NWO and Randy Savage

[Greg4WWE]

Hey guys, I know this was almost 20 years ago, but just wondering what you guys thought of Randy Savage joining NWO? I felt that was the moment this angle lost a lot of credibility. Sure they were building up Sting at the time as a "who's side is he on?" type thing, but I thought the week or 2 they had Sting and Savage walking around together was pretty awesome.
As we all know, Savage is the one Hogan turned on, well physically anyway when NWO was formed. Then months went by. Numerous beat downs before their Match at Halloween Havoc which saw Hogan cheat to win and Savage disappeared for a while. (In real life there were contract issues with Savage and WCW). He appeared several months later with his holding the ring hostage until Sting came out. Then over a few weeks they had Savage and Sting appear together stalking NWO, until the Piper vs Hogan match at SuperBrawl where Savage then joined NWO and attacked Piper.
My question to this day is, why? It made zero sense. Even then they didn't explain it. Savage was SUPER over with the crowd and probably the 2nd biggest face in the company, maybe even biggest, and they turn him on a dime and then lower his status. At that point the NWO thing just lost momentum. A guy who fought the hardest against them then joined them. Savage was really never the same again. I thought he could of had a long feud with NWO upon his return. I won't even get into all the jobbers the NWO pulled in or branching off into 2 groups then having Sting, Luger, etc join. That all got really dumb. Thoughts?

 

[George Steele's Barber]

I felt the same way about Savage. He never felt like he belonged in any group/faction let alone the NWO. I figured him joining was just another step to creating a new brand or a full takeover of WCW but it never ended up having much if a point. Savage was too interesting on the mic and his character was to erratic to get along with others.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I felt the same way about Savage. He never felt like he belonged in any group/faction let alone the NWO. I figured him joining was just another step to creating a new brand or a full takeover of WCW but it never ended up having much if a point. Savage was too interesting on the mic and his character was to erratic to get along with others.

That's exactly how I feel. Savage didn't really fit in with the nWo in my opinion and the whole 'mad' side of his character worked better as a crazed loner, opposing the nWo.

The only time I could have seen him as a good faction member would have been in something like the 'Millionaires Club' (I know he made a 1 time appearance with them) or (if he was still active) in TNA's 'Main Event Mafia' where the big name veterans are trying to group to together to protect their spots against the young up and coming talent.

 

[Kyphael]

Bischoff has always said he wanted the nWo to become another "brand" within WCW like the brand extension, so putting big stars in said brand made sense. The issue however, lied in never building stars to fight the nWo monster even though you had them (Jericho/Benoit/Guerrero/Mysterio/etc.)

The plan was never executed. Can you imagine not holding back the guys that ended up jumping to WWE because they were held back in WCW for so long due to Hogan, Nash and their creative control?

You'd have the nWO (Hogan, Nash, Hall, Savage, Luger, Hennig, Steiner, Jarrett, Konnan, etc.) taking on Sting and Flair leading the young charge (Booker T, Jericho, Benoit, Guerrero, Mysterio) and wild cards like Goldberg and DDP? WCW was sitting on a gold mine and were too dumb to pull the trigger on a major power struggle like that which would have led to a brand extension. They let guys like Hogan and Nash nix ideas and the rest is history.

 

[enviousdominous]

The nWo became a cult at a certain point.

It became another "meh" moment in WCW, that was hyped as insanely controversial. I'm pretty sure that they were wanting to pull a huge swerve that would just blow everyone's mind, but it only really devalued Savage as a member of the roster.

I vaguely remember Savage having a feud with DDP during his time in the nWo, and that's basically all I want to remember of that era. His feud with Hogan that came later on was part of that whole in-fighting angle that would lead to the finger-poke of doom, so I'm sure that I'm not alone in wanting to purge that memory from my existence. The match with Hogan where Savage lost the belt wasn't bad, but it was on the fringe of WCW's downward spiral.

I was out of the loop for a while, so after a long while of not watching I was seeing Randy hanging out in a makeshift alleyway -- where "1-800-COLLECT" posters were posted everywhere without a single hint of vandalism -- waiting for Kevin Nash so he could hit him with a humvee or something. WCW just kept getting weirder and weirder.

 

[relentless1]

Savage joining the nWo made perfect sense storyline wise, I'm binge watching all Nitros now so I know a thing or two... When Savage resurfaced in the new year of 1997 Bischoff explicitly stated that Savage would never wrestle for WCW again and the only way he could get a job would be to sign with the nWo so Savage made a deal with Bischoff so he could continue wrestling.

