Written By: Mark Armstrong
Running Time: 527 Minutes
Certificate: 12
Number Of Discs: 3
Studio: Fremantle Home Entertainment
Released: May 28 2018
(Thanks to Fetch Publicity for arranging this review.)
Ooooh, yeah! Freak out, freak out, because the Macho Man is back on DVD! WWE’s latest collection brings together a load of unreleased matches from the legendary career of Randy Savage, and by load, I mean load: 41 bouts comprise this three-disc set. As such, I won’t be covering each one, but I will make a note of the high points as we revisit the legacy of a true legend.
Our story begins in 1985 upon Randy’s arrival in the WWF, and we get a fair few squash matches from Championship Wrestling (the precursor to Superstars, which would arrive the following year) as fans began to grow accustomed to the wild man with the huge sunglasses and the growling voice. After Savage captures his first Intercontinental Championship, he would embark on a memorable reign, which includes a match featured here against Pedro Morales, and a non-title squash win over a young Troy Martin (who would go on to become Shane “Dean” Douglas). The next few bouts involve Ricky Steamboat, occurring before and after their timeless battle at WrestleMania III.
After the Steamboat section of the DVD is wrapped up, we leap ahead to Macho winning his first WWF World Championship, and after a promo from Superstars, it’s onto September 1988 and a Steel Cage clash with Ted DiBiase. Further defences of his crown against Andre The Giant and Akeem close disc one; disc two opens with Savage remaining champion, but now as a heel, as he faces The Ultimate Warrior. After introducing Sensational Sherri as his new manager, a WM V rematch with Hulk Hogan is up next, before we enter the Macho King phase of his career in battles with Hercules, Dusty Rhodes and Sapphire (in a mixed tag rematch from WM VI) and Koko B. Ware.
From there, we enter the point where Randy had been retired by Warrior, but was turned babyface via a reunion with Elizabeth and then attacked at their wedding reception by a newly-heel Jake Roberts (they don’t make villains like Jake anymore, that’s for sure). The week before the infamous cobra attack angle, we get a Savage reinstatement promo, followed by two matches from the same TV taping held right before Savage vs. Roberts at This Tuesday In Texas: a six-man tag alongside Roddy Piper and Jim Duggan against Roberts, Ric Flair and The Undertaker, and a random bout against The Barbarian. Further bouts involving Jake are followed by his promo celebrating a second WWF Championship victory, and then a few encounters from late 1992 which, oddly, represented the end of Randy’s full-time WWF career, just months after he co-headlined WrestleMania and won a World title.
The year 1993 was almost a non-factor for Savage as a competitor, but he did enter the ring a few times. Battles against Yokozuna, Lex Luger, Mr. Hughes (remember him?) and Fatu are here, along with a tag bout as he and Mr. Perfect face Hughes and Giant Gonzales (those two teams could not be any more different). From there, it’d onto Savage in WCW, and because it’s not the WWF, we get a few matches which were on first-run television shows. Teaming with Hogan again is followed by a rare singles bout against Steve Austin, just over a year before the birth of Austin 3:16. Matches with Flair, Kurasawa (who?) and Bobby Eaton pre-date the nWo, a faction which Savage would join to turn heel again in early 1997. Bouts with Curt Hennig and Luger again come from his stint in the black and white. A 1999 mixed tag bout pitting Savage and Gorgeous George (the lady, not the legendary mid-20th century performer) against Flair and Charles Robinson (yep, the referee) closes out the collection.
The DVD (which is hosted by the random combination of Sean Mooney, Diamond Dallas Page, Corey Graves and Bayley) is largely comprised of bouts which either weren’t televised or were forgotten squashes and promos. Because Macho Madness and The Randy Savage Story featured the bulk of Savage’s best bouts from the WWF and WCW, it stands to reason that this new compilation is not exactly stacked with must-see matches from an in-ring standpoint. But for a major Macho Man fan and for die-hard collectors, this does exactly what it says on the tin (well, the sleeve) by delivering dozens of rare contests, none of which have ever been released before, adding a huge amount to the back catalogues of fans who end up buying this.
It’s also a nice trip down memory lane to a bygone era, one where the likes of #CancelWWENetwork and relentless boos for top babyfaces were nonexistent, where ratings and the dollar amounts for TV deals were irrelevant to the casual viewer (well, before the Nitro bouts in terms of ratings, anyway), and where one could simply sit down and enjoy wrestling for what it is. Case in point: the aforementioned Savage/Perfect vs. Hughes/Gonzales would likely win a WrestleCrap award if it were held on Raw nowadays and trigger a social media wildfire, but back then, bouts like this were just designed to provide light entertainment for viewers, So are the matches in 2018, even if many don’t realise it – but that’s another story. The point is, this DVD provides a fun look back at the golden age of the WWF, and due to the nature of the content, it is also a good companion piece to last year’s Unreleased 1986-1995 set, with all of those years being covered here.
Is this a collection full of classic matches? Absolutely not. But is this a really enjoyable, suitably-nostalgic and overall thoroughly entertaining look through the vaults of one of the greatest wrestlers of all-time? Ooooh, yeah! (Sorry.)
Overall Rating: 8/10 – Very Good
