The year is 1991. Divas like Madonna, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carey are trading the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 back-and-forth. "The Silence of the Lambs" is dominating the box office when came to film, and in the World Wrestling Federation, WrestleMania has had to be moved from a 100,000 seat coliseum to an arena which held just over 16,000 people.WWE (formerly known as WWF) WrestleMania 7 was a show that was supposed to be the biggest event the company had ever put on, even surpassing the gargantuan WrestleMania 3. However, low ticket sales that were disguised as the company fearing for its own safety due to Sgt. Slaughter's Iraqi sympathizer gimmick, led to WrestleMania 7 moving from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, to the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena across the street. This was arguably for the best as the venue was packed to the rafters in anticipation of two very big matches, the main event between Hulk Hogan and Sgt. Slaughter for the WWE Championship, and the Career Ending Match between the "Macho King" Randy Savage and The Ultimate Warrior.Savage had cost Warrior his WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble, something Savage was hoping would catapult him back into the title scene after chasing the top prize in WWE since WrestleMania 5. That wouldn't end up happening, and in the hopes of putting an end to any and all nonsense surrounding the two men, Warrior challenged Savage to a Career Ending Match at WrestleMania 7. The loser would have to walk away from wrestling all together, while the winner would likely move on to challenge either Hogan or Slaughter in the coming months.We've been rolling back the years on Wrestling Inc. over the past few weeks as we get ourselves excited for WrestleMania 42, and with WrestleMania 7 celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, there is no better time to go back and watch one of the greatest matches from the early days of WrestleMania. Without further ado, let's shine a spotlight on the Career Ending Match between Randy Savage and The Ultimate Warrior from WrestleMania 7.
Everyone knows that The Ultimate Warrior wasn't the best wrestler in between the ropes. He could get the people hyped up, hit a couple of power moves, and leg it out of the arena before he or the crowd could have the time to catch their breath. When matches went longer than just a few minutes, that's when he was exposed to be, well, not that good. However, there were a few occasions that Warrior rose up to, and during his entire career, he never reached the lofty heights of his performance at WrestleMania 7.What helped right from the off was the fact that for the first time in his WWE career, Warrior walked to the ring rather than running, meaning that he only got blown up about halfway through rather than the first few minutes. Realistically, all of the heavy lifting in this match is done by the "Macho King." This is an all-time classic performance from Randy Savage who manages to squeeze more out of the Warrior in 20 minutes than anyone else in wrestling. He basically positions himself as the dastardly heel who has to resort to underhanded tactics in order to gain the advantage. After all, Warrior was able to catch Savage, who wasn't a small man by any stretch, place him down gently, and slap him across the face as a way of saying "You're not going to get me that easily."Savage also had the help of one Sensational Queen Sherri at ringside, who appeared to be wearing a see-through chandelier. But that didn't stop "The Queen" from dishing out some punishment of her own, repeatedly getting Warrior's business until Savage could make a comeback. As time went on, it looked as if there was no hope for Warrior as Savage wore him down, avoided all of his big power moves like the Running Splash, and proceeded to go to the top for his patented Elbow Drop. Savage hit five Elbow Drops, but to the amazement and some annoyance of the fans, Warrior kicked out. Savage was able to return the favor on the kickout front, being hit by a pair of Lariats, a Press Slam, and a Running Splash, only to fire his shoulder up at the count of two.Warrior's answer to this was to talk to his hands and the sky, probably asking "What more do I have to do to beat this man?" but with more words that only exist in The Ultimate Warrior dictionary and thesaurus. Savage was able to get back into it by knocking Warrior to the floor, but Warrior wasn't pleased about his conversation with the sky being interrupted, and avoided Savage who was coming down off the top for a Chop Block to the outside. Warrior received word from whoever he was speaking to, and that word was to finish the job. Warrior hit three shoulder tackles, which Gorilla Monsoon called "A Spear Job" at one point, but the main thing was that it did the job, and Warrior put his foot on an exhausted Savage to get the win and his hand raised in victory.
Wrestling retirements are almost always empty promises. Wrestlers promise to hang up their boots for good, but due to missing the roar of the crowd, the action in between the ropes, and most importantly, the money, those retirements last about as long as a normal Ultimate Warrior match.That's effectively what happened with Randy Savage. After the bout, Sherri was irate that her meal ticket had just been taken away from her and proceeded to kick Savage while he was down. While this was going on, Miss Elizabeth, who hadn't been seen since WrestleMania 6, took it upon herself to jump the guardrail and throw Sherri out of the ring to save her beloved "Macho Man." Savage and Elizabeth embraced in one of the most heart-warming moments in wrestling history, just look at the people crying at ringside to see just how much it meant to people to see the first true power couple of wrestling finally reunite.Elizabeth was a big reason for the stipulation as Savage was genuinely considering retirement so that he and Liz could try for a baby, but in the end, Savage never ended up having any children throughout his entire life. Immediately after WrestleMania 7, Savage jetted off to Japan to wrestle for Super World of Sports, something that WWE passed off as The Ultimate Warrior generously allowing Savage to see out his WWE contract before actually retiring. It's a good job that Savage never actually retired as he had to step in on behalf of the Warrior for some house shows in the summer of 1991, and after Warrior was iced out of the company after SummerSlam for demanding more money from Vince McMahon, Savage was once again back on TV to fill that void.Despite having a Career Ending Match at WrestleMania 7, Savage ended up winning the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 8 in another all-time classic bout, this time with Ric Flair. Warrior also made his return to WWE at that same show to save Hulk Hogan, who was on the way out to avoid the heat being piled on to the company over the alleged steroid abuse that ran wild behind the scenes, but Warrior was not long for the WWE at this time. After refusing to turn heel, bad merchandise numbers, and failing a drug test, Warrior was officially let go from WWE by the end of 1992. He would return in 1996, but the less said about that run the better.For as brilliant a moment as this match and its aftermath was, nothing really stuck. Warrior was gone by the end of the next year, Savage continued to wrestle full-time for another decade, and even the reunion with Elizabeth was bittersweet as they ended up getting divorced in mid-1992.
