The Mega Powers Explode, Explained

Background

The Mega Powers began, as most wrestling alliances do, with a rescue. On the October 3, 1987 episode of Saturday Night's Main Event (taped September 23), Honky Tonk Man and the Hart Foundation attacked Randy Savage after a match. Elizabeth ran backstage and brought Hulk Hogan to make the save.[1] Afterward, Savage extended his hand. Hogan accepted. In a backstage promo with Gene Okerlund, Savage coined the name: "the Mega Powers."[1] Their first house show tag match followed on November 10, 1987 in Vancouver,[1] but the alliance wouldn't take center stage until events forced the WWF to restructure its entire main-event picture.

That restructuring began at The Main Event on February 5, 1988 — the NBC special that drew 33 million viewers, still the largest audience in the history of American professional wrestling television.[2] Andre the Giant pinned Hogan with a fast count from referee Dave Hebner (actually his twin brother Earl, paid off by Ted DiBiase), ending Hogan's four-year title reign.[2] Andre immediately surrendered the belt to DiBiase, and WWF President Jack Tunney declared the title vacant, setting up a fourteen-man tournament for WrestleMania IV.[2]

The conventional explanation for why Hogan agreed to drop the title centers on his movie career. Bruce Prichard has stated on his Something to Wrestle With podcast that Hogan needed time off during the summer of 1988 to film No Holds Barred, which began principal photography in May 1988 in Atlanta.[3][4] Vince McMahon needed his top star "free and clear" of champion obligations while he was away shooting. The timing also coincided with a personal milestone: Hogan's wife Linda was pregnant with their first child, Brooke, born May 5, 1988 — just six weeks after WrestleMania IV.[5] No published source directly links the pregnancy to the booking decision, but the lighter schedule that came with the Mega Powers tag-team format — where Hogan could remain on television in a prominent role without carrying the championship and its attendant house show obligations — served both purposes.

The WrestleMania IV tournament (March 27, 1988, Trump Plaza, Atlantic City) was engineered to crown Savage.[6] Hogan was eliminated in the quarterfinals via disqualification against Andre, clearing the path. Savage fought through the bracket to the final against DiBiase. In the deciding match, DiBiase locked Savage in the Million Dollar Dream; while the referee was distracted by Andre's interference at ringside, Hogan hit DiBiase with a steel chair, freeing Savage to hit the diving elbow drop for the pin and the title.[6] The image that closed the show — Savage hoisting the belt with Hogan and Elizabeth celebrating alongside him — was the Mega Powers fully formed.

There's a backstory to Savage even being in the world title picture. Prichard has said Vince McMahon saw Savage as "that next face of the company" and the "package of Randy and Elizabeth" as marketable enough to carry ticket sales and merchandise during Hogan's hiatus.[7] But some accounts hold that Savage was originally slated to reclaim the Intercontinental Championship, and that Honky Tonk Man's refusal to drop that belt redirected Savage into the world title program instead.[8] The Honky Tonk Man detail isn't universally corroborated, but it aligns with what's known about his historically long IC reign and the backstage friction it caused.

Build-up

The seeds of the split were planted almost from the moment the alliance began, and the WWF devoted nearly a full year of television to building hairline fractures in the Mega Powers before finally breaking the thing open. It was long-term storytelling of a kind the company rarely attempted.[9]

SummerSlam 1988 (August 29, Madison Square Garden) was the first major pay-per-view test for the Mega Powers as a unit.[10] They faced the Mega Bucks (DiBiase and Andre the Giant) in the main event, with Jesse "The Body" Ventura serving as the special guest referee. The match was solid, but the finish is what mattered for the storyline. Elizabeth, at Savage's direction, climbed up on the apron and removed her skirt to reveal a one-piece swimsuit, distracting both the heels and Ventura.[10] Savage hit the top-rope elbow on DiBiase, Hogan followed with the leg drop, and Ventura reluctantly counted — Savage actually forced Ventura's arm down for the third count.[10] The Mega Powers won. But Hogan's reaction to Elizabeth afterward was notably enthusiastic, celebrating with her in a way that planted the first visible seed of what was coming.

Through the fall of 1988, weekly television built the tension methodically. Jesse Ventura, on commentary, was the audience's guide — consistently noting that he smelled a "rat" in the Mega Powers, pointing out moments of friction that the babyface announcers waved away.

