savage out of the ring and to the back for medical attention.

WWF President Jack Tunney came on TV the following week and accepted blame for the incident, claiming that he had allowed Jake Roberts to bring the snake to ringside because Jake had told him that the snake had been devenomized. Tunney took full responsibility for allowing the incident to happen and, as a way of making it up, granted Savage his full reinstatement to active competition, and also officially barred Roberts from bringing any snakes to ringside. Finally, he made a one-on-one match between Savage and Roberts for one week after the Survivor Series in San Antonio, Texas.

When they got to Texas, Jake wasn’t even all the way to the ring when Savage ran out and attacked him from behind, tossing Roberts in the ring to officially start the match. Savage was like a man possessed, recklessly battering Jake. Roberts briefly took control of the match, but Savage quickly turned it around and pinned Jake after the flying elbowdrop. Savage continued to attack Roberts after the match and went out to the floor to grab his trusty old friend, the ring bell. The referee tried stopping Savage from using the bell, and Roberts used the distraction to give Savage a DDT. Now Savage was in trouble, and Jake knew it. Jake gave him a second DDT and climbed out of the ring. He was halfway up the walkway when he stopped, turned around, and smiled. He came back down the aisle and reached underneath the ring and pulled out a black bag. He had circumvented Tunney’s ruling by not leaving the snake at ringside, but under the ring.

It appeared that we were going to get a repeat of the first snakebite incident, but Elizabeth ran out to the ring and got between Jake and Savage, begging Jake to stop. In one of the most disturbing scenes ever seen in wrestling at that point, Jake continually threatened to send the snake after Savage while Elizabeth just cried and begged him to leave Savage alone. Jake seemed to back off, then told Elizabeth that Savage made him sick. He grabbed Elizabeth by the hair and yanked her to her feet. Roberts absolutely towered over Elizabeth as she tried to free herself, but Jake shocked everybody by punching Elizabeth square in the face. Finally, Jack Tunney came down to the ring to put a stop to it himself. Roberts left without an argument, but the damage, both physical and psychological, had been done. Roberts had gone beyond a normal wrestling feud and had even gone beyond making it personal. He had traumatized Randy and Elizabeth and not just crossed the line, but leapt over it. Savage was so angry that nobody knew what he would do when he got his hands on Roberts again.

They crossed paths briefly at the Royal Rumble, even though Roberts tried his best to hide from Savage and sneak attack him, Savage quickly eliminated Roberts from the match and would have put a hurting on him if the Undertaker hadn’t intercepted him and allowed Roberts to make his escape. The final match between Savage and Roberts occured on Saturday Night’s Main Event. Roberts hit the DDT fairly early in the match, but Savage escaped a second DDT attempt and hit the flying elbowdrop for the win. Jake scurried off to the back and Savage called Elizabeth out to celebrate with him in the ring. Randy had avenged Elizabeth where Jake Roberts was concerned, but it wouldn’t be long before he’d have to once again defend the honor of his wife.

Part II: She Was Mine First

Ric Flair was originally scheduled to defend the WWF Title against Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania 8, but an issue sprang up between Hogan and Sid Justice, and Hogan was pulled out of the WWF Title match to instead face Sid at Wrestlemania. As luck would have it, Savage was named as the replacement challenger at Wrestlemania. As Savage prepared to try and regain the title he had lost three years earlier, Flair came out with some unexpected claims of having had a relationship in the past with Elizabeth. Flair claimed that he had had Elizabeth first, and even produced photos that, while not X-rated, did show Flair and Elizabeth together.

Savage was understandably angry, and seemed in denial of the situation. He refused to accept that Elizabeth would have ever gotten involved with Flair, and it didn’t seem that Flair had learned anything from watching what Savage did to Jake Roberts, because he continued taunting Savage with more stories. Shortly before Wrestlemania, Savage proved that Flair’s claims were false when he produced the same photos Flair had, except they had Savage in them and not Flair. It became clear that Flair had somehow gotten ahold of those photos and doctored them to make it appear that he had a relationship with Elizabeth. Savage knew all along that the claims were false, but the mere suggestion had gotten Savage furious at Flair…which was exactly what Flair wanted. He wanted Savage to get angry and lose control and either get himself disqualified or make a mistake and allow Flair to capitalize and beat Savage. Flair was not at all interested in Elizabeth, but was merely using her as a pawn in his mind games against Savage.

