Hulk Hogan vs. Macho Man Randy Savage (Oct 1987 – Apr 1989)

Background

The Mega Powers began with a rescue. On the October 3, 1987 episode of Saturday Night's Main Event (taped September 23), Honky Tonk Man and the Hart Foundation attacked Randy Savage after a match. Elizabeth ran backstage and brought Hulk Hogan to make the save.[1]

Afterward, Savage extended his hand. Hogan accepted. In a backstage promo with Gene Okerlund, Savage coined the name: "the Mega Powers."[1] Their first house show tag match followed on November 10, 1987 in Vancouver.[1]

The alliance moved to center stage after The Main Event on February 5, 1988, the NBC special that drew 33 million viewers, still the largest audience in the history of American professional wrestling television.[2] Andre the Giant pinned Hogan with a fast count from referee Dave Hebner (actually his twin brother Earl, paid off by Ted DiBiase), ending Hogan's four-year title reign.[2] Andre immediately surrendered the belt to DiBiase, and WWF President Jack Tunney declared the title vacant, setting up a fourteen-man tournament for WrestleMania IV.[2]

Hogan agreed to drop the title because of his movie career. Bruce Prichard has said that Hogan needed time off during the summer of 1988 to film No Holds Barred, which began principal photography in May 1988 in Atlanta, and that Vince McMahon needed his top star "free and clear" of champion obligations while he was away shooting.[3][4]

The WrestleMania IV tournament (March 27, 1988, Trump Plaza, Atlantic City) was engineered to crown Savage.[6] Hogan was eliminated in the quarterfinals via disqualification against Andre, clearing the path. Savage fought through the bracket to the final against DiBiase.

In the deciding match, DiBiase locked Savage in the Million Dollar Dream; while the referee was distracted by Andre's interference at ringside, Hogan hit DiBiase with a steel chair, freeing Savage to hit the diving elbow drop for the pin and the title.[6] The show closed with Savage hoisting the belt while Hogan and Elizabeth celebrated alongside him: the Mega Powers fully formed.

Prichard has said Vince McMahon saw Savage as "that next face of the company" and the "package of Randy and Elizabeth" as marketable enough to carry ticket sales and merchandise during Hogan's hiatus.[7] Some accounts hold that Savage was originally slated to reclaim the Intercontinental Championship instead, and that Honky Tonk Man's refusal to drop that belt redirected Savage into the world title program.[8]

Build-up

The WWF spent nearly a full year of television building cracks in the Mega Powers before breaking them open, long-term storytelling of a kind the company rarely attempted.[9]

SummerSlam 1988 (August 29, Madison Square Garden) was the first major pay-per-view test for the Mega Powers as a unit.[10] They faced the Mega Bucks (DiBiase and Andre the Giant) in the main event, with Jesse "The Body" Ventura serving as the special guest referee.

Elizabeth, at Savage's direction, climbed up on the apron and removed her skirt to reveal a one-piece swimsuit, distracting both the heels and Ventura.[10] Savage hit the top-rope elbow on DiBiase, Hogan followed with the leg drop, and Ventura reluctantly counted; Savage forced Ventura's arm down for the third count.[10] The Mega Powers won, and Hogan's celebration with Elizabeth afterward was enthusiastic enough to plant the first seed of the split.

Through the fall of 1988, weekly television built the tension. Jesse Ventura, on commentary, was the audience's guide, consistently noting that he smelled a "rat" in the Mega Powers and pointing out moments of friction that the babyface announcers waved away.

