Randy Savage v Rick Rude (9/3/84)
Did these two ever have anything worth seeking out in the WWF? I'm assuming there might have been something in '88 when Savage was the champ, or maybe in the second half of '87 after Savage had been turned babyface, but after he turned heel again in '89 it seems unlikely. Reason I'm asking is because this match-up is a ton of fun, and I'm really interested in what a WWF version would've been like.
Match goes about 11 minutes. They actually make physical contact two times in the entire first half. It was awesome.
Starts out with Rude doing the phantom foreign object shtick, slipping it into some part of his gear and then moving it to another part whenever the ref' checks him. He'll stuff it in his tights first, but the ref' checks his kneepads and boots and doesn't find anything. Savage is pissed and acts like a nut and the ref's trying to calm him down. While this is going on Rude takes the "object" from his tights and shoves it under his kneepad. Ref' checks Rude again before Savage murders him. This time he looks in the tights and finds nothing. Rude is vindicated. Savage is ready to stab someone in the face.
Jimmy Hart gets in on things and he and Rude pass the object between them. Savage spots it and literally chases Hart backstage. When he comes back out to the ring, he starts the phantom object shtick and now Rude's pissed. Savage and his old man play "passing the object" and by this point the ref' has no idea what's going on.
Then Rude starts a pose-off. Rude is as shredded as I've ever seen him here, btw. He looks like a drawing from a Marvel comic book. Savage of course responds and Rude is shocked and appalled that people could think a fool like Savage is a better poser than him.
By the time they finally make contact for the first time we're about 4 minutes in. Savage's airplane spin is a HELL of a way to get the ball rolling, though. This is a motherfucking airplane spin right here. He spins around really fast and Rude has that crazy perm that blows around like he's stuck in one of those NASA space shuttle takeoff simulators and you can totally buy him being too dizzy to stand up afterwards. He takes this awesome stoogey Jerry Estrada like spill out of the ring after it, and Savage, who some how managed to actually stay on his feet, follows him out, hops up on the announce table, shouts something over the house mic, and throws a cup of confetti all over Rude's head. The part on one of the extras discs where Savage tears up a photo of Lawler, throws it in the air and screams "CONFETTI!" was seriously one of my favourite things on the entire set, primarily because Savage is absolutely wired to the motherfucking moon like a complete fucking psychopath. I had no memory of him doing that spot in this match and it honestly had me on the floor. Rude's "What the fuck is wrong with you?" look after it really sealed the deal.
They eventually transition into the actual wrestling part when Jimmy Hart reappears and gets up on the apron. Savage is clearly a maniac and is distracted but it, so Rude jumps him and takes over. Rude is really good at strutting and being a cocky douche, rubbing the ref's bald head for giving him warning about closed fists. At some point Savage fights back and things spill to the floor, then the ref' winds up having to split up a scuffle between Hart and Savage's old man.
It's been so long since I've watched stuff from this set that I'm struggling to remember anything about anything. I had forgotten how this ended, but I was pretty disappointed with the finish here. At this point I'm more than a little used to a good (read: not good) old 80s finish, so it usually takes something to actively annoy me. No idea how I reacted to it the first time, but I was digging the absolute Hell out of this and I just wasn't ready for it to end so soon. Still, it sets up another couple matches that I wound up loving, and everything leading up to it was a blast, anyway.
I could totally see someone not being all that high on a match like this. First half is basically 5 guys (Savage, Rude, Hart, Angelo Poffo, bald ref' who's name I forget) working a bunch of horseshit. I love horseshit in my pro-wrestling, though, and this was fucking awesome horseshit. The CONFETTI spot made my day. Second half doesn't have anything that'll blow you away from an in-ring/WORKRATE~ standpoint, but I dug what they brought to the table. Finish was really the only thing that disappointed me. This is Memphis, motherfucker.
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