1990 WWF Curiosity

[Smack2k]

Hoping someone knows the answer to this...

 

Following Summerslam 1990, Savage started a TV feud with Warrior wanting a title shot as well as both men taunting back and forth...

 

However, Savage doesnt wrestle hardly at all until October, when he finally starts the house show matches with Warrior..but they never wrestle at one of the BIG Televised venues...

 

1. Was Savage hurt from Summerslam to October and if so, what was wrong?

 

2. Why did the two of them have NO matches in the big televised venues (Boston / MSG / etc...) if they were building a feud between them?

 

3. Was the original plan for the '91 Rumble Savage vs. Warrior for the title before the Dessert Storm stuff with Slaughter jumped in, followed by the Warror / Savage feud that did start to have some major venue matches..

 

That whole scenario has bugged me for sometime...

[Loss]

I'm not sure of specifics, but I do know this:

 

(1) Randy Savage had every intention of really retiring. He and Liz were going to start a family.

(2) Savage performed with a broken thumb at Wrestlemania.

 

I'm not sure if those two things affected how this feud was booked, but I would suppose they did.

[peachchaos]

Good question and I guess we should be grateful that they did wait until Mania for a televised match, since it ended up an "undisputed classic". It would do the feud no service if there were a bunch of angle-building TV matches out there.

 

Then again, lightning did end up striking twice somehow. Hmm.

 

Interesting Savage was looking to retire at that point. I ended up seeing WM7 in 1992 when I discovered wrasslin', and I'll never forget how cool I thought I was not-knowing-the-result-but-thinking-I-knew Warrior lost because of his epic return at WM8.

 

Then Savage ended up losing and I just had no idea what to think about life anymore.

[Gregor]

(1) Randy Savage had every intention of really retiring. He and Liz were going to start a family.

What happened to make him come back?

[Loss]

This was around the time their marriage started falling apart I believe, but the WWF was cold and Randy Savage was still a very capable performer. Throw in Hogan reeling from the Arsenio Hall stuff and the steroid scandal and Ultimate Warrior departing and I can see Vince aiming to get this guy back in the thick of things.

[peachchaos]

I believe Hogan mentioned him and Linda might have been pushing too hard to keep them together...

[Smack2k]

Makes sense with that information there...thanks..

 

Although I agree about the Mania VII classic, having a few matches prior could have done good things as well for this feud as a whole..and I still am curious that if the original idea was the Rumble Main Event or not before the war as no way Slaughter sniffs that WWF Title feud without the Iraq conflict happening...

 

So if Savage was thinking of retiring, what the hell would they have done from Rumble to Mania? Savage - Warrior at Rumble and then Hogan - Warrior II at Mania? And if the Slaughter choice was made in Nov - Dec, still dont get why Savage and Warrior wouldnt have a high profile title match...

 

Hogan politics possibly in here as well?

[Al]

Savage's PPV record for the year preceeding Mania VII is quite curious.

 

-Summerslam: Two minute match against Dusty Rhodes

 

-Survivor Series: Does not wrestle

 

-Royal Rumble: Schedule to wrestle, doesn't appear in the Rumble.

 

Three consecutive PPVs where Savage wrestles less than three minutes total. There's actually a CV match featuring Warrior defending against Savage. Warrior scores a pin in four minutes. He clearly is winding down for whatever reason.

 

As far as the return, WWF was planning on a Warrior/Jake feud as seen by the vignettes before Summerslam '91. Warrior leaves, Savage is plugged into that spot.

[peachchaos]

Good stuff here. Hogan-Warrior II at Mania would have made a lot of sense, there's been some speculation in any case.

[BrickHithouse]

Savage did have a legit serious injury "sometime after Summerslam and before Survivor Series".

 

WONs of the time mention it. I gotta go look it up, don't remember what it was but it put him out of action for quite a long time.

[PeteF3]

I don't think the Liz/Savage marriage was totally on the rocks yet. Savage was essentially pressured to return when the WWF lost both Warrior (suspended/quit/fired) and Sid (tricep tear) in a matter of weeks--and that was with Hogan not working a full schedule due to Suburban Commando commitments. Savage resisted for awhile, though I think there was always a plan that he'd work an '80s Bruno or '10s Undertaker-style schedule at some point. This led to the re-hiring of the Genius, as a sort of goodwill gesture, and eventually Savage relented.