This vibes very well with the pseudo worked shoot nature of the nWo as all fans that followed Savages career knows he wasn't near ready to hang it up...thats what he left WWF for WCW in the first place so it worked with his character and Bischoffs being the asshole president of the company.

Savage actually worked very well in the nWo, he was still the unstable madman; so much so that Eric Bischoff stopped his rampage on two occasions: one where he's about to hit Kimberley Page and the other where he attacks JJ Dillon also he elevated DDP while he was in the nWo so he was very productive.

The only fuck up they made is that Macho should have stuck with Hogan in nWo Hollywood when the split happened; splitting up Hall and Nash was stupid and the mega powers together under the nWo black and white banner would have made more sense.

 

[Ubermensch]

I wasn't a big fan of Savage going to the nWo. I would say in late 95 the biggest faces in the company were Sting, Savage, and then Hogan. As most of us know Hogan was getting apathetic reactions from the crowd and boos in many instances. Savage had a great feud with Flair again in early 96 over Elizabeth and his feud with Hogan later in the year is overlooked and great as well.

With Sting's allegiance uncertain at the time, Savage was easily the biggest face in the company at the time. I think most of us wanted to see him hang around as a vigilante with Sting for awhile.

I think maybe one reason I didn't like Savage going to the nWo was because I wasn't a fan of the Hogan vs Piper angle. Piper was never that exciting to me in or out of the ring and I believe that feud lasted about 4 months. Savage and Hogan could have easily headlined Starrcade in 96. They really could have done a little more with the Elizabeth angle and through Flair back into the mix. I believe Flair was injured at the time, but a triangle match between Flair, Hogan, and vigilante Savage at Starrcade with Elizabeth breaking Savage's heart and going to Hogan at the end or something.

Even though WCW was squashing WWF at the time in ratings, to me the story line was in a lull from Halloween Havoc until the Luger and Hogan feud.

Savage joining the nWo just sort of proves that Hogan has always wanted Savage below him.

As an aside, I don't agree with Savage joining the Wolfpack either. Really the Wolfpack should have been the nWo guys that had more of the gangster gimmick like Hall, Nash, Syxx, Konan, and I would have had the Harlem Heat join as well. Luger and Sting clearly had no business joining up with them. Hollywood should have been the guys with more of a biker type gimmick like Hogan, Savage, Bagwell, Bryan Adams, Norton, Steiner, and the Disciple.

 

[FromGlasgow]

Maybe I'm in the minority but I enjoyed seeing him in the NWO, At the time I was exicted at the thought of reforming a heel mega powers team with Hogan even though they never really did that,
I would have prefered that than than an alternative of Savage staying a face and fueding and ultimately losing to Hogan again as we had seen them feud so often before with the same outcome, and storyline wise I felt it made sense as the NWO group at the time hinted at being an invading group from the WWF and Savage was a major star from that company.

 

[New Hot Fed]

Savage joining the nWo made perfect sense storyline wise, I'm binge watching all Nitros now so I know a thing or two... When Savage resurfaced in the new year of 1997 Bischoff explicitly stated that Savage would never wrestle for WCW again and the only way he could get a job would be to sign with the nWo so Savage made a deal with Bischoff so he could continue wrestling.

This vibes very well with the pseudo worked shoot nature of the nWo as all fans that followed Savages career knows he wasn't near ready to hang it up...thats what he left WWF for WCW in the first place so it worked with his character and Bischoffs being the asshole president of the company.

Savage actually worked very well in the nWo, he was still the unstable madman; so much so that Eric Bischoff stopped his rampage on two occasions: one where he's about to hit Kimberley Page and the other where he attacks JJ Dillon also he elevated DDP while he was in the nWo so he was very productive.

The only fuck up they made is that Macho should have stuck with Hogan in nWo Hollywood when the split happened; splitting up Hall and Nash was stupid and the mega powers together under the nWo black and white banner would have made more sense.

Personally I always had mixed feelings about this because of two reasons:

-Macho had been tortured by the nWo for months and then he joined them.

-I liked the idea of Sting forming his own army and never understood why WCW abandonned the concept. Sting also did this with Page and I feel this could have been huge. Imagine Starrcade 1997, not only you would have Sting facing Hogan but also his own group facing the rest of the nWo.