At Survivor Series 1988 (November 24, Richfield Coliseum, Ohio), Team Mega Powers defeated Team Twin Towers, with Savage pinning Red Rooster and DiBiase and Hogan pinning Haku for the final fall.[11] The key moment came after the bell: Hogan, as he always did, played to the crowd and acted overly friendly toward Elizabeth. Savage's annoyance was visible, and Ventura seized on it in a post-match interview.[11]

Saturday Night's Main Event XIX (taped December 7, aired January 7, 1989, USF Sun Dome, Tampa) escalated things.[12] Hogan wrestled Akeem and won by disqualification when Big Boss Man interfered. Elizabeth ran backstage screaming for Savage to help, but Savage stayed in the locker room, telling Gene Okerlund, "Hogan will be okay" and "Hogan had this covered."[12]

After the DQ, Boss Man and Akeem double-teamed Hogan, and Boss Man handcuffed Elizabeth when she tried to intervene. Only then did Savage sprint to the ring, clearing the heels with a steel chair.[12] Savage wouldn't lift a finger for Hogan, but he came running the instant Elizabeth was in danger. Afterward, Savage questioned Elizabeth as she tended to Hogan's injuries.

The Royal Rumble (January 15, 1989, The Summit, Houston) came next.[13] During the thirty-man Rumble match, Hogan accidentally eliminated Savage while trying to toss Bad News Brown over the top rope.[13] Savage hit the floor and erupted, furious, screaming at Hogan, nearly starting a physical confrontation. Elizabeth positioned herself between them, hands on Savage's chest, and they appeared to reconcile.[13] But the damage was done.

The Main Event II (February 3, 1989, Bradley Center, Milwaukee, live on NBC, drawing an 11.6 Nielsen rating and approximately 19.9 million viewers) was the breaking point.[14] The Mega Powers faced the Twin Towers. During the match, Akeem threw Savage out of the ring and onto Elizabeth, knocking her unconscious.[1][14] Hogan immediately abandoned the match, picked her up, and carried her to the trainer's room in the back.

Savage was left alone in the ring to fight both Twin Towers for several minutes.[14] When Hogan finally returned and called for a tag, Savage slapped him across the face and stormed off.

In the trainer's room, Gene Okerlund caught Savage mid-tirade. Savage yelled that as World Champion he was tired of taking a backseat to both Hogan and Elizabeth in the "Mega Powers pecking order."[14] When Hogan arrived in the doorway, Savage accused him of trying to steal Elizabeth and manipulate the belt away from him, then attacked Hogan, hitting him in the face with the WWF Championship belt and leaving him bleeding on the floor.[1][14]

From February through April, the WWF hammered the build. Savage cut heel promos about Hogan's betrayal, about how he'd been the real champion all along and Hogan had been using him. Hogan played the wounded friend. The "Mega Powers Explode" tagline became the marketing hook for WrestleMania V.

The Matches

WrestleMania V took place April 2, 1989, at the Atlantic City Convention Center, billed as Trump Plaza, and was branded "The Mega Powers Explode."[15] The show drew 18,946 fans and an estimated 767,000 pay-per-view buys on the strength of Hogan vs. Savage for the WWF Championship.[15][16]

Elizabeth announced beforehand that she would not choose sides. She was escorted to a neutral corner at ringside, belonging to neither man.

The match ran 17:54.[15] Savage controlled large portions, targeting Hogan's throat and eyes. He drove Hogan to the outside, hit a flying double axe-handle from the top rope to the floor, and rammed him into the guardrail. Hogan sold more than he typically did.

Partway through, Elizabeth got caught between the two men: Hogan tried to send Savage into the ring post, and Elizabeth stepped in to prevent it. Referee Dave Hebner ejected her from ringside.[15] She was gone for the climax.

Savage shoved Hebner into Hogan, knocking the official down. With no ref, Savage climbed to the top rope and hit his flying elbow drop, the move that had put away virtually everyone he'd ever faced. He covered Hogan. No referee to count. Hebner crawled back into position, and Hogan kicked out at two.[15] The Hulk Up followed: the finger point, the three punches, the Irish whip, the big boot, the leg drop. One, two, three. New champion.

Elizabeth returned to the ring after the match. She looked at Savage, who was being helped to the back. Then she walked to Hogan and embraced him.[15] In kayfabe, it was a triumphant reunion of good guys. In the context of the real relationships involved, with Savage's actual wife choosing to embrace his actual professional rival on national television, it was considerably more complicated.

