20 Years Ago Today in 'Macho Man' Randy Savage History
1/27/1992: Taking the win in a match at the Lubbock TX Municipal Coliseum that aired nationally on NBC's February 8th edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, Macho Man Randy Savage delivered his long awaited payback against Jake 'The Snake' Roberts.
Their bout was the culmination of a bitter feud that began with full-blown venomous viciousness at the post-SummerSlam '91 wedding reception of Savage and Miss Elizabeth. Long story short after the bride opened a gift package (planted by Jake) containing a live cobra, in the ensuing pandemonium Roberts came in and began beating up the groom.
Months later, their feud had reached EVEN MORE epic proportions, most famously when Jake Roberts had his snake viciously attack Randy Savage in the ring, gnawing on the Macho Man's arm for several minutes.
Now, it's one thing to ruin what should have been the happiest day in a couple's life and it's another thing for someone to try to have a snake make a meal out of you... but boy, one thing you ABSOLUTELY DO NOT want to do is slap the Macho Man's wife -
Yet that's exactly what Jake Roberts did at the December "This Tuesday in Texas" PPV. Obviously, any cautions went unheeded; either that or Roberts simply didn't care - or was insane! Study this promo from after the incident, and you may get the idea most likely it's a fiendishly twisted combo of the latter two:
In any case, for "The Snake" that move signaled the beginning of the end, as it carried MACHO MADNESS to heights seldom if EVER seen before - A man with a plan fueled by naked rage, in a hard-fought battle an unrestrained Savage's already off-the-scales intensity rose up to meet and surpass his opponent's menacing attack in their final confrontation, finishing 'The Snake' off spectacularly and splendidly once AND for all with not one but TWO flying elbow smashes.
Victorious at the end of the day, what else is there left for his fans to say but OOOOH YEEEAH!
25 Years Ago Today in in 'Macho Man' Randy Savage History
WWF HISTORY IN THE MAKING!! Macho vs Dragon: Prelude to Wrestlemania III
This meeting was only one of many in the months ahead of the pair's epic confrontation at Wrestlemania III. The bad blood between the two grapplers started in late 1986, when Savage leaped off the top rope with the timekeeper's bell and crushed Steamboat's throat against a guardrail. Needless to say the brutal attack and injury sent shockwaves throughout the whole WWF, and what was supposed to be a one-time match instead lead into one of the greatest feuds in Pro Wrestling history.
I saw Dwayne Johnson on Fallon the other night and he mentioned he is a 3rd generation wrestler, and that he saw his grandfather (father?) wrestle Bruno Sammartino in NYC.
Imagine seeing that, you can understand how you also would want to be a wrestler
MACHO MAN RETAINS TITLE, MANAGER
Dragon confronts Savage ahead of the match
Fighting under the stipulation the winner would walk away with BOTH the title AND the managerial services of the lovely Miss Elizabeth, WWF Intercontinental Champ "Macho Man" Randy Savage defeated George "The Animal" Steele via count-out after hitting the Animal on the arena floor with the chair Elizabeth sat in during the battle.
After the count-out, a disgruntled Animal got his hands on Savage AND his title belt; as the champ made a hasty exit to the back Steele stayed behind, hoisting the belt and hugging a poster of Elizabeth in the ring.
Prior to the contest, Savage attempted to lead Elizabeth from her chair to the backstage area but was cut off by Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, who blocked Savage's way. The entire bout along with pre-match interviews was broadcast on NBC's March 14 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event.
This Day in 'Rassin' History - The Rock's Last WrestleMania Match
3/14/04: In Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's last WM match to date, "The Rock 'n Sock Connection" came up short in a 2-on-3 handicap match with Evolution (Batista, Ric Flair & Randy Orton) at WrestleMania XX. Returning to in-ring action at this year's event, "The Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment" goes up against 12 time World Champion John Cena at WrestleMania XXVIII on April 1st.
WrestleMania Flashback - THE ROCK vs NWO Hulk Hogan
On March 17, 2002, over 60,000 fans jammed the Skydome in Toronto for the epoch-shattering matchup between The Rock and 'Hollywood' Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania X8.
