Was Savage-Steele at WM 2 a complete waste?

[brutuscheesecake]

Here you have Wrestlings greatest stage, a rising superstar in Macho Man who had established himself as one of the top in ring performers of his time, the IC champion defending against...George the Animal Steele? Who was 49 years old at the time and something of a side show...the Eugene of his time.

I just thought it was a waste of Savage's talents and for the fans...at least give him an opponent that you believe could take the belt of him! To his credit, Savage did all he could with the lug.

[Snake "The Jake" Roberts]

yeah, probably. It had a good story, but GS was far passed being able to put on a decent match. It was a long ass feud too.

[dannyrctv]

I hated everything about that feud. I was afraid Steele would get Elizabeth. I hated Jill St John's(or was it Susan St James?) biased commentary. That feud dragged on. It actually ended on Saturday Night's main event in a lumberjack match with Elizabeth as the prize as I recall. One of the Lumberjacks "Dangerous" Danny Davis cost George the match and that lead to a "Who cares?" feud between them and Savage on to bigger and better things!

[johnnyk9]

I heard they wanted to headline WM 2 with Savage againist Hogan, but in order to make Hogan look good, they went with Bundy

[squaredcircle]

if you look at it from the point that in no way was George Steele ever going to win the IC belt, let alone any belt, then yes it was a waste.

but i was a HUGE George Steele mark back in the day.

there will no talking smack about George.

George was always good as a placeholder back in the old territory days. he was a proven, known heel, out of whom you might get two houses. he was never going to get the belt.

and while George was wrestling your champ, you bring in some new talent, and build them up into really big houses.

i saw George wrestle the Duke of Dorchester Pete Doherty at a school gymnasium show. it was awesome. George hit all his marks, Pete jobbed like the consummate pro. ah...good times.

[lildude8218]

UH OH!

[chunkylover53]

Hell no! The fans were really into the feud, so much so that it extended much longer than it was suppose to be.

[turkeysandwich]

That feud went on for over a year, I mean Steamboat/Savage at Wrestlemania 3 was technically still part of the feud, as George was in Steamboat's corner, in fact didn't Savage wrestle The Animal on the SNME after WM3?

[dizzy]

Jul 11, 2010 22:37:40 GMT -5 chunkylover53 said:

Hell no! The fans were really into the feud, so much so that it extended much longer than it was suppose to be.

I agree. Steele sucked at that point, but with Savage carrying the weight, it was a hell of a feud that was worthwhile.

[Aceorton]

1. It brought out the very best of Savage's "douche jealous boyfriend" antics.

2. For the number of times Steele was robbed/heartbroken in that feud, it would not have been outside the scope of pro wrestling justice for him to somehow win the belt on a fluke/someone's interference and run around with the title for a few weeks before dropping it back to Savage.

3. More camera shots of Elizabeth = good thing.

4. George was fun.

5. The matches were entertaining, chaotic brawls. George didn't deliver technical masterpieces, but he had a niche doing what he did, and he was way over. Savage showed he was more than just technical masterpieces.

6. George was fun.

7. George was fun.

[Schemer]

I've only seen the feud in tapes. Now, I'm an ugly guy like George Steele, granted, my hair situation is reversed, but the fact that he could never get Liz, even for a bit was disappointing to me.

[mightydavidson]

The feud with George Steele put a lot of heat on the Macho Man, so it was hardly a waste. In fact I daresay the feud accomplished exactly what the booker intended it too, namely making Savage into a ginormous monster heel.

[mybraveface]

Why else would Steamboat have Steele in his corner @ W3? Not to mention, Steele being half-responsible for Savage losing the belt that night?

I think it worked out perfectly in the end.

[willywonka666]

I was 11 at the time and just barely getting into wrestling but I hated Savage for how he treated George and was hoping/thinking George would win.

Of course I loved WM2 completely.

[joeverfield]

I never understood the whole thought process behind making one guy "look good". It's a revolving business, you'd think Vince would make the best efforts to make many guys be top valued stars but no. And HE STILL HASN'T FIGURED IT OUT!

[chunkylover53]

I wonder what kind of IC champion George Steele would be. Also, Liz having enough of Savage's abuse and go with him.

[machomark]

I Have been THINKIN-THINKIN.....that as a Randy Savage mark, the spotlight should always be on top of him, yeah!

[britishbulldog]

No. For me and all my friends it was the second most looked forward to match on the card behind Hogan/Bundy. Steele helped make Savage, and the fans were very behind Steele. If you watch it now the crowd was into the match so no.

[Snake "The Jake" Roberts]

Jul 11, 2010 21:44:37 GMT -5 johnnyk9 said:

I heard they wanted to headline WM 2 with Savage againist Hogan, but in order to make Hogan look good, they went with Bundy

I've also heard Hogan vs. Nikita Koloff.

I think the Hogan-savage match worked better after the mega powers esploded.

[Futureraven: Beelzebruv]

Jul 12, 2010 13:43:10 GMT -5 joeverfield said:

I never understood the whole thought process behind making one guy "look good". It's a revolving business, you'd think Vince would make the best efforts to make many guys be top valued stars but no. And HE STILL HASN'T FIGURED IT OUT!

George Steele was 49 and close to retirement after many successful years, Randy Savage was a new, young star he had big plans for.

Maybe that's why Savage was made to look good.

If you have it so that anybody can beat anybody, you don't have any true Hogan/Austin/Cena level stars unless the guy is ungodly talented in other ways like The Rock was.