Aftermath

The loss turned Savage full heel. He aligned almost immediately with Sensational Sherri Martel as his new manager; Sherri interrupted an Elizabeth interview after WrestleMania V, leading to a confrontation where Savage hit Hogan with a steel chair.[17] He adopted the "Macho King" persona after defeating Jim Duggan for the King of the Ring title in September 1989.[17] Sherri was loud, scheming, and physically involved in matches, taking bumps Elizabeth never would have.

Savage remained in the upper card but stepped away from the WWF Championship picture. He feuded with Jim Duggan through 1989, worked a mixed-tag program with Dusty Rhodes at WrestleMania VI, and eventually built toward the retirement match against the Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania VII in March 1991, which ended with Elizabeth reuniting with Savage at ringside.[17]

Hogan's second reign as champion lasted 364 days.[18] He feuded with Zeus in a No Holds Barred movie tie-in, tagging with Brutus Beefcake against Zeus and Savage at SummerSlam 1989, before losing the title to the Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania VI on April 1, 1990.[18]

The rivalry resurfaced at WrestleMania VIII (April 5, 1992, Hoosier Dome, Indianapolis), where Savage beat Ric Flair for the WWF Championship in one main event and Hogan wrestled Sid Justice in the other.[19] Elizabeth appeared during the Savage-Flair match in an emotional reunion moment, though in real life their marriage was collapsing; she left the company by month's end.[19]

In WCW, Hogan and Savage were allies again briefly in early 1996 before Hogan's heel turn at Bash at the Beach (July 7, 1996), where he attacked Savage and formed the nWo.[20] Their first major singles match in six years came at Halloween Havoc 1996.[20] By 1997, Savage had formed the nWo Wolfpac with Kevin Nash, splitting from Hogan's faction, and the rivalry kept going in different forms until Savage left WCW.[20]

Behind the Scenes

The Mega Powers storyline sat on top of a real marriage. Randy Savage, born Randy Mario Poffo on November 15, 1952, married Elizabeth Ann Hulette on December 30, 1984, before either of them arrived in the WWF.[21] By all accounts from people who worked with them, and there are many, Savage was profoundly possessive and jealous in his personal life. This wasn't a character trait he turned on for television.

George "The Animal" Steele called Savage "the most jealous man I had ever met," noting that "there were times when he would lock her in the dressing room."[22] Bushwhacker Luke has recounted being confronted by Savage for allegedly looking at Elizabeth: "Nobody looks at my Liz."[23] The Ultimate Warrior observed that Savage "did not allow a line leading to over-friendly contact" with other talent.[22]

These aren't isolated stories; they're corroborated across dozens of shoot interviews from the era. Savage kept Elizabeth isolated backstage at events, monitored who she spoke to, and became agitated if male performers so much as made eye contact with her.

The on-screen jealousy angle, then, wasn't created from nothing. It was a heightened version of a real dynamic that everyone in the company could see. Elizabeth was performing a version of her actual life on national television: her real husband's real jealousy, directed at his real professional rival, playing out in segments she had to act through week after week.

The family background matters too. Savage's father Angelo Poffo was a wrestler and promoter who founded International Championship Wrestling in 1978, an "outlaw" promotion operating outside the NWA territory system because he felt his sons weren't getting the pushes they deserved.[24] Randy and his brother Lanny dominated the ICW for six years. Savage came into the WWF expecting to be screwed, and the company's structural commitment to Hogan as the top guy confirmed that suspicion at every turn.

Hogan and Savage were never close friends outside of work, though they were closer than later accounts sometimes suggest. The Hogans and the Savages socialized together, and Linda Hogan and Elizabeth became friends, which would eventually become a source of enormous pain.[22] But their personalities were fundamentally different. Hogan was gregarious, politically savvy, comfortable working the system; Savage was intense, private, suspicious of everyone's motives.