Leading up to WM Hogan and his New World Order buddies Kevin Nash & Scott Hall had entered the WWF a month earlier at the No Way Out PPV. On the following episode of Monday Night RAW, Hogan and the Rock talked smack at each other for a while and decided to fight each other at WrestleMania.
After shaking on it, the Rock gave Hogan a 'Rock Bottom' before being badly beaten up by Hulk & his NWO cohorts. When emergency rescuers came for the Rock, first the NWO took command of the ambulance and THEN with the Rock still inside, rammed it with an 18 wheeler in an attempted coup de grâce! (Presumably so folks need not doubt the NWO were 'bad guys'.)
Alhough the storyline established the Rock as the 'good guy', even after Hogan's nearly 9 year-long absence from the WWF fans still remembered the days of 'Hulkamania' & the crowd was mixed as to who to support. Every time they touched each other the crowd went crazy and the flashbulbs were blinding.
However, in an unexpected turn of events as the match went on the fans started to really get behind Hogan and were booing The Rock unmercifully whenever he hit Hogan.
After the Rock won, he and Hogan shook hands much to the fans delight. While this feud was very short, the memories and feelings the fans experienced make it unforgettable.
March 23, 1997 Rosemont, IL - In his first match ever at the WWF's premier pay-per-view event, the then-current Intercontinental Champion Rocky Maivia (aka Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson) defended his title at WrestleMania XIII against "The Sultan", the masked & mute Middle-East menace managed by the unholy alliance of former World Title holders Bob Backlund & the Iron Sheik, with former IC champ The Honky Tonk Man providing guest commentary for the match.
Before joining the WWF in 1996, Johnson had been a college football player; in 1991, he was part of the University of Miami's national championship team. He later played for the Calgary Stampeders in the Canadian Football League, and was cut two months into the 1995 season. This led to his decision to become a professional wrestler like his grandfather, Peter Maivia, and his father, Rocky Johnson.
As the first third-generation superstar in WWF history, Johnson was initially given a push as a heroic 'face' character, billed as 'The Blue Chipper' Rocky Maivia; he later (after turning "heel" due to fans increasingly displaying distaste for his clean-cut nice guy persona) would be billed simply as 'The Rock', eventually gaining world-wide recognition as "The Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment".
Some fans were already starting to turn on him at his WM XIII debut, with several "Die Rocky Die" signs visible in the crowd. The match itself was close back and forth, with the Sultan taking early advantage due to his massive size and superior strength, but Maivia used his quicker moves and uber-athletic dynamicism to ultimately turn the tide and come out on top to retain the Intercontinental championship.
Fifteen years after his inaugural appearance at the greatest of all sports-entertainment events 'The Rock' will face current WWE franchise player, Superstar John Cena in their hotly-anticipated match at WrestleMania 28 Sunday, April 1st.
After 54 Years, Pro Wrestling's "Madman from Sudan" looking at retirement
At an appearance for All Japan Pro Wrestling this past January, the now 71 year old WWE Hall-of-Famer Abdullah the Butcher (real name Larry Shreve) hinted he would be retiring from the ring soon.
Standing 6 feet tall and weighing a robust 260 pounds, the Canadian native caught the attention of a Montreal promoter at age 17 and made his professional wrestling debut in 1958. Constantly roaming from region to region, in his persona as Abdullah Shereve propagated his reputation as the most brutal wrestler in the world.
Since his Sudanese gimmick required he speak no English, he possessed an extraordinary number of managers over the years, portrayed as "handlers" commissioned to control the madman and to do all the talking in promos and interviews.
Over the course of his half-century plus career, the Butcher distinguished himself as one of the world’s most feared rule breakers. One of the most brutal or "hardcore" pro wrestlers of all time, Abdullah carries a huge mass of scar tissue on his forehead, the result of frequent "blading".
In addition to his successes in North America, Abdullah the Butcher became a true international superstar by performing in the Far East, Europe, the Caribbean, Australia, and Africa. His violent battles are legendary; and the septuagenarian has remained a world-wide competitor and top attraction for over half a century.
Outside of wrestling, Shreve owns two restaurants (one in southwest Atlanta, the other in Japan) called "Abdullah the Butcher's House of Ribs and Chinese Food." A master BBQ chef, he has been seen manning the pit outside the Atlanta location.
