Best wwf feud of the 80's

[Guest Daredevil21]

Well I started this thread way back when on the old board, but I thought I'd bring it back to start this one up the right way. Feel free to throw in NWA feuds too, just that I only watched WWF so those are gonna be the only ones I mention. So with that...

 

Hulk Hogan v. Randy Savage- This one started when Savage was a newcomer in the WWF in 1985. The crowds for the matches were just on fire, as it to this day eludes me why they waited so long to take this match to a higher level. Their first match at MSG, was a classic and Savage went over, even. Granted he didn't win the title, but he did leave the victor that night. They kind of erased their feud after Savage won the IC title in early 1986 and after Orndorff turned on Hogan. They bonded in late 1987 and formed the Mega-Powers. What followed was a year-long storyline, in which Hogan and Savage, once bitter rivals, became best of friends. In the end the blowoff of the storyline was to have Savage turn on Hogan in a fit of jealousy over Elizabeth. They had their first match against each other in years, at Wrestlemania V, where Savage carried Hogan to a classic match. Soon after that, the feud cooled off, as Savage was booked to feud with Brutus Beefcake, while Hogan began a feud with Zeus. They would meet each other in a couple matches in the early 90's, but they were nothing compared to that blowoff match to the year-long storyline. The Savage/Hogan feud of the 80's is today most commonly compared to the Rock/Austin feud from the past few years.

 

Well I'll let you all continue this and I'm sure I'll throw in some more of my thoughts on certain great feuds of the 80's a little later on.

[Guest Drury37]

I thought that the Hart Foundation Vs. British Bulldogs were a cool 1980's rivalry,but you are right Hogan Vs. Savage is the best!!!

Thanks.

[Guest Hoyakillah]

It's a tough call... if you're going to look at best WWF feud of the 1980s, I think you have to go with Savage v. Steamboat.  Perfectly built up, perfectly booked, perfectly executed.  And for sheer markdom, nothing can top it, in my opinion.

 

As for the NWA, that's actually in my opinion a harder decision because there were so many GREAT GREAT GREAT feuds.  I'd have to choose something a little bit out of left field... Magnum TA v. Tully Blanchard.  Just a great great old school feud with one of the best blow-off matches ever... I Quit.

 

And why didn't I mention Steamboat v. Flair?  Because that feud is up there with Misawa v. Kawada in terms of transcending even a federation label.  There are maybe three or four feuds in wrestling in the last twenty to thirty years that can do that... and Steamer v. Naitch is one of them.

[Guest Maurizio C... Version 2]

This may be an umpopular choice, but I'd say jake roberts vs Honky tonk man... ####, I'd say jake roberts vs anyone. You see, jake wasn't a great wrestler, he wasn't good looking and, on top of that, he was a drug head. but he had that special gift that when he was wrestling smeone, he'd literally put the spotlight on his opponent by a mere mean look.

 

that's psychology.

[Guest theWCWRaider]

I agree totally with Flair Vs. Steamboat being bigger than the fed it was apart of.

 

I also like the Midnight Express Vs. The Rock N' Roll Express, Blanchard Vs. Magnum, and The Horsemen Vs. Dusty.

 

In the WWF I'd have to go Savage Steamboat as the best feud.

[Guest Daredevil21]

I wasn't saying that Savage/Hogan was the BEST feud, per say, it was just one of the better ones that I felt like going into detail about. Some of the other ones that come into mind are Savage/Steamboat and Steamboat/Snake.

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

I have to go with Piper/Adonis.  It didn't produce the matches that Savage & Steamboat had, but the buildup was amazing.  Plus, we didnt't have to go through sketches of Piper getting his voice back.

[Guest Gimli 1138]

Even though I was born when the WWF was booming in the 80s, I have collected some old WWF tapes and seen many WWF feuds. I have two favorites:

 

Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat vs. Macho Man Randy Savage: What HASN'T been said about this feud? Even though it really had two major matches (The one where Savage "Injured" Steamboat and the ***** classic from WM III), the build-up OWNED ALL. The ability to make Steamboat's "injury" like that believable is just amazing, and it really made Savage the credible insane heel. That's what ruled about WM III. You had two matches (the other being Hogan vs. Andre) that you just had to see, be it name value or storytelling. During the Hulkamania, it was just grand for Steamboat and Savage to have a feud that can completely shadow the Hulkster.

 

Hulk Hogan vs. Macho Man Randy Savage: Just like Daredevil said, this was the equivalent of Rock/Austin. Two huge WWF Superstars going back and forth for the WWF Title. I just have to point out that Macho Man is great as a face AND a heel. ####, Macho Man made me care about George Steele! Savage was on fire in the 80s, and could do no wrong. Hogan was the ultimate babyface. Say your prayers, eat your vitamins, and drink your milk. Compelling, no? The idea of these two forming (Mega-Powers) then breaking up violently was pure booking genius. Adding Miss Elizabeth in was an added attraction. Even though it was obvious who would win, it was still a classic feud.

[Guest HoffmanHBK]

First of all, mad props to DD for spelling "feud" correctly.

 

As far as old-school feuds, I liked the angle where Rick Rude was hitting on Jake's wife.  Man, that shit was insane, and then Jake comes out all pissed off...classic.

 

####, I miss Rick Rude.

[Guest Banky]

Ted Dibiase vs. Hulk Hogan

 

This feud spanned from 1987-1993.  They always hated each other, and Dibiase was always trying to shortchange Hogan.  The evil Hebner with Andre winning the title, Money Inc. taking out Brutas, Zeus, ect...were all examples of it.

 

Its a shame Hogan is still wrestling and annoying people, while Dibiase is long out of the business.  I still wouldn't mind Dibiase being either a commentator or manager.  But I guess what he is doing now is good in its own right.