The Mega Powers angle forced the two into constant proximity, and the friction was real. Despite Savage holding the WWF Championship, the company still treated Hogan as the top star, playing Hogan's entrance music for Mega Powers matches.[22] This fed Savage's conviction that Hogan was positioning himself to take the belt back. The plan for Savage's reign to be transitional, from Hogan to Hogan with Savage as the vessel, appears to have been established early, and Savage knew it.[7]

There's a persistent account, supported by Brutus Beefcake and Jimmy Hart, that Savage punched Hogan in the face backstage over Elizabeth-related issues during or after the angle.[22] Hogan has always attributed his resulting injury to a "jet ski accident." The story is unresolved: two accounts, irreconcilable, and nobody else was in the room.

Savage and Elizabeth's marriage survived the angle but never recovered from it. Their divorce in 1992 centered, by Savage's own account, on Elizabeth's growing friendship with Linda Hogan. In a 1993 radio interview with Jim Ross that surfaced years later, Savage blasted Hogan directly: "She was either out with his wife, Linda, or hiding out right over there at their house." He called Hogan "selfish to the umpteenth degree."[25] Hogan denied involvement.

Elizabeth's later years were difficult. She left the WWF in 1992. On May 1, 2003, Lex Luger called 911 from their townhouse in Marietta, Georgia, reporting that Elizabeth wasn't breathing. She was pronounced dead at WellStar Kennestone Hospital at age forty-two, of acute toxicity from a combination of painkillers and vodka, ruled accidental.[26] Just twelve days earlier, police had responded to a domestic dispute at the same address.[26]

Savage and Hogan did not speak for roughly a decade after their professional relationship deteriorated. According to Lanny Poffo, they reconciled about a month before Savage's death, after running into each other at a cardiologist's office in Tampa.[27]

Legacy

The Mega Powers storyline set the template for how the WWF would build main-event programs for years afterward: the slow burn over nearly a year of television, the love triangle, Saturday Night's Main Event and the Royal Rumble as escalation points, and an entire WrestleMania built around a single feud.[9] Before WrestleMania V, the show was built as a variety card with multiple attractions. Afterward, the company understood that a single, deeply built story could carry the event.[9]

WrestleMania V drew 18,946 fans and an estimated 767,000 pay-per-view buys, a 58% increase over WrestleMania IV.[15][7]

The angle is widely cited as one of the great long-term storylines in wrestling history, and Pro Wrestling Illustrated ranked the Mega Powers at number 57 of the 100 best tag teams of the "PWI Years" in 2003.[1][9][28] The jealousy-driven break-up, built week by week with small escalations the audience could track, influenced the betrayal angles that followed.[9]

Randy Savage died on May 20, 2011. He suffered a heart attack while driving his Jeep Wrangler in Seminole, Florida, and crashed into a tree. His wife, Barbara Lynn Payne, whom he'd married on May 10, 2010, was in the passenger seat.[29] He was fifty-eight. The autopsy found an enlarged heart and coronary arteries more than ninety percent narrowed.[30]

Hogan tweeted: "I'm completely devastated, after over 10 years of not talking with Randy, we've finally started to talk and communicate."[31] In 2015, Hogan inducted Savage into the WWE Hall of Fame.[17]

