Andy: Happy #StoneColdDay
Nick: Is it that time of the year already?
Andy: Stunning, isn’t it?
Nick: That’s it, you’re fired. Speaking of which, whenever I watch Vince McMahon saying good by to Randy on Raw, I think about how weird it is that they didn’t go near each other for like 15+ years after that.
Andy: It’s kind of disappointing, considering how much money they made one another
Nick: I can never tell if he was a ton of fun to work with, or almost impossible.
Andy: Probably a mix of both. The finished product was always great, but getting there was probably a nightmare. Like driving to Disney.
Nick: That’s really beautiful. Not quite, Savage doing a elbow drop beautiful, but close. Looking back at his stuff for the Essential Viewing, it’s amazing the stuff he is doing relative to everyone else. Other than Snuka. But he never allegedly killed anyone, as far as we know.
Andy: To me, in that respect (work-wise, not murder-wise) he’s like the Daniel Bryan to Hogan’s Cena.
Nick: I’d put him closer to CM Punk, but I see what you mean.
Andy: Macho Man never took his ball and went home. He wanted to keep wrestling.
Nick: Daniel Bryan will actually main event a PPV largely by himself. Punk and Savage never really did that. Daniel Bryan, to me, is much closer to Bret Hart. Also, Daniel Bryan’s nice. But he wasn’t anywhere near Savage on the mic. Did you see the Promos?
Andy: Macho Man was nuts on the mic.
Nick: He seemed pretty nuts in general.
Andy: “Seemed” is an understatement. He pretty much grabbed the crazy flag and waved it proudly, Like a crazier Jim Duggan.
Nick: Less USA chants.
Andy: And less ho’s. Elizabeth wouldn’t tolerate that shit.
Nick: Ah, Elizabeth. Pretty much the only thing that ever made fans want to root for him.
Andy: She humanized the Savage, so to speak.
Nick: At least when he was important to the company. And not a weird proto-Lawler. I’m not sure how much old-old-old School Raw you’ve had a chance to see, but Randy Savage’s work makes JBL’s seem like Gordon Solie’s.
Andy: His color commentary makes me appreciate Alex Riley.
Nick: I didn’t want to go that far. But yeah, it mostly consists of DO THE THING and OHHHH YEAAHHHs
Andy: And Slim Jim promos. So many Slim Jim promos.
Nick: And it makes no sense, because like we said, he was a GREAT promo. Is it that he was just really good at getting himself over, and everyone else was just hitching a ride?
Andy: I think the problem is he had to come out of his own little realm of insanity, and try to rationalize real things going on in the ring.
Nick: Yeah, that’s another, nicer way to put it. In working on today’s Essential Viewing, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be to try to find old WCW matches that were important to watch of his.
But that’s because, well, there aren’t any. He was one of the many many WWF imports that just couldn’t do anything compelling in the ring in WCW.
Andy: Yeah. He was a huge star that Turner purchased…then sat on. His WCW run was a really disappointing way to end a career.
Nick: It’s not even like it was bad, but it was just not interesting. It’s almost impossible to articulate how bad WCW became after nWo entered. They completely stopped doing anything interesting in the ring, there was no sense of any upward mobility. It was just this weird retirement home.
Andy: It’s funny to me that WWE branded WCW as such…then proceeded to rehire all those same old stars. Minus Savage, of course.
Nick: But, it at least kind of worked. At least for Hogan. He had a GREAT run coming back, and has one of the five biggest WrestleMania matches of all time to show for it.
Andy: Hogan is a special case.
Nick: I guess my question is: Could Savage have done the same thing coming back? Unlike Nash and Hall who were such creations of the Vince McMachine, I feel like Savage could have had a good run coming back.
Andy: I would have liked to see it. Crazy Macho, with his working shoes on, could have been a big part of the early stages of Cena, Orton, Lesnar, and Batista’s careers.
Nick: He could have done the Shawn Michaels “I’M SO SORRY” tour but without the “almost ruining the industry because of a crippling ego/drug problem” sadness that hung over that one.
Andy: Savage Taker?
Nick: Yeah, even as someone who doesn’t really believe in dream matches, Savage-Taker would be the best thing ever.
Andy: I could see him repeating the spot he did with Warrior, dropping 30 elbows and getting a 2-count.
Nick: Yeah, that WrestleMania match, and the one the year after with Ric Flair, definitely made me reconsider the order of who I picked in my head as the most “Mr. WrestleMania” outside of HBK.
Andy: It’s a shame he got pushed out the door when he did. WWF really could have used him as a solid hand during the Mid-90s. Not as weird Uncle Randy on commentary
Nick: Are you saying the feud he started with Repo Man over his hat wasn’t on the same level as his year-long program with Hulk Hogan?
Andy: How dare you put Hulk Hogan in the same company as Barry Darsow. Wait… Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m saying.
Nick: Though, considering he once got a match against Crush over, I’m pretty sure he could have squeezed some gold out of that turd.
Andy: Over and good are two very different things. I’d prefer good. And Savage still had potential to be very good.
Nick: Did he reach his potential over his career, though? I mean, should he have been the biggest star ever, or at least someone on the same level as HBK and Taker… is he on that level? It feels like, because the back half of his career, he falls short a little bit. In the same way that Ken Griffey, Jr. feels like he had a worse career than Barry Bonds.
Andy: I feel like you said it best earlier. He’s HBK, if HBK never came back.
Nick: Though, I think more than anyone outside of Pillman, that he will most benefit from the WWE Network. People will be able to look back at the stuff he did in the 80s and 90s,and that will like make them go “holy shit” in a way that they haven’t in years.
Andy: Amen. Especially considering we probably won’t be getting an A+ Hall of Fame induction video anytime soon.
Nick: Yeah, if there was ever a guy that deserves a Hall of Fame induction video, it’s Mach. He, even more than Hogan, is perfectly bit-sized entertainment. Every gesture, every promo, every move was there for a reason.
Andy: Yup. And it was all logical. He wasn’t a face working a total heel style..my biggest Hogan gripe.
Nick: Well, that and Hogan made it possible for them to not include Macho Man in the Hall of Fame. But now that he’s host of WrestleMania, maybe he can finally get him in there.
Andy: We can only hope so. It’s not a legitimate HoF until it includes Savage.
Nick: OHHHHHHH YEAAAAHHHHHHHHH
