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Match of the Day: Randy Savage v. Ultimate Warrior

Not sure if you are still doing Match of the Day. Here is a cool one from January 89 - a rare title defense from Macho Man's first title run. HEEL Savage vs. ultimate Warrior. Very cool match

I swear they’re still kicking themselves for not finding a way to stretch out heel Savage’s title run, because he was drawing nuclear heat as champion.  How crazy is it that Savage’s heel turn, on one of the most-watched wrestling programs in history, was in February and then he lost the belt in APRIL?  They literally took the belt off him a MONTH after making the biggest heel in wrestling.  Still blows my mind.

Comments

  1. That doesn't work for me brother.

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  2. IC champ vs World champ at MSG... Yeah, that sounds like it'd draw some money!

    They had a good little cage match in 1991 at MSG too the night after the Royal Rumble.

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  3. Is that one where Sherri gets stripped by Warrior?

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  5. The WWF used to run World vs IC champ matches usually on the February house shows every year. The matches never had conclusive endings but it was a treat to have both champs face each other. The IC champ may be the number two title but they still protected the champion because a defeat even by the World champ would undermine his credibility. That's something today's writers should keep in mind.

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  6. Ha! Rude is such a great dickish heel.

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  7. Seeing Savage with that title always felt right, even more so than Hogan. I always love seeing Warrior and Savage matched up, each with their own special brand of crazy going up against each other.


    And seeing Rude out there backing Savage makes me wish we got a Heenan Family with Savage, Rude, and the Brainbusters feuding with Hogan,Warrior, and the Demos all summer long in 89.

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  8. Damn. That 4 vs 4 deal would have brought the awesome..!

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  9. Imagine that match headlining Survivor Series 89.

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  10. Summerslam Headliner! The buys woulda been crazy! Way better than that lame ass Zeus thing that in my opinion really started the decline of Kayfabe as we knew it.

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  11. He turned heel in Feb but the match is from Jan? Was he already working heel on house shows?

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  12. Feb 20. The emailer had the date wrong.

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  13. Awesome match, thanks for posting Scott.

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  14. I SHIT YOU NOT. THIS IS ONE OF MY FIRST WRESTLING MEMORIES. I HAVE THIS MATCH ON VHS.


    THE VHS INCLUDES:
    HOGAN VS HERCULES
    DEMOLITION VS POWERS OF PAIN FROM MANIA V
    RUDE VS PIPER IN A CAGE. RUDE BLEEDS BUCKETS. CHANGED MY LIFE
    AND WARRIOR VS SAVAGE.


    THIS MATCH MADE ME THE BIGGEST WARRIOR FANATIC! DFJSHFGSDJGFHJSDAGFJHDAGHFJDJHFGDSJH FUCK YEAD! LONG LIVE WARRIOR, BITCHES!

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  15. Sort of a harder to find tape actually, I just converted my copy of it to DVD last week haha. I remember it being for sale at Toys R Us when I was a kid.

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  16. I like how you put that, "their own special brand of crazy" haha

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  17. If they wanted to, they could have kept the title on Savage and had the SummerSlam main event as Savage and Rude vs. Hogan and Warrior (new Mega Powers?!), plus Demolition vs. the Brainbusters, with Survivor Series 89 being the 4 on 4 with all 8 guys. Then have Savage vs. Hogan on the Saturday Night's Main Event after Survivor Series with Hogan winning back the title. After that everything plays out as normal with the Hogan/Warrior confrontation in the Royal Rumble. The only thing not normal is I wouldn't have had the Warrior win back the IC Title.

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  18. ME TOOOOO! I FUCKING REMEMBER MY MOM BUYING IT AT TOYS R US

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  19. Each were fucking batshit, but in different ways. It was glorious watching them together.

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  20. Here are some big scans of the front and back of the tape for nostalgia's sake -- a little worn, but you get the idea haha

    http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p32/RobRob1_2006/front-6_zps274d200b.png

    http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p32/RobRob1_2006/back-6_zps7d4c1d37.png

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  21. Growing up in this era, I could never understand why people would cheer Hogan over these two? For me personally they defined the late 80's early 90's, Insane chemistry, amazing over the top characters... just fantastic stuff! Of course Warrior always gets ripped apart by most fans but he is a perfect example of how to be entertaining and original at the same time.