On the other hand Macho did awesome things in the nWo. He was insane and made them more intimidating.

 

[dsotm5150]

WCW dropped the ball on Savage as far as nWo was concerned. Savage was the perfect candidate to be WCW's man on the inside and destroy the nWo internally, due to the bad blood between Hogan and Savage both on-screen and off, and they teased it constantly with Savage and Sting appearing together, or Sting coming to Savages aid etc, in end they never followed through with it and Savage was constantly made to look like Hogan's or Nash's lackey. Other than a fantastic feud with DDP, and the teased alliance with Sting, nothing much stands out for me during his time with the nWo.

 

[TDFG]

I thought Savage & Sting teaming up together to take down NWO would have been the better decision, both guys were in the match that created the NWO so it would only have been fair for these two to lead WCW in the comeback against the NWO.

Hogan as leader, Nash as his right-hand man, then Hall etc. Savage was wasted in the NWO.

 

[Makaveli31]

No. Savage did not fit in the NWO. The whole "Macho Man" persona gave the appearance
of a guy who didn't bow to anyone, a loose cannon, a loner except for a
beautiful girl on his arm. Savage didn't need or trust anyone. He was the alpha male so to see stand behind Hogan and Bischoff with the likes of Bagwell,
Norton and Vincent was very awkward to say the least. Then they paired him with Liz which was REALLY awkward because everyone knew they were divorced.

But Savage joining the NWO served two
Purposes.

1) The epic feud with DDP. No two wrestlers were more
Intense than these two and they gave a classic
Old school feud. It was during this time Savage kinda
Broke from the NWO was doing his own interviews from the crowd.

2) It set the stage for a power struggle
Between Hogan and Savage for control of the NWO but Savage blew out his knee and gone most of 1998.

I dont think Savage in the NWO was anything long term. I think the ultimate goal was
To make it seem Savage had infiltrated the NWO to get to Hogan but we will
Never know.

 

[WWEWrestleFest]

I thought Savage fit in perfectly with the nWo. Sure, you have to ignore the logic of him joining the group that was beating him up earlier, but this is wrestling. I would say the best year for WCW, including the NWA and all of that Ric Flair/Horsemen stuff from the '80s, the best year for WCW was from Superbrawl 1997 (When Savage joined the nWo) to Superbrawl 1998 (When Savage cost Hogan the title against Sting.) Plus you had the dynamic of WWF legends of the '80s (Hogan/Savage) and WWF stars of the '90s (Hall/Nash) together in the same group.

 

[Just Do It]

So what's the deal with Bret Hart? Was he OFFICIALY ever in the NWO? Like, the original version not silver and black mess. He would come down to the theme, never wear the T Shirt, never listing in the games as a member or on merchandise.

 

[Ubermensch]

So what's the deal with Bret Hart? Was he OFFICIALY ever in the NWO? Like, the original version not silver and black mess. He would come down to the theme, never wear the T Shirt, never listing in the games as a member or on merchandise.

I think it just shows WCW really had no concrete plans for their investment with Hart. It was like some kind of NWO associate, but not a full on indoctrinated member. I don't know who's decision it was to put Hart there and have him make US title runs; but much like Savage, it kept Hart under Hogan.

As an aside, I would have loved to see Benoit, Lance Storm, Owen Hart, Bulldog, and Bret in a stable rather that happened in WWF in 97 or WCW in early 98.

 

[Chris1-16]

He joined simply because DDP was developing into one of the WCW leaders against the NWO. It was the first and only time Hogan and Savage were heels at the same time so it was a fresh idea, this is common sense people. It also made Sting's decision to help WCW against the NWO a bigger deal.

 

[Chris1-16]

I thought Savage & Sting teaming up together to take down NWO would have been the better decision, both guys were in the match that created the NWO so it would only have been fair for these two to lead WCW in the comeback against the NWO.

Hogan as leader, Nash as his right-hand man, then Hall etc. Savage was wasted in the NWO.

He feuded with DDP practically the entire year, how exactly was he "wasted"?

This board sometimes .

 

[TDFG]

He feuded with DDP practically the entire year, how exactly was he "wasted"?

This board sometimes .

As I said, he was wasted in the NWO. In my opinion being a member of the NWO didn't make the feud with DDP any better, this was Macho Man Randy Savage not Buff Bagwell.

