Which is The Better Feud: Hogan/Savage. Hogan/Flair, or Flair/Savage

[gunnascott]

All 3 of these men had epic encounters with title changes happening in 2 of the biggest companies ever WCW and WWF. My question is which feud was more important and had the best matches?

 

[VABurghman]

This is a no-brainer. Hogan vs Savage were a major rivalry with both in their prime. Whereas Flair vs Hogan was late in their careers, same with Savage vs Flair. Flair and Hogan could have been a major rivalry about 10 years sooner if there was a merger between WWF / WCW (NWA) and billed as the top draws for each company vs the other. I would even put Hogan vs Orndorff ahead of either Flair scenario.

 

[Dynamitekid2012]

I'm an avid Ric Flair fan, and while I did love his fued with Savage going into Mania, I had to give the nod to Hogan and Savage for the buildup to WM 5. That story was the hottest angle for years in any promotion. I would even say that this might be both Savage and Hogan's best angle, and I'm even including the NWO in that.

 

[rokuma]

I can't remember a single Hogan/Flair match that really stood out...and I've seen several. It's just weird that the two biggest stars of their respective companies clashed that many times and none of the matches really stand out. I'll say Hogan/Savage. Their match at WM 5 may have been the best of Hogan's career...a true testament to the Macho Man. The match itself had an awesome feel to it and just seemed like a legitimate fight. It was one of the most underrated Wrestlemania matches of all-time in my opinion.

 

[gunnascott]

I gotta go with Savage v. Flair. It had the better angle(Flair claiming to have slept with Liz) and had the better matches. Most importantly it was the only feud to co headline to major ppv of WCW. Starrcade and Wrestlemania. Not to mention It had the unnderrated feud of Savage v. The Horsemen in summer of 1996

 

[fenfool]

I thought the Savage-Hogan feud was awesome. It had a long, slow build, and featured Savage really coming to his own as a major player on Hogan's level. I thought they got some great matches out of the feud, with a lot of heat behind them. I won't take anything away from the other feuds, but to me, this one had the most behind it.

 

[Foshinzo]

I'll just go ahead and file in with everyone else by saying it's gotta be Hogan vs Savage. It had a great build up and the WM 5 match payoff was great, too. It was one of Hogan's better matches, I've always felt, and heel Savage was better than face Savage, too. It was just two legends at their best, and Savage proved himself to be one of the best, during this period.

However, I would like to note how good the Savage/Flair WM 8 feud was, too. The build up was great; "She was mine before she was yours!" I mean, who wouldn't want to absolutely kill that guy, saying things like that about your just married wife on National TV? Flair was probably the one who carried this feud, but Savage was usually able to pull off the sympathetic face really well, even though I've already said that I liked him better as a heel. Again, great build up, a really great match, and it too was an epic feud.

 

[RicoLen]

Hogan vs Savage was one of the biggest rivalries of all time. When I think of the biggest 3 of all time, I think of Hogan vs Savage, Rock vs Austin, & Hitman vs HBK.

That said. I think the better feud in terms of story telling, and chemistry was Savage vs Flair. I watched everything except for the Hogan vs Flair stuff, it never really impressed me at all, that feud, but I LOVED watching Savage vs Flair both in the WWF & the WCW. I think the only Flair feud I watched live (I missed Steamboat, Dusty, and much of Sting) and enjoyed more than his feud with Savage was his WWF feud with Mr. Perfect.

 

[Poop Master Flex]

First thing I will say is Hogan vs. Flair absolutely sucked the big one both in WWF and WCW when Hogan came in. Not that it was either man's fault (it wasn't) but the feuds they put on put me to sleep.

Savage vs. Flair was actually a very good feud with Flair playing the sloppy seconds card on Savage with Ms. Elizabeth. From the doctored pics to him saying he had a really juicy pic in store for WM8. For Flair to keep a stanglehold on the title he basically made it personal with Savage which is what made it work so well. It was a fantastic feud IMO and one of the reasons I laugh when people say Flair didn't get a fair shot in WWE. Being in a title feud with one of WWF's premier stars and 2 WWF title runs in a year and a half is pretty damn good if you ask me.

Hogan vs. Savage though was the best of the bunch and one of Hogan's and Savage's best feuds throughout their careers. This one was also personal with Ms. Elizabeth to an extent but what made this feud work so much better was the fact they were the top 2 stars in '88 and best friends on screen (and off from what I've heard). Hogan helping Savage win the title and the formation of the Mega Powers was great. Together you got the feeling that they were unstoppable, both guys were extremely over and probably the most popular tag team ever. Then RR 89 comes up and Savage gets eliminated by Hogan which causes an almost blow up then at the Main Event Ms. Elizabeth gets knocked of the apron and Hogan abandons Savage to take care of Ms. Elizabeth only for Hogan to come back and Savage basically doing the same thing. Even though Savage was the heel you could still sympathize with the guy getting abandoned by his best friend and watching his friend play hero to his girl, it just felt very real and worked wonders on screen.

Flair vs. Hogan = shit, Flair vs. Savage = great, Hogan vs. Savage = legendary.

 

[crippler]

I have to say Savage vs Flair The matches they had were better than Flair vs Hogan and Savage vs Hogan since both matches required Savage and Flair to carry Hogan and make him look good. The Hogan vs Savage was great because of the work Savage did in that match.

 

[caesarmacdaddy]

Savage-Hogan went on for years in many incarnations...
1. New heel upstart tries to dethrone popular face dominant champ...(85-86)
2. Mega Power BFF's (87-89)
3. Main Event Rivals (89-90)
4. Re-alliance (94-96)
5. nWo (on again off again) (96-99)

What can top that rivalry/ friendship? Not to mention the countless high profile matches that even casual or non fans can recall.

