I wasn't alive when Savage was in his prime which is what I'm guessing the late 80s to mid 90s. But I do love looking at his past promos, and his matches as well. Especially his match with Hogan at WM as well as his matches with Flair, Steamboat, and Ultimate Warrior. Also he has my favorite finishing move of all time, the elbow drop is perfection imo. Also looking at videos, I honestly think he was the perfect package, charisma, wrestling ability, look, and promos, just a great wrestler.
But my question is how popular he was. I'm talking in comparison to guys like Hogan, Warrior, and other guys.
And as of right now let's say if you were asked to rank an all time great list from let's say 1 being the greatest to 20 of WWE wrestlers. Where would Savage rank (or maybe he doesn't) on your list.
I wasn't around to answer the question about his popularity in the early 80s-90s.
But from what I've seen of him I can easily see him being in my top 5 list of all time WWE Superstars. Due to his mass-appeal, wrestling/promo ability, and impact on the business.
Insanely popular. Hogan was #1 and he was #2 . As the early 90s rolled around Vince stopped using him in the ring and used him at commentating. So that took away from his awesomeness in the ring but he was still great. Loved turning on wrestling and seeing the Macho Man every week. Top 5 wouldn't be difficult to argue AT ALL.
He also transcended the sport with his Slim Jim commercials which were on everything. During MNF and every prime-time show you'd see Macho Man's Slim Jim commercials. He was awesome. Not to mention Miss Elizabeth, he was so great.
pretty sure he was popular then Ultimate Warrior stole every damn thing from him which killed off the Macho man and forced vince to put him on commentary
#2 behind Hogan from 1987 to 1991. He barely wrestled in WWF from that point but whenever he did compete, he remained very popular, even throughout his WCW run.
Not really. Rock was held below Austin for - what - less than a year? And then drew even and eventually ahead. Macho was ALWAYS lower on the pecking order than Hogan, which was bullshit.
In 1988 and 1989 I'd say he was definitely one of the most famous wrestlers in the history of the business. In fact, I bet if you asked anyone randomly on the street to name any five pro wrestlers, Randy Savage is on that list. Every. Single. Time.
Headlined the biggest WWF ppv up until the AE. I would argue he's the #2 wrestler between 88-93 which may be WWF's most popular time period. Austin, Hogan and Rock all top him in popularity and I'd probably put Andre over him too but after that he's easily amongst WWF's most popular names. Runs circles around Bret Hart, Taker and Shawn Michaels. The Slim Jim commercials, cameos all over the place most notably Spiderman. He's a top 5 WWF legend even if he'll never be in the HOF.
Hugely popular in 1988 so much so Hogan could take months off to film no holds barred and WWE live business remained pretty much the same without him. As someone else said savage in 88 was basically rock in 2000 carrying wwf when Austin got hurt
Mania 5 did huge numbers on ppv a record that would stand until 1998. Hogan beating savage clean and he (savage) would never re-capture that level of stardom or drawing power again
One of the greatest of all time, in fact THE greatest all-rounder of all time IMO (sorry HBK marks) and one of the most popular wrestlers of all time.
Consistently over whether he was a face or a heel, main event or midcard.
A class act of the likes we are unlikely to see again.
There were no weak points in his game. He could do it all. Could have carried the co pant long term had Hogan had to be out for longer than just to film No Holds Barred. It's certainly an arguable point that Warrior may have temporarily taken the number 2 spot from him leading up to WM 6. So sad to see him wasted during those years as a commentator. Even years later he came back and was still able to put on great matches. He will always be underrated with the casuals because of having to play second fiddle to Hogan practically his whole career.
One of the best talkers, one of the best in ring workers, one of the biggest ever draws, main evented some of the biggest ever PPV's, involved in some of the biggest and best ever matches and world champion in the two biggest companies in wrestling history during their biggest ever periods so I'd say Randy Savage is top ten of all time most popular and top five best all round of all time.
Savage was the shit. I mean that in the best way possible. Iconic as anyone in WWE History not named Hogan, Rock or Austin. Should have been in the HOF at least 10 years before he actually made it.
Savage was the man, as far as I'm concerned. Saw him wrestle a 30 minute match against Shawn Michaels at a local house show - it stole the show. I've been to house shows since and nothing comes close to the atmosphere of that match. When Savage was in the house, you just couldn't take your eyes off of him. He commanded your attention. Watching him perform, in person, was like seeing The Beatles, or Elvis Presley. You just knew you were in the presence of greatness. It's a damn shame that he got shit-canned by the WWF and wasn't used to his full potential between 1993-1994. Instead of sticking him on commentary, Savage should've been mixing it up with the up and coming younger guys of the New Generation. Imagine he'd been given proper matches instead of commentary spots; feuds with Shawn Michaels, Razor Ramon and Diesel would've been brilliant.
Despite the success of stars like Hogan, Austin, or The Rock I would have to say that Randy Savage was perhaps the greatest character of all time. When I think of what a character should be, or how that character to stand out I immediately think of Randy Savage. Savage was able to change with the time. Just look at the man over the years, it's never the same person on the outside. His voice is something that can't ever be duplicated, seriously. Any attempt at that voice and you're nothing short of being a rip off. There isn't a single character, or act that will ever be done so perfectly, not even The Undertaker who is a close second.
Savage was always popular. He finally reached Hogan level in about 90/91. At that time Hogan was sharing the spotlight with Savage and Warrior. 3 major heroes during that time.
Guess you could say Savage was the Wrasslin fans guy.
I have said it before that I was never really a major fan of Randy Savage. I did not dislike him but even in his prime I was apathetic to his wrestling character. However, as the years went by I did start to appreciate him though. His wrestling character did start to grow on me somewhat.
With that stated, objectively he was easily the #2 guy in the biggest boom period in wrestling history. That puts him easily top five to ten all time in a WWE specific list for greatest wrestler. He was astronomically popular and one of the few wrestlers who transcended into the overall mainstream non wrestling watching culture to become somewhat of a household name.
He was the rare complete package wrestler that had the "it factor" and excelled at every criteria of what makes a great wrestler.
Where would Savage rank (or maybe he doesn't) on your list.
I wasn't around to answer the question about his popularity in the early 80s-90s.
But from what I've seen of him I can easily see him being in my top 5 list of all time WWE Superstars. Due to his mass-appeal, wrestling/promo ability, and impact on the business.
I would tend to agree that Savage was a bigger cultural icon than Austin was from an overall mainstream non wrestling perspective. My top 5 list for relatively modern WWE specific wrestling as far as transcending into the non wrestling mainstream culture is:
1. Hogan
2. Rock
3. Savage
4. Andre
5. Austin(for a brief period at the height of his popularity)
He was huge for a while. I can remember seeing him on morning talk shows, late night talk shows, Entertainment Tonight, especially with the wedding to Elizabeth. Along with that his Slim Jim commercials were everywhere as well. There was a time he was probably the most recognizable wrestler around.
Just watched The Randy Savage Documentary on the WWE Network, wow such a hard worker, I've always liked Savage, but now I really have a new found love and admiration for him.
Going to look around the internet and find some classic matches of his after RAW.
At his peak, Savage may well have been one of the most popular and well known people in the entire country; the ovations he got when he came out, for example, for Survivor Series '87 and Main Event I seemed primed to literally bring the building down. And even as a villain, he still had a reasonable amount of support; listen to the audio of the WrestleMania V main event and you'll hear him getting a fair amount of cheers. As one of the handful--Hulk, Rock, and perhaps Taker--to transcend the sport with great crossover appeal.
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