VIDEOS -
WWE 2011 Hall of Fame Inductee Promo
From 1982 New Japan Pro Wrestling,
a bloody good match with Hulk Hogan:
10 Years Ago in Pro-Rasslin History - A True Legend Passes On
On April 28th 2002, only days after his 86th birthday, Pro-Wrestling icon LOU THESZ passed away from complications of triple-bypass surgery.
Regarded by many pro-wrestling chroniclers as its all-time greatest competitor and affectionately referred to as "THE MASTER", in his three reigns as World Heavyweight Champion of the NWA (National Wrestling Alliance) Thesz held the title for 3,749 days (10 years, three months and nine days total), longer than anyone else in history.
An already accomplished high school freestyler, determined to master more than amateur skills and hungry to learn, Thesz turned pro at age 16 in 1932 and eventually came under the tutelage of THE wrestling phenom of the era, Wisconsin native Ed "Strangler" Lewis, who taught him the fine art of "hooking" (subjecting opponents to painful holds that would lead to a win by submission).
Thesz w/manager Ed Lewis, 1950's
Among his many other accomplishments, Thesz is credited with inventing a number of pro wrestling techniques including the belly to back waistlock suplex (later known as the German suplex due to its association with Karl Gotch), the Lou Thesz press, STF and the original powerbomb.
Winning his first heavyweight championship at age 21 in his home town of St. Louis, Thesz went on to gain national celebrity in post-World War II America as a superstar attraction well into wrestling's first television boom, and later, godlike reverence from a generation of fans in Japan where he was that country’s first international champion and the first American champ to defend the title on Japanese soil.
Awarded the World Title by the Alliance in 1949, for over six years Thesz was at the height of dominance of the wrestling world. Pushing back challenges from big name stars like Primo Carnera, Antonino Rocca, Verne Gagne, Baron Leone and Hans Schmidt, his reign was ended in early 1956 by "Whipper" Billy Watson in a match refereed by former boxing champ Jack Dempsey. After taking some time off for rest and recuperation, Thesz took the title back eight months later, officially holding it just over another year.
Featured prominently on wrestling magazine covers, the 230 pound 6 foot 2 inch skilled technical grappler AND legitimate tough guy remained at or near the top into the 1960's. With huge fanfare & impact in 1963, Thesz came out of semi-retirement to reclaim the NWA World Heavyweight Championship from the title holder of the time, long-time real-life rival'Nature Boy' Buddy Rogers, in a historic and controversial match.
Legend has it Thesz told Rogers "we can do this the easy way OR the hard way!" Rather than chance Thesz tearing him up for real Rogers decided to 'do the job'. Upset with the outcome, several Northeast promoters (including Vince McMahonSr.) broke with the NWA, and kept Rogers on as champion of their newly-formed World Wide Wrestling Federation, later known as World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and ultimately WWE.
In any event the NWA version of the belt stayed with Thesz until Gene Kiniski ended his third reign at the age of 50 in 1966, making him the oldest wrestler ever to hold the NWA championship.
Though Thesz 'officially' retired thirteen years later as an active in-ring performer, he has the distinction of being the only male wrestler to have competed in seven different decades, having worked his final match in 1990 against his protégé Masahiro Chono, a future NWA champion.
Even in retirement, Thesz worked in the business as a promoter, manager, color commentator, trainer and a special guest referee for important matches, one of the most famous being the NWA Heavyweight Championship match between Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes on 9/17/1981.
From 1992 to 2000 Thesz was the president of the Cauliflower Alley Club, an organization for retired pro wrestlers. In 1999, his name was given to the Lou Thesz/George Tragos Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame for pro wrestling stars with successful amateur backgrounds at the International Wrestling Institute & Museum in Waterloo, Iowa, where he was an inaugural inductee.
To this day many scholars will tell you Lou Thesz was and is wrestling, pure and simple, embodying all that's good about a business that too often attracts its share of criticism - a one-man dynasty whose records will stand time's tests and the greatest example of all-around excellence the profession will ever have to offer.
From 1998: Hulk Hogan vs Jay Leno! 'Actually' WRESTLING!!!
