It's Halloween night, October 31st, 1994 and Raw's finishing up its run from Burlington Vermont. Among the many in action tonight include King Kong Bundy and the 1-2-3 Kid. Also the Undertaker is guest on the King's Court. But opening action is Lex Luger taking on the unhinged Bob Backlund.
Luger gets an armdrag takedown and mocks Backlund's squat walking. Luger gets another along with a series of leg trips. Luger fixes his trunks as we stall some more. Luger gets a takedown, but Backlund escapes quickly. More attempts at a takedown by Backlund, but Luger escapes, causing Backlund to hit his nose on the mat. Backlund finally gets in some offense with some arm wringers. Luger counters, but Backlund manages to get back the momentum applying a long top wrist lock.
Backlund tries to lock in the chicken wing, but Luger quickly escapes, only to be whipped to two buckles and hit with an overhead belly to belly suplex for a two count. Body slam, dropping Luger on his shoulder. Meanwhile, Tatanka looms on from the ramp as we go to break. When we return, Tatanka vanishes as Backlund keeps the bearhug looked in. He tries to lock in the chicken wing, but Luger escapes again.
Backlund goes right back into the bearhug. Luger tries to escape and finally does so with a headbutt and a right hand. Luger gets in some boots and a shoulder ram into the top buckle. He hits a second, sending Backlund dangling in the ropes. Irish whip and a fist to the gut followed by a knee lift. Luger lands a power slam and signals the Rebel Rack. Tatanka gets up in the apron as Backlund locks in the Crossface Chicken Wing. Luger fights, but gets trapped as the referee disqualifies backlund. The hold is still locked as Tatanka puts in stomps.
Eventually Backlund removes the hold as Tatanka beats down Luger more. Backlund puts the hold right back in. Randy Savage is finally tired of it and goes at Backlund, forcing the hold to finally be broken and sending Tatanka and Backlund in retreat. Savage is livid as he tries to get help for Luger.
As for the match, it was fine. A litle too slow in places and a lot of stalling, but for a Luger match I thought he did well enough, especially early on. But man, does he ever look like a goon now. I say it all the time but it's amazing just how quickly and how steep the drop for Luger's push became after Wrestlemania. Almost to the point that I feel bad for how he became such an oversight.
Savage returns to the commentary table with Vince, but is still in a rage. He's not happy to be forced to sit at ringside and not get involved thanks in part to Jack Tunney. It feels less like a shot at Tunney for the storyline, but more a shot at Vince for being forced to not be able to work in the ring.
Up next is the 1-2-3 Kid in action against Tony DeVito. State of your hair, Kid. Rocking a magnificient perm mullet. Devito gets a top wrist lock, but he kid gets a hiptoss to escape. Savage is still livid over the actions of Backlund. After some counters and leapfrogs, the kid gets a dropkick. DeVito rams the Kid in the buckle and follows with a powerslam for a two count. DeVito follows with elbow drops, but misses each attempt. The kid brings him to the corner and hits a series of kicks followed by a big spinning heel kick and a running leg drop. He follows with a suplex, a spin kick to the back of the head, a scoop slam and a leg drop off the top for three in a decent jobber match.
Todd Pettengill is here once again with the Survivor Series report. The card has grown since last week. We have Bret vs Backlund for the WWF title (now a submission), Guts and Glory vs the Million Dollar Team. Also added is Yokozuna vs the Undertaker in a casket match (yes, we're actually bookending the PPVs with this exact same match). Only this time, there will be an insurance policy to keep things from being similar to the casket match at the Royal Rumble.
And that is one Chuck Norris as the special guest enforcer. I guess I should give one of those crazy Chuck Norris facts, but nah. The fact of the matter is he's a homophobic douche.
Nonetheless, back to the Survivor Series card itself. The Bad Guys (Razor, the Kid, The Headshrinkers and British Bulldog) vs the Teamsters (Jeff Jarrett, Owen Hart, Jim Neidhart, Shawn Michaels and Diesel). Also Clowns Are Us vs the Royal Family. There hasn't been any more clowns or kings added yet.
King Kong Bundy is in action next against Bert Centeno. Bundy works Centeno in the corners with stomps and rams. He follows with a whip and a clothesline. He chokes Centeno in the ropes as the crowd chants "Humpty Dumpty". Whip and an elbow followed by a knee drop. Bundy chokes Centeno in the corner and follows with a hard chop and a splash out of the corner. Knee drop for a five count win.
We go to another vignette for IRS in front of a grave of a recently deceased man (died at 40? Yikes). He chastises the late John Dough (ha) for clearly just dying so he can avoid paying taxes. What's he going to do, dig up the corpse and throw it in jail? No, instead he just repossesses the flowers from the grave.
Up next it's the King's Court. He uses the whole "reflections throw up" joke that he's done quite a lot. Lawler introduces Paul Bearer and the Undertaker. Lawler mentions deja vu and how history may repeat itself in the casket match. Bearer brings out a new issue of the WWF Magazine. He asks if Lawler read it, and that most of the people Taker has faced have vanished from the company. He promises that there will be no Deja Vu at the Survivor Series becuase of Chuck Norris. Lawler questions if that means that Taker is afraid. It wasn't the choice of Bearer and Taker, it was the WWF that made the call. Taker says that it's time for Yokozuna to be held accountable for his actions. The time has come for him to rest in peace.