 

Of course, Savage and Vince would be on opposite sides of the fence a few years later. Savage was single again and anxious to wrestle full-time, and it was Vince who wanted him out of the ring.

[Bix]

Was Lanny fired? I know he was working independent shows but I figured he was just a guy who was allowed to do so when he wasn't booked.

 

Of course on a 1991 WWF contract not being booked does effectively mean you're fired, so...

[slabinski611]

I am so happy this thread was made because I was thinking about the whole Warrior/Savage/Slaughter/Hogan situation recently. A few questions of my own I will pinpoint that maybe someone can answer.

 

1. If Slaughter isn't brought in in the summer, what were the plans for Rumble/WM ?

 

2. Was Hogan/Warrior 2 ever officially planned for WMVII before Slaughter came in ? If so, even though Warrior wasn't drawing, what made them think a Hogan/Slaughter program would draw significantly more ?

 

3. If Savage/Liz marriage was still intact around the time Vince was looking for him to return, wouldn't unretiring be a reason for the marriage to break ?

[Smack2k]

I am so happy this thread was made because I was thinking about the whole Warrior/Savage/Slaughter/Hogan situation recently. A few questions of my own I will pinpoint that maybe someone can answer.

 

1. If Slaughter isn't brought in in the summer, what were the plans for Rumble/WM ?

 

2. Was Hogan/Warrior 2 ever officially planned for WMVII before Slaughter came in ? If so, even though Warrior wasn't drawing, what made them think a Hogan/Slaughter program would draw significantly more ?

 

3. If Savage/Liz marriage was still intact around the time Vince was looking for him to return, wouldn't unretiring be a reason for the marriage to break ?

I got nothing on the 3rd one, but for the other two, speculation here:

 

1. From looking at the results from the second half of 91, Warrior was wrestling Savage on almost every show he was on, with neither getting a decisive win (count outs / DQ) the whole time...you have to figure they were heading to Savage - Warrior for the title at the Rumble

 

2. For Warrior / Hogan II, the only reason I would say this was at least planned for a while was the fact that they were going to have Mania VII originally at the LA Colliseum and seat 100,000 for it...no way Slaughter / Hogan does that...Hogan / Warrior II? Maybe...From there, I think that advance ticket sales for Mania werent great, so they moved indoors (or it was "security" as they say, but I have never hear reports of tons and tons of people getting their money back due to the move!)...from there, I dont think it mattered which they did as it would fill that much smaller place up. So the rest happened, Warrior loses to Slaughter (thanks to Savage) and Hogan comes in to protect America against Slaughter....

[Matt D]

Savage being out of Survivor Series really hurts it.

[Happ Hazzard]

Why was Savage not in the WrestleFest arcade game that came out around this time?

[WingedEagle]

Wasn't Hogan/Warrior II the original plan for 7? I thought the story was Hogan planned on getting his win back the following year but plans changed when Warrior was cold and the war opened up that storyline.

[JerryvonKramer]

Why was Savage not in the WrestleFest arcade game that came out around this time?

It's surely because the game came out shortly after Wrestlemania 7 after Savage lost the retirement match.

 

You'll notice that it's Smash and Crush with no Ax in Demolition too.

 

The bigger question for me regarding that game's roster is Undertaker. He was being built up and yet isn't in the game. It's also interesting that Bret Hart didn't make the cut. And I guess that they went with Demolition over The Rockers.

 

As someone who pumped more 20ps into that machine than most I have a little theory ... I can only guess that most of the development came in 1990 and Smash and Crush were re-paints of guys who were replaced. They are the only guys who have really odd movesets in the game. Crush does a Rude Awakening-style neckbreaker, for example. And is a mess of a character. It's a guess, but I've got an idea that Rick Rude was going to be in the game before he left. Smash has no unique moves, and has a lot of the same animations as Ted DiBiase.

 

It's possible that Smash was originally planned as Savage and Crush was planned as Rude. Possible.