Along with his partner Diamond Dallas Page, JAY LENO puts life and limb on the line against the NWO's Eric Bischoff and
"Hollywood" Hulk Hogan at WCW's Road Wild PPV 8/8/98!
Leno takes on Hulk Hogan in tag team and wins
August 10, 1998
STURGIS, South Dakota - Thousands of bikers on Harleys revved their engines to rally Tonight Show host Jay Leno Saturday night, as he took on Hulk Hogan in the World Championship Wrestling ring at the Sturgis Motorcycle Classic.
The big-chinned comedian wore a baggy T-shirt and sweat pants instead of the DayGlo spandex favored by most wrestlers, as he teamed up with Diamond Dallas Page against Hogan and Eric Bischoff in the pay per view event.
Leno proved himself a real wrestler, dropping Hogan early in the match and later stunning Bischoff with a low blow and slamming his head repeatedly into the rings corner post.
The fans loved Leno. Clouds of exhaust filled the air as they goosed their motorcycle throttles in applause.
The victory for Leno and Page was due in part to Kevin Eubanks, the Tonight Show band leader and Leno's manager for the wrestling match. Eubanks stepped in and used a trademark Page move, the Diamond Cutter, to immobilize Bischoff so Leno could pin him.
Later, posing with an oversized championship belt, Leno was asked if there might be a rematch. "I dont know," he said. "I just wanted to hold the belt."
"Macho Man" Randy Savage - Another Year, Another HOF Snub
A year ago this coming Sunday, the pro-wrestling world lost one of its all-time greats: "Macho Man" Randy Savage.
Wrestling his first match in 1973 and his last in 2004, Savage first appeared in WWE in 1985 and became one of the company's most fascinating characters, creating a dynamic with his manager, the Lovely Miss Elizabeth, that hasn't been seen since.
Each night before WrestleMania, with much fanfare WWE introduces a new class into its Hall of Fame. These performers are well-deserving of the honor for either their in-ring contributions or status as a backstage icon. Inductees to the WWE Hall of Fame have ranged from some of the greatest workers of recent times such as Edge to legends of the past like Andre the Giant.
A two-time WWF World Champion and truly one of wrestling's most unique characters and best performers, Randy Savage should be in WWE's HOF today, tomorrow, next week and every single day after that. And yet, this year's ceremony has come and gone, and the Macho Man remains shut out.
Rumors persist as to exactly why Vince McMahon adamantly refuses to include Savage in the Hall of Fame. However, the truth has never been known (and might never come out), so there's no point in speculating.
While there are other notable exceptions that have eluded induction for various reasons, there is no more obvious choice for HOF inclusion than the "Macho Man" - and for as long as Savage continues to be black-balled VKM deserves nothing more than inclusion in Pro-Wrestling's "Hall of SHAME"!
VIDEO CLIPS:
Randy Savage with Morgan Fairchild on "The Arsenio Hall Show", 1989
Randy Savage and Mean Gene Talk Facial Hair
The Macho Man's Mega Mix (A Randy Savage/Miss Elizabeth Tribute)
This Day in Pro-Rasslin History - Hulk Hogan Turns EVIL!
On July 7, 1996 at WCW's Bash at the Beach PPV held at the Daytona Beach Ocean Center, during a six man tag team match pitting company loyalists Randy Savage, Lex Lugar & Sting against The Outsiders (Kevin Nash & Scott Hall), Hulk Hogan sent shockwaves around the wrestling world by turning to "the dark side"
Hall and Nash came out for the match without their scheduled third man, saying he was "in the building" but they did not need him yet. Shortly into the match, Luger was taken out on a stretcher, turning the match into a two-on-two and teasing the possibility of Luger, a former WWF wrestler like Hall and Nash, being the "mystery partner".
Hall and Nash were in control of the match when Hulk Hogan came to the ring. After standing off with them for a moment, he suddenly attacked Savage, showing himself to be the Outsiders' mysterious third man and thus turning heel.
In a post-match promo lambasting fans and WCW for underappreciating his talent and drawing power, Hogan announced the formation of the New World Order (nWo) along with Hall and Nash, who had only recently arrived from the WWF with intentions of "taking over" WCW in the style of a street gang.