[Guest Silent Bob]

Jake Roberts vs. Rick Rude!

An awesome angle with Rude coming on to Jake's wife and the heat between these two was amazing!

 

The Hart Foundation vs The British Bulldogs.

Danny Davis Rules!

[Guest Drury37]

Did anybody mention Piper and Snuka yet.That whole coconut thing was awesome!!!

Thanks.

[Guest Tony149]

Savage & Hogan had one of the all-time greatest feuds in WWF & wrestling history in the '80s, so they're my WWF pick. BUT...IMHO, the best feud of the '80s was no doubt Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat vs. "Nature Boy" Ric Flair. hect, Flair had so many great feuds in the '80s i.e. Flair/Funk. Also when the 4 Horsemen were created was one of the greatest things in wrestling history. Almost every stable, if not all have copied the Horsemen style of doing anything & everything to babyfaces.

[Guest vlad]

Sheik vs Slaughter

[Guest Galactic Gigolo]

There are two feuds that I loved.

 

One being the Ted DiBiase vs. Hulk Hogan feud which my fellow Jason Lee fan mentioned, and the Rick Rude vs. Jake Roberts feud.  The feud was just so risque for 1980's WWF, where they actually mentioned something having to do with S-E-X.

 

And by the way, Piper vs. Snuka wasn't that good of a feud.  He hit him over the head with a coconut, but no longterm feud ever came out of it.

[Guest Nevermortal]

I liked when the MEGAPOWERS EXPLODED~!

[Guest Daredevil21]

Lets not all forget just why that Jake/Rude feud ended so suddenly. Rude was really banging Jake's wife in real life. Another feud that I thought was just good in storyline, but not really match wise was Hogan/Orndorff. When Orndorff turned on Hogan, there were so many people who were genuinely surprised and pissed off. They didn't have many great matches, but the storyline was one of the few things from WWF 1986 that I can actually remember.

[Guest Cut My Music]

Well, Silent Bob beat me to saying Roberts vs Rude but that is my choice.

[Guest Daredevil21]

As much as I like the Jake/Rude feud and the "mature" storyline of the time, I honestly can't remember them ever having a great or maybe even good match. The storyline was solid and Jake could get the rest over with his promos, but when it came to actual match quality, they were pretty boring, at least the ones that I've seen are. But then again, Jake made all of his feuds memorable with his promos alone, which is a good thing because with the exception of his WWF feuds with Steamboat and Savage, he usually had pretty bad matches.

[Guest Banky]

What made the Rude/Roberts fued so legendary was the initiating factor of it.  The factor of Rude hitting on Jake's wife and how that evolved into Rude wearing Jake's wife face airbrushed on his trunks.  Thus Rude began wearing those awesome airbrushed trunks that will never be topped...EVER.

 

Those memories are better entrenched in marks minds moreso than good matches.  Well at that age, I didn't even know what I good match was.  Back yonder, I marked out when I saw Virgil vs. Hogan on WWF Superstars on Saturday Morning

[Guest Daredevil21]

I totally agree that as a mark, I cared very little for the actual match as I did for the story surrounding it. And hey man, don't be embarrassed that you marked out when you saw Vrgil v. Hogan. Virgil was a pretty good wrestler back in the day. Actually, he was a better wrestler in the handful of matches he had as the bodyguard of Ted Dibiase, than he did once he broke on out as a singles wrestler. He wasn't in as good of shape and had lost some of his ring skills by time he dumbped Dibiase in early 1991.

[Guest Tony149]

Speaking of Rude's airbrushed tights, I remember him wearing tights with Jake's wife face right in the middle of his penis. What was funny is the fact Rude must have been excited, since, his "guys" were straight in her mouth. I think it happened on a Saturday Night's Main Event sometime in 1988.

[Guest Banky]

All of these fond memories of Rick Rude make the Val Venis gimmick all that much more worse.  Its a blatant, cheap, unsuccesful, boring rip-off of Rude.  Nothing will ever top his schtick.  With Rude in the 80's, the WWF needs to take the approach that less is more.  Dump the Godfather, Venis, and Chuck&Billy gimmicks.  Too many sex-orientated gimmicks waters the idea down.  With Rude, less was more.  Thats why his gimmick's memory isn't watered down with similar lame gimmicks of the time

[Guest Tony149]

Rude did indeed have an awesome gimmick. He got TONS of heat (Especially in WCW) for his "What I'll like to have right now...is for all you fat, out of shape [insert cheap shot at fans here], keep the nosie down while I take my robe off to show you what a real sexy man is supposed to look like...Hit the music!" line. Man, I miss Rick Rude.

[Guest Kagato Otaku]

Venis isn't even in the same galaxy as Rude. And Val's "Rude Awakening" skits are deadly dull, as he doesn't have a guy playing carnival barker like Bobby Heenan to back him up.

[Guest areacode212]

Hey, I never knew Rick Rude was banging Cheryl Roberts in real life. And I just realized that there was no mention of her in Beyond The Mat. I guess that's why.

[Guest Banky]

Are you shitting me? Rude was fucking Jake's wife? If he was, that explains so much....

 

The saddest part of Rude's death is that he would probably be wrestling right now, ala Curt Hennig.

[Guest areacode212]

I thought Rude had some kind of neck injury, which is why he didn't do a whole lot physically in his final ECW/WWF/WCW run.

[Guest Banky]

He was training very hard for his inring return at the time of his death.  Supposedly, he was in the best shape of his life.

 

But was Rude really fucking Jake's wife? I understood that Rude was a faithful family man

[Guest Tony149]

Rude was indeed banging Jake's wife. He may have been single back then. I don't know if he was ever married.

 

Too bad Rick died getting ready for a comeback. He would of done well, if not better than his last wrestling run in 1994.