Dark Pegasus Video Review: Macho Madness: The Randy Savage Ultimate Collection, Disc One

The Macho Madness: Randy Savage Ultimate Collection, Disc One By J.D. Dunn Twitter.com/jddunn411 Brightkite.com/jddunn411 Facebook Your hosts are Matt Striker and Maria. Maria throws around some Macho facts. He’s a second-generation wrestler who gave up a minor league baseball contract to pursue wrestling. More to come, we assume. Randy Savage vs. Rick McGraw (06.09.85). This would be Savage’s WWF debut, and he doesn’t even have Liz with him yet. Some guy in the crowd calls him a “has-been.” Wonder what that guy would think of him today. I reviewed a clipped version for MSG Classics a while back. This version is full. Savage stalls forever, psyching out McGraw. Savage controls with an armbar and blocks a headscissors, dropping McGraw’s throat on the ropes. McGraw ducks an elbow but a second try knocks him to the floor. Savage debuts the double ax-handle from the top rope to the floor. He follows it up with a suplex on the concrete, prompting Gorilla and Gene to call for a DQ. McGraw stirs, so Savage knees him into the post. McGraw is just getting *nothing* in there. Finally, McGraw avoids a charge, and Randy winds up in the tree-of-woe. McGraw stomps away to a big pop but runs right into a clothesline on a charge. The elbowdrop finishes at 12:40. Boring, but MSG hadn’t seen anything like Savage at this point. The longer version is a little less one-sided. *3/4 Everyone wanted to manage Randy Savage, but he turned down surefire winners like Freddie Blassie and Bobby Heenan to introduce Miss Elizabeth. It paid off in the end, and I’m sure she was a much better traveling companion. Randy Savage (w/Elizabeth) vs. Ricky Steamboat (12.07.85). Woo hoo! Obviously, this isn’t their WrestleMania III epic. This is from the Boston Garden two years earlier. It’s much slower and more based on psychology and heat-getting. Ricky tries to twist Savage’s arm off for most of the first five minutes. Savage catches him with a clothesline over the top and knees him into the audience to take over. He goes for the flying elbow drop early, but it misses. Savage catches Steamboat on top, but Steamboat catches Savage coming down. Savage goes to the outside and takes something from his tights (or from Elizabeth). Ricky goes to suplex him in, but Randy nails him with the foreign object for the win at 11:12. After the match, Ricky attacks Savage and steals the object. Quite good for the time. Not nearly on the level of their more famous match, but good, old-fashioned heel-vs.-face stuff. ***1/4 WWF Heavyweight Title: Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage (w/Elizabeth — 12.30.85). This would be their first meeting. I’m going to assume it ends in a DQ because I already reviewed the rematch a month after this. Hogan overpowers Savage early, so Savage does what he always does – use Elizabeth as a shield and cheat like a bastard. Hogan hulks up and hits the big boot, but Savage bails to the floor and hides behind Elizabeth. Hogan just picks her up and sets her out of the way. Back in, Savage blindsides him and hits the flying elbowdrop for a close count. Savage starts to argue with the ref, but Hogan accidentally nails the ref with a clothesline. Oops. Savage sees opportunity and nails Hogan with the belt. Hogan gets counted out at 10:01. Savage parades around with the belt, but it can only change hands on a pin or submission. Well, that’s close enough. Savage tosses the ref and carries Elizabeth out on his shoulder. Now that’s a great heel. Great characterization and heat here. Bit short, though. *** Intercontinental Title: Tito Santana vs. Randy Savage (w/Elizabeth, 02.08.86). Sweeeeeet. Savage had come on like gangbusters the year before. The Boston fans are in love with him. Tito, not so much. Danny Davis is your referee, which becomes important. These guys had great character chemistry together. Savage is violent, crazy and dangerous. Tito is one of the best babyfaces in history. It’s the wrestling equivalent of a hyena and a gazelle. Savage stalls early and goes to Tito’s eyes, which pisses Tito right off. Tito chases him to the floor but gets blindsided. He blocks the double ax-handle with a shot to the gut, but Savage ducks to the floor. Savage keeps going to the eyes every time Tito gets momentum. Savage gets two off a clothesline and gets two more off the double ax-handle. To the floor, Savage hits the double ax-handle from the top to the floor. Tito fires back and comes off the second rope with an elbow. Savage gets his boot up to block a charge, and Davis gets bumped on the kickout. CUE OMINOUS MUSIC! Tito small packages Savage, but Davis is slow to count. Savage misses a kneedrop, giving Tito