Brandon’s Blast from the Past (Ep. 4): Savage vs. Flair (WM VIII)

Episode: 004
“A Savage Encounter”

Hello and welcome everyone to “Brandon’s Blast from the Past”. I would like to take a moment to thank everyone for their feedback on my weekly column. I genuinely appreciate each and every one of you for commenting, liking, retweeting and sharing your own thoughts and/or opinions as we continue to travel down memory lane and revisit wrestling’s past.

This week’s episode, I decided to do something different. I chose a random year, with the year being 1992 to be exact and chose four distinct matches from WWF(E) for wrestling fans to vote on via Twitter. The choices were as follows:

* 30-Man Royal Rumble match. (Royal Rumble 1992)
* Bret “Hitman” Hart vs “The British Bulldog” Davey Boy Smith (SummerSlam 1992)
* Bret “Hitman” Hart vs “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels (Survivor Series 1992)
* “Macho Man” Randy Savage vs “Nature Boy” Ric Flair (WrestleMania VIII)

I used the WWF(E)’s “big four” pay-per-views as a basis for the voting process. The voting lasted for 48 hours. Here were the results:

What would you like to see me review next for @DeadlyVenom85 #BlastFromThePast ? #RAW #SDLive #WWE #WCW #ECW #TNA #ImpactWrestling #ROH

— Brandon Ewing (@DeadlyVenom85) October 30, 2017

The winning match, as you can see, was “Macho Man” Randy Savage vs “Nature Boy” Ric Flair from WrestleMania VIII. This match was clouded in controversy (kayfabe) and became a WrestleMania classic that holds up very well to the present day.

BACKGROUND

The original concept for WrestleMania VIII came down to a planned WWF(E) Championship match between Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan. Plans for the epic showdown between two of wrestling’s biggest legends changed dramatically based on poor house show reception matchups between Hogan and Flair, supposedly. Another (possible) motive may have had to do with the WWF’s ongoing steroid abuse trial, which Hogan was a prime suspect in and would take a hiatus from the company shortly after WrestleMania VIII. Therefore, following the events that would take place in the 1992 Royal Rumble. The change was made and a “Double Main Event” was now promoted for WrestleMania XIII. One match pitting Hulk Hogan versus Sid Justice (Sid Vicious/Sycho Sid). The other match, “Macho Man” Randy Savage versus “Nature Boy” Ric Flair for the WWF Championship title. In my opinion, I felt the original idea was for Hogan to go over Flair in the main event to capture his fifth WWF Championship. However, given the controversy surrounding the ongoing trial, changes had to be made which caused for Hulk Hogan to take a sabbatical from the World Wrestling Federation.

The build-up for Savage-Flair was pretty good, in hindsight. The feud between Flair and Savage took a very personal turn, as Flair blackmailed both Randy Savage and his wife Miss Elizabeth with photos of Flair and Elizabeth being intimate from a prior relationship Flair supposedly had with Elizabeth. Heading into WrestleMania VIII. Flair promised the world that he would reveal these photos after he defeated Savage, as a show of humiliation towards he and Miss Elizabeth. This was all that was needed to infuriate the “Macho Man” and set a course of a classic revenge match that showcased what lengths a man would go through to defend the honor of his wife.

THE OUTCOME
The match was solid from beginning to end. Savage received a massive pop from the 62,000+ at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana. We had commentary by the late Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan. Nothing more needs to be said about this dynamic duo, as Monsoon and Heenan could easily be as entertaining together as the matches we watched on television or pay-per-view. Mr. Perfect accompanied Ric Flair to ringside and played a crucial part throughout the championship match. Bobby “The Brain” Heenan was pro-Flair and was absolutely hilarious as you would come to expect, with Gorilla Monsoon retaliating and defending Savage and Miss Elizabeth throughout the contest. I miss these guys so much!

The match started off rather slow after the initial brawl at ringside between Savage and Flair. The “Nature Boy” had the offensive advantage over Randy Savage throughout the early moments of the match. Flair repeatedly worked over the back area, delivering a couple of solid Vertical Suplexs. Both Savage and Flair were in, or rather entering, their prime of their respective careers before they started to decline towards the end of the 90’s. The match was off to a slow start, with Flair methodically working on the back and the knee.

The match started to pick up steam once Savage delivered a Double Axe Handle smash to Flair at ringside, sending Flair to the steel guardrail. This caused the “Nature Boy” to bleed profusely from his head. The interesting part of this match, much less WrestleMania VIII as a whole (i.e. Bret Hart vs “Rowdy” Roddy Piper) was seeing blood. Why? To answer my own question, the WWF(E) had a “no blood policy” in place. Therefore, you can probably imagine that both Ric Flair and Bret Hart were on the receiving end of Vince McMahon’s furious rage; especially Flair, once these gentlemen reached the backstage area.

Mr. Perfect got involved and played a big part in the matchup. He threw a “foreign object” to Flair whilst distracting the referee as a bold attempt to give Flair the cheap victory, but to no avail. Miss Elizabeth ran down to ringside, despite the fact that we had four men (including a young Shane McMahon and also Dave Hebner) trying to stop her and yet couldn’t escort her back to the dressing room area. She was distraught and cheered on her “man” at ringside. The interesting note to make mention here is the fact, in real life, both Savage and Elizabeth were separated at this time and were in the middle of going through divorce proceedings.

Ric Flair damaged the leg of Savage, as he attempted to make Savage submit to the Figure 4-Leglock with assistance from Mr. Perfect that didn’t go as planned. After a solid counter by Savage. The “Macho Man” was able to roll-up Ric Flair with a school boy pin with a handful of tights to get the victory. The ending came off rather abruptly, as both men continued fighting during the post-match shenanigans. Elizabeth slapped Flair across the face, which led to both Savage and Flair brawling, as WWF(E) officials broke up the fight. Howard Finkel would officially announce “Macho Man’ Randy Savage as the new World Wrestling Federation Heavyweight Champion.

This match would be Miss Elizabeth’s last (major) WWF(E) appearance for the company, sans her appearance for the UK “Rampage” special pay-per-view event on April 19, 1992. Both Savage and Miss Elizabeth celebrated his title win after the match with the capacity crowd. The match held up fairly well looking back at it today. This championship match was very solid and was frankly the best on the entire WrestleMania VIII card (arguably). Both men would go on to continue their feud in the latter months, with Flair eventually regaining the WWF(E) Championship back from Savage. The two men would rekindle their feud once more in WCW in 1995 and 1996 respectively.

That will be it for today’s edition of “Brandon’s Blast from the Past”. I will be thinking up of some ideas for my next topic. I am open to any suggestions that I will take into consideration. I appreciate everyone’s comments and continued support. Until then I will see you next time!