Mega Powers
The Mega Powers was a tag team in the World Wrestling Federation from 1987 to 1989, consisting of Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage, and managed by Savage's wife, Miss Elizabeth. Lust and jealousy surrounding her led to the team's demise and subsequent feud, culminating in a match at WrestleMania V. They briefly reformed in World Championship Wrestling in 1994 as The Monster Maniacs before returning to their original name. They then interacted regularly thereafter as both teammates and rivals, particularly as members of the New World Order, until their departures from WCW in 2000.
History
World Wrestling Federation (1987–1993)
Formation (1987)
Prior to the fall of 1987, Hogan and Savage were bitter enemies. In fact, from late 1985 through mid-summer 1987, the two often wrestled for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. Hogan was able to defeat Savage on many of these occasions, although Savage gained some important countout and disqualification victories over Hogan as well. While Hogan was the most popular star in the WWF during most of this time, Savage—who was the WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion for many of their matches in 1986 and early 1987—had gained a strong following even during his heel days, and by July 1987, was starting to get more cheers than boos. A slow face turn for Savage was beginning, and gained credibility when an angle was started involving The Honky Tonk Man began making disparaging comments about Savage. To aid in Savage's face turn, the WWF began booking him against various heels, including King Kong Bundy and Killer Khan, with those matches taking place prior to his first match against Honky.The Mega Powers officially formed their alliance, then, on the October 3, 1987 Saturday Night's Main Event XII, when Savage sought to win the Intercontinental Championship from Honky Tonk Man. When Savage hit his diving elbow drop finisher on Honky for the pin, The Hart Foundation came in and attacked Savage, getting Honky disqualified.
When Honky shoved Miss Elizabeth to the mat, who was trying to stop them, she ran away to the backstage area; meanwhile, Honky completed his attempt to break his guitar over Savage's head. Shortly afterward, Miss Elizabeth returned with Savage's former rival Hulk Hogan, who came and saved Savage from the assault. Afterwards, Savage extended his hand in friendship to Hogan, who accepted and the three paraded around the ring with their hands adjoined. Their alliance solidified Savage's change into a fan favorite, which had been brewing for weeks as fan support grew for him. Later that night, during a backstage interview with Gene Okerlund, Savage and Hogan shook hands again and Savage referred to themselves for the first time as the Mega Powers. Hogan stated that "the combination of 'Hulkamania' and 'Macho Madness' may become the most powerful force in WWF history".
Over the next four months, Hogan and Savage would team up several times. The first being at a house show in Vancouver, BC, on November 10, 1987. It was a six-man tag team match with Hogan and Savage teaming with Jim Duggan to defeat the team of King Kong Bundy, Rick Rude and Harley Race. Their second tag team match was held in Huntsville, Alabama on January 5, 1988. It was a dark match at a television taping where Hogan and Savage defeated the team of Honky Tonk Man and the Hart Foundation in a handicap match. Another six-man tag team match was held in Montreal on February 8, 1988, with Hogan and Savage teaming up with Ricky Steamboat to defeat the Honky Tonk Man and the Hart Foundation.
On the March 12, 1988 episode of Saturday Night's Main Event XV, Savage wrestled Ted DiBiase in a singles match. DiBiase was accompanied by Virgil and André The Giant. Halfway through the match the referee ejected Virgil from ringside for outside interference. The match ended when Andre took advantage of the referee being incapacitated and rammed Savage into the ringpost. When the referee came to he counted Savage out of the ring. Following the match, Virgil returned to the ring and joined DiBiase and Andre in a 3-on-1 beating of Savage. Miss Elizabeth ran away from ringside and when she returned she was with Hulk Hogan, who ran into the ring carrying a steel chair. Hogan saved Savage from any further attacks by chasing the trio out of the ring. Afterwards, Hogan helped Savage back to his feet.
WrestleMania IV (1988)
A tournament was made to decide a new WWF World Heavyweight Champion after Hogan "lost" the title to André the Giant at The Main Event I on February 5, 1988. André immediately surrendered the belt to Ted DiBiase. It was revealed that DiBiase had hired referee Dave Hebner's twin brother, Earl, to pretend to be Dave and give Hogan a bogus three count when Hulk's shoulder was clearly off the mat before the count of three. Between the referee cheating Hogan, André forfeiting the title and DiBiase's illegal attempt to buy the title, this caused WWF President Jack Tunney to declare the championship vacant.Hogan and André were both given byes in the first round of the tournament, but fought to a double-disqualification in the quarterfinals. This had the side effect of giving Ted DiBiase a bye in the semifinals. Ultimately, Savage and DiBiase met in the final match of the tournament. DiBiase did all that he could to take out Savage, but he couldn't keep him down. Savage eventually went to Miss Elizabeth, whispering something to her. She ran backstage, as the fans were trying to figure out what was going on.
