That Was Then 3.9.07: The History Of The Madness Part 4 – Playing With The Big Boys

Part I: The Megapowers Reunite

Savage made his first appearance in WCW on an episode of WCW Saturday Night, and though his arrival was a big deal for WCW, the most important thing to come out of that first interview was what Savage said he intended to do now that he had arrived. He stated that he would be at Starrcade for Hulk Hogan’s match against Butcher (a heel turned Brutus Beefcake), and vowed that he would either shake Hulk Hogan’s hand or slap him in the face. Savage gave no indication which it would be, and with Savage you could never be certain that he himself knew what he was going to do in any given situation. But Starrace came and, after Hogan defeated Butcher, his cohorts Avalanche and Kevin Sullivan ran in and were about to attack Hogan when Randy Savage suddenly ran into the ring. Though he acted like he was going to join the Three Faces Of Fear, he attacked them instead, and he and Hogan cleared the ring of their antagonists.

For the first half of 1995, Savage would fight at the side of Hogan, first against the Three Faces Of Fear, whom he and Hogan defeated at the Clash Of The Champions in January of 1995, and then Ric Flair and Vader. Hogan had been feuding with Vader for the first few months of 1995, and Vader was soon joined by Ric Flair, whom Hogan had retired in late 1994 and now was out for revenge. Savage got drawn into the feud when Flair, dressed as a woman and hiding out in the crowd, attacked Savage during his match at Uncensored 95. In order to get him in the ring so they could beat him up again, Hogan and Savage successfully petitioned the WCW Board Of Directors to reinstate Ric Flair, and Hogan and Savage faced and defeated Flair and Vader at Slamboree 95. However, after the match, Flair and Vader laid Hogan and Savage out, and in an effort to save them, Savage’s father, retired wrestler Angelo Poffo, got out of his seat at ringside and climbed into the ring to try and convince Flair and Vader to stop their attack. Instead, he got beaten up and put in Flair’s figure four for his efforts.

Savage was enraged at Flair for attacking his father, and demanded a match with him at the Great American Bash. Savage came to the ring with his father Angelo Poffo, who was walking on a cane as a result of Flair’s attack. Savage fought valiantly, but Flair got ahold of Angelo Poffo’s cane and used it to knock Savage out and pick up the win. They met one more time at Bash At The Beach, only this time in a lumberjack match. Though Savage had to battle with interference from Flair’s friend Arn Anderson, who was at ringside as a lumberjack, Savage overcame the odds and defeated Flair for the honor of his father, who was in attendance for this match as well.

Part II: Diamonds Are Forever, And So Is The Savage-Flair Feud

After the second chapter in the Flair-Savage feud ended at Bash At The Beach, Savage fell back in with Hulk Hogan, who was embroiled in a feud with Kevin Sullivan’s new stable, the Dungeon Of Doom. Hogan asked Savage to be part of his team in the Wargames at Fall Brawl 95 against the Dungeon Of Doom, and Savage agreed to join Hogan’s group, which also included Sting and Vader. However, Vader made an abrupt departure from WCW before Fall Brawl, and now Hogan’s team was short one man. Hogan and Sting suggested Lex Luger, but Savage was vehemently against bringing Luger in, feeling that he could not be trusted. Luger responded by saying that Savage wasn’t the most trustworthy man in history either, and it was clear from the first that Savage and Luger would not be friends. Savage ended up getting outvoted, Luger joined the team and they went on to victory in Wargames. However, Savage still wasn’t entirely convinced, and they met in a match at Halloween Havoc. Savage won the match, but later in the night, when Savage ran in to save Hogan from an attack by the Dungeon Of Doom, Luger also ran in and turned against Savage and Hogan, joining in on the beatdown. Because of the convoluted DQ finish of the Hogan-Giant match at Halloween Havoc, the WCW World Title that Hogan held was vacated and put on the line in the three ring, 60 man battle royal in the main event of World War III. Hogan eliminated the Giant from the match, but the officialls missed the Giant pulling Hogan under the ropes and outside the ring and, thinking he had been tossed over the top, ruled him eliminated. Therefore, when Savage tossed the One Man Gang, he was named the winner and new World Champion.

Dissension was teased between Savage and Hogan, but nothing came of it because Savage had other things to concentrate on besides resuming his feud with Hogan. He instead concentrated on Starrcade 95, where he would have to wrestle twice, first as a part of the WCW vs New Japan Best Of Seven Series against Hiroyoshi Tenzan, and then at the end of the evening he would defend the title against the winner of a three way match between Ric Flair, Sting, and Lex Luger. Savage won the first match and helped WCW win the series against New Japan 4-3, then awaited the outcome of the three way match. Flair had been on a major losing streak since losing to Savage at Bash At The Beach and most people therefore thought Sting or Luger would win the match, but instead Flair nailed them both with a foreign object while the ref was bumped and threw them both out of the ring where they were both counted out when the referee came to. Flair had gotten in the back door and would now challenge for the WCW World Title against his frequent rival. Savage and Flair had their usual bitter fight, but this time Flair had the reunited Four Horsemen to rely on. As Savage prepared to put Flair away, the Horsemen ran out to the ring, and all it took was one shot from Arn Anderson with a pair of brass knucks to put Savage down and give Flair yet another World Title to add to the collection.