When the match came, Savage fell right into Flair’s trap and went at him with reckless abandon. Savage got an early advantage, but soon made the mistake Flair knew would come, and the champion took over and began working over Savage’s knee. In addition to being a slick opponent on his own, Flair had Mr Perfect in his corner, and Perfect had no problem interfering, even sliding into the ring to break up a pin attempt after Savage hit the flying elbow on Flair. Finally, after watching her husband in what amounted to a 2-on-1 situation, Elizabeth couldn’t take it anymore and came to ringside to support Randy. Flair saw her at ringside and taunted her, trying to rile Savage up again. However, Flair spent a little too much time worrying about Elizabeth, and Savage was able to roll Flair up with the help of a handful of tights and beat him to win the WWF Title. Flair couldn’t believe that after all the work he put into unbalancing Savage, he had lost anyway. He tried to get in Savage’s head by grabbing Elizabeth and kissing her, but it didn’t change the fact that he had lost the WWF Title.

As much as Savage wanted to get his hands on Flair for kissing his wife, he was now once again the WWF Champion and had to worry about defending that title first and foremost. He signed to defend the WWF Title against his old nemesis the Ultimate Warrior at Summerslam 92, but Flair and Perfect would get their fingers in this one as well. Flair and Perfect spent weeks going back and forth between Savage and the Warrior, claiming to each that the other was negotiating with Mr Perfect to have him in his corner at Summerslam, with the implication that they would use Perfect’s interference to beat the other. Neither man admitted to dealing with Perfect, but neither denied it, either.

At Summerslam, Savage and Warrior had another great match, but one that was overshadowed by the whole Mr Perfect situation. Flair and Perfect finally made their way to ringside and stood in a neutral corner where they just patiently watched the match, giving no indication who they were out there for the benefit of. They got their answer when Savage was coming off the ropes and Perfect tripped him, letting everybody know that the Warrior had paid off Mr Perfect. Or at least that’s what we thought at first, because moments later, Perfect and Flair climbed in the ring while the referee was out and socked Warrior with a pair of knucks. Savage himself wass out while all this was going on and he woke up and, seeing Warrior down on the mat, climbed to the top rope. Before he hit the flying elbow, he realized that he didn’t put the Warrior down, so somebody else must have. He figured out that Flair and Perfect were playing them both for fools, and instead of hitting the elbow on the Warrior, he turned and dove out towards Flair and Perfect, but Flair was ready for him. He hit Savage in the leg with a chair on the way down and Savage, injured knee and all, was unable to get back in the ring and got counted out. As soon as the bell rang, Flair and Perfect attacked Savage’s knee with a vengeance, apparently trying to cripple Savage. The Warrior came to and chased them out of the stadium, but the damage to Savage’s knee was done.

This did, in fact, turn out to be all part of Flair’s master plan to regain the WWF Title. As it happens, Flair himself had a shot at the WWF Title coming a few days after Summerslam. With Savage’s knee in the condition it was he was already going to be hard pressed to retain against Flair, but Flair had another plan in his back pocket: he had his new friend, WWF newcomer Razor Ramon come to rinside and attack Savage’s knee, and when he did that any hope Savage had of retaining disappeared. Flair got Savage back in the ring and put him in the figure four. Savage passed out and the referee counted his shoulders down, and Ric Flair was once again the WWF Champion.

The battle between Savage and Flair continued. Savage had joined forces with the Ultimate Warrior following Summerslam, while Flair had allied himself with Razor Ramon. Savage and Warrior were slated to face Flair and Razor at Survivor Series 1992, but Warrior flaked out on the WWF about a week before Survivor Series, leaving Savage without a partner and a gaping hole in the scheduled main event. A few nights before Survivor Series, Randy Savage made an appearance on Prime Time Wrestling to discuss his plans for a new partner at Survivor Series. He said he had somebody in mind who would be perfect for the job. He knew somebody who would make the perfect partner. Savage revealed that he wanted Flair’s manager Mr Perfect to come out of retirement and be his partner at Survivor Series.

Perfect initially, and expectedly, laughed the idea off at first, but the more he thought about it throughout the show and the more Bobby Heenan was adamant about the fact that Perfect was going nowhere near the ring at Survivor Series, he finally decided that yes, he would in fact team with Savage at Survivor Series. Flair was livid, and he and Razor were determined to make Perfect’s comeback a short one. They tried creating dissension between Savage and Perfect, but Savage was up front about the fact that he didn’t trust Perfect, yet admitted that Perfect was a better wrestler than he was and that the two of them would make the Perfect Team. Perfect was impressive for having been out of the ring for over a year, but when Savage got into trouble and found himself cut off from his partner. Perfect teased walking out on Savage, but he came back to the ring and they rallied to score a DQ win over Flair and Razor.

Though he didn’t get the decisive victory he would have probably hoped for, he was happy with the end of the match with Flair and Razor. In fact, Flair and Razor seemed to have forgotten about Savage in the wake of Perfect leaving them, and Savage decided to let those three fight it out and gracefully slide out of the situation. After finishing as runner-up to Yokozuna in the 1993 Royal Rumble match, Savage settled back into a life as an announcer. But as with most wrestlers who step out of the spotlight, it wouldn’t be long before he’d get sucked back into the ring.

