Colling’s Corner:
Eighth Edition
Written By: Bob Colling
After his second WWF World Championship reign lasting from April 1992 to September 1992, Randy Savage was no longer seen as a viable asset to Vince McMahon because of his age. McMahon shortly began to promote the WWF as the “New Generation” with several younger wrestlers being promoted. Some of the younger talent being hyped up included Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Razor Ramon , Tatanka, 1-2-3 Kid, the Smoking Gunns and Diesel to name a few. Savage out the year. Each time Savage was able to compete in the ring, he showed that he defiantly had enough in the tank to continue to entertain the fans and to be a asset to the company. The argument could be made that Vince McMahon missed out on a few money making feuds with Savage when he had him at his disposal and just wasted them.
Lets look back to November of 1992. Savage was involved in a feud with both Ric Flair and Razor Ramon. After a tag team match with Mr. Perfect Savage wasn’t featured heavily on television like he was prior to the event. Savage did have a good showing at the 1993 Royal Rumble but lost to Yokozuna. Following the event, Savage was just a color commentator for RAW. In my opinion, the best thing to do would have been to keep his rivalry with Razor Ramon going heading into Wrestle Mania IX. Ramon was put into a singles match with Bob Backlund which didn’t have much build to it at all. Ramon and Savage had worked a few matches in the fall of 1992 so their would have been some kind of familiarity with each other before the event. Looking back at Wrestle Mania IX, it was missing one more big match. A Randy Savage versus Razor Ramon match would have filled that void. Instead, Savage remained to be apart of the commentary team and was wasted. Savage was still a draw during this time, and since he was hardly used he wouldn’t have been over exposed.
Savage was able to get a major angle in the fall of 1993 when he started a feud with Crush after Crush turned on Savage and joined Mr. Fuji. After several months of feud they would have their blow off at Wrestle Mania. For a man who was no longer seen as a asset for the company, he was apart of the most entertaining angle going into the event. Savage also made Crush become a legitimate main event heel, though Crush was never pushed following the feud (another waste). After Wrestle Mania IX, Savage would be involved with a few short term angles against low mid-card heels. Their were two feuds during the 1994 year that I feel would have been good feuds for Savage and his opponents.
I believe in the spring of 1994, a feud involving Randy Savage and Jerry Lawler would have been a lot better than the feud Lawler had with Piper. Savage and Lawler had been having a little bit of interaction through commentary but they didn’t have a match on television. They did have a few house show matches that apparently went over well with the crowd that saw it. Lawler was a fantastic heel at the time and would have been able to carry the angle by himself, if needed. Lawler was also a above average worker and would have had sure to be good matches with Savage. I don’t think the question is if the angle would succeed, though. What it came down to is that Vince McMahon was trying to make the WWF look younger and faster compared to the older looking, slower (in most cases) WCW. Thus, a feud between the two of them would have been highly unlikely to be featured on television. There is one feud though that involves a younger talent that was hinted to perhaps occurring but for whatever reason it never did.
Starting in May of 1994, Jeff Jarrett had made it clear that he was trying to show that he was better than Randy Savage. During his matches Jarrett would go out of his way to taunt Savage and declare his overall greatness. At this point Jarrett needed to be involved in a important feud. For most of the year Jarrett had been feuding with the baby face version of Doink which was just a overall silly feud. Jarrett had been previously been introduced as a elite level wrestler who was a egomaniac. A successful feud with Randy Savage to close out 1994 would have easily meant that Jarrett would have been seen as a respectable upper mid-card heel at the very least. Instead, Jarrett wrestled Mable at the 1994 Summer Slam event. That is a huge drop off from Savage level talent. The Summer Slam event was seen as Savage’s farewell to the WWF. If I was booking the shows back then I would have made sure that Savage put over Jarrett before his left the company. It is a unwritten rule that when a talent leaves a company he puts over pretty much anyone. Instead, Savage left on a high note and just went to WCW without losing any overness from the crowd.
At the end of the day, I don’t think McMahon truly believed Savage couldn’t deliver in the ring. I believe that McMahon didn’t want a older wrestler to outshine his young wrestlers who were going to carry the company for years to come. As a result, McMahon wasn’t able to capitalize on a few feuds that would have generated some revenue for his company and give the above mention heels some momentum after Savage’s eventual departure. Could you imagine how much bigger Jarrett’s role with the WWF would have been if he had feuded with Savage? We will never know, but I am sure it would have increased greatly.
Thanks for reading.