Just like that, the Savage-Flair feud was back on. Savage got himself together and when he came back to challenge Flair for the title on an episode of Monday Nitro in Jaunary of 1996, he had a surprise at ringside: his ex-wife and former manager Elizabeth had rejoined him. With Elizabeth at ringside for inspiration, Savage managed to outmaneuver the interference of the Four Horsemen and beat Flair to regain the WCW World Title. The following night on the Clash Of The Champions, Savage and Hogan teamed up to face Flair and the Giant, and Flair used a foreign object to pin Savage and win the match for his team, earning another title shot in the process. This time around, it would be a cage match and the Horsemen would be unable to interfere. Even without the Horsemen, Flair proved himself to be one step ahead of Savage, because as Savage was in control of the match, Elizabeth handed Flair her shoe, which Flair used to hit Savage and pin him to regain the WCW World Title yet again. After not only beating up Savage’s father and claiming to have had a past relationship with Elizabeth, Flair apparently now had a real relationship with Elizabeth, and it was more than Savage could handle. The situation just got worse at Slamboree when Flair and Savage got drawn to be partners during the Lethal Lottery. Expectedly, they could not co-exist and were eliminated from the tournament.

By this point, WCW officials ruled that Savage was in no state of mind to be wrestling, and suspended him from active competition. Since he could not face Flair in the ring himself, he did the next best thing and got some buddies to do it for him. At the Great American Bash, Savage brought the team of former NFL players Steve McMichael and Kevin Greene to face Flair and Arn Anderson in one of the feature contests. Flair had been trying to provoke McMichael, an announcer on Monday Nitro, for weeks, and Savage gave he and his friend Greene a chance at revenge. However, Flair again got the last laugh because he was able to use money to lure McMichael over to his side. After being handed a briefcase full of money, McMichael decided that it would be in his best interest to take the easy way out. He hit Greene with the briefcase and Flair covered him for the win, and McMichael sealed the deal by joining the Four Horsemen.

Flair had once again gotten one over on the Macho Man, and the feud would have probably continued even longer if a couple of unwelcome guests hadn’t crashed the party at WCW.

Part III: Fighting A Losing Battle

When Scott Hall and Kevin Nash came to WCW, nearly every feud at the time was put on hold as all attention turned to defending WCW against the invaders. This included the Savage-Flair conflict, as Savage was among the first men to jump at the chance to come to the defense of WCW and stop any plans Hall and Nash had for a hostile takeover. He also put his hard feelings for Lex Luger aside and teamed with Luger and Sting at Bash At The Beach 96 to face the Outsiders and their mystery third man. As we all know, the mystery partner was revealed to be Hulk Hogan, who came to the ring seemingly to run off the Outsiders, but instead legdropped the fallen Savage to make his shock heel turn as he and the Outsiders formed the original New World Order. As Hogan gave his now famous “stick it” speech, Savage was almost an after thought as he rolled out of the ring as it filled with trash thrown by fans.

Sting and Luger tried to get revenge in a tag team match against the Outsiders at Hog Wild, but thanks to some questionable officiating by Nick Patrick, the Outsiders picked up the victory. On the same show, Hulk Hogan defeated the Giant to regain the WCW World Title. When the Giant surprised everyone by joining the NWO just a few weeks later, Savage, who had been biding his time on the sidelines, decided to step in and challenge the Giant to a match at Fall Brawl while the other NWO members were occupied in the Wargames. Savage lost the match, but followed it up the next month by challenging Hulk Hogan for the WCW World Title at Halloween Havoc. Savage lost again, and this time he disappeared completely following the loss.

1996 came to an end and, though Hogan had lost to Roddy Piper at Starrcade, he was still the WCW World Champion and was now starting on the long road toward a confrontation with Sting. Sting had taken himself completely out of the NWO vs WCW equation and was satisfied just sitting in the rafters and watching the two sides battle one another, but he soon showed his allegiance to WCW. Shortly into 1997, Savage made his return as he began hanging out in the rafters with Sting and watching the action. However, while Sting was obviously pro-WCW, Savage turned on Roddy Piper and cost him a rematch with Hogan at Superbrawl VII and joined the New World Order himself.

Savage and Hogan had had their share of battles over the years, and every last one of them were won by Hogan. However, they had also spent a lot of time as friends and partners, and Savage decided that with the New World Order taking over WCW in 1997, it was a time that he wanted to be friends with Hogan again. Apparently, he decided that if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

Conclusion

Randy Savage’s career made yet another unexpected resurgence when he first battled against and then joined the New World Order. That’s another story in and of itself, and you can read my retrospective on it here in Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4. Randy Savage is a very unique performer in that he was very talented, but was repeatedly thought to have his best years behind him, only to prove them wrong by coming back and experiencing renewed success again and again, reinventing himself several times along the way. Savage knew enough to keep with the times, as strange as that may seem to people who bought his rap CD, and avoided the trap of many of his contemporaries by sticking with what brought him to the dance in the 80s. As a result, he’s what I consider to be among the most glaring omissions from the WWE Hall Of Fame today.

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