Flair-Savage was fantastic, but also underrated, since everybody wanted Hogan-Flair to culminate at WM8. The Liz angle and their 9 month WWF feud was classic. This is #2.

Hogan-Flair completely dropped the ball. Not only was there a perfect built in story when Flair brought the WCW belt over in the Summer of 91, but the Funeral Parlor jumping, 91 Survivor Series, Tuesday in Texas, Royal Rumble were a fantastic build up. Even the Wrestlemania Conference was tight...Then we were robbed for the "Match of the 80's". Hogan and Flair were gone in about 16 months after that...

In WCW, there was a lot of fanfare, but it seemed way too obvious with Hogan just arriving, as to who would win! Not to mention the ridiculous over booking and the Alliance to End Hulkamania... and this feud was a major letdown.

I think if done right Hogan-Flair in 92, it would have paid off even better than a well booked Invasion Angle. The Mega Powers could have reunited to fend off Flair...and possibly a WWF version of the Horseman...Mega Powers could have teamed with LOD to even out the numbers...and a great 8-10 person main event scene could have been milked for years...What a letdown to have Flair-Hogan wasted! It would have changed wrestling in the early to mid 90s!

 

[AmerikanWolves619]

Caesarmacdaddy listed the rivalry perfectly. Out of the 3, Hogan/Savage (in both WWF and WCW) had the best promos from each wrestler, best storyline, build, matches, to the main event matches that occurred that intensely got the fans emotionally involve. THAT is the way you create, formulate, and build a rivalry. Sad that the promotions cannot see to touch that type of perfection on a regular basis with their maineventers.

 

[FlairFan2003]

Flair vs Savage - It lasted longer, main evented both WM and Starrcade, better matches, more World Title switches.

Hogan vs Savage was good in 86 and the meeting at WM 5 was very well promoted and layed out. Match wise I liked some of their work in 86 better than 89. In WCW other than making Savage job another title to Hogan the fued never really took off, partly because of Savage's injury as well as Hogan's part time wrestling status and heat between them behind the scenes because Hogan would never lose a match to Macho Man.

The build up to Flair/Savage leading in WM 8 was classic, and next to Hogan/Flair this was probably the most talked about Dream Match of the time. Flair's promos were absolutely among his all time best, plus the doctored photos, etc. Flair's phenomenal 62 minute win at Royal Rumble also added to the intrigue.

In WCW you had Flair beatdown Savage's dad twice (once on Fathers Day, then pin Randy to win their match - OUCH!!!), a great match outside at Bash At The Beach (lumberjack match), Savage convincing former Flair valet Woman to join his side vs Horsemen (only to be swerved by her and Flair), then the return of Liz to help Randy (only to swerve him again and help Flair beat him in the Cage at SuperBrawl for the title), then Savage went off the deep end and was suspended for awhile, he was stalking Flair, Flair did those great promos with Liz "Hey, it's on Randy" about living the high life on Savage's credit cards, in fact the whole Catered Ringside Buffett deal with Flair in 96 started in this fued (all on Savage's money Liz stole from him) although they used this set up after the two stopped their fued.

Flair-Hogan was completely messed up in WWE. No one ever says why, although there are theories that Hogan initially wouldn't lose to Flair (the idea of Flair beating Hulk at the Rumble, then losing at WM). Niether man has ever said much, saying it was a management decission. We do know that by 92 the federal steroid investigation was in full swing and WWE was pushing out wrestlers with drug problems as well as those who might be indicted (Piper). Hogan was pushed into a "Retirement Match" vs Sid at WM which sucked, basically just a way to get one last PPV out of Hogan while setting up the return of Ultimate Warrior (which bombed, Warrior really only had one good short run 89-91, he never came close to that ever again).

In WCW at first Hogan-Flair looked really interesting, playing up on the fact that they did wrestle in WWE but with noi clear cut winner (all their matches were count-outs and DQ's). Plus Flair was dominant as WCW champion, having survived Vader, Steamboat, and Rude and he like Hogan was fan favorite. Once they turned Flair heel and had him swerve Sting it became clear Hogan would win outright, a recreation of late 80's Hulkamania vs Horsemen Era Flair. What was worse is that Hogan pretty much dominated everything for the next two years, the fued was very one sided till 96. This was the same problem with Hogan-Savage in 89 - when Savage turned heel and Hogan made his return from extended absence you knew he was going over at WM. The fact he never lost any big matches, not even non title or tag bouts vs Savage made that fued grow real old real quick. Worse, in WCW fans did not want to see Flair humilaited by Hogan. Hogan found he couldn't draw except vs Flair and large portions of the audience wanted him to lose. The NWO and heel turn probably saved Hogan's career at that point, older fans losing interest in his one dimensional matches and newer fans more entertained by the crazy antics of Flair, the womanizing, partying, over the top promos.

Hogan did deliver good matches with Savage in WWE, their handful of WCW matches were not very good. I still take their bouts in 86 over their run in 89, but they were pretty entertaining too. Their WM match was one of the Top 5 matches of Hogan's career. Savage and Flair had very good matches in both companies, particularly WM 8 in 92 and Bash At The Beach 95. Hogan-Flair had good matches in both companies. Their Madison Square Gaden match in 91 was slightly better than their typical house show match, very good. Their best was Bash At The Beach 94, Hogan's initial WCW Title win. The crazy Clash Of Champions Match in Aug 94, their fan favorite Flair vs Hollywood Hogan Clash Match in 96, and SuperBrawl 99 were also good. Their other matches were largely average.

WCW dropped the ball by not going full force with a fan favorite Flair vs Hollywood Hogan run, but then they dropped the ball on a lot of potential money making stuff in the late 90's, much of which has been discussed to death other places on this website.