Hulk Hogan & The Macho Man Randy Savage's relationship

[CM Steel]

The "Immortal" Hulk Hogan and the Macho Man Randy Savage (R.I.P.) go back a long way. During the 1980's in the WWF as two of the biggest names in wrestling money wise. They both sold the gates at arena's nationwide and pay per-views. Hogan & Savage's personal relationship backstage was a different story. One year they would be friends another they would be enemies. While on WWF TV they would feud against each other over the WWF championship and even Miss Elizabeth at one point. But at another point we saw both Hogan & Savage join forces as "The Mega Powers".

From the WWF to WCW Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage both made history together or against one another. But how did you like the pair of Hulk Hogan & the Macho Man Randy Savage, as friends or as foes?

 

[CM-Punkha]

Enemies. To me they are like Punk and Cena. If they team up together, it is good for maybe a bit but then it gets stale. I was too young to remember the mega powers but when Hogan and Macho were together in NWO, I found that stupid.

Hogan was the man and Savage was near his level in WWF. So why make him look like a #3 or 4 to Hogan (cause Nash and Hall were there). I always felt these two should have been rivals. They both were mega stars in their own right and I felt Savage as part of NWO was buried because he came across as just another henchman of Hogans when in previous years he was a worthy adversary.

 

[Wald]

The Mega Powers angle was what made me love wrestling to be honest. I remember that build, I remember thinking Macho Man was in the right and Hogan was trying to get Elizabeth (I was 8, it's telling that since then I always rooted for the bad guys with justifiable reasons) and I remember being so excited about WrestleMania 5.

After the Flair program I thought Macho had lost his edge a bit and I never liked Hogan back in the Hulkamania days, by that stage I had moved on to Bret, HBK etc. as being my favourites, but I always liked the shared history between them. When the nWo was happening I was hoping that Macho joining the nWo would turn out to be a great swerve at Starrcade 1997 where Macho would double cross Hogan during the Sting match and reveal himself to be a WCW guy all along.

It's strange though that wrestlers often get twinned with another wrestler for better or worse. When I think of Hogan now I do think of Macho as well. Same with Austin/Rock, Bret/HBK, Cena/Punk, Sting/Flair

 

[pearljamericclapton]

Foes:First of all I really enjoyed the Mega Powers angle,the WM match was very good.However the match at SS with Zeus was just awful.For me the real magic was in WCW.

As great as Savage was in the NWO,he should not have joined with HH in it.Remember Bash at the Beach 96,Fall Brawl96,and Halloween Havoc 96?The Nwo beat the hell out of Macho.WCW should have kept him as a babyface and Savage should have won at Starrcade not Piper.Savage could than go with Sting like it looked like was going to happen at SuperBrawl.Let Savage lose to HH at Uncensored with Sting still coming down from ceiling.Savage becomes very paranoid and goes after DDP for no.1 contender.

The last half of 97 still happens just like it does for real but Savage should have cost HH the match at Starrcade.Sting wins the belt and HH and Savage fight for the leadership of NWO.I know they fought Wolfpac vs Black/white,but Nash was the leader of WP.BC of Bash At The Beach it should always come back to HH and Savage.could have been a 15 year feud from 1987-2001.

 

[ilapierre]

Enemies. When Savage joined WWE in 1985 his mission was to beat Tito Santana for the IC belt to get to Hogan and the WWF title. Savage built his mainstream career on 'hating' Hogan and being his 'Lex Luther'. We all know that there was real life stuff between them and Elizabeth so it made that love/hate relationship between them so much better. I always felt it got awkward when they were friends for too long as Savage always seemed to have to bend over backwards in that relationship.

It made sense finally when Savage was the face and Hogan was the heel in WCW. I actually liked that Savage joined the New World Order as Hulk's friend (although it didn't make enough sense) but eventually, yeah, he was starting to look like just another henchman. The angle where he became the 'lone wolf' of the NWO was the all time best period to be watching wrestling. You could feel Savage's hatred and jealousy of Hogan in the angle. Things made sense again when Savage went up against the NWO and threatened to throw Hogan out and take over the NWO. That is what I would have loved to see. I remember watching Thunder and they'd be main eventing for like the millionth time and it was always still the most exciting match and buildup ever. I always felt like Savage was finally gonna get that pinfall over Hogan. But it never happened.

Now Savage doing the Wolf Pack thing was alright. But Savage as leader of the NWO, for even just a month or two while the angle was hot, would have been the way to go. He was over huge in 98 and maybe more than anytime in his career except maybe 1987/1988. Yet Hogan kept taking his spotlight and the title belt from him. With his full time career over in 1999 after his program with Rodman, Savage went on to hate Hogan from the sidelines until they buried the hatchet on TV during Thunder in 2000. And in real life a few years before he died.

This was one of the best all time feuds because of the real life shit between them as off again, on again friends. It's too bad Savage couldn't be here today to do 'the weather' with Hulk.

 

[FlairFan2003]

They worked well as both...Some guys have the charisma and ability to sell to the audience that they can successfully be believed as both, like HHH & HBK or Ric Flair & Sting. Some wrestlers just dont for whatever reason have the charisma to connect as well as "friends" as opposed to "enemies"... See Edge & John Cena, Randy Orton & Cena or Orton & HHH, or go old school with Flair & Hogan.