Part III: Where Were You?

Having been back in the broadcast booth for several months, Randy Savage thought he was safely away from any more physical conflicts that might arise. On an episode of Monday Night Raw in July of 1993, he was sitting ringside doing commentary on a match between WWF Champion Yokozuna and Crush. Savage and Crush had become friends when Crush made his return to the WWF less than a year earlier, and Savage was very confident in Crush’s chances of defeating Yokozuna for the WWF Title. Instead, interference from Yokozuna’s manager Mr Fuji led to a victory for Yokozuna and Savage, contractually obligated as an announcer to not get involved in the action, was unable to do anything about it. Even though Yokozuna had won the match, he wanted to send a message to Lex Luger, who he was scheduled to face at Summerslam. He had already given Crush a Banzai Drop to win the match, but climbed the ropes and delivered a second one. Savage wanted to get in the ring and help his friend, but Vince McMahon reminded him of his obligation as an announcer. Yokozuna climbed up and gave Crush a third Banzai Drop, and a slew of wrestlers poured out of the locker room to try and stop the champion from continuing his attack, but he fought them all off and delivered a fourth Banzai Drop to the now badly-injured Crush. Finally, Savage decided to disregard his pledge and slid into the ring and dragged Crush to safety.

Though Savage had undoubtedly saved Crush’s career, Crush had suffered a collapsed chest cavity and would be out of the ring for months as a result. Savage went about his duties as an announcer while Crush was sidelined, but as Fall got underway, Crush announced that he would be making his return to the ring. He contacted Monday Night Raw via telephone several times to discuss his return, but whenever the Macho Man was brought up or tried speaking to Crush, Crush would simply hang up. Nobody understood why Crush was acting this way, least of all the Macho Man. To resolve the situation, a summit was scheduled for an episode of Monday Night Raw in which Savage and Crush would get together in the ring and talk out their problems. Savage waited in the ring for his estranged friend, but when Crush came to the ring, he was accompanied by Mr Fuji. Savage was confused as to why Crush would take up with somebody like Fuji, but Crush had come to tell him that he no longer considered Savage his friend. He said that when he came to the WWF, he regarded Savage as a true friend, but it was now clear to him that Savage was only out for himself. Savage saw Crush as somebody who would stand in his way to success as a wrestler, so he befriended him and waited in the announce booth for his chance to get Crush out of the way. That chance came when Crush was being attacked by Yokozuna, which was why he waited until after four Banzai Drops to pull him out of the ring, when Savage was sure that Crush was too injured to return. But Crush did return, and as he lay in the hospital recovering, Savage never visited and only called once, but Crush thought that it wasn’t to see how good he was doing, but how bad he was doing. Crush finished by delivering an ultimatum: he wanted Savage to stay out of his life and out of his way.

Savage was stunned that Crush felt this way, but was determined not to let his friend slip away from him like this. He told Crush that he was his friend, and that taking up with people like Mr Fuji was not the answer. Although Crush was initially hesitant, he eventually relented and shook hands with Savage, but the handshake was just a ruse, because Crush showed his true colors when he gave Savage a vicious clothesline and press slammed him onto the guardrail, busting Savage’s face open. As Crush dragged Savage into the ring to continue the assault, he was joined in the ring by Yokozuna, the very man who had put him out of action, and the pair attacked Savage. Though he did take one Banzai Drop, Savage was luckily spared the same injury Crush had received, and was dragged to safety relatively quickly. But even though he was healthy, Savage was instead feeling the loss of his friend who had stabbed him in the back.

Over the next several months, Savage and Crush tried getting their hands on one another any way they could. Savage lost his job as an announcer because whenever Crush would come out for his matches, Savage would attack him. They interfered in each other’s matches at Survivor Series, and Crush cost Savage his match with Yokozuna for the WWF Title. They briefly met in the Royal Rumble, but neither had been able to get at the other for any significant length of time. To settle the feud, they signed for a Falls Count Anywhere match at Wrestlemania 10. Unlike most Falls Count Anywhere matches, in this one you had to pin your opponent outside the ring, and then both men would have 60 seconds to make it back into the ring. Crush scored the first fall quickly by press slamming Savage onto the guardrail again. Savage made it back to the ring, then scored a fall on Crush with the flying elbow. Crush was able to continue, so they brawled out of the ringside area and into the back where Savage pinned Crush again, then tied him up to a scaffolding in the hallway and headed back to the ring. Crush, unable to move, couldn’t make it back to the ring within 60 seconds and lost the match and the feud.

Conclusion