[1992-12-27-WWF-Worcester, MA] Shawn Michaels vs Randy Savage

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

The absolute definition of a house show match. Lots of stalling and comedy, which I'll cop to enjoying. Much better than the Shawn/Perfect handheld on the '93 yearbook, which was pretty terrible in every way I can think of, but not at the level of their match earlier in the year post-Mania with Savage selling his knee injury from Wrestlemania. Truth is, Savage was wandering without a purpose by this point, and it's hard to pin down where they wanted to place him. I'm not sure if I could say Michaels had surpassed him by this point, but they had definitely switched places in that Shawn was a bigger part of future plans by the end of the year than Savage was. I've always wondered what specifically prompted that decision, especially when a heel turn and program with Bret would have been a much better bet going into Mania than anything else they could have put together. They also needed big names in the top mix desperately with Hogan out, Warrior out and Flair on his way out. So the biggest contrast between this and April is that the April match was a heel on the rise against the biggest star in the company, and this match is one of the top heels against a guy who fell pretty hard after dropping the title back to Flair. The match doesn't have the excitement or intrigue of the April match. They're just going through the motions. Interesting not so much for the match itself, but because it really demonstrates how differently Savage was positioned by this point.

[El-P]

Never seen it, but what you mention about Savage is interesting. In a matter of few weeks, Savage would go on as becoming a RAW color guy with the occasionnal feature match on TV and guet spot on PPV. Pretty stupid, as he was obviously the biggest star on the roster at this point, and could still have contributed a lot. Savage being "too old" is the only reason I ever heard. Savage's career in WCW proved Vince wrong.

[Tim Evans]

This was pretty boring. Shawn looked good early with his stalling but it died towards the middle. Savage looked like he checked out early.

[shoe]

Match was ok. Finish was the shits. It is odd though we have Flair and Savage headlined the last ppv, and now both are being pushed down and or out. The Savage heel turn does sounds interesting.

[Kevin Ridge]

Didn't really like this but Loss does bring up some points about Savage that he could have still contributed to WWF as a top level guy in 93. Crowd went pretty nuts for him at Survivor Series as a surprise entrance in tag match. I do like the though of heel Savage vs Bret in 93. This match itself wasn't very good though.

[PeteF3]

Savage challenging for the IC title?? At this point? Wow. That's really the only notable thing about this, as this is a total phone-it-in job on the part of both guys, with more of Shawn's shitty boring control segments. His superkick is still a good cut-off move, though. Shitty finish though you knew that was coming. Savage had fallen down in the card but he wasn't going to be putting over Michaels.

[WingedEagle]

No Sherri. HBK with pretty good heat by this point. Tons of stalling here, even if Savage tried to sell a bit. Shawn tries to walk, but Marty Jannetty forces him back to the ring area, where it’s a double countount. Unnecessarily long and nothing finish.

 

**1/2

[garretta]

I'm against the grain here, but I thought Savage looked pretty good. It wasn't that he did a whole lot, but what he did looked better than what Shawn did, which was nothing. Honestly, I think this might have been the basic house show bout that Savage worked with Honky back in the day, because that's who Shawn reminded me of more than anyone else. The only difference is that Wayne Ferris knew how to make stalling and begging a lot more interesting than Shawn does here. The only thing that looked decent here was Sweet Chin Music, and not only didn't that really mean much so early in Shawn's run, but how on earth can a superkick look bad? If nothing else, you stick your heel out and let your opponent run into it.

 

I think that was Bret who chased Shawn back toward the ring and counted the three after the bell, not Jannetty.

 

I didn't particularly like the double countout, but there wasn't much else to do except have Shawn get a pin on Savage, and I'm not sure Randy would have gone along with that at this point. Honestly, I wouldn't have bothered with the postmatch; I'd have just had Shawn take off and leave it at that, with Savage getting the countout win. He was never going to be a top contender for the IC belt (or any other WWF belt) ever again, so what would have been the difference?

 

I'm fairly sure you can thank Slim Jims for Savage not turning heel again in '93; I don't think they would have wanted a heel representing their product. I know Randy joined the NWO in '96, but by then WCW was doing shoot stuff and otherwise acknowledging that what was going on was worked while it was going on, plus I don't think Randy was their only spokesman by then; his commercials may have already left the air for good, in fact. Anyone who can confirm that or tell me that I'm wrong, feel free to do so.

[JKWebb]

I couldn't agree more that in regards to Loss and EL-P and their points on Savage.  IMO he's still the biggest star in the company at this point, and the top overall performer that they have.  He still had a lot to give.  They dropped the ball, and I guess I'm not sure why either.  I think Slim Jim would rather him be on top vs. Hart in main events rather than color commentary, but I could be wrong.  I agree, his WCW career did end up proving Vince wrong if it was really the age thing.  I really wish we could have gotten a big time feud with Bret and then eventually Shawn for the world title from Savage before he left.  Oh well.  I do agree that Savage looked the better of the two here, and the pop for the elbow drop was still huge.  I actually do think it was Jannetty that made the 3-count...

I should note that Prichard says Savage wanted less of an in-ring role in the company, however Easy E says that it is why Macho wanted to come to WCW and had pushed for a program with Shawn... so who knows...