At Survivor Series 1988 (November 24, Richfield Coliseum, Ohio), Team Mega Powers (Hogan, Savage, Hercules, Koko B. Ware, and Hillbilly Jim) defeated Team Twin Towers (Akeem, Big Boss Man, Ted DiBiase, Haku, and Red Rooster).[11] Both Hogan and Savage survived the match — Savage pinned Red Rooster and DiBiase, while Hogan pinned Haku with the leg drop for the final fall.[11] The key moment came after the bell: Hogan, as he always did, played to the crowd and acted overly friendly toward Elizabeth. Savage's annoyance was visible. Ventura seized on it in a post-match interview with Savage, probing the tension.[11]

Saturday Night's Main Event XIX (taped December 7, aired January 7, 1989, USF Sun Dome, Tampa) escalated things significantly.[12] Hogan wrestled Akeem in a singles match and won by disqualification when Big Boss Man interfered. Elizabeth ran backstage screaming for Savage to help, but Savage stayed in the locker room, telling Gene Okerlund, "Hogan will be okay" and "Hogan had this covered."[12] After the DQ, Boss Man and Akeem double-teamed Hogan. Then Boss Man handcuffed Elizabeth when she tried to intervene at ringside. Only then did Savage sprint to the ring, clearing the heels with a steel chair.[12] The distinction was telling: Savage wouldn't lift a finger for Hogan, but he came running the instant Elizabeth was in danger. Afterward, Savage questioned Elizabeth as she tended to Hogan's injuries. Ventura on commentary: he smelled a rat.

The Royal Rumble (January 15, 1989, The Summit, Houston, attendance 19,000) provided the penultimate escalation.[13] During the thirty-man Rumble match, Hogan and Savage were both in the ring, working together to eliminate opponents. In the chaos, Hogan accidentally eliminated Savage while trying to toss Bad News Brown over the top rope.[13] Savage hit the floor and erupted — furious, screaming at Hogan, nearly starting a physical confrontation. Elizabeth physically positioned herself between them, hands on Savage's chest, and they appeared to reconcile.[13] But the damage was done.

The Main Event II (February 3, 1989, Bradley Center, Milwaukee — live on NBC, drawing a 11.6 Nielsen rating and approximately 19.9 million viewers) was the detonation point.[14] The Mega Powers faced the Twin Towers (Akeem and Big Boss Man, with Slick) in the main event. During the match, Akeem threw Savage out of the ring and onto Elizabeth, knocking her unconscious.[1][14] Hogan immediately abandoned the match to tend to her. He picked her up and carried her to the trainer's room in the back.

Savage was left alone in the ring to fight both Twin Towers for several minutes.[14] When Hogan finally returned and called for a tag, Savage slapped him across the face and stormed off. In the trainer's room, Mean Gene Okerlund caught Savage mid-tirade. Savage yelled that as World Champion he was tired of taking a backseat to both Hogan and Elizabeth in the "Mega Powers pecking order."[14] When Hogan arrived in the doorway, Savage accused him of trying to steal Elizabeth and manipulate the belt away from him — then attacked Hogan, hitting him in the face with the WWF Championship belt and leaving him bleeding on the floor.[1][14]

From February through April, the WWF hammered the build relentlessly. Savage aligned himself fully as a heel, cutting promos about Hogan's betrayal, about how he'd been the real champion all along and Hogan had been using him. Hogan played the wounded friend. The "Mega Powers Explode" tagline became the defining marketing hook for WrestleMania V, and every episode of Superstars, every promo spot, every house show interview drove home the same message: these two men were going to settle it on the biggest stage in wrestling.

The Matches

WrestleMania V — Atlantic City Convention Center (billed as Trump Plaza), April 2, 1989 — was built entirely around the blow-off, branded "The Mega Powers Explode."[15] The entire card was built in service of that main event. The undercard existed, but the show drew its 18,946 fans and an estimated 767,000 pay-per-view buys on the strength of Hogan vs. Savage for the WWF Championship.[15][16]

Elizabeth announced beforehand that she would not choose sides. She was escorted to a neutral corner at ringside, belonging to neither man. That visual choice — Elizabeth as contested territory, physically positioned between them — was the emotional frame for the match.

The match ran 17:54.[15] Savage controlled large portions, targeting Hogan's throat and eyes, working with the precision and aggression that made him one of the best in-ring performers of his generation. He drove Hogan to the outside, hit a flying double axe-handle from the top rope to the floor, rammed him into the guardrail. Hogan sold more than he typically did — the story required him to be sympathetic, the wounded friend fighting not just for a title but for something personal.

Partway through the match, Elizabeth got caught between the two men — Hogan tried to send Savage into the ring post, and Elizabeth stepped in to prevent it. Referee Dave Hebner ejected her from ringside as a distraction.[15] She was gone for the climax.