Our last match is Jim Neidhart vs Tony Roy. Anvil gets in a cheap shot to Roy early and landing some hip tosses and clubbing blows to the back. He puts Roy in the tree of woe and lays some stomps. He distracts the ref, allowing for Owen to get a choke in. Roy escapes a splash in the corner but Anvil gets back the control as Savage shills the USA Network movie: Scammed. Christopher Walken gets some love. Back in the ring, Anvil locks in a chinlock and a clothesline. He follows with more axe handles to the back. he gets in a gutwrench suplex. More chokes into the ropes and clubbing blows. Anvil gets a body slam and a camel clutch to finish a really boring squash.
We end the show with Savage shilling Bret & the Bulldog vs Owen and Neidhart next week. But Vince is backstage with Lex Luger. However, the microphone is dead, so Savage is forced to do the play by play. Our last shot however is Luger and Tatanka brawling with officials trying to stop them.
This was a decent at best Raw. Luger/Backlund was decent, the stuff with Randy Savage was great stuff with how angry he was (seemingly in real life and in storyline). The squashes were nothing special this week, but nothing offensive. The King's Court was actually pretty good and there's a lot of strong build to Survivor Series right now. In the end, this edition of Raw gets a B-.
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Savage's contract was coming up around the time of the Burlington, Vermont tapings and despite the many efforts in trying to renegotiate with him, Savage turned down their offer and would effectively leave the WWF in October of 1994. There are a lot of supposed reasons for Savage's souring with the company. There is, of course the legendary rumor of him propositioning sex with a still underage Stephanie McMahon, but much like the Jerry Lawler molestation allegations, there has never been concrete proof to the fact so I refuse to take that as the reason for Savage's exodus.
What it simply was is the fact that Savage felt like he was being wasted. He still wanted to wrestle, and he still very well could wrestle. But this was still the "new generation" of the WWF where Vince wanted to put the focus of the company on the younger talent. Although when the top heel right now was champion almost two decades prior, you could see how maybe that was a bit of an insult to Randy Savage who Vince preferred to keep as a spokesman and to make money off the Slim Jim deal, which would soon vanish from the WWF shortly after Savage left.
And of course another reason for Savage leaving was money, and at that time not even the mighty World Wrestling Federation could compete with the contracts from Turner and WCW. So on Saturday, December 3rd, 1994, "Macho Man" Randy Savage made his debut for WCW, where he would remain for the remainder of the company's lifespan (though his last on-screen appearance for the company was in the middle of 2000).
When the WWF picked up many of the big contracts from WCW after the company folded in 2001, Savage was not one of them. There was now a lot more heat between Vince and Randy from the several years that followed his departure from the company. According to Savage's brother, "The Genius" Lanny Poffo, what really started the rift was the Billionaire Ted segments in 1996. Essentially WWF's lampooning of Ted Turner and the people who pulled a Benedict Arnold on him, because remember, Vince is a petty man.
Among these characters was "The Nacho Man" where, besides just calling Savage washed up, also sported a massive bald spot, which offended Savage due to him being very embarrassed over his balding. Savage added fuel to the fire when in a video for his website said he could beat the crap out of Triple H and take Stephanie from him. I know that doesn't help the whole "not believing the allegations" but still poor form. We'll get more into Billionaire Ted in 1996
But Savage didn't really need the WWE to keep him relevant. He was still a pop culture icon especially in an era where 80's nostalgia was becoming the norm. He had a cameo in Spider-Man as the wrestler Bonesaw McGraw. He even made an infamously bad rap album which featured a diss track on Hulk Hogan, mocking how Hogan was doing 10-10-220 commercials while Savage was landing the bigger roles.
Savage's last major involvement in wrestling was appearing in the inaugural TNA Pay Per Views Victory Road and Turning Point, where he would team with AJ Styles and Jeff Hardy to defeat the Kings of Wrestling (Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and Jeff Jarrett). Nagging health issues forced Savage to finally retire from professional wrestling.
He continued making appearances and even happily remarried an old high school sweetheart. It even seemed like after several years of ill will, Savage was slowly even returning to the WWE as he allowed for his likeness to be used for action figures and video games. People of course were hoping for the ultimate achievement of a hall of fame induction complete with giving the people one last amazing Savage promo.
And then came May 20th, 2011.
While behind the wheel of his Jeep Wrangler with his wife in Seminole, Florida, Savage would suffer a sudden heart attack and crash into a tree, killing him instantly. The legendary "Macho Man" Randy Savage passed away at the age of 58. But while the man is no longer with us, the legacy of Savage lives on as he's still being celebrated by people of all ages. His matches with Steamboat, Flair, Hogan and others are still regaled as all time classics. His look iconic, his promos memorable, the man immortal in spirit. That's really the best way to describe Randy Savage. Immortal in spirit. There never will be another like Randy Savage.
And maybe not how he would have preferred it, Savage was finally inducted to the Hall of Fame in 2015, being posthumously inducted by his brother Lanny. It was a bittersweet celebration of the man, but it still left you feeling a bit hollow, knowing that if he were alive, this would have been so much more special.
(Art by the great Rob Schamberger)
So, this is the end of the road. The end of the WWF career of one of it's company's greatest stars. Not exactly how I'd have hoped, but it's hard to complain with it. Should he have stayed longer? Maybe, but if it was a case of being tired of his position, then he made the right choice overall. And while his commentary was nothing special (mostly color commentary focused on chatter than the actions in the ring), his voice was iconic and he was always fun to listen to. So, to close out this review, I say thank you Randy Savage, and may you be in a better place.
Long live the madness
Long live the Macho Man
OOOOOOOH YEAH!
Long live the madness
Long live the Macho Man
OOOOOOOH YEAH!
Long live Randy Savage. A true legend indeed. Ooooooh yeah!!!
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