WWF Coliseum Video Collection: The Macho Man Randy Savage & Elizabeth (1986)

WWF Coliseum Video Collection: The Macho Man Randy Savage & Elizabeth (1986)

Coliseum Video compilation. The cover of the tape features Randy Savage and Elizabeth (with the subtitle ‘she’s more than a manager… she’s Macho Man’s biggest fan!’) and promises to highlight his greatest matches. Though considering George Steele is prominently featured on the back cover, don’t hold your breath.

WWF Title Match: Hulk Hogan v Rusty Brooks: From October 1985. This is here for a reason, as Savage comes out before the bout and has Elizabeth taunt Hogan by asking him why he doesn't wrestle a real challenger. As if on cue, Brooks jumps Hogan, but walks into a clothesline, and takes the bodyslam/Legdrop combo at 0:36. Afterwards, Savage Pearl Harbors Hogan with a flying axehandle to punctuate his earlier question. Nothing match, but it had a purpose. DUD

WWF Title Match: Hulk Hogan v Randy Savage: From January 1986. Savage attacks Hogan during the entrances, and blasts him from the top rope with his own title belt. Flying axehandle, but Macho gets distracted by Elizabeth, and Hulk nails him. He steals Savage's shades as he does, and wears them as he dumps Macho to the floor for a shot into the post. Inside, Hulk hits a clothesline and a side suplex, and tosses his challenger around with elevated chokeholds. Cross corner clothesline leaves Savage on dream street, and Hulk gives him a vertical suplex for his trouble. Hogan keeps hammering, but Randy manages to dump him out to the floor and quickly capitalizes with a flying axehandle after him. Savage abuses him with the rail out there, and rolls him in for the Flying Elbowdrop, but oh shit, it's a HULK UP!! Fists of Fury! Flair Flip! Big Boot! Bodyslam! Legdrop! 8:33! Afterwards, Adrian Adonis joins Savage to beat the Hulkster down. Hogan/Savage was almost always fun until the WCW days, and this was no exception, with both guys working a well paced, exciting match. * ¼

WWF Title Lumberjack Match: Hulk Hogan v Randy Savage: From February 1986. This time Hogan (who has his ribs taped to sell a beating from King Kong Bundy on SNME) jumps Savage during the entrances, and unloads right hands ahead of hitting a clothesline. He returns the favor by whacking Savage with the title belt this time, and hits a side suplex. Lumberjacks be damned, Hogan tosses him to the outside to beat on him properly, and drags him back in for a bearhug. Hulk with a cross corner clothesline and an atomic drop, but Lumberjack Bundy trips him up as he goes for the Legdrop, and the distraction is enough to allow Savage to takeover with an eyerake. Kneelift and a flying axehandle get the challenger two, and he dumps Hogan to the floor for Bundy (and all the other heel Lumberjacks) to abuse. Bundy punctuates it with an Avalanche against the ringpost, and he rolls Hogan back in - only for Savage to shove him right back out! Bundy gives him another Avalanche, and now Randy is satisfied: blasting him with a flying axehandle on the way in for two. Hangman’s clothesline is worth two, and Savage tears of the ribtape for a few punts. He then drags Hogan by the tape into the corner for yet another flying axehandle, and gets two off of it. Leaping kneedrop gets two, and an elbowdrop for two. Flying axehandle to the ribs for two, but the Flying Elbowdrop trigger a HULK UP!! Fists of Fury! Big Boot! Legdrop! 7:36! More fun from the Huckster and the Nacho Man. * ½

Randy Savage v George Steele: From Saturday Night's Main Event IV. Steele has a childlike infatuation with Elizabeth - groping at her during the entrances - and, holy shit, that doesn’t sit well with Randy Savage. He goes right for The Animal, but Steele acts like a monkey to scare him out of the ring. Steele bites, and stomps, but somehow, Savage outsmarts a guy nicknamed 'Animal' - goading him into a chase, and nailing him on the way back in. Steele responds by eating a turnbuckle pad, but, again, somehow that fails to beat Savage, and he drops a flying axehandle to pin him at 4:06. ¼*

WWF Intercontinental Title Match: Tito Santana v Randy Savage: From February 1986. First few lockups go to a stalemate, but Savage manages to get him in a waistlock on the fourth go-around - only for Tito to reverse. Randy grabs the ropes and bails to regroup, and goes right to stalling. He lures Tito to the floor and nails him, but takes a gut-punch on a flying axehandle attempt, and Santana slams him. Savage lures him into a chase next, and nails him on the way into the ring, but Tito catches him with an atomic drop for two. Savage fires back with a hangman’s clothesline for two, and a nice flying axehandle gets two. Savage dumps him to the outside for another axehandle, but Tito blocks a turnbuckle smash on the way back in, and clobbers the challenger with forearms. Tito with a chop off the middle rope for two, but a cross corner charge is blocked with a Macho boot for two. Bodyslam, but Tito counters with an inside cradle for two. He goes after Savage's knee and slaps on the Figure Four, but Savage makes the ropes. Savage tries to bail, but Tito stays on him with a suplex, and goes for the Figure Four again - Randy blocking with the ropes. Side suplex, but Savage bops him with a set of knux on the way down, and we have a new champion at 10:29. Not either mans greatest match, but certainly historically significant - this Savage's first title win in either of the big two. *