The finish sequence: Savage shoved Hebner into Hogan, knocking the official down. With no ref, Savage climbed to the top rope and hit his signature flying elbow drop — the move that had put away virtually everyone he'd ever faced. He covered Hogan. No referee to count. Hebner crawled back into position. Hogan kicked out at two.[15] The Hulk Up began — the finger point, the three punches, the Irish whip, the big boot, the leg drop. Pin. One-two-three. New champion.

Elizabeth returned to the ring after the match. She looked at Savage, who was being helped to the back. Then she walked to Hogan and embraced him.[15] She chose the winner. In kayfabe, it was a triumphant reunion of good guys. In the context of the real relationships involved — Savage's actual wife choosing to embrace his actual professional rival on national television — it was considerably more complicated.

Aftermath

The loss sent Savage into one of the most compelling heel runs in WWF history. He aligned almost immediately with Sensational Sherri Martel as his new manager — Sherri interrupted an Elizabeth interview after WrestleMania V, leading to a confrontation where Savage hit Hogan with a steel chair.[17] He adopted the "Macho King" persona after defeating Jim Duggan for the King of the Ring title in September 1989.[17] The Savage-Sherri pairing was, in many ways, superior to the Savage-Elizabeth dynamic from a pure performance standpoint. Sherri was loud, scheming, physically involved in matches, and she could work — she took bumps that Elizabeth never would have.

Savage remained in the upper card but stepped away from the WWF Championship picture. He feuded with Jim Duggan through 1989, worked a mixed-tag program with Dusty Rhodes at WrestleMania VI, and eventually built toward the most dramatic match of this chapter of his career: the retirement match against the Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania VII (March 1991), which ended with Elizabeth reuniting with Savage at ringside in one of the most emotionally charged moments in company history.[17]

Hogan's second reign as champion lasted 364 days.[18] He feuded with Zeus in a No Holds Barred movie tie-in — tagging with Brutus Beefcake against Zeus and Savage at SummerSlam 1989 — before losing the title to the Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania VI on April 1, 1990.[18]

The Hogan-Savage rivalry resurfaced at WrestleMania VIII (April 5, 1992, Hoosier Dome, Indianapolis) in a card that featured Savage defeating Ric Flair for the WWF Championship in one main event and Hogan wrestling Sid Justice in the other.[19] Elizabeth appeared during the Savage-Flair match in an emotional reunion moment, though in real life their marriage was collapsing — she left the company by month's end.[19]

In WCW, Hogan and Savage were allies again briefly in early 1996 before Hogan's heel turn at Bash at the Beach (July 7, 1996), where he attacked Savage and formed the nWo.[20] Their first major singles match in six years came at Halloween Havoc 1996.[20] By 1997, Savage had formed the nWo Wolfpac with Kevin Nash, splitting from Hogan's faction.[20] The rivalry kept going, in different forms, until Savage left WCW — the real-life tensions between them always giving the on-screen version an edge that audiences could feel even when the storylines around it were weaker.

Behind the Scenes

To understand the Mega Powers storyline, you have to understand the marriage at its center. Randy Savage — born Randy Mario Poffo on November 15, 1952 — married Elizabeth Ann Hulette on December 30, 1984, before either of them arrived in the WWF.[21] By all accounts from people who worked with them, and there are many, Savage was profoundly possessive and jealous in his personal life. This wasn't a character trait he turned on for television.

George "The Animal" Steele called Savage "the most jealous man I had ever met," noting that "there were times when he would lock her in the dressing room."[22] Bushwhacker Luke has recounted being confronted by Savage for allegedly looking at Elizabeth: "Nobody looks at my Liz."[23] The Ultimate Warrior observed that Savage "did not allow a line leading to over-friendly contact" with other talent.[22] These aren't isolated stories — they're corroborated across dozens of shoot interviews from the era. Savage kept Elizabeth isolated backstage at events, monitored who she spoke to, and became agitated if male performers so much as made eye contact with her.

The on-screen jealousy angle, then, wasn't created from nothing. It was a heightened version of a real dynamic that everyone in the company could see. Booking Savage as jealous of Hogan's relationship with Elizabeth worked precisely because it was rooted in behavior the audience could sense was authentic, even if they didn't know the backstage details. What the audience never fully appreciated was that Elizabeth was performing a version of her actual life on national television — her real husband's real jealousy, directed at his real professional rival, playing out in segments she had to act through week after week.