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  22. Early 90's VHS covers were awesome. I tried youtubing that match but couldn't find it. Nothing that came up matched what they were wearing there. Looks like from 1990.

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  23. It might have blown people's minds that Savage turns heel, and loses the strap - but with Hogan back - that was what had to happen back then. I don't think the WWF had a heel champion formula . The only heel to actually hold the title for a long time in the F (now E) was Superstar Billy Graham back then. It might have changed now, but from 1963-1999 - the faces were major champions. This wasn't like the NWA and Flair where you went by wrestling and the heel character was a backdrop to the action. In the WWF - the character was the wrestler. If Savage had been the NWA Champion in 1989 - he may have held it for six months to a year, with maybe a spunky babyface challenger trying to get it off of him. Maybe something similar to Flair.


    That being said, I always liked babyface Savage better. Heel Savage of 1985-87 still scares me to how close I thought he really wanted to deck his wife. The Babyface Savage was from 1987 until they put the WWF title on him was just amazing. His best babyface streak was some that period. When you put Hogan's belt on Savage, it killed his run. I'm sorry, even as a 12 year old mark - I kept calling it Hogan's belt. And who did Savage face in 1988 outside of Dibisie? Virgil? Andre on SNME? One Man Gang on SNME? Savage at least had a legit run with the belt in 1992, although short-lived. It just seemed like he had only one major feud, and not that many matches. Hogan was actually during his regin taking on a bunch of guys. Kamala - Bundy - Orndorff - Orton - etc.. Did Savage have any amazing matches in 1988 - in 1988 not 89 - that didn't feature Million Dollar Man?

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  24. Yeah, given the looks of the banner, I'm guessing it's a dark match from a Superstars of Wrestling TV taping from the Summer. They changed the look of the show right around that time.

    I think it might be a dark match from the "Summer Slam Fever" taping, I'll have to check my tape of that to see if either of them are wearing the same ring gear.

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  25. Probably never know because Savage had a tendency to change up his gear a lot, even on the same show.

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  26. True, although they have slipped up in the past.



    One CHV (I forget which one, but it came out after Savage "retired" in 1991) inexplicably has a Savage/Warrior match that lasts about two minutes, with Warrior totally squashing Savage.



    The ring gear looked familiar to me though and then I realized both guys were wearing the same stuff as on that episode of The Main Event where Warrior/Dibiase fought and Savage runs in at the end and attacks him. It turned out that the random one minute match took place earlier in that same taping and was the in-arena angle to setup the run-in.

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  27. That would've been a hell of a Survivor Series match, too.

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  28. Both of their high profile matches had zero right to be as good as they were. 5 Stars for both, and their entire half hour at WM7 is my vote for most perfect match/segment/act/half hour block of wrestling programming ever.

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  29. I guess they really thought that "No Holds Barred", and the feud with Zeus that followed, were really going to make some serious money and expand the brand, more so than just keeping the title on Savage until SummerSlam. It would have been hard to have Hogan go on talk shows to promote the movie (and he went on Arsenio, Regis, Johnny Carson etc.) and not be the champ.

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  30. Yeah, I think it all worked out fine. Heel champs were never the strategy for Vince, and history showed extended heel reigns never really drew for the WWF until HHH in 2000 (and even that, it could be argued, hurt business in the long run).

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  31. I always thought Hogan was better than Warrior in all facets, though I did like Warrior as well at the time.

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  32. Interesting, random note, since you mentioned Superstars of Wrestling -- the Superstars of Wrestling logo is blurred on the new Bret DVD (which is an awesome set, by the way).

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  33. I don't think the match at 7 is all that great, but the segment sure is. Summerslam is so underrated.

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  34. I never really got Hogan. I didn't loathe him the way a lot of internet types did, but he was never, ever a particular draw for me.

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  35. To be fair, the Summer Slam 89 match was considered a giant success money wise on PPV.