[Happ Hazzard]

Demolition were done as a tag team after WM7. Crush left and Smash was a JTTS before being repackaged as Repo Man. The roster for the game would have been set well before it was released. If they'd been able to set it after WM7 either the Nasty Boys or Hart Foundation would have been in it instead of Demolition. Or they may have just put Bret in as a single along with someone else (Davey?).

[JerryvonKramer]

Everything about Demolition being in the game -- and that version of Demolition -- smacks of a last-minute decision to me.

 

I also can't imagine why else Crush has that reverse neckbreaker animation. Did he ever do a reverse neckbreaker?

 

The roster has quite a mid-1990 feel, but Slaughter's inclusion in the game with unique animiations suggests late 90 to me at the earliest, assuming they knew what they were going to do with him. That would explain the prominance of Earthquake and Bossman too, who both had a big 1990.

[Dooley]

Wasn't Hogan/Warrior II the original plan for 7? I thought the story was Hogan planned on getting his win back the following year but plans changed when Warrior was cold and the war opened up that storyline.

Original plan was Hogan-Warrior 2 at WM7. They did advance sales of WM7 tickets directly after WM6 with that being the implication. Add to that Tunney's post WM announcement of no immediate rematch but leaving the door open in the future, and you could see where they were going.

 

Warrior-Quake was also planned for the fall, but obviously didn't happen. Whether it was Warrior's clunker of a feud with Rude or Quake also losing steam after losing to Hogan, they shifted gears. Slaughter was always brought in as a Hogan foe, but to hear Sarge tell it, initially he was under the impression that they were going to turn Hogan and Sarge was going to be the face.

[slabinski611]

I have a few more questions I will throw out regarding the WMVII main events and the whole moving the ppv to a different location.

 

1. Assuming they moved the event because of poor advance and assuming they were originally planning Hogan/Warrior 2, was there really any matchup they could have booked that would fill the L.A. Colliseum ?

 

2. Hogan/Andre filled the Pontiac Silverdome for WMIII and I don't know the exact number but the lowest I have seen was 78,000. Was this a sellout ? Hogan/Warrior drew 67,000. Is this accurate and was it a sellout ? Considering how much Canada loved Hogan that number doesn't surprise me. The point I am trying to get to is this: What made them think they can fill the Colliseum in the first place.

 

3. Would they have done better business if they put Earthquake in Slaughters role ? Maybe book a tag match at summerslam of Quake/Bravo vs Hogan/Bossman with Bravo taking the fall. Then have Earthquake go over Warrior at Rumble. Then have him drop it to Hogan at WM. I don't think it would make much difference, just throwing it out there.

[Smack2k]

Slaughter was always brought in as a Hogan foe, but to hear Sarge tell it, initially he was under the impression that they were going to turn Hogan and Sarge was going to be the face.

 

If that is true...WOW...but I cant believe it based on how Hogan was STILL reluctant to turn heel in '96 before the NWO thing got hot, so I cant see him doing that in 1990 - 1991....

 

As for Warrior - Quake, I dont even see any house matches between them so they must have decided to scratch that quickly...

 

One other very strange thing...the Tag Titles.....VERY prominent in WWF until Harts win them at Summerslam...they then feud ALL FALL and some of winter with...Honky and Valentine...REALLY? They eventually started a feud with Power and Glory, but it went no where once the Nasties arrived...

 

P&G should have had that spot directly after Summerslam...its almost like they said "Fuck it" to teh Tag belts for the rest of

90 and when teh Rockers thing failed, they really just dropped it.

[JerryvonKramer]

Why were Demolition relegated to JTTS status around that time? Surely they would have been better foils for the Harts than Rythmn and Blues at that point?

[Dooley]

Why were Demolition relegated to JTTS status around that time? Surely they would have been better foils for the Harts than Rythmn and Blues at that point?

I never understood that either. In the spring, they seemed to be hinting at the Harts turning heel as they desperately needed another heel team to even things out. LOD came in, so the Demos went heel instead. But instead of doing a LOD-Demos mega-feud over the titles, they got a house show program out of it and some six-mans but the supposed "dream feud" never happened. Meanwhile the Harts get the titles but have nothing to do with them.

 

1990's downturn is always looked at as Warrior failing on top. While that's definitely part of it, they really didn't do him any favors in his own booking or the booking choices in the rest of the card. A really peculiar year for the WWF.