WWF, 1985
Following up on my recent post regarding Miss Elizabeth in the WWF in the calendar year of nineteen-hundred and eighty-four, I thought it would be fun to go back and watch one of the best debuts I ever witnessed in pro wrestling…and most assuredly a worthy SQUASH of the Week. It would feature of course THIS MAN…
…Randy “Macho Man” Savage! Been a while since I proclaimed my undying love for this guy, too long in fact. His early WWF stuff is the very pinnacle of what pro wrestling should be in my mind, with a guy who is utterly despicable doing horrible things before getting his comeuppance.
Macho starts out fast with a lightning fast arm drag. I know a lot of folks love the Ricky Steamboat deep arm drags, but this kind from Savage are equally cool in my book. I also love that he is somehow pretending to be Nick Jackson despite the fact that guy wouldn’t even be born for another four years. Randy Savage is so great he does transcend time and space!
Seeing such amazingness on display, the entire WWF heel manager contingent makes their way to ringside. I’m talking everyone – Bobby Heenan, Jimmy Hart, Fred Blassie, Johnny Valiant, heck even Mr. Fuji! They all need to get a better look at this hot new talent.
So the jobber (young Aldo Marino) does his best with a shoulder block and a sunset flip. Savage followed up with an absolutely explosive clothesline that nearly rips the dude’s head off. You want to know why I will forever proclaim that WWF Superstars is a better game than WWF WrestleFest? The ability to do THAT move is a large reason.
The Savage showcase continues with him necking Aldo on the top rope, then immediately scaling for a giant elbow to the top of the head. Totally forgot he used to use that. I did that on the old Microleague Pro Wrestling all the time when I played as Macho.
Deciding he really needs to show off for the contingent at ringside, Savage throws his opponent…or foe…or…well, let’s just call it as it is victim outside and goes up once more and delivers a double sledge.
So Savage picks him up and finishes him off with not one, but TWO top rope elbows! There was no social media around back in the day, but I can only imagine folks seeing this and immediately claiming that Savage was destroying the business with these over the top antics as this was completely outside what you’d ever see on WWF television.
As I’m fond of saying, the less things change the more they stay the same.
Oh, and remember how I mentioned despicable folks doing horrible things? Randy continues his fun after the bell by beating up the corpse of this guy who had the temerity to face him in combat this evening. This Macho Man really was Savage!
All the managers hug this new prospect no doubt seeing huge dollars before their very eyes. Keep in mind, these guys never really worked together on anything. Sure, they would do a deal here and there, but a show of unity like this made the fans realize this was something incredibly unique we were watching here.
And while all those guys would lose out on Savage (he’d go with Miss Elizabeth of course), they were all witness to something very special – “Macho Man” Randy Savage was here, and pro wrestling would never be the same again!