Randy Savage : Real reason behind Savage/McMahon feud

As we all know Randy Savage and Vince McMahon have been on poor terms for years. There are various rumors floating around. Vince has been known in the past to have banned Savage's name from being mentioned. He has taken signs from fans with Savage's name on them. Randy Savage last worked for the WWE in 1994, 17 years ago. All of this changed in 2009 when the WWE released a dvd of Savage's career. Fans thought Savage was finally getting into the HOF. Nope. One thing though that was odd. If Vince hated Savage, why after all this time release a dvd? He could've made millions off Savage for years but didn't. Vince hated the Ultimate Warrior so much that he released a dvd trashing him. Clearly te bad blood between him and Savage wasn't as bad as that with the Warrior, who Vince a few months ago attempted to contact so he could get him into the Hall Of FameAHEAD OF SAVAGE.

I think in the past few days I have figured out why Savage/WWE haven't worked much together and Savage is not in the HOF. Reason: Savage wanted nothing to do with the wrestling world for most of the past 10 years



- Roddy Piper on his Twitter page attempted to squash the story and said: Savage punched Vince in a bar, he was banned


I believe this could've happened but this got him banned for 17 years? Bret Hart spit on Vince and also punched him. Hart got his dvd, got into the HOF and returned to the WWEthe same company that killed his brother. If Hart/Vince can work together I think even God/Satan could LOL.


- X-Pac responded to Piper by saying that he felt the Savage/Steph rumors were true and wrestling writer Dave Meltzer confirmed this from top sources.


The Savage/Steph rumors have been around forever. The main rumor is that Savage slept with a underage Steph, which I find to be complete b.s. because Vince would've had Savage arrested and/or killed. What father wouldn't? Steph was 18 years old when Savage left the WWF. Most fathers wouldn't release a dvd of the guy who banged his teenage daughter. What I do believe might have happened is Savage could've threatened her, attempted to hit her. You don't threaten daddy's little girl. He could've joked around and made rude comments towards a teenage Stephanie. Savage was known to be a loose cannon and to have a very short fuse. I met Diamond Dallas Page last year and asked him about the Steph rumors to which he said were a joke but he didn't know why Savage/Vince had their problems.


- Dusty Rhodes might have cleared things up. Rhodes said Savage has been a recluse for the past 10 years. He was completly out of the picture and wanted no part of wrestling or anything.


Maybe it was Savage who didn't want to work with the WWE. Maybe he declined offers to be in the HOF. Afterall, in the past few years the WWE has released a dvd, action figure and video game (w/ promo from Savage, his first for the WWE since his departure). Maybe the WWE was reaching out to Savage. Hogan said he hadn't spoken to him in 10 years and finally was patching things up. Maybe at the end the WWE was too. Savage last was involved with wrestling in 2005 during a brief tenure with TNA. Since then he has been pretty reclusive up until May 2010 when he got re-married and the first professional photos of Savage since of 05 were released. It seemed at the end of his life, Savage was finally making an attempt to return to the spotlight. Hopefully his wife makes a statement, hopefully Vince makes a statement. It's a shame any of these rumors need to still be around and need to be ended once and for all so we can fully focus on the legacy of one of wrestlings best ever!

HDNET is currently airing a hour long interview with Hulk Hogan that was shot in the past year. Excellent interview where he talks about his career.

During the interview they talk about Savage and Hogan says Savage was very paranoid about everything, especially Elizabeth. Backstage he always told her to keep her head down and never look at anyone and one time owned a house and built a cage with bars around the front door and told her there was a week of t.v. dinners and he would be back later. Hogan mentioned the WWE action figure promo Savage shot in 2010 and said Savage rarely left his house ever and they had to shoot the promo at Savage's house. Hogan did praise Savage saying he was a total professional when it came to wrestling. Never late, never complained even when injured.

So this goes along with what Dusty said about Savage being a recluse.

I've always assumed that it had something to do with whatever fell through between Savage and McMahon in '96. After Savage was out of WCW following October's Halloween Havoc, rumors began to fly that he'd be heading back to WWF. The WWF even began mentioning Savage a bit more frequently on their television shows. I remember Bret Hart5b4 mentioning him by name in some type of interview, and I vividly remember a re-gimmicked Jeff Jarrett (whose attire looked bizarrely like an Aztec warrior during these days) referring to Macho Man as the greatest of all time. I fully expected Macho Man to be the mystery partner during one of the Survivor Series matches that year, but it didn't play out, and soon afterwards Macho was back in the WCW.

