[1986-11-29-WWF-Saturday Night's Main Event] Randy Savage vs Jake Roberts

[Superstar Sleeze]

WWF Intercontinental Champion Randy "Macho Man" Savage vs Jake "The Snake" Roberts - SNME 11/86

 

They were clearly pretty confident about turning Jake The Snake babyface at this point pitting him against the Macho Man in this nominally heel vs heel bout. Yes, they both pull hair at the beginning to establish they are heels, but make no mistake about it Jake is clearly the babyface in this match. Vince gets a good line in on Jesse, who is wearing toupee and if he was in this match someone who have gone home with a prize. Given Savage's propensity for laying out his matches meticulously beforehand it would have been hilarious if the crowd ended cheering for the Macho Man. The DDT was very over at the beginning. Jake scares Liz at the beginning with the Snake. Savage, like any good, macho man, goes to protect the honor of his main squeeze, but ends up being even more frightened and hides behind Elizabeth in absolutely awesome and hilarious spot. The most over thing about Jake in terms of his in-ring stuff is the DDT and he knows where his bread is buttered. The match worked around DDT teases and Savage is so good at playing up how deadly this move is with his mad, frantic scrambles for the ropes. Savage is way better than I remember in terms of working on top and working that full court press style of a barrage of knees and elbows from all angles. He does not have a lot of moves, but they are all nasty and he knows how to use them. Savage plays around with the Snake, but gets caught with a big knee lift coming back into the ring. Short-arm clothesline by Jake and you expect the DDT, but get a front suplex. That to me is weird psychology. The DDT tease and Macho Man frenetically escapes to hide behind Liz. Jake says two can play at that game and looks to brings out Damien only have Macho Man hit a high knee to the back to send him into the post. I love that spot. Double axehandles abound, but on the third one Jake hits him square in the face and there some really great Savage selling. The match gets really heated and they both toss the ref around triggering a double disqualification. Dave Hebner took a wicked bump on the second one. Savage is a maniac and brings in a chair, but Jake rubs the snake all over him to send him scurrying.

 

This is a really entertaining TV match definitely worth mostly for the novelty factor. Jake really just brought the DDT to the table, which was was really over and got the crowd involved. I thought this was an excellent Savage performance and along with the rest of his work from 86 cemented him as the WWF Wrestler of 1986 and a dark horse candidate for best worker in the world in 86. ***3/4