Face or Heel: Machoman Randy Savage

[JerryvonKramer]

I've been watching SNME from the start recently. Up to #6 now. One thing that struck me was what an awesomely dislikable heel Macho Man was circa 1985/6. He basically just abused Elizabeth, treated her really badly, hid behind her whenever he could, in one skit he "teaches her to swim" by pushing her into the pool. And she just takes it. It was a weird scenario, because you basically had a heel wrestler with a face valet.

This got me thinking about whether I prefer Macho Man as a face or a heel. On the one hand, he is hatable when he's abusing Elizabeth and he was also pretty good as the Macho King later on with Sherri. But then he was a decent face champ when he was feuding with DiBiase in 1988 and again when he was feuding with Jake Roberts and then Flair in 1991-2.

I believe he stayed face for most of the rest of his career after that didn't he? To my way of thinking, using Savage as a face seems to be a bit of a waste of a fantastic and truly hatable heel.

So my question is: do you think Macho was better used as a face or as a heel?

 

[Mjolnir]

No question for me that Macho was a WAY better heel. Case and point, when I was about 7 or 8 years old, I got a WWF magazine. It had an article about the match (Feb 8th, 1986?) where Macho won the Intercontinental title from Tito Santana by hitting him with a roll of quarters hidden in the top rope double axe-handle. To make a long story short, Macho was lyin', cheatin', and stealin' his way to the top way before Eddie. I could never understand why Elizabeth stayed with him (like mentioned above), but I guess some girls just like guys who are dicks.

MACHO VS. JERICHO AT WM25!!!

 

[Big Fella]

Macho Man is usually vastly under-rated, both in his wrestling ability and his impact on the WWF in the 80s and early 90s.

The guy was fantastic, one of the best.

I preferred him as a face because he always had more success as a face.

But as a heel he was better. His in-ring style was better fit his heel persona and he was damn good.

I really miss Randy Savage.

 

[leneman1585]

Macho Man is usually vastly over-rated, both in his wrestling ability and his impact on the WWF in the 80s and early 90s.

The guy was fantastic, one of the best.

I preferred him as a face because he always had more success as a face.

But as a heel he was better. His in-ring style was better fit his heel persona and he was damn good.

I really miss Randy Savage.

i am pretty sure you meant to say that savage was underrated not overrated, but i pretty much agree with everything you said

 

[WrestlingHistorian]

He found better success as a "face" as he was a fan favorite when he won both his World Heavyweight Championships (1988 and 1992), but he was more entertaining to me as a heel, especially during the 1989-1990 period, and during the 1986-1987 timeframe.

 

[Anthonygiz23]

macho man was an excellent heel, but towards the end of his career in the WCW i thought is persona was too over the top.... he was great in the late 80's but he still dressed like it and never re invented himself like Hogan or even a Big Poppa Pump... He still noe of the all time greats but i just didn't understand how Bischoff didn't use him the right way in WCW

 

[WrestlingHistorian]

macho man was an excellent heel, but towards the end of his career in the WCW i thought is persona was too over the top.... he was great in the late 80's but he still dressed like it and never re invented himself like Hogan or even a Big Poppa Pump... He still noe of the all time greats but i just didn't understand how Bischoff didn't use him the right way in WCW

Eh, as far as i'm concerned Randy Savage retired the moment he left WWF, I don't acknowledge any of that WCW stuff he was involved in, I pretty much stopped watching WCW in mid 1994. I agree with you though, Randy was a fantastic heel and knew how to work the crowd, check out WM5 and you will see what I mean.

 

[GameOver]

The Heel wrestler with the face valet was the storyline, that was intentional.
soon as Hogan was out of the picture after SummerSlam 91 the true Randy Savage and Elizabeth came out, then they went to WCW and the drug addicted Elisabeth came out soooo sad.

Savage was an awesome worker whether heel or face, but gotta say as a heel he was better, his promo's were better, he had a killer instinct and was the in ring Bret Hart of his day.

I was on the Randy Savage bandwagon from WrestleMania 2 til the end of his WWF tenure. didn't seem much of WCW at the time as it was only shown sporadically here in Australia and what was shown was highly edited and usually repeates for several weeks in a row, but have to agree his tenure in WCW was woefull, much like pretty much everyone else famous that went there towards the end. He did with the WCW title atleast.

as for why he wasn't used in WCW, i can only speculate Hogan made sure he was held back or maybe he was a psycho backstage, which is apparently what was his biggest downfall towards the end of his run in WWF and what caused the huge rift between himself and WWE which blacklists him to this day for the most part.

Then again Bischoff was a jackass when it came to recognising talent too. I mean in his own words Triple H, Undertaker and Austin to name 3 would never be anymore than midcard jobbers.

Yet Kevin "i can barely walk and can't cut a promo for shit without it being a "shoot"" Nash was always at the top.

Sting "every second word i say is my opponents name" they were both pushed

 

[kingkong317]

personally i say that in wwe, he was great as a heel & face, but i think he was better used as a heel. even though he was such a heel, fans still got into him, and of course more hated him. in wcw i liked him more as a face, especially in 1994 - 1996. overall, i think savage was a better heel, especially in the 1980s and late 1990s.

 

[butsecks]

macho man will be remembered more as a face than a heel, since his biggest accomplishments he ever did were when he was a face (i.e his first world title run, the mega powers, feud with ric flair, feud with snake roberts) but to me he worked better as a heel...his heel run in wwe was great, but i personally thought his heel run in memphis was just as great...this is pre-wwe when he was mainly a heel in his father's ICW promotion and Memphis against Jerry lawler. he was insane, wild, and very believable.

 

[RVDgurl]

Randy Savage played it cool both ways. It was easy for the crowd to cheer for him, especially with Miss Elizabeth at his side. But it was even easy to boo him, in spite of Miss Elizabeth being in his corner. Even with one of the most beloved managers, Savage was still able to generate tons of heat. He was better as a heel.

He played the heel in one of the greatest angles in WWE history- Savage vs. Steamboat. Savage crushing Steamboat's throat with the ring bell, anyone? Oh my God, that was big. I remember watching it and seeing women and children in the audience crying. Not that's good shit.

This is just one example of the creativity that Savage had as a heel. Stuff like that is commonplace in the present day, but the use of any foreign object at that time was a really big deal. And using it to the extent Savage did in that particular angle with Steamboat was almost unheard of.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

Heel. His career defining moments weren't as a face. vs. Steamboat, Hogan or Warrior he was a heel. Those matches and angles were what he's remebered for most. As a face it's his feud with Jake Roberts and one match with Ric Flair.