Macho King and retirement (1990–1991)[edit]
The start the decade, "Macho King" and Hulk Hogan met for one last time in the WWF (intended to end their ongoing year-long feud), when Savage got a shot at Hogan's WWF World Heavyweight Championship on
The Main Event III.
[52] The pinfall was counted by new heavyweight boxing champion
Buster Douglas despite Savage kicking out at two, Douglas then punched Savage in the face after Savage confronted and then slapped Douglas.
Savage then began feuding with the "Common Man"
Dusty Rhodes, losing a
mixed tag match (along with Sherri) to Rhodes and Sapphire at
WrestleMania VI[53] but beating him in a singles match at
SummerSlam.
[54] In late 1990, Savage started a feud with then-WWF World Heavyweight Champion
The Ultimate Warrior. The feud escalated at
Royal Rumble, when Warrior refused to promise Savage the right to challenge him for the title, should Warrior defend it successfully against
Sgt. Slaughter (Slaughter had already granted Savage this opportunity, should he beat Warrior). Savage had sent Sensational Queen Sherri out before the match to try to persuade the Warrior to promise this in a face-to-face interview laced with sexual innuendos but was unsuccessful. Outraged, Savage promised revenge, which he got during the Slaughter-Warrior title match. During the match, Sherri distracted The Warrior who chased her back to the locker room. However, halfway down the aisle "The Macho King" Randy Savage attacked the champion, resulting in the Ultimate Warrior having to crawl to the ring. Later, Savage ran out to the ring and smashed the sceptre over Warrior's head, (knocking him unconscious for Slaughter to pin), and then immediately sprinted back to the locker room. Later in the program, Savage failed to appear in the Royal Rumble which led to speculation that he and Sherri had fled the building in order to avoid The Warrior.
[55] The events at the Royal Rumble led to a
career-ending match at
WrestleMania VII, which Savage lost.
[56] After the match, Savage was attacked by Sherri as he lay dejected in the ring.
[3] This was too much for Miss Elizabeth who happened to be in the audience.
[7] Elizabeth rushed to Savage's aid, fighting off Sherri and reuniting with her one-time love to huge crowd appreciation, with Savage becoming a fan favorite once again for the first time since 1989.
[3] Despite his retirement from active wrestling, Savage stayed in the WWF in a non-wrestling capacity while The Ultimate Warrior was ultimately fired by
Vince McMahon after
SummerSlam 1991 later that year.
[3] Savage actually wrestled a number of times following WrestleMania VII and the WWF's official story was that out of respect, Warrior had generously allowed him to see out the final months of his contract before he was forced to retire. His last match was on April 1 in the Kobe, Japan at a joint card between the WWF and Super World Sports, where he was defeated by
Genichiro Tenryu.
[57]
Color commentator, reinstatement and departure (1991–1994)[edit]
Savage returned to television in a non-wrestling role as the "Macho Man" after WrestleMania VII as a broadcaster. Although in storyline he was retired, Savage continued to wrestle on joint WWF/SWS cards in Japan. He also made an initial, untelevised return to the ring on July 30 in Portland, ME at a
WWF Wrestling Challenge taping when he substituted for Ultimate Warrior and pinned
The Undertaker. Following this Savage subbed for Warrior on house shows in early August against Undertaker.
[57] Savage also participated as a special referee in several house show matches between Hulk Hogan and Sgt. Slaughter.
Meanwhile, the storyline with Miss Elizabeth continued, culminating with Savage proposing to her in the ring leading to an on-air wedding at
SummerSlam dubbed
The Match Made in Heaven. It was at this time that Savage was targeted by
Jake "The Snake" Roberts, who was, by now, a villain. On an episode of
Prime Time Wrestling prior to SummerSlam, the announcers and several wrestlers threw a "bachelor party" for Savage, with Roberts' arrival deemed unwelcome by the rest of the contingent.
[58]
In the post-SummerSlam wedding reception, Roberts and his new ally,
The Undertaker, made their presence known by hiding a live snake in one of the newly married couple's wedding presents; Elizabeth was frightened when she opened the gift box, and the Undertaker blindsided Savage by knocking him out with the urn while Roberts pulled the snake from the box and menaced Elizabeth with it.
Sid Justice ran off both Roberts and The Undertaker. Savage, still unable to compete due to his WrestleMania VII loss to the Ultimate Warrior, immediately began a public campaign to have himself reinstated as an active wrestler to gain revenge on Roberts; however, WWF President
Jack Tunney refused. Meanwhile, Roberts cut a series of promos berating Savage. The feud began to boil over during a television taping for
WWF Superstars of Wrestling October 21 in Fort Wayne, Indiana, when Roberts cut an in-ring promo to goad Savage – who was providing TV commentary – into the ring. After he was lured into the ring, Roberts attacked Savage, eventually tying Savage into the ropes before getting a live king cobra to bite his arm, according to Hulk Hogan and Jake Roberts on the Pick Your Poison DVD that the snake was holding on with the fangs and that Jake had a hard time getting the snake off Randy.
Sid Justice was originally supposed to be the victim of the snake bite, but due to a biceps injury, Savage accepted to be snake bitten.
