Anyone that knows me knows I’m a huge Randy Savage fan. He was one of the reasons I ever got interested in wrestling in the first place, and I considered his death such a loss to my life that I had a tattoo done in dedication to him not long after hearing the announcement.
So, yeah…pretty big fan.
Anyway, I was pretty stoked Savage was getting a real DVD treatment, as his last one was pretty lackluster. Don’t get me wrong: it had some great matches on it, but it was just a collection of matches and no more. It also didn’t help that, although he had a few good comments, the team of Matt Striker and Maria Kanellis as hosts absolutely sucked. Overall, it just felt slapped together, and WWE picked two people at random for the “hosting” duties.
[adinserter block=”1″]This time, it’s completely different. Although there’s still a collection of matches (it wouldn’t be a WWE DVD if there weren’t), this one includes an outstanding 90-minute documentary on the first disc. Save for his embarrassing run in TNA, the DVD covers Savage’s life, from his dad Angelo Poffo setting a Guiness World Record for most sit-ups (6,033 in four hours, in case you were wondering), all the way up until WCW closed and his death about a decade later.
While most of the stories told by Savage’s friends and family (thankfully, the contemporary stories were kept to a minimum, with only Dolph Ziggler, Sheamus and CM Punk weighing in. Considering all three were superfans of Savage, though, their inclusion here is perfectly fine) are pretty common knowledge, thankfully, there’s one man included on here that helps put a lot of long-standing rumors about Savage to rest, that being his brother, Lanny Poffo. Lanny weighs in on every single story told throughout the DVD, and instead of sounding like someone being bitter about rumors and whatnot, he instead addresses each item in a calm, intelligent manner. Even the things he admits are true were still rumors as far as everyone else was concerned.
Two of the biggest points made in the documentary were Savage’s penchants for being paranoid, obsessive about his job, and Miss Elizabeth. Even his mother admits to all of these things, and it’s interesting to hear her and those directly involved give their side of the story. One thing Savage supposedly did a lot was be extremely meticulous about putting together matches. Ricky Steamboat and several others confirm this, with Steamboat saying Savage had a list of 100 or so items for their historic match at Wrestlemania III, all of which he wanted Steamboat to follow to a T in order for the match, in his mind to be perfect. Several other competitors, including DDP, Bret Hart and Ted DiBiase, confirm this, sharing similar experiences they had with the “Macho Man” in their respective matches. Although Lanny denies that Savage kept an eye on Elizabeth 24/7 and was overprotective of her at all times, and I’d like to believe him, the fact that every other personality who worked with Savage in the ring that is featured on this DVD says the exact opposite is hard to ignore.
We also get a long stretch in regards to Savage’s charity work. Apparently, he was extremely charitable in his life, and constantly involved specifically with charities for sick children. He did George Steinbrenner’s annual Christmas event for kids eleven years in a row, and made huge contributions to various charities, including buying a gym and donating it to the kids before showing them how to work out and take care of themselves. It shows a side of Savage that I had never seen before, and it’s nice to see how he had such a hugely positive effect on so many people in this regard.
One thing that really stuck out is how insulted Savage was, according to Lanny, by the ill-fated “Huckster/Nacho Man” skits in the WWF in 1996. It’s not hard to understand why he was bothered by them (they were in pretty poor taste overall), but I had never heard/read anything in the past where Savage once commented on his feelings towards them and Vince McMahon’s involvement with them. And speaking of Vince, with the exception of old footage used in various segments, he is 100% absent from this feature. Now, if you’ve watched any of these documentaries in the past, you know Vince is pretty much guaranteed to appear and weigh in at least once per set, but here he does not. Before he died, I had read Vince and Savage had made amends and buried the hatchet (hence the figure deal with Mattel and agreeing to do the WWE All-Stars game), but Vince not showing up makes me wonder if he still has an axe to grind all these years later. I really hope that’s not the case, especially with Vince recently mentioning on Steve Austin’s podcast that Savage will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in the near future.
Anyway, the DVD winds down at the end, when we get to the story of Savage’s fatal car accident. This is by far the hardest part on the entire set to watch. Everyone who talks about Savage in retrospect breaks down to some degree or another, and I found myself getting pretty choked up hearing everyone’s stories about how much he meant to them. His widow Lynne is absent from the set, but given that she was with him in the car when he died, it’s completely understandable. I think what makes his death even worse is a story Hulk Hogan recalls during this segment. During Savage’s final years, he and Hogan apparently shared the same doctor and, about a month after Savage died, Hogan went to the doctor for a check-up, and was informed that, had Savage come in for an EKG test, he could have been saved. In fact, he was actually supposed to have the test done one day, but was there with his ill mother and was more concerned about her and said he’d come back to have it done on another day. According to this doctor, Savage’s mother had heart issues, and he wanted to check on Savage to see if it was a hereditary thing and, had that happened, they could have found that it was heart problems that would eventually lead to Savage’s death (he had a heart attack while driving), and could have taken care of them, resulting in Savage still being with us. Needless to say, hearing that story was a bitter pill to swallow.
