Randy Savage vs. Hercules Ayala (3/2/85)

[El Boricua]

Randy Savage vs. Hercules Ayala (3/2/85)

[AJS]

We get a Savage promo before the match in which he refers to himself as the world’s greatest athlete and the world’s sexiest wrestler. I thought that was pretty amusing.

Match begins and savage tries to slam Ayala early on but can’t do it. he tries and fails again and takes a slam to the mat for his efforts. He bails from the ring and does a great job selling back pain. this is no surprise as Savage was always an amazing seller.

Once back in, he’s overpowered and slammed again, which leads to another trip outside the ring. He doesn’t reenter as quickly this time, and once he does it’s the same story; another slam to the mat. Alaya goes for the pin but Savage gets his foot on the rope.

Alaya continues damaging the back with punches and a back body drop. He also lays into Savage with some vicious kicks who goes to the outside yet again.

Back in the ring the Macho Man begs off from an advancing Alaya and catches him with a low blow followed by a nice looking elbow to the head. Off the top rope Savage is caught in a bear hug, so he rakes Alaya in the eye to free himself.

Once again the Savage tries to slam his opponent but it’s just not happening, so he kicks him instead and hits him with an elbow to the head. This time the elbow is off the top rope. Despite this, he still can’t get the upper hand and Alaya comes back with punches. Desperate, Savage pulls a chain from his trunks and lamps his opponent with it. Pin attempt but only two before Alaya gets his foot on the rope.

Savage goes to the top turnbuckle again but misses and elbow. He hits Alaya with the chain, but only gets two as Alaya manages to get his feet on the ropes again. During a tussle, Alaya manages to grab the chain. He smashes Savage in the face with it and then pins him to take the victory.

I was looking forward to this as i’m a massive Savage fan. It certainly had it’s moments. Savage sold well and I liked the way that Alaya focused on the back early on. The use of the chain made total sense, as a desperate Savage realised he could not beat this guy with wrestling. I was disappointed over all though. The one sided nature of the match meant that we never really got to see Savage strut his stuff and show off his repertoire. They also weren’t really in there long enough to do anything really special. Not bad but I was hoping for more.

[elliott]

Macho’s Promo is fucking awesome. “I’ve done so much in such a short period of time that I amaze myself.” I assume he’s talking about cocaine. “All the people have been writing letters saying lets have the world’s greatest athlete and world’s sexiest wrestler, yeah….sex…yeah.” Seriously. Macho Man was the best.

 

This is cool because it’s a commercial tape where they talk about Macho being a great wrestler here before he went to WWF and he was a great baseball player but wanted to wrestle like his dad and brother. There’s a real charm to the English commentary. Lot of stalling and schtick from Macho Man leading to Ayala strength spots. The crowd is pretty damn hot and Macho is amazing so this is really enjoyable stalling. Savage sells going into his trucks for presumably brass knucks several times but doesn’t get them but the crowd screeches every time he does it. Savage is like a more dangerous Fuerza Guerrara in this match and it is awesome. Ayala doesn’t really do much in this at all outside of some basic strength spots and stomps and punches. Savage works within some obvious limitations to build a really fun match with a lot of schtick and selling from Savage and its just perfect. I mean there’s no reason this couldn’t have happened in Memphis. This is a good example next time somebody asks for an example of a “great performance” in a “good match.”

[KB8]

Savage wrestling in Puerto Rico is news to me. I might've read something about it at some point, but I don't remember doing so and I know I haven't seen any footage of it. This was very Randy Savage, though, which means it was very fun. He plays allll the way to the back row here with his acting and general horse shit. Big exaggerated reactions, stalling, selling -- everything is designed to get a reaction; the reaction in this case being "pelt that fucker with garbage," and boy do they pelt him with lots of garbage. First half of this was basically Savage stalling and finding ways to keep getting gorilla press slammed by Ayala, who doesn't really do anything besides those gorilla press slams. After being slammed the third time he teases going into the trunks for a chain and this prompts people to throw more cups of piss and cigarette packets at him. When he eventually does manage to use the chain - jabbing Ayala with a chain-wrapped fist - Ayala kicks out and the pop for it is wild. Savage getting progressively more desperate after his chain has failed him is of course really fun, and it leads to him acting crazier which in turns leads to the crowd wanting to gut him (well, wanting to gut him even more). Really, this was Savage working Memphis-style stalling and shtick against a limited guy to great effect. If that sounds enjoyable to you then you'll probably enjoy this. I know I did.

[WingedEagle]

We start with an awesome Savage promo. The voice, the attitude, the cadence. Great stuff.

 

So this match was the biggest surprise to me on the opening disc. I knew the name Hercules Ayala but had never really seen him. Really big fan of how he carries himself, working as a legit powerhouse with the press slams and tossing Savage around like a good home court babyface. The pacing here was great as nothing was rushed yet there were never spots where they were standing around simply waiting to jump into the next spot. Everything flowed and built well. Meanwhile, Savage delivered a textbook heel performance with the selling, stooging and bumping. Just putting Ayala over as a force of nature. Blood, psychology, storytelling and a logical finish. This was a really good match that probably would've been my favorite on the disc had it gone a bit longer, but what we got was really god.

 

***1/2

[Migs]

I'm a huge Savage mark for sure, but I thought he was great here. A bit of a prelude to the way he'd work with a guy like Hogan, although with a bit less bumping. I liked the twist on the chain finish, too. ***

[dawho5]

I also thought the pacing was great. If they had worked it too fast it would have made no sense for Ayala to be dominating the match against the much quicker Savage. Ayala is certainly limited in what he does, but it seems like he plays a solid base for Savage's shenanigans to play off of. If he tries for more what does it add? This match is about Randy Savage the heel and it's pretty damn good because of that. There was one instance where they had some miscommunication, but it didn't stick out like a sore thumb.