Savage then urged fans to lobby Tunney to reinstate him, under the rallying cry "Reinstatement! That's the plan! Reinstate the Macho Man!" In response, Tunney reinstated Savage and announced a match between him and Roberts for the
This Tuesday in Texas pay-per-view event. Savage won the match,
[59] and the two continued to brawl afterward. The feud continued throughout the winter, ending after a match on the February 8, 1992
Saturday Night's Main Event XXX, which Savage won;
[60] Roberts had planned a backstage ambush of Savage and Elizabeth after losing the match, but was stopped by The Undertaker.
Savage then began an on-screen feud with WWF World Heavyweight Champion
Ric Flair. According to the storyline, Flair claimed that he had been in a prior relationship with Savage's wife Miss Elizabeth, going as far as presenting pictures of Elizabeth and Flair together. This culminated in a title match at
WrestleMania VIII; Savage won the match and his second WWF World Heavyweight Championship.
[61][62][63]
During this time, Savage and Elizabeth
separated in real life, and Elizabeth made her final WWF appearance on April 19, 1992 at the
UK Rampage pay-per-view, where Savage defended the WWF World Heavyweight Championship against
Shawn Michaels.
[64] However, the Savage-Flair feud continued, keeping the Flair-Elizabeth television storyline intact until Elizabeth's final WWF appearance (the
UK Rampage match between Savage and Michaels) aired on
WWF Prime Time Wrestling in June. About this same time,
WWF Magazine published photos of Savage and Elizabeth, which were identical to those featuring Elizabeth and Flair; it was revealed that Flair had doctored the Savage-Elizabeth pictures. The former couple were divorced on September 18, 1992. A statement announcing the divorce appeared in
WWF Magazine at about the same time, a rare break of
kayfabe for the WWF at the time; the divorce was never referenced again nor did it figure into any of Savage's future feuds for the duration of his WWF run.
For the better part of 1992, Savage and his old nemesis The Ultimate Warrior (who returned to the WWF at
WrestleMania VIII), peacefully co-existed. However, when it was announced that Warrior was the new number-one contender for Savage's WWF World Heavyweight Championship, old tensions resurfaced and they had several heated exchanges prior to the match. Savage defended the title against The Ultimate Warrior at
SummerSlam. Savage lost the match by
countout, after having his knee injured by Flair and
Mr. Perfect, but retained the championship. After the match, Warrior helped a badly injured Savage to the back.
[65][66] On the September 14 episode of
Prime Time Wrestling (taped September 1), Savage lost the WWF World Heavyweight Title to Flair after an interference from
Razor Ramon.
[58]
He formed a tag team with The Ultimate Warrior known as the "Ultimate Maniacs" after both men were attacked by Flair and Mr. Perfect during their match at SummerSlam. After his title loss shortly after, an injured Savage backed Warrior to be the man to dethrone Flair. On the November 8, 1992
Saturday Night's Main Event XXXI, they took on
Money Inc. (Ted DiBiase and
Irwin R. Schyster) for the
WWF Tag Team Championship. Money. Inc. lost by count-out but retained their title.
[67] Savage and Warrior were scheduled to face Flair and Ramon in a
tag team match at
Survivor Series. Warrior was fired from the WWF weeks before the event, so Savage chose Mr. Perfect, executive consultant to Flair, as his partner to replace Warrior. Perfect initially laughed off the suggestion, but was angered by
Bobby Heenan and his insinuations that he could never again wrestle at his previous level, and accepted the match. Despite initial distrust (an interview prior to the match had Savage admit to Perfect that he neither liked nor trusted him), the duo defeated Flair and Ramon via a disqualification.
[68]
When
Monday Night Raw began in January 1993, Savage served primarily as a color commentator, wrestling only occasionally against characters such as
Doink,
The Repo Man,
Rick Martel, and
Crush. However, he was the runner up in the
Royal Rumble match at
Royal Rumble, where he was eliminated by
Yokozuna.
[69][70] Savage returned to pay-per-view at
Survivor Series as a substitute for Mr. Perfect and competed in the
1994 Royal Rumble match. His last WWF pay-per-view appearance as a competitor was a victory over Crush in a
Falls Count Anywhere match at
WrestleMania X.
[71] Savage also made periodic appearances in
Jim Cornette's
Smoky Mountain Wrestling promotion in May 1994. Meanwhile, Savage was also a color commentator for the 1994
King of the Ring and made his final WWF pay-per-view appearance at
SummerSlam at the new
United Center in Chicago, where he served as the master of ceremonies. Before the SummerSlam PPV, Savage and several WWF superstars, including
Shawn Michaels,
Diesel, Razor Ramon,
Bart Gunn and the
1-2-3 Kid took part in a charity
softball match against the "Chicago Media All-Stars". The WWF superstars won the game 9–7 with Savage showcasing his old baseball skills by hitting a home run.
[72] His last match in WWF was teaming with
Bret Hart defeating
Owen Hart and
Jim Neidhart in Rostock, Germany on September 13.
[73]
At the end of October 1994, Savage's WWF contract expired and he left to sign with the competing
World Championship Wrestling (WCW). He made his final televised WWF appearance on the October 31
Raw, making a save for
Lex Luger against
Bob Backlund. The following week, on the November 7 episode of
Raw, Vince McMahon announced that Savage had left the company, thanking him for his contributions and wishing him the best of luck in the future.