Savage and Hogan were very believable in both contexts, with the underlying competitiveness or resentment from their early feuds circa 1986-89 always somewhere just under the surface. My only gripe about their feuds was Savage was never allowed to come out on top, despite the fact they had multiple runs against each other in both WWE & WCW and Savage was a pretty big name in the industry. It's hard to count the Top 5 Wrestlers nationally in the 80s without Savage and I would dare say he was in the Top 5, or at least safely in the Top 10, for the decade of the 90s, something no one else who was that big in the 80s could do other than Hogan & Flair.

I do feel WCW dropped the ball by having Savage go NwO. There was great potential for an uneasy partnership storyline wise between Savage & Flair (two guys with a long, nasty history vs each other) as the natural enemies of Hogan and the NwO, along with Sting they could have been a very entertaining opposing force to Hollywood Hogan, the two guys who most rivaled him in terms of in ring success and national prominence and the one true good guy/hero type who wasnt selling out like Hogan did. With all their past storylines of their own between them and their in ring ability they could have been a terific force to oppose the NwO. Having Savage join the faction unessarily weakened WCW but he was also grossly underused, basically a mid teer guy for the most part, his one brief spotlight moment coming right before his injury lay off when he was allowed to win the World Title only to immediately drop it back to Hogan. Then we never got a good payoff between Savage and Hogan or Savage and Nash once he returned. Like much of WCW from this time period, a ton of potentially great stuff that only lived up to about half of it's potential due to poor booking.

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

Friends in wrestling is just a nice way of saying guys who are working together but will be fighting each other as enemies sooner than later.

The Mega Powers was fun while it lasted, but their matches were great.

 

[RicSpade]

Macho Man brought the best out of anyone he wrestled with because he was a perfectionist in the ring, don't believe me watch almost any Ultimate Warrior match and compare it to Randy Savage and him at WM7,the only other two feuds that were good of Warriors was facing Rude and Hogan.

I personally believe that Hogan wrestling Savage as stale as it became sometimes always brought the best out of Hogan. Even in their WCW days while it seemed overdone we always had in the back of our minds their arguement about them and Elizabeth stemming back when they were the Mega Powers if you were a long time fan.

As friends it depends on what standpoint you look at it from. The Mega Powers were great, but when they reunited pre-NWO it was stupid. Not because they weren't a good pairing but because of the things they were involved in. Remember that horrendous match where they fought everyone in the Dungeon and even Z-Gangsta? NWO he was basically just a lachey lapdop for Hogan,

So honestly I think they made better Enemies than friends.

 

[Wrestlefan27]

While I personally liked them better as enemies, I can't deny that they worked really well as friends also. That moment they first became the Mega Powers with the drawn out handshake was simply electric. It gave me goose bumps. I've never seen anybody sell body language so well. It was like their hands had a magnetic pull to each other but they were holding back to keep them from touching because the resulting explosion of awesomeness might kill everyone in a 10 mile radius.The team was just unfair. No one could stand up against the biggest stars in the company/industry.

But really any friendship with the "madness" was destined to fail eventually. He was an unpredictable, paranoid, and explosive character. He was one of the best of all time at selling his character. The fact that they used to be friends added so much more meaning to the feud when they became enemies. I just wish Savage could have gone over even once in WCW when the alignments were reversed.

 

[Owen 3:16 says I just stole your Slammy!!]

I SMELL A COWARD!!! IS THAT YOU HOGAN???

Great Song lyrics by the Late Great Randy "Macho Man" Savage. I think Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan were better off enemies than friends. Those two can make anything cool when fought against each other. When the Mega Powers broke up, it was a cool story. Savage was great in his character and acted jealous, that made the storyline cool. I just wished Randy Savage got over couple times when he against Hogan, he only lost or won by D-Q or Count out's.

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

I SMELL A COWARD!!! IS THAT YOU HOGAN???

Great Song lyrics by the Late Great Randy "Macho Man" Savage. I think Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan were better off enemies than friends. Those two can make anything cool when fought against each other. When the Mega Powers broke up, it was a cool story. Savage was great in his character and acted jealous, that made the storyline cool. I just wished Randy Savage got over couple times when he against Hogan, he only lost or won by D-Q or Count out's.

I agree...as great as that feud was, I think Savage deserved a win over Hogan at some point along the line. Heck, it probably could've thrown some gasoline on the fire and kept it going for awhile longer. Savage was definitely one of those guys who brought out the best in others.

 

[HBsam31]

The Mega Powers, like others have said, pretty much got me into wrestling. It was such a great moment when they got together, and the handshake that me and my frinds mimiced over and over again. Even as a team though there was always that tension. Even as a kid I just knew they were going to "explode". When they did their feud was amazing. Mania 5 almost had me rooting for Savage, and I was a diehard Hogan fan. I even liked when Brutus Beefcake and Zeus got into the mix. I kind of discount the WCW stuff because they didn't really handle it right. Savage should have never been an NWO lackey for Hogan. I just always liked them best when they were enemies. One of the best rivalries ever imo.