Hogan inspired enough vitriol in the audience that they pelted the ring with debris; announcer "Mean Gene" Okerlund had his nose broken by a beer bottle, and one fan jumped the security railing intending to attack Hogan. However, Hall and Nash restrained the fan before arena security escorted him out of the building.
To further signify his heel turn, in the following weeks and months Hogan grew a beard alongside his famous mustache and dyed it black, traded his red and yellow garb in for black and white clothing, often detailed with lightning bolts, and renamed himself Hollywood Hulk Hogan (often shortened to Hollywood Hogan).
One of the most influential angles in the history of modern-day pro wrestling, the nWo's notorious rise and continued onslaught against sports-entertainment became the most instrumental force behind WCW's two-year lead against the WWF in the "Monday Night Wars" of the mid-to-late 1990's.
Did The Ultimate Warrior know the end was near?
By Chris Shore
In a former life, I spent five years as an EMT in North Carolina. Of all the things I saw, none spooked me more than the times when people knew they were dying and acted as such. I remember, vividly, a man telling his son that he wouldn’t die that day, but on Sunday. His obituary in Monday's paper confirmed his accuracy. I equally remember picking up a catatonic woman from her home where her son told me she hadn't spoken in three years. Five minutes after loading her into my ambulance, she began to pray out loud and praise Jesus. She passed 20 minutes after we made it to the hospital.
Even my own paternal grandmother, who was tragically killed just two days before Christmas in a freak accident, spent the week before going out of her way to visit with several members of the family, including my young family and me, and reached out to my mother to wish her a Merry Christmas though my dad and mom had been divorced since I was two. Her apparent knowledge wasn't conscious, of course, but many people said afterward that looking back, it felt like she was saying goodbye.
So it's no surprise that I sit here today and wonder about the words of The Ultimate Warrior on Monday night:
"Every man's heart one day beats its final beat, his lungs breathe their final breath. And if what that man did in his life makes the blood pulse through the body of others and makes them bleed deeper than something that is larger than life, then his essence, his spirit will be immortalized. By the storytellers, by the loyalty, of those who honor him and make what that man did live forever."
Did he know, consciously or unconsciously, that his time was short? I thought as he said those words he didn't look comfortable in his own body. The limp was noticeable, but that had been there for some time. He looked stiff, like moving his arms took great effort on his part. He delivered his speech masterfully, and I couldn't help but smile. While I wasn't the biggest Ultimate Warrior fan, I was never confused about his legacy in wrestling.
He reached out to a lot of people this weekend it seems. He publicly thanked Ted DiBiase, who has publicly criticized Warrior for his lack of gratitude for the other men in the business who helped him achieve success--even going so far as to say that attitude ought to disqualify Warrior from the Hall of Fame. Warrior addressed this too on Monday, stating, "No WWE talent becomes a legend on their own."
Hulk Hogan has spoken about how he and Warrior buried the proverbial hatchet. No small feat considering it wasn't all that long ago that Warrior accused Hulk of pimping out his former wife, Linda Hogan, to the locker room. And there is, of course, the ultimate--if you will forgive the pun--hatchet burying with the McMahons that led to this final weekend of his life.
None of this is meant to excuse the things Warrior has said and done over the years. Calling him polarizing might be the greatest understatement in history. But a measure of a man isn't just in his mistakes. It is also in his ability to account for those mistakes. Warrior may not have accounted for them all, but the fact that he was trying does matter.
All of which leads me back to my original question: Did he know? I look at the tears in his wife's face on Saturday at the Hall of Fame and also wonder if she knew, or at least feared, that her time with him was winding down rapidly. We will probably never know for sure if he knew on a conscious level, but my experience leads me to believe that somewhere, at least in his subconscious, Warrior knew his window to make things right was closing rapidly and he attempted to make amends as best he could.
Whether he did enough to account for the shortcomings in his life is to be debated by men better than me. What I will say is that for at least one moment in time, as he stood on stage at the Hall of Fame, Warrior understood the most important thing he could: of all the things he had done, nothing could compare to being the father of his two daughters. Maybe that, more than anything else, tells us where Warrior's mind was at the end.