I have read that Vince and Macho were very close to reaching an agreement, and Vince had booked Savage for some dates, and then the WCW offer came in and Savage took that and bailed on Vince. If this is the case, then it certainly is logical to assume that some animosity had arisen from that.

When I read that Macho never worked for Vince again because of an alleged affair with Stephanie McMahon, I am shocked to see how many people are willing to throw logic out the window and accept such an absurd rumor as gospel. If this rumor was true, there would have been no talk whatsoever of Savage returning in '96. There would have been no DVD. There would have been no action figures. And there certainly would have been no appearances in video games. I don't doubt that Vince and Savage had some sort of issue, but it is obvious that whatever the issue was, it was beginning to work itself out. Little by little, the WWE was beginning to acknowledge the contributions of Savage. This would not have happened had Savage slept w111cith Stephanie McMahon.

If it were anything more than bad past business, Savage would not have been signed to a deal at the end of last year to promote WWE merchandise, nor would he have been named by WWE.com as the greatest IC champ in history.

George Steele might have shed even more light onto why the two had their problems.

btw last night on RAW, Jerry Lawler called Savage a Hall Of Famer regulardless. That's pretty interesting comments and continues to lead me to believe it was Savage who held out, not Vince. Vince might not be the bad guy afterall in this situation.



Savage & McMahon's Falling Out Explained By WWE Legend
By Michael Bluth
May 24, 2011 - 12:03:47 PM


One of "The Macho Man" Randy Savage's greatest rivals from the 80's, George "The Animal" Steele, was on Busted Open with Doug Mortman and Dave LaGreca, which airs Mondays and Wednesdays at 2-4 PM ET on Sirius 92 and XM 207.

"That's been said a lot of different ways, and there's been a lot of different things said that are not true necessarily."

"I think that what happened with Randy, when his career was winding down with the WWF, Vince McMahon just loved Randy," he continued. "After all everything Randy had done and he took him under his wing, and he wanted Randy after the ring was over with for him, he wanted him to be our spokesperson. He was traveling with Vince all the time. Randy was almost like a son, they were really tight. And then one day, we were at a TV meeting, and we got word that Randy, without calling Vince, had left and jumped to the WCW."

"I had never seen Vince McMahon broken before, he was crushed. It hurt him big time and I don't think he ever got over that. I think that's the real problem to be honest with you. I heard all this other stuff that I think is garbage when it comes to Randy and relationships with daughters and all that stuff I don't think that's anywhere's close to the truth."

If George Steele's explanation is true, Vince didn't look at Randy as just another expendable wrestler who could be replaced.

When the "Confidential" show was airing, Mean Gene intro a story on WCW by quoting someone: "It's easier to forgive an enemy than a friend". Of course that was soon after Bischoffone of Vince's biggest former enemiesstarted working for him.

Could it be that Vince shared a rare closeness to one of his talents in Randy, and didn't see it as business as usual when he went to WCW? But felt betrayed?

Steele's explanation is exactly what I had thought, to the letter. Just go back and watch Savage vs Yokozuna on Raw and listen to McMahon's commentary. He was building Savage up for "living legend" status and he wanted him in his Hall of Fame right there behind Andre, but instead Savage chose to have no part of it. McMahon's view was obviously that Savage had his chance to be in the Hall of Fame long ago.

Lanny Poffo said for the past couple of years that if Randy was asked he would accept the Hall of Fame deal. Lanny would know, so obviously there was no invitation made to Randy.

Contract Killa, the reason the first dvd came out, the action figures and him in the recent video game is very simple. Vince did that for the fans. Vince had an opportunity to come on RAW or other programming and say how great Savage was and he didn't. In fact, has Vince made a comment yet? Vince still despises Savage and you can keep dreaming that your prediction will come true it will not.

I guess my thread entitled "Vince McMahon Pays Tribute to Randy Savage in Time Magazine" just wasn't eye catching enough.

Vince - "It'da0s important in sports and it's important in entertainment to stand out. Randy knew that. Right away, he wanted to leave his mark, and to do that he was aware he had to make himself different from everyone else. One way he did this was concentrating on his outfits, those brightly colored costumes with foot-long fringe that became his trademark. He brought to wrestling a unique look and style."