See Also

Sources & Further Listening

1. Mega Powers — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mega_Powers
2. André the Giant–Hulk Hogan rivalry — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_the_Giant%E2%80%93Hulk_Hogan_rivalry
3. "Reliving Andre the Giant's Controversial WWE Championship Win" — Bleacher Report. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2613881-reliving-andre-the-giants-controversial-wwe-championship-win-over-hulk-hogan
4. No Holds Barred (1989 film) — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Holds_Barred_(1989_film)
5. Brooke Hogan — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooke_Hogan
6. WrestleMania IV — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WrestleMania_IV
7. "The Summer of Savage: Inside the Macho Man's Explosive Run" — CBS Sports. https://www.cbssports.com/wwe/news/the-summer-of-savage-inside-the-macho-mans-explosive-run-to-the-top-of-wwe-30-years-later/
8. "30 Years Later: Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage — The Greatest Story in History" — FanSided. https://fansided.com/2019/04/02/30-years-later-hulk-hogan-vs-randy-savage-greatest-story-in-history-wrestlemania-5/
9. "Mega Powers Explode: Long-Term Storytelling Done Right" — WrestleZone. https://www.wrestlezone.com/features/legends/1072851-mega-powers-explode-long-term-storytelling-done-right
10. SummerSlam (1988) — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SummerSlam_(1988)
11. Survivor Series (1988) — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor_Series_(1988)
12. SNME XIX review — Blog of Doom. https://www.blogofdoom.com/2016/09/16/wwf-saturday-nights-main-event-january-7th-1989/
13. Royal Rumble (1989) — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Rumble_(1989)
14. WWF The Main Event — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWF_The_Main_Event
15. WrestleMania V — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WrestleMania_V
16. "Every WWE Pay-Per-View Buyrate" — WrestleTalk. https://wrestletalk.com/stats/every-wwe-pay-per-view-buyrate/
17. Randy Savage — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Savage
18. Hulk Hogan — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulk_Hogan
19. WrestleMania VIII — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WrestleMania_VIII
20. Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage major matches ranked — The Sportster. https://www.thesportster.com/wrestling/hulk-hogan-vs-randy-savage-major-matches-ranked/
21. Miss Elizabeth — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Elizabeth
22. "Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage: The Mega Powers Explained" — Pro Wrestling Stories. https://prowrestlingstories.com/pro-wrestling-stories/hulk-hogan-randy-savage-mega-powers-explained/
23. "Details on Macho Man Randy Savage confronting WWE Hall of Famer for looking at Miss Elizabeth" — Sportskeeda. https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe/news-nobody-looks-liz-details-macho-man-randy-savage-confronting-wwe-hall-famer-looking-miss-elizabeth-exclusive
24. Angelo Poffo — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelo_Poffo
25. "Long-lost 1993 radio interview where Randy Savage blasted Hulk Hogan over Miss Elizabeth divorce" — Wrestling News. https://wrestlingnews.co/wwe-news/long-lost-1993-radio-wwf-interview-where-randy-savage-blasted-hulk-hogan-over-miss-elizabeth-divorce-finally-surfaces/
26. "Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth: Their Tragic True Story" — Pro Wrestling Stories. https://prowrestlingstories.com/pro-wrestling-stories/randy-savage-miss-elizabeth/
27. "Hulk Hogan reconciliation with Randy Savage" — Sportskeeda. https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe/news-hulk-hogan-reconciliation-randy-savage
28. "Ranking the Most Memorable Moments of Legendary Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage Feud" — Bleacher Report. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2890246-ranking-the-most-memorable-moments-of-legendary-hulk-hogan-vs-randy-savage-feud
29. "Macho Man Randy Savage dead" — TMZ. https://www.tmz.com/2011/05/20/randy-savage-car-accident-macho-man-dead-dies-died-killed-wwe-wrestler-florida/
30. "'Macho Man' Randy Savage autopsy: enlarged heart" — CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2011/US/06/30/florida.macho.man.autopsy/index.html
31. "Hulk Hogan 'devastated' by 'Macho Man' Randy Savage's death" — CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hulk-hogan-devastated-by-macho-man-randy-savages-death/

Further Listening

• Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard — Mega Powers episodes, WrestleMania V episode
• 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff — WrestleMania V retrospective, Hogan-Savage dynamic in WCW
• The Lapsed Fan — WrestleMania IV and V deep dives (multi-part)
• Grilling JR with Jim Ross — discussions of the Savage-Hogan dynamic and Elizabeth's role
• Dark Side of the Ring (Season 1, Episode 3) — "The Match Made in Heaven" on Savage and Elizabeth