Randy Savage 1993-1995: Missed Opportunities?

May 2024 · 6 minute read

The above is Randy Savage's last appearance on Raw, his last appearance ever in the WWF/E. It looks like maybe the start of a potential feud with Bob Backlund.


That's what it indeed looked like it was leading up to, even though that wouldn't have been my preferred choice of opponent for Macho Man, just the fact that such a scenario would involve Macho Man was enough to make me enthralled. Macho Man was just that big of a favorite of mine back in the day and even to this day in the nostalgic sense I remain a fan. Hell, I could never get into Crush but Macho Man made that feud bearable even though it was otherwise throwaway in many aspects. Had it been anyone else working with Crush, it'd have just been completely forgettable. Like in many cases, a great performer like Macho Man can and usually is the difference maker in so-so scenarios. Sadly, the end of Macho Man's WWF stint consisted of such situations. And to be honest, a feud with Backlund, despite his talents would have likely been just that.

However from 1993 to Macho's exit at the end of 1994 he'd only been used sparingly as Vince wanted to phase out the guys that people associated with the Rock 'n' Wrestling era, but Randy still wanted to be a fully active wrestler so he left for WCW, not because he was banging Stephanie.


Absolutely, and trust me, as someone who grew up watching Savage in the 1980s, I was more than disappointed on November 7, 1994 when this was announced.

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I can't help but feel there were a lot of missed opportunities here for the WWF, for starters Bret Hart's push as the next top face was not going to get a helping hand from Hulk Hogan so why not have Randy Savage be the guy? A face vs face match between Bret and Macho would have been huge and helped with that transition, the old torch passing match.


Bret Hart's push as the next top face started with Hulk Hogan being on a hiatus from the WWF. As far as why they didn't have Savage work with Bret Hart, you already answered your own question. As you said it appeared that Vince wanted to limit Savage's role, that was more than obvious by the fact that Savage wrestled so few matches from 1993-1994. Was it disappointing, you're damn right it was. But I'm going to have to strongly challenge your point about Hogan's "unwillingness" with Bret Hart as far as the "torch passing" goes. I've always maintained that it was in Vince's plans to have Bret Hart get his revenge against Yokozuna and Hulk Hogan was the baby face that Vince wanted Yokozuna to soundly crush while the buildup to Yokozuna-Bret Hart II was developing. Again, I can't see Bret's post-Mania IX accolades such as the King Of The Ring and his co-Royal Rumble victory with Luger as just random and arbitrary occurrences. Lex Luger in my opinion was a red herring, and I don't think there was ever any serious consideration of giving him the WWF title despite all the fan fare and hype that surrounded Lex's face turn. Therefore, as awesome of a scenario as your face vs face proposal with Macho Man vs Bret Hart in lieu of Hulk Hogan vs Bret Hart, the last time the WWF tried that with Hogan and Warrior, things didn't work out for the long term. Therefore, Vince played it safe and went with the tried and true method of the heel-face dynamic, and for its time Bret Hart's year long odyssey of redemption and closure with Yokozuna worked for its time. However, don't get me wrong I'd have loved to see Bret and Randy have a run against one another.

But like anything else, it was Vince's call that Savage take a backseat to the "New Generation" of performers like Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Yokozuna, 1-2-3 Kid, Owen Hart, Jeff Jarrett and Diesel to name just a few. Yes, it'd have made great sense to pair Savage up with these aforementioned names, some of whom you do cite in your next line, but it's obvious that Vince didn't see that as being the way to go. Although, in the case of Yokozuna and Shawn Michaels, Savage did have some encounters with them. However, there wasn't enough of it for my liking either. But I definitely am not going to cite this having anything to do with Hulk Hogan.

On top of that were heels like Yokozuna, Diesel and Shawn Michaels that all could have benefited from working with Savage who was still very capable of going in the ring and elevated any feud he was in with his intensity and legendary status.


No doubt man, my previous paragraph I think echoes your sentiments despite some minor disagreements.

The last name there, Shawn Michaels, was used in his second run as a support attraction to young champions like Cena and Orton when he wasn't putting them over, I feel Randy could have supplied the same role in the mid-90's for WWF.


Absolutely man, but it's a shame that Vince didn't see it the way we do. There was a wealth of talent Savage could have worked with even into the Attitude Era as well such as The Rock, Goldust, The Undertaker, Triple H, Steve Austin (their WCW encounter was only a tease of what REALLY could have been) and so on. I say shame on Vince and the decision makers of the WWF story lines for that.

In my view Randy Savage remained a high quality performer right up until 1998 when he suffered a leg injury, he was never the same after that, but until that point I think he could have still been a valuable in-ring player for WWF, and I'm interested in other posters thoughts.


I'm not going to go into specifics as to why Randy Savage never came back to WWF or why he left, that's the same school of thought as you citing that Hulk Hogan was absolutely opposed to working with Bret Hart, it's all speculative. Even my theory regarding Vince is speculative but I hope none of this will denigrate into the rumor mill about all the ugly stuff the IWC usually talks about in regard to what Savage did, especially since he is deceased and can say nothing on his own behalf.

Either way OP, thanks for the post, it had some good insight and I always love discussing matters involving The Madness. He was a top ten favorite of mine, and the "What-Ifs?" are always endless!

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