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  36. Man, the Hebners are REALLY lenient with that DQ rule, aren't they? This was like one of those WCW "relaxed DQ's" from the late 90's.

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  37. Also, who's doing the commentary for this match, because it's AWFUL!

    "He's gonna do SOMETHING to Ravishing Rick Rude!"

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  38. The godawful Alfred Hayes is one of them.

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  39. Man, I had the Hulkamania wrist bands, head band, shirt, even the wristwatch. 5-year-old Greg was a diehard Hulkamaniac.

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  40. You shut your whore mouth!

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  41. Fair enough, and like I say I never really hated on him or anything, but I was almost always more into the IC and tag scene's.
    I was never allowed memoribilia, but I would have worn Hitman shades, or anything Randy Savage myself.

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  42. The Bret DVD just reminded me how bad he was!

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  43. Oh, by age 7 (91), the Hitman was easily my favorite wrestler. Wasn't even close. Unfortunately, the WWF never came near me while growing up, and mainstream stores never carried Bret gear.

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  44. Yeah...a bad mother...shut yo mouth!

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  45. I gave the Summerslam match ****1/2 a couple year ago. It was tremendous. Only thing missing was a finish.

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  46. Speaking of which...surprised Scott hasn't reviewed it yet

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  47. Rude's posing at odd times in the match is funny.


    That being said, Hogan was right, Savage put together matches that made his opponents look great.

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  48. Warrior had perfect 'send the fans home happy' theme music.

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  49. 11:36.


    "He caught him...and then he caught him."


    Very insightful.

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  50. as I've stated on this blog before, I think Randy Savage is pretty much the greatest worker of all time. there might have been guys with more abilities in certain aspects but not overall.

    for example: Shawn Michaels might have been a superior worker but he is not nearly the draw Savage was. and the same could be said for several traits. to me Savage has had the highest "average" of all workers I have ever seen.

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  51. He drew as a heel and a face,

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  52. *BOTH* champs. what a novel concept.

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  53. I think the WM7 match itself would've been better without the 5 elbows and multiple shoulderblocks knocking Savage out of the ring. Since Macho was "retiring" it wasn't a big deal, but both spots really killed the momentum of the match. They just took way too long. Still a great match and IMO a top 5 segment of all-time.

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  54. Steamboat -- And I don't buy the argument that Steamboat was never a heel so he's disqualified -- Fucking dude was awesome and made EVERYBODY (C & TM CAPSLOCK GUY) he wrestled look good...

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  55. Yeah, as I recall the WWE lost a different lawsuit with another promotion (based out of Australia I believe) and subsequently lost the rights to the term "Superstars of Wrestling". They can show the "Superstars" logo that came in mid 1991 and on, but "Superstars of Wrestling" in any form is out.

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  56. The shoulderblocks do go on a little long, but man watching the match live the elbow drops all kinds of awesome because it gave me hope -- Given the Warrior's track record, I went into it thinking there was about zero chance for Savage to walk out the winner. I just remember thinking "there is no way this bastard gets up from five of them".

    It's so funny that the end result of the Savage/Warrior retirement match was basically that Randy Savage's career was relaunched, while Warrior's would stagnate and he would basically never get back to that level again.

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  57. The sad thing is, I can totally see why they put the belt on Hogan- it was WrestleMania. The hero conquers all there. Always had, and always would until HHH. It's just kinda how stuff was.

    Now, I think ideally they could have put the belt BACK on Savage after WrestleMania. Have some rematch bullshit and have Savage win and set off ANOTHER chase. Maybe that would've worked.

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  58. He definitely has that advantage over Shawn. I remember a Hogan quote(and I realize he talks out of both sides of his ass) but he said something to the effect of "Macho Man was the only guy I could drop the title to and business wouldn't fall. It would stay the same or get even better"

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  59. obviously Steamboat is not the same kind of draw. but I also think he is definitely weaker in the "charisma" and "promo skills" department than Savage.

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  60. Agree with the actual promo skills but call bullshit in the charisma dept -- He was the ultimate sympathetic babyface...

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