Savage grew up in the Poffo family, and the family background matters. His father Angelo Poffo was a wrestler and promoter who founded International Championship Wrestling in 1978 — an "outlaw" promotion operating outside the NWA territory system in Kentucky and Tennessee because he felt his sons weren't getting the pushes they deserved from the established promoters.[24] Randy and his brother Lanny dominated the ICW for six years. Growing up in that environment — watching his father fight for bookings, dealing with a business built on handshake deals and broken promises — shaped Savage's worldview. He came into the WWF expecting to be screwed, and the company's structural commitment to Hogan as the top guy confirmed that suspicion at every turn.

Hogan and Savage were never close friends outside of work, though they were closer than later accounts sometimes suggest. The Hogans and the Savages socialized together — Linda Hogan and Elizabeth became friends, which would eventually become a source of enormous pain.[22] But their personalities were fundamentally different. Hogan was gregarious, politically savvy, comfortable working the system; Savage was intense, private, suspicious of everyone's motives. Savage knew that Hogan was the company's franchise player and that no amount of workrate or character work would change that hierarchy.

The Mega Powers angle forced these two men into constant proximity, and the friction was real. Despite Savage holding the WWF Championship, the company still treated Hogan as the top star — playing Hogan's entrance music for Mega Powers matches, for instance.[22] This fed Savage's insecurity and his conviction that Hogan was positioning himself to take the belt back. The WrestleMania V finish deepened the wound. The plan for Savage's reign to be transitional — from Hogan to Hogan, with Savage as the vessel — appears to have been established early.[7] Savage knew it. The question was never whether Hogan would get the belt back but whether the storyline would be good enough to make the transfer feel earned.

There's a persistent account, supported by Brutus Beefcake and Jimmy Hart, that Savage punched Hogan in the face backstage over Elizabeth-related issues during or after the angle.[22] Hogan has always attributed his resulting injury to a "jet ski accident." The story is unresolved — two accounts, irreconcilable, and nobody else was in the room.

The fallout extended well past WrestleMania V. Savage and Elizabeth's marriage survived the angle but never recovered from it. Their divorce in 1992 centered, by Savage's own account, on Elizabeth's growing friendship with Linda Hogan. In a 1993 radio interview with Jim Ross that surfaced years later, Savage blasted Hogan directly: "She was either out with his wife, Linda, or hiding out right over there at their house." He called Hogan "selfish to the umpteenth degree."[25] Hogan denied involvement. The truth is probably somewhere in between — but the on-screen love triangle that made the Mega Powers storyline so compelling had, in Savage's mind, become an off-screen reality.

Elizabeth's later years were difficult. She left the WWF in 1992. On May 1, 2003, Lex Luger called 911 from their townhouse in Marietta, Georgia, reporting that Elizabeth wasn't breathing. She was pronounced dead at WellStar Kennestone Hospital at age forty-two. The cause of death was acute toxicity from a combination of painkillers and vodka, ruled accidental.[26] Just twelve days earlier, police had responded to a domestic dispute at the same address.[26]

Savage and Hogan did not speak for roughly a decade after their professional relationship deteriorated. According to Lanny Poffo, they reconciled about a month before Savage's death, after running into each other at a cardiologist's office in Tampa.[27]

Legacy

The Mega Powers storyline set the template for how the WWF would build main-event programs for years afterward. The slow burn over nearly a year of television, the use of a love triangle as emotional architecture, the deployment of Saturday Night's Main Event and the Royal Rumble as escalation points, and the construction of an entire WrestleMania around a single feud — all of these became standard tools in the company's booking playbook. Before WrestleMania V, the show was built as a variety card with multiple attractions. Afterward, the company understood that a single, deeply built story could carry the event.[9]

WrestleMania V drew 18,946 fans and an estimated 767,000 pay-per-view buys — a 58% increase over WrestleMania IV.[15][7] The show is generally regarded as weaker than WrestleMania III as an overall card, but the main event delivered the emotional payoff that ten months of storytelling demanded. The match itself was never meant to be a technical classic on the level of Savage-Steamboat from WrestleMania III. It was the final act of a story, and it worked as exactly that.

The angle is widely considered one of the greatest long-term storylines in wrestling history. WrestleZone called it "long-term storytelling done right."[9] Bleacher Report published a retrospective ranking the most memorable moments of the feud.[28] Pro Wrestling Illustrated ranked the Mega Powers at number 57 of the 100 best tag teams during the "PWI Years" (2003).[1] The angle's template — jealousy-driven tag team dissolution, built week by week with small escalations that collectively tell a story the audience can track — influenced virtually every major betrayal angle that followed.

Randy Savage died on May 20, 2011, at approximately 9:25 in the morning. He suffered a heart attack while driving his Jeep Wrangler in Seