5 Biggest Allies Of Randy Savage's Wrestling Career (& 5 Biggest Enemies)
David Craig With a career lasting from 1973 until the early 2000s, Macho Man Randy Savage cemented himself as one of the greats in pro wrestling history as well as one of America’s great pop culture icons. During his heyday in the 1980s and 1990s, Savage captured world championships, put on classic matches, and took part in numerous unforgettable storylines in the process.
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All those storylines include a solid number of friends and foes, of course, including some talent that rival Savage in historic greatness. Let’s take a look at five of Randy Savage’s best allies as well as five of his most formidable enemies.
10 Ally: The Ultimate Warrior
Considering The Mega-Powers — which will be discussed at length below — Randy Savage is no stranger to being half of a special marquee tag team, with his more underrated pairing being with The Ultimate Warrior. As The Ultimate Maniacs, Savage and Warrior made their debut taking on The Nasty Boys, then moved on to Money Inc. — Ted DiBiase and Irwin R. Schyster — and unsuccessfully challenged them for the WWE World Tag Team Championship on Saturday Night’s Main Event . While the star power was undeniable, the only major shortcoming of this group is that its existence was all-too-brief, lasting only a couple of months in 1992.
9 Enemy: Jerry “The King” Lawler
In the Memphis wrestling scene, Macho Man Randy Savage and Jerry “The King” Lawler were major rivals — both in the ring and behind the scenes. From 1978 to 1984, Savage’s father, Angelo Poffo, ran International Championship Wrestling, an “outlaw” promotion that directly competed with and antagonized Lawler’s Continental Wrestling Association, causing a lot of legitimate tension in the territory. From 1983 to 1985, however, the two groups worked together, with Savage venturing into CWA to put on a headlining feud with Lawler, to great success.
8 Ally: Lanny Poffo
The two didn’t seem to interact very much during their shared time in WWE, but Randy Savage and his real-life brother, “Leaping” Lanny Poffo, shared the ring in their days in the territories. While they clashed in singles bouts, the brothers were also successful together as a tag team.
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While wrestling for CWA, Savage and Poffo managed to feud with the rising babyface tag team The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express taking on Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson on multiple occasions in the summer of 1984.
7 Enemy: The Ultimate Warrior
While The Ultimate Warrior proved to be a solid ally for Randy Savage, he was an even bigger opponent. After Savage cost Warrior the WWE Championship in a match with Sgt. Slaughter at Royal Rumble 1991, their feud culminated in a “Career Ending Match” at WrestleMania 7, in which Warrior put away Savage in a standout match, forcing Macho Man to retire. It was an incredible moment, too — in defeat, Savage immediately turned babyface by reuniting with Miss Elizabeth and essentially walking off into the sunset.
6 Ally: Queen Sherri
Before that big babyface moment, however, Randy Savage had returned to his heelish ways two years prior, dumping Miss Elizabeth in favor of a new manager in Sherri Martel. Savage had become the Macho King after beating Jim Duggan for the King of the Ring gimmick, with Sherri becoming Queen Sherri. Sherri backed up Savage in several matches and, a trained worker herself, even stepped into the ring on occasion. Most famously, she joined Savage in a mixed tag team match against Dusty Rhodes and Sapphire at WrestleMania 6.
5 Enemy: Jake “The Snake” Roberts
Macho Man’s reunion with Miss Elizabeth wasn’t without its struggle, however. After Savage and Elizabeth’s on-screen wedding, they soon found themselves antagonized by Jake “The Snake” Roberts, who committed such villainous acts as giving the newlyweds a wedding gift with a snake in it, attacking Savage with a live cobra, and nearly braining Miss Elizabeth with a steel chair. It was a feud intense enough for Savage to lobby WWE to allow him to return to the ring, leading to a big showdown at This Tuesday In Texas.
4 Ally: Miss Elizabeth
Obviously, it’s tough to imagine a greater ally in Macho Man Randy Savage’s career than Miss Elizabeth. Savage’s real-life girlfriend and later wife, Macho Man introduced Elizabeth as his manager shortly after his arrival in WWE sparked a bidding war amongst the WWE managers to gain Savage as a client.
RELATED: 10 Things Fans Should Know About Miss Elizabeth
Miss Elizabeth offered one of the more fascinating dynamics in an era where babyface/heel dynamics were fairly clear-cut. Savage was unabashedly a heel, but Miss Elizabeth didn’t seem to have an evil bone in her body.
3 Enemy: Ric Flair
One of Randy Savage’s best rivalries as a babyface in WWE was with Ric Flair. As the two were set to collide at WrestleMania 8 for Flair’s WWE Championship, “The Nature Boy” decided to play mind games by claiming to have enjoyed a prior relationship with Miss Elizabeth that turned out to be bogus. It was a great feud, and the two rekindled their rivalry a few years later in WCW, and the two gifted in-ring workers proved once again that they were capable of putting on awesome matches.
2 Ally: Hulk Hogan
The year 1987 saw Macho Man Randy Savage give up his wicked ways when Hulk Hogan rescued Savage from an attack at the hands of the honky tonk man. In the aftermath, Hogan and the newly babyface Savage formed a tag team called The Mega-Powers, arguably one of the biggest all-star tag teams to ever happen. While they remained singles performers, over the course of about two years the two superstars occasionally shared the ring for big tag matches including The Mega Bucks, making their infrequent team ups feel like a huge deal.
1 Enemy: Hulk Hogan
Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage clashed before teaming up, but the Mega-Powers union led to an even bigger feud between the men. Savage grew jealous of Hogan’s friendliness with Miss Elizabeth, leading Macho Man to once again turn heel — this time at the cost of their friendship. This time, Savage was WWE Champion, so it was only natural that Hogan would challenge his former friend for the title, leading to a tremendous main event at WrestleMania 5 where Hogan defeated Savage to become champion once more.