Sorry Dave, you’re wrong about…
By Scott Keith on 10 March 2024
Meltzer argued about Hogan/Savage at WM5 that they should have had Savage escape with the title because he was white hot as a heel and continuing the chase to Summerslam with Hogan finally winning would have drawn all the money in the known universe. I'm one
of those who disputes this because he's looking at it from an NWA “the money is in the chase” mentality. The money was never in the chase in the WWF and the reason Savage was so hot as a heel is because fans expected Hogan to kick his ass. You couldn't assume
you could prolong the angle and do even bigger business, because in a babyface territory, where crowds have been conditioned to expect the hero to triumph in the big match, you run the risk of the fans deciding no, we're not paying for the rematch in our town,
or for the payoff at the next PPV, because you burned us at WM. So don't tempt fate. And doesn't the fact that they did big numbers around the horn with Hogan as champ suggest the WWF was right to do what they did?
ALL THAT SAID…
Might those who subscribed to this view have been somewhat mollified had they not done the formula Hogan finish? Like, say they do a back-and-forth match with Savage getting the heat for the last few minutes; he goes for the flying elbow, Hogan rolls out of
the way, drops the leg and gets the pin. The punters go home happy, but there's enough of a “could have gone the other way” feeling to the finish that there's increased intrigue for the rematches. Had it gone that way, would that have been enough to say
“yeah, Savage rocks, but putting Hogan over makes sense”? Like, you might have preferred a different result, but there isn't this distaste that causes you to say “Savage should have retained”?
No. Fuck that jabroni. Macho Man 4 Life.