Why are WWE and Randy Savage in Bad Terms?

[Hiroshi Hase]

austin4wyo said:

tryme said:

Vince was preparing for Monday Night Raw where he thought Savage would be in his usual place at the commentary table, it was only when he didn't show up and he turned on Nitro (which then started before Raw) that he saw Savage there and realised he wouldn't be at Raw. That's when he asked Lawler to stand in at the last minute.

Now, Savage clearly then couldn't have been under contract so most likely had a "handshake" agreement with Vince to work some future dates, so I don't see how Savage's departure wouldn't p-off Vince as much as Lugers.

He didn't turn up in WCW until December at StarrCade. His contract had come up in August, and Vince and Savage couldn't come to terms. When that happened, Savage did a few appearances in Smokey Mountain before he signed with Turner. It wasn't a 6 day turnaround like it was with Luger, and Savage was clearly not interested in a payday with Vince at that point. Luger was still, as far as Vince knew, planning on resigning with Titan.

Hell, Nitro wasn't even on the air until 1995. Luger showed up at the first Nitro, arguably as Bischoff's big coup to make Nitro the must watch show.

EDIT: After reading your post again, I think you've got Savage and Luger mistaken in there...Savage left the WWF at least a couple months before he even started being hyped in WCW, and his seperation was clear at the time. Luger, however, showed up when he was still thought to be working for Titan going into the weekend.

Agreed, Savage's last appearance on TV was in late October of 94 and he didn't show up in WCW till December 3, 1994 on WCW Saturday Night (a taped program, BTW) to do the interview with Gene Okerlund.

There was no surprise as Savage got a nice sendoff by Vince McMahon on Raw and thanks for his contributions to WWF.

[Johnny Danger (Godz)]

Yeah, Hiroshi is right on.

If there truly is bad blood, the only thing I can think of is perhaps if the two parties ever talked on a WWF/WWE return, Savage was either not interested or wanted too much money which probably pissed Vince off either way. I don't buy the Steph rumors, and Savage didn't walk out on Vince like others did, he did business the right way. Vince has forgiven far worse (Bret Hart, anyone? Warrior?)

[Jack]

yjc1019 said:

austin4wyo said:

He didn't turn up in WCW until December at StarrCade. His contract had come up in August, and Vince and Savage couldn't come to terms. When that happened, Savage did a few appearances in Smokey Mountain before he signed with Turner. It wasn't a 6 day turnaround like it was with Luger, and Savage was clearly not interested in a payday with Vince at that point. Luger was still, as far as Vince knew, planning on resigning with Titan.

Hell, Nitro wasn't even on the air until 1995. Luger showed up at the first Nitro, arguably as Bischoff's big coup to make Nitro the must watch show.

EDIT: After reading your post again, I think you've got Savage and Luger mistaken in there...Savage left the WWF at least a couple months before he even started being hyped in WCW, and his seperation was clear at the time. Luger, however, showed up when he was still thought to be working for Titan going into the weekend.

Agreed, Savage's last appearance on TV was in late October of 94 and he didn't show up in WCW till December 3, 1994 on WCW Saturday Night (a taped program, BTW) to do the interview with Gene Okerlund.

There was no surprise as Savage got a nice sendoff by Vince McMahon on Raw and thanks for his contributions to WWF.

There was a surprise unless you don't think someone suddenly not turning up for work one day for a live TV show wasn't a 'surprise' for Vince.

[Hiroshi Hase]

tryme said:

yjc1019 said:

Agreed, Savage's last appearance on TV was in late October of 94 and he didn't show up in WCW till December 3, 1994 on WCW Saturday Night (a taped program, BTW) to do the interview with Gene Okerlund.

There was no surprise as Savage got a nice sendoff by Vince McMahon on Raw and thanks for his contributions to WWF.

There was a surprise unless you don't think someone suddenly not turning up for work one day for a live TV show wasn't a 'surprise' for Vince.

The thing is it wasn't live as I mentioned before. They usually did WCW Saturday Night tapings on Tuesday or Wednesday, so word would've traveled back to Vince days before that taping made the air on TBS.

Even so, Savage was not under contract or anything, hence the sendoff by Vince McMahon on Raw a month or so prior. He would not have got that, if he was under bad terms with the man at the time.