[adinserter block=”2″]As I said earlier, there are matches on this set as well, and honestly, as good as the documentary is (and it is), the matches here are among my favorite collections, albeit for kind of a strange reason. On many DVDs, the superstar in question’s matches featured are generally ones that everyone knows with a few more rare matches peppered in to fluff it up. Here, nearly all of the matches are rarities that today’s average fan have never seen. Only a couple of PPV matches are included, while the rest are from TV tapings, house shows and live specials that, to the best of my knowledge, have never been featured on VHS or DVD/Blu-Ray in the past. While they’re not all hits, each match is still pretty enjoyable (how bad could they be?), and there are some great ones with guys like Steamboat and Ric Flair as well.
If you were even just a tiny bit of a Savage fan during his life, you owe it to yourself to pick up this DVD as soon as you can. It’s filled with great action, some funny anecdotes and some truly touching stories from a wide variety of people that really need to be heard. And if you’re a younger fan who maybe isn’t too familiar with the “Macho Man”, it’s the perfect time to see what all of the hype was about.
DISC 1
Documentary
– Driven to Perfection
– Bred to Achieve
– Baseball Days
– Transition into Wrestling
– Developing The Macho Man
– Earning a Reputation
– WrestleMania III
– WWE Champion
– Mega Powers
– Randy & Liz
– Spokesperson
– WCW
– Hardships
– Giving Back
– True Love
– May 20, 2011
– Cream of the Crop
DISC 2
Intercontinental Championship Match
“Macho Man” Randy Savage vs. Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat
Superstars * November 22, 1986
Lumberjack Match for the Intercontinental Championship
“Macho Man” Randy Savage vs. Bruno Sammartino
Boston Garden * February 7, 1987
Intercontinental Championship Match
“Macho Man” Randy Savage vs. Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat
Maple Leaf Gardens * February 15, 1987
“Macho Man” Randy Savage vs. “The King” Harley Race
Philadelphia, PA * September 18, 1987
[adinserter block=”2″]Six-Man Tag Team Steel Cage Match
“Macho Man” Randy Savage & Strike Force vs. Honky Tonk Man & The Hart Foundation
Boston Garden * March 5, 1988
WWE Championship Match
“Macho Man” Randy Savage vs. “Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase
Boston Garden * July 9, 1988
Harlem Street Fight for the WWE Championship
“Macho Man” Randy Savage vs. Bad News Brown
Hamilton, Ontario * January 16, 1989
WWE Championship Match
Hulk Hogan vs. “Macho Man” Randy Savage
Madison Square Garden * April 24, 1989
DISC 3
“Macho Man” Randy Savage vs. “Rowdy” Roddy Piper
Miami, FL * January 22, 1990
WWE Championship Match
“Macho Man” Randy Savage vs. Shawn Michaels
Munich, Germany * April 14, 1992
WWE Championship Match
“Macho Man” Randy Savage vs. The Ultimate Warrior
SummerSlam * August 31, 1992
WWE Championship Match
“Macho Man” Randy Savage vs. Ric Flair
Prime Time Wrestling * September 14, 1992
WCW Television Championship Match
“Macho Man” Randy Savage vs. Arn Anderson
WCW Saturday Night * January 28, 1995
Steel Cage Match for the WCW Championship
“Macho Man” Randy Savage vs. Ric Flair
WCW Superbrawl VI * February 11, 1996
Las Vegas Sudden Death Match
“Macho Man” Randy Savage vs. Diamond Dallas Page
WCW Halloween Havoc * October 26, 1997
BLU-RAY EXTRAS
Lumberjack Match for the WWE Championship
Hulk Hogan vs. “Macho Man” Randy Savage
Madison Square Garden * February 17, 1986
Winner is the King of WWE
“Macho Man” Randy Savage vs. “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan
Madison Square Garden * October 28, 1989
“Macho Man” Randy Savage & Sting vs. The Blue Bloods (Lord Steven Regal & Earl Robert Eaton)
WCW Saturday Night * September 9, 1995
“Macho Man” Randy Savage vs. Booker T
WCW Nitro * December 15, 1997
Blu-Ray Exclusive Stories
– Ambidextrous?
– Card Shark
– Fearing the Savage
– Getting into the WWE
– Snake Fixed?
– A Safety Net
– Hundred Dollar Bill Guy
– Jerusalem
– Highly Competitive
– No Days Off
– Cowboy Hats
– Part of the Team
– Shifting Gears
– Very Generous
– Thanksgiving Call
– Walking Away
– Michael Schmidt
– Macho Tip
Randy Macho Man Savage Collector’s Edition Box Set
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