If Randy Had Stayed in TNA...

[Trill Co$by]

At Victory Road in 2004, the Macho Man made his debut at the TNA Asylum during the last 30 seconds. And originally, he was willing to help build TNA into a serious contender with the WWE; which with the likes of Hall, Nash, Hardy, Jarrett, and then Randy Savage would've been easy to do. However, after word got out that TNA was in negotiations with his real life rival, Hulk Hogan; Randy decided to part from TNA. Unfortunately, this and his appearance at Turning Point would be his last two would be the last time we would see Savage in a wrestling ring ever...

But what if he had stayed? What if in 2004, with all of his body still in decent shape and TNA just starting to make waves; Randy had stayed with TNA? Would he have been a big enough star to catapult TNA, or would he just not have mattered? Keep in mind, TNA already had big names at the time including Legion of Doom, Dusty Rhodes, Vader, The Rock N Roll Express, Raven, Jeff Hardy... but none of those names were as hot as Macho Man; who was on par with the likes of Warrior and Hogan as his career went on.

So with all that in mind, I'd say that Macho Man would've done a lot for the product. And if Sting would've still been a factor in heading to TNA, that could've been an even bigger thing for them. I think that while the younger stars would've gotten less TV time, there still would be some ways for those stars to groom. And who knows, maybe adding Kurt Angle later down the road would've also helped things out.

 

[crazyeddie42]

TNA Randy Savage wasn't exactly in good shape. He dished out a dozen punches and pinned Jeff Jarrett by reversing a sunset flip. His in-ring TNA career lasted all of 90 seconds....180 seconds if you count his appearance on Impact.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

TNA Randy Savage wasn't exactly in good shape. He dished out a dozen punches and pinned Jeff Jarrett by reversing a sunset flip. His in-ring TNA career lasted all of 90 seconds....180 seconds if you count his appearance on Impact.

Which says nothing to what the OP is asking.

Are you insinuating that his in-ring work rate by that point would have prevented him from being of use to eyeballs to the product?

 

[MrMojoRisin]

Savage was 52 years old in 2004. No idea how much he had left in the tank at that point, since he wasn't around TNA long enough to show anything... but he'd also not had a match in nearly 5 years by that point too. He stopped competing at age 47, after putting a quarter century of wear and tear on his body... so after 5 years off, it's hard to expect anyone to be able to come back out and compete at a high enough level to be a difference maker.

I'd compare this to Kurt Angle coming in. Angle was younger, healthier, could still have 5* matches, and was probably more relevant to wrestling fans in general at that point (Savage had been off the radar for quite a while). He wasn't far removed from headlining Wrestlemania, and was one of the WWE's main guys. Yet he wasn't really able to push TNA to the next level.

No, I don't think Savage does anything for TNA if he stays in 2004. Likely, we'd just look at his TNA time today in the same way we look at Foley's, Flair's, Hogan's, ect. Essentially a blip on otherwise great careers where they didn't do anything worthwhile, but at least got paid well for it.

 

[Mustang Sally]

Likely, we'd just look at his TNA time today in the same way we look at Foley's, Flair's, Hogan's, ect. Essentially a blip on otherwise great careers where they didn't do anything worthwhile, but at least got paid well for it.

Agreed. One of the ways in which TNA went so far off course back then was spending gobs of money to sign nostalgia acts; some who wrestled and some who didn't. Of course, any discussion starts with Hogan, whose presence caused them to expect a ratings boost that would bring them even with WWE (Hogan said so, remember?) Well, if Hogan couldn't make a difference, I don't see how Savage would have.

And yes, ratings aren't everything, but they seem to be what TNA was pursuing to make the type of splash they wanted. Other elements that go into making a successful business venture weren't revealed publicly by TNA, anyway.

Still, for Randy Savage, it was too late to make a significant difference to a wrestling promotion.....and I still wonder what he was looking to accomplish by joining TNA. Given his brief time there, he might also have been left wondering.