[Jack]

yjc1019 said:

tryme said:

There was a surprise unless you don't think someone suddenly not turning up for work one day for a live TV show wasn't a 'surprise' for Vince.

The thing is it wasn't live as I mentioned before. They usually did WCW Saturday Night tapings on Tuesday or Wednesday, so word would've traveled back to Vince days before that taping made the air on TBS.

Even so, Savage was not under contract or anything, hence the sendoff by Vince McMahon on Raw a month or so prior. He would not have got that, if he was under bad terms with the man at the time.

Listen to Lawler's comments on the 15 Anniversary interview he done with JR on WWE.com and he says that on the day Savage didn't turn up when expected and right at the last moment he got asked to fill in for him. I've also heard this version before, possibly on the Monday Night Wars DVD or somewhere else.

[SNITSKY]

Give me Savage over Hogan any day of the week. The Macho King and Mr Perfect were the only reasons that I watched WWF back in the day.

[Hiroshi Hase]

tryme said:

yjc1019 said:

The thing is it wasn't live as I mentioned before. They usually did WCW Saturday Night tapings on Tuesday or Wednesday, so word would've traveled back to Vince days before that taping made the air on TBS.

Even so, Savage was not under contract or anything, hence the sendoff by Vince McMahon on Raw a month or so prior. He would not have got that, if he was under bad terms with the man at the time.

Listen to Lawler's comments on the 15 Anniversary interview he done with JR on WWE.com and he says that on the day Savage didn't turn up when expected and right at the last moment he got asked to fill in for him. I've also heard this version before, possibly on the Monday Night Wars DVD or somewhere else.

In any event, if Savage was on such bad terms with Vince at that time, he could've easily not gave him such a good sendoff and could've just not mentioned him at all.

[Jack]

yjc1019 said:

tryme said:

Listen to Lawler's comments on the 15 Anniversary interview he done with JR on WWE.com and he says that on the day Savage didn't turn up when expected and right at the last moment he got asked to fill in for him. I've also heard this version before, possibly on the Monday Night Wars DVD or somewhere else.

In any event, if Savage was on such bad terms with Vince at that time, he could've easily not gave him such a good sendoff and could've just not mentioned him at all.

We don't know what the movtivation behind that was. Vince may have been trying to deliberately trying to corner the moral high ground, it may have been a coded message to Savage that we can't understand, it might have been Vince not thinking and being genuinely upset that one of his top talent had walked out on him.

Either way I doubt it was a "You went to my rivals, best of luck to you" message as the industry and Vince isn't like that with ANYONE.

[Hiroshi Hase]

tryme said:

yjc1019 said:

In any event, if Savage was on such bad terms with Vince at that time, he could've easily not gave him such a good sendoff and could've just not mentioned him at all.

We don't know what the movtivation behind that was. Vince may have been trying to deliberately trying to corner the moral high ground, it may have been a coded message to Savage that we can't understand, it might have been Vince not thinking and being genuinely upset that one of his top talent had walked out on him.

Either way I doubt it was a "You went to my rivals, best of luck to you" message as the industry and Vince isn't like that with ANYONE.

Or maybe he was genuinely trying to voice his feelings on thanking Savage for his contributions? I know to some it's a long shot as Vince is the devil depending on who you ask, but it is possible. As he didn't do that for anyone else at the time.

[The Booty Disciple]

tryme said:

yjc1019 said:

The thing is it wasn't live as I mentioned before. They usually did WCW Saturday Night tapings on Tuesday or Wednesday, so word would've traveled back to Vince days before that taping made the air on TBS.

Even so, Savage was not under contract or anything, hence the sendoff by Vince McMahon on Raw a month or so prior. He would not have got that, if he was under bad terms with the man at the time.

Listen to Lawler's comments on the 15 Anniversary interview he done with JR on WWE.com and he says that on the day Savage didn't turn up when expected and right at the last moment he got asked to fill in for him. I've also heard this version before, possibly on the Monday Night Wars DVD or somewhere else.

And you're willing to take Lawler's version at face value?

I'll check my copy of the Monday Night Wars DVD, but honestly, I'm pretty sure Hiroshi is right on this one. Savage was long gone before he showed up, so even if he did walk away from a RAW while he wasn't under contract, he wasn't showing up on WCW TV in a turnabout intruder fashion ala Lex Luger.