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With Randy, that meant being a commentator, company spokesman, goodwill ambassador, etc. Randy, as evidenced by his body of work in WCW, wanted to WRESTLE.

Not that he wasn't good at any of the above. For all of his nonsensical promos, he was a surprisingly effective color commentator. And his energy, tightly-wound persona, and iconic status within the wrestling industry made him the ideal person to go out and generate some good PR for the company at a time when it was at an all-time low (steroid trial).

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I was surprised at how good of a commentator Savage made but he still never should've been made a commentator when Vince could've used Piper or Lawler in that role. In 1994 Savage wasn't in the prime of his career but he was still a solid and reliable performer that could go and Vince should've used Savage as a wrestler in 93,94,95 and 96 when there was so much new ta5b4lent coming through that needed an established wrestler to work with and learn from.

Who were the WWF's veteran workers from 1993-1996? Bret Hart and The Undertaker pretty much and WWF used them constatly in this time in fueds with lesser experienced wrestlers. Randy Savage would've been an enormous asset to have during this time and proved to be for WCW as the Flair/Savage fued was making millions of dollars for WCW on the house show circuit alone while WWF were losing money at a phenominal rate at the same time.

I don't feel the least bit sorry for Vince. He could've used Savage as a wrestler to his advantage during such difficult times but Vince wanted Tatanka, Manotar, Duke Drosse, Spark Plugg Holly and Kama Mustafa's amazing talent to lead him into the future instead.

We may never know the real reson why Vince and Savage had such a feud. Though what I find most dis-respectful on Vinces part is that he apparently did not want even a tribute on Raw nor did he want CM Punk to wear the same looking attire Savage wore in the late 80's early 90's, this may have never been fully verified though I can certainly imagine Vince holding a grudge and doing this.

I may have never had grown up and had the honour of watching Savage in his prime though I have watched dozens of his matches and I feel that I can say that he was truly one of the best.

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Jesus, that's really super How'd a nitwit like you get so tasteful?

Keep this in mind about the Vince/Savage fued. Whatever Randy did, neither Vince or Randy talked about it. In fact, none of the Wrestlers have. It had to be really bad. There are many people out there that dislike Vince/Randy and even they are not talking about it.

Also when Randy left he took the Slim Jim sponsorship with him to WCW. That made Vince really angry because at the time the steroids trial just ended and WWF had a hard time getting enough sponsors for the shows to keep them going.

It's really Vince's fought for all the problems, he was stupid enough to believe that Randy did not want to wrestle when it was actually the opposite. Randy had to start announcing due to his knee injury and Vince made him stay there, which was a good idea while he was hurt, but when he actually came back to the Survivor Series he did quite well.

It's a shame Randy left but he made the best choice because he would have been wasted. I think if he would have stayed, we would have some classic matches with HBK vs. Randy, Randy vs. Owen Hart, and so on. The WCW did not really need him anyway until 1996, because in 1994 and 1995 he was just a lackey for Hogan.

Regardless, Vince should get off his high horse and tell the truth and get over it.

From watching the DVD on the Macho Man and reading Keith Elliot Greenberg's article "The Final Days of Randy 'Macho Man' Savage", it appeared that

1. The Macho Man was someone who held serious grudges. Unlike Hogan, Bret Hart, Ultimate Warrior or other wrestlers who had feuds with Vince McMahon, Savage was not someone to bury the hatchet just to make a quick buck. In his final years, he hated being recognized by fans so much that he stopped coloring his hair and stopped wearing hats to conceal his baldness. The publicity was just not important to him.

2. Vince mocked him and Hogan with the "Huckster and Nacho Man" skits and according to Lanny Poffo, that really upset Savage. They made fun of his age, baldness and divorce from Elizabeth, all of which he was very sensitive about.

3. In 1987, Vince hosted some sort of promotional event which brought together the legends of wrestling and did not invite Savage's father, Angela Poffo. Despite Savage's urging, Vince still neglected to invite his dad. Savage idolized his father and was embarrassed when many of his father's peers asked why he was not there.

4. Savage was contacted by the WWE Hall of Fame but was adamant that he would only accept induction if his family was inducted. Just like the Von Erichs, he felt that the Poffo's should be inducted as a family.

5. When asked about the rumors about Stephanie McMahon, the Genius basically says that he would never have the gall to ask Savage a7ecbout them to his face and people in the media should not be perpetuating such garbage.