 

[Chris1-16]

As I said, he was wasted in the NWO. In my opinion being a member of the NWO didn't make the feud with DDP any better, this was Macho Man Randy Savage not Buff Bagwell.

Unless you have some kind of dislike for DDP this doesn't make any logical sense at all. When Savage did end up turning against the NWO did Hogan put him over? No he didn't, Hogan couldn't even put Sting over cleanly and only put Goldberg over because Raw was beating Nitro in the ratings during his pointless title reign which almost caused Bischoff a heart attack.

 

[TDFG]

Unless you have some kind of dislike for DDP this doesn't make any logical sense at all. When Savage did end up turning against the NWO did Hogan put him over? No he didn't, Hogan couldn't even put Sting over cleanly and only put Goldberg over because Raw was beating Nitro in the ratings during his pointless title reign which almost caused Bischoff a heart attack.

What the hell are you rambling on about?

Savage didn't need the NWO to get over as a heel, nor did he need to be part of the NWO for his feud with DDP to be a success.

Savage as a lone wolf heel, that is all he needed to be, not some extra in the NWO.

 

[harrythem]

The nWo was THE lead heel act in WCW, DDP needed to beat a name member of the nWo to realistically be seen as a threat to the group. Savage seemed to be the highest up the nWo pecking order who fit that bill....
Yeah I'd say Savage being nWo did help his feud with DDP (at least from DDP's end)

I liked Macho with nWo as he always came across as slightly....mental. His promos always seemed more thrown together and seemed to gel better with the original nWo idea than Hogan did.

 

[Chris1-16]

To TDGF:

The only way Savage was staying at the top of the card that year as a heel was joining the NWO, if he went heel and didn't join the NWO the hell was he going to do? Can you please make some sense! He was not just "another extra", he was one of the major players just like Hogan and the Outsiders were. Did you notice that Hogan, the Wolfpac (original one with the Outsiders and Syxx) and Savage were the only NWO members who had their own merchandise to go along with the other standard NWO stuff? They were the stars of the group, duh! How else was DDP gonna get over in the NWO feud? The Outsiders were a tag team and don't even get me started on Hogan. With DDP being one of the WCW leaders there was simply no room for Savage on that side anymore, it's complete common sense. The White and Black vs. Red and Black shit the following year is where the real problems with who was aligned with who started for obvious reasons.

I'm thrilled at the "what the hell are you rambling on about" saying, how ironic.

 

[TDFG]

To TDGF:
The only way Savage was staying at the top of the card that year as a heel was joining the NWO, if he went heel and didn't join the NWO the hell was he going to do?

Seriously? Are you seriously saying that if he wasn't in the NWO that The Macho Man would have been forgotten about.

The NWO tortured Randy Savage for months from it's incarnation, he lost a title match to Hogan when The Giant took him apart, I think he even got dropped awkwardly on the ring steps by The Giant during one of his attacks.

What did they do after all this, they had him turn heel on Sting and reunited him with his ex-wife in the NWO.

In my opinion it was wrong to have him in the NWO.

 

[Chris1-16]

@TDGF

Do you remember what the NWO was about? They bribed people with $ to join them and if they didn't take it they were a target, a few other people joined the NWO after being laid out by them because of the $ they were offering, it's called "selling out", Hall and Nash said it all the time in their promos "You're either with us or against us", ring a bell to you!?! They bribed practically everyone even if they had attacked them already. DDP wasn't invovled with NWO until Savage's contract was up and he hadn't decided if he wanted to stay or not.

If Savage didn't join the NWO he simply would've gotten phased out in WCW with DDP taking his spot because he damn sure wasn't going to be at the top of the card w/o being involved in the storyline, the things that I explained to you is why their feud made way more sense than you think man.

 

[Ubermensch]

I think looking back, that Savage had a huge vendetta with the nWo story-line wise. He had been cutoff by Hogan and the nWo in every way leading up to Havoc. I think that WCW missed out on a good opportunity with Savage and Sting. They should have had Savage and Sting continue their rogue gimmick against the nWo and possibly the Horsemen, Dungeon, or anyone that spoke or acted against them by questioning their loyalty. Savage would have still conceivably had a vendetta against Flair and the Horsemen as well as Hogan regarding Elizabeth.

Ultimately, maybe by June or so of 96, have Savage give into the pressure to get his wife back and join the nWo while expecting Sting to do the same. With all of the fans expecting Sting to join with Savage, have Sting turn on Savage and attack the nWo to begin his war against them.