A few minutes later, Miss Elizabeth re-emerged with Hogan. André and DiBiase seemed shocked by the turn of events. Hogan got revenge on DiBiase by hitting him in the back with a steel chair while André had distracted the referee by preventing Savage from getting to the ropes while locked in DiBiase's Million Dollar Dream. Savage was able to hit his diving elbow drop finisher and got the three count. After the match, they celebrated as a group.
A few months later, with Hogan on leave of absence from the WWF and Savage feuding with DiBiase over the title, DiBiase and André attacked Savage during an interview segment prompting Savage to challenge the two to a tag team match against him and a partner of his choosing, which was accepted. Savage then revealed that his partner would be the returning Hogan and that they would meet André and DiBiase at SummerSlam.
SummerSlam (1988)
Their official televised debut match as a tag team was at SummerSlam '88. They went against André the Giant and Ted DiBiase in a match billed as "The Mega Powers versus the Mega Bucks". Jesse Ventura, a longtime supporter of Savage's but a longtime adversary of Hogan's, served as referee for this match. The match didn't go as planned for the Mega Bucks. Miss Elizabeth exposed her assets in skimpy panties after stripping off her skirt to the heels, resulting in the Mega Powers coming back to win the match. Ventura counted but hesitated at two, so Savage forced the three-count.Feud with The Twin Towers and split (1988–1989)
At the 1988 Survivor Series, Hogan and Savage captained a team that faced a five-member squad headed by Big Boss Man and Akeem. Hogan and Savage eventually won the match ; during the post-match posing, Hogan again began acting friendly toward Miss Elizabeth, visibly annoying Savage. In a post-match interview, pro-heel commentator Jesse Ventura interviewed Savage, playing up Savage's growing anger regarding Hogan's behavior toward Miss Elizabeth. However, Miss Elizabeth was not the only reason Hogan and Savage had issues with each other during their stint as a team.The two had an uneasy relationship, particularly when it became obvious Hogan would act friendly and/or protective toward Miss Elizabeth. On Saturday Night's Main Event XVII and XX, Hogan was insistent on Miss Elizabeth appearing at ringside for his matches versus King Haku, Akeem, and Bad News Brown. In the latter instance, Miss Elizabeth's was endangered by Akeem and his allies, Slick and King Haku when Big Boss Man grabbed Miss Elizabeth and placed her in handcuffs; before Big Boss Man could use his nightstick to strike Miss Elizabeth, Savage ran out and made the save. While Savage showed concern for Miss Elizabeth, he disregarded Hogan, who was still reeling from being attacked by The Big Boss Man and Akeem.
At the 1989 Royal Rumble, Hogan accidentally eliminated Savage in the Royal Rumble match when he went to put out Bad News Brown. The two appeared to make amends at the behest of their manager, but Savage was clearly upset after the event.
Things came to a full boil on February 3, 1989, on NBC's prime-time special, The Main Event II when the two wrestled The Twin Towers. During the match, Akeem threw Savage out of the ring. Savage was thrown onto Miss Elizabeth, knocking her unconscious. Hogan saw what happened and carried Miss Elizabeth from the ring to the medical area. When Miss Elizabeth was revived, she implored a distraught Hogan to return to the ring to help Savage, who had been left to fight the two gargantuans on his own for several minutes. Hogan eventually called for the tag, but Savage, who was furious with being abandoned during the match, slapped Hogan in the face. After some choice words to a confused Hogan, he took his world championship belt, and stormed back to the locker room. Hogan defeated The Twin Towers by himself. After the match, Hogan went to check on Miss Elizabeth. Savage was back there too, who was caught in mid-tirade yelling to Miss Elizabeth that as world champion he was tired of taking a backseat to both Hogan and Miss Elizabeth in the Mega Powers pecking order. Upon Hogan's arrival, Savage turned his frustration to him, accused Hogan of trying to steal Miss Elizabeth from him, and manipulate the belt away from him. Hogan implored Miss Elizabeth to try and talk some sense into him before Savage attacked him by hitting him in the face with the title belt, sealing the end to their partnership and beginning their feud.