WWF Intercontinental Title No Disqualification Match: Randy Savage v Tito Santana: From April 1986. Santana is good and pissed, and goes ballistic on Macho right from the get-go. Savage tries to bail, but Santana is right on him with a chairshot on the outside, and he dumps the champ into the first row. He drags Macho back in before he can save the title by countout, and Tito blasts him with a 2^nd rope axehandle on the way back inside. Randy rakes the eyes in desperation, and tosses Tito over the top to sway the momentum, then blasts him with a flying axehandle when he drags him back in. Kneedrop gets two, and a hangman’s clothesline is worth two. Bodyslam, but a kneedrop misses, and Tito cradles him for two - only to run into a backelbow as he tries to follow-up. To the floor, Savage dives at him with a flying axehandle, and returns the favor by dumping Tito into the front row, but another flying axehandle gets him gut-punched on the way down. Savage tries to run, but Tito hammers him out on the elevated ramp way before he can get to the back, and tosses him back inside for the Figure Four - only for Savage to rake the eyes to stop the effort. He bails right back to the floor to try and save the title by countout, but Tito is enraged, and follows with a ram into the rail (leading to a hilarious visual of about six security guards desperately trying to hold the rail steady while they fight). Savage blades off of it, and back inside again, it's slugfest time! Savage wins with an eyerake, but gets caught with the Diving Forearm - only for Tito to fail to win the title due to a ref bump! He goes to revive the official, but the distraction allows Savage to cradle him with a handful of tights to retain at 18:52. Better (and more intense) than the title switch, this was a nice bit of psychological warfare to advance the angle. **

WWF Intercontinental Title Match: Randy Savage v Tito Santana: From May 1986, it's another rematch, only this time Bruno Sammartino acts as the special referee. Savage is less than eager to lockup, and gets hooked in a waistlock when Tito forces him to, so the champ bails to the floor and hopes Bruno can count to ten. Sadly for him, it looks like Bruno can't remember how, so Savage decides to throw a chair into the mix. That doesn't go well for him with Bruno, so he goes to Plan B: Run. Run and hide behind Elizabeth. Savage alleges that Tito is hiding a weapon in the tights, but Bruno's not buying it, and Tito grabs the champ in a pretty aggressive wristlock. Randy grabs the ropes and bails again, but Tito is right on him, and knocks him off the apron for his trouble. Savage continues to stall, and suckers Santana into the ropes, then blasts him with a flying axehandle to takeover. Kneelift, and Savage cradles him for two - Bruno not exactly the master of the fast count here, and Savage rightly bitching him out about it. Randy grounds the jumping bean with a chinlock, but Santana slugs his way free - only to get launched to the floor. Savage follows out with a flying axehandle, but Tito beats the count in, so Randy gives him a kneedrop for two. Slugfest ends in both men looking up at the lights, but Savage is up first for another flying axehandle - only to take a gut-punch on the way down. Tito unloads, and hits a backdrop, but Randy dives for the ropes to avoid the Figure Four. He blasts an overzealous Santana with a boot off of a blind charge for two, but a bodyslam attempt gets him cradled for two. Another slugfest goes Santana's way, but Savage blocks the Figure Four again - this time by raking the eyes and following with a gutwrench suplex for two. Atomic drop, but Tito sweeps the leg on the way down, and hooks the Figure Four! Savage is done, but here comes Adrian Adonis to attack Bruno and Tito, and it's a no contest at 13:25. The weakest of their matches showcased on the tape, sure, but still decent - this one more angle-oriented than the others. Which is fine. *

Cage Match: Randy Savage and Adrian Adonis v Tito Santana and Bruno Sammartino: From July 1986. Big brawl to start, with Savage and Adonis using the high ground advantage (they were first in the cage) to jump the faces. Savage is first to go for the door, but Bruno sees to it that he doesn't get far, and it turns into a pileup with everyone going for the door. Randy says 'fine, fuck it' and goes for a climb instead, but no dice there either. There are no tags here, and the video quality is shit, but needless to say it's just a wild brawl. Adonis ends up coming off the top of the cage with a kneedrop onto Bruno as Savage climbs, but Tito punches him off, and climbs out himself - as Bruno walks out the door at 9:51. I've seen this one many times, and never particularly cared for it. It's fine within context as a brawl, just not my cup of tea. ¼*

BUExperience: If nothing else, this wonderfully shows how booking used to work in the house show era, with angles run to set up rematches and blowoffs in the same market (remember, back in those days they used to run the same arena every few weeks), and luckily most of the tape is devoted to two of Savage’s best frequent opponents. A great addition to your Coliseum Collection.