his opening. Tito focuses in on Savage’s leg. SWEEP THE LEG! Tito gets the figure-four leglock to a HUGE pop. Savage rolls to the ropes and pulls something out of his tights. Tito suplexes him back in and goes for the figure-four, but Savage kicks him away. Savage misses a swing, but he hits Tito with it during a backdrop suplex. That gets the win at 10:30. Funny moment as Savage tosses the foreign object to a nearby puzzled photographer. Tito was highly underrated, and Savage was awesome at this point. Good stuff. ***1/2 Intercontinental Title: Randy Savage (w/Elizabeth) vs. Bruno Sammartino (01.03.87). Boston Garden again. Man, that place played host to some great matches. Gorilla again musters MORAL DISDAIN at Savage for hiding behind Elizabeth. You’d think he’d be desensitized at this point. Sammartino was irate that Savage attacked and injured Ricky Steamboat, and Savage’s comments about Sammartino didn’t help. It’s kind of like when someone runs down Jerry Lawler, so he comes back for his once-a-year mini-push. Sammartino’s 1970s offense pales in comparison to Macho’s up-tempo style, so it’s hard to root against Savage. He does his level best to get the fans to hate him. Finally, Savage takes it to the floor, nails Bruno with a chair and ducks in before the 10-count to pick up the cheapest of cheap countout wins at 5:59. Bruno grabs Savage in the bearhug until the jobbers come out to separate them. A big clash in styles here. ** Intercontinental Title: Randy Savage (w/Elizabeth) vs. Ricky Steamboat (w/George Steele — 03.29.87). Well, here it is – one of the greatest matches of the 1980s. Most of it is too fast for strict play-by-play. Ricky fires off a few armdrags and lifts Savage by the throat. Savage misses a charge and nearly gets his arm broken in half when Steamboat lifts up on a wristlock. Savage hits an elbow to take over and gets a series of nearfalls. Steamboat fires back, and Savage gets tied in the ropes. They trade an incredibly fast series of nearfalls. Steamboat tries to skin-the-cat, but Savage clotheslines him right back out. Back in, Savage gets a series of nearfalls, but he can’t finish Ricky off. Steamboat dips his shoulder and backdrops Savage over the top in a HUGE BUMP! Back in, Steamboat jumps off the top rope, over Earl Hebner, and hits Macho Man with a chop between the eyes. The fans think that’s it, but Hebner says he only counted two. Now it’s Steamboat who gets a furious series of nearfalls but can’t get the win. The crowd thinks Ricky’s won it again, but Hebner just hit the mat hard when he dropped down, and it was only a two count. Ricky gets two off an O’Connor Roll, and Savage reverses with a handful of tights for two. They reverse Irish Whips, and Steamboat gets sent into Dave Hebner. Savage hits the flying elbowdrop, but there’s no ref. Macho grabs the ring bell and is about to crush Ricky’s throat with it again, but George Steele sneaks up and pushes him off the top. Savage picks Ricky up and goes for a bodyslam, but Ricky rolls him over into a small package! ONE, TWO, THREE! Ricky gets the pin and the title (and one of the biggest pops ever) at 14:35. One of the greatest matches of all time, and certainly a consensus Top 10 pick for the 1980s. Savage has his head in his hands all the way back to the locker room as Elizabeth tries to console him. ***** Intercontinental Title: Honky Tonk Man (w/Jimmy Hart & Peggy Sue) vs. Randy Savage (w/Elizabeth — 02.05.88). This would be Savage’s final shot at the IC Title. Things are more personal this time because Honky keeps saying that Elizabeth wants him. HTM gives Liz a little taste of his shaking, rattling and rolling, so Savage DESTROYS him. Savage is unstoppable until Honky uses the megaphone behind the ref’s back. Honky hits the chinlock and then knees Savage in the gut. Honky puts the boots to him. This goes on for a while until Honky decides to go after Liz. Savage knees him into the post and hits a double ax-handle. A second one puts Honky down for two. Sleeper, and Honky starts to fade. Peggy Sue goes after Elizabeth, forcing Savage to break the hold and chase her off. Honky follows him out and gets sent into the post. Savage beats the count in at 8:25, but he doesn’t get the title. Liz hops in front of the Macho Man to save him from a guitar shot, allowing Savage to make his own save for real. As you probably know, Savage was supposed to win the title here and drop it during the summer (allegedly to either Bad News Brown or Bret Hart). Dibiase was promised a title win over Hogan at WrestleMania, but HTM realized that left him out in the cold. According to Honky (so take it with a grain of salt), he called Vince up and asked what their plans for him were after he dropped the title, and Vince said he would be “rebuilt,” as in he’d have to start over with a different gimmick. Honky was all, “Fuck that, muthafucka! I wants ta get paid!” or words to that effect. Vince didn’t return his calls, so Honky called up Jim Barnett in an attempt to jump to the NWA with the Intercontinental Title! Barnett told him not to drop the title under any circumstances and that he just needed to get a hold of Jim Crockett who was in the Bahamas. HTM was set to jump but Jimmy Hart played peacemaker, telling him to call Vince one more time. Vince finally got back to Honky and smoothed things over, so we get the chain of events that really took place. Savage got the WWF Title, Bad News and Bret spent a few months feuding with each other, and Dibiase got screwed royally by the whole thing. Just think of how things might have turned out had Crockett not been in the Bahamas that day! ** Vacant WWF Heavyweight Title: Ted Dibiase (w/Andre the Giant) vs. Randy Savage (w/Elizabeth — 03.27.88). Celebrity douchebag Robin Leach brings down the title. Bob Uecker is your ring announcer. Vanna White is your guest timekeeper. Savage had a trial by fire just to get to the finals, defeating Butch Reed, Greg Valentine and the One Man Gang. Dibiase had a bye thanks to a draw between Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant, so he’s rested. They open with some decent wrestling, but Andre trips up Savage from the outside. Andre trips him again moments later, so Savage starts shouting at him. Savage blocks a sunset flip and punches Dibiase right between the eyes. He clotheslines Dibiase over and goes up for his double ax-handle, but Andre stand in the way. Savage has had enough and sends Elizabeth to the back. Dibiase jumps Macho Man from behind and drops a series of fists between Savage’s eyes. Elizabeth returns with Hulk Hogan! Not really a surprise or anything, but the fans love it. Andre gets involved again, but Hogan breaks it up. Savage makes his comeback, but Dibiase rakes the eyes. Dibiase goes up, but Savage slams him off. Macho goes for the elbow…but Dibiase moves. That looked like the finish. Instead, Dibiase locks in the Million Dollar Dream. Savage reaches for the ropes, but Andre pulls them away from him, drawing the attention of the referee. That allows Hogan to sneak in and nail Dibiase with a chair. Savage wakes up and drops the elbow for the win at 9:17. Hogan, Savage and Elizabeth celebrate. The wrestling is pretty good, although they would have better matches later on. The epic storytelling is what makes this special. *** WWF Heavyweight Title, Steel Cage Match: Randy Savage (w/Elizabeth) vs. Ted Dibiase (w/Virgil — 06.25.88). This would be the substitute for not having a one-on-one blowoff at Summerslam. Dibiase jumps Savage on his way in, but it turns into a pattern of “hit a move, climb up, get dragged down” pretty quickly. Savage goes up, but Virgil knocks him back in. I should point out that this match features the unholy trio of Rod Trongard, Lord Alfred Hayes and Superstar Billy Graham on commentary. ::shudder:: Savage fights back and goes for the door, but Virgil slams the door on his head. Dibiase makes the door and gets halfway out before Savage pulls him back in. Savage tosses Dibiase into the cage and goes up. Virgil goes up again, but this time a stupid fan goes up to try to pull him down. Security grabs the kid before anything serious can happen. Odd that they always cut out the interference in the Eddy Guerrero/Rob Van Dam ladder match, but they leave that in. Dibiase climbs up too, so Savage fights them off and clunks their heads together like Mo. That allows him to slip over the top and down to the floor to retain at 12:20. Better wrestling than their Mania match, but it obviously lacks that special feeling. *** Special Features We see Randy proposing to Elizabeth in June of 1991 (they were already married in real life, sorry to shatter your illusions). Her answer: Ohhhhh yeahhhh! Awesome. One of my favorite moments from an era where there weren’t many. That leads to their marriage at Summerslam but the subsequent reception where Jake “The Snake” Roberts sent Elizabeth a snake, thus setting off a tremendous feud between Savage and Jake, is not shown. We also get the ironically titled music video “Our Love Will Last Forever.”

The 411: There's not much else that you could want from a Savage compilation other than maybe Savage's participation, but brother, that ain't happenin'. I'm sure some people will wonder why they didn't go the Ultimate Warrior DVD route and have current stars recount their memories, but I actually prefer it this way. It's unfiltered Savage, not other people's version of Savage. Two more discs to go.

Final Score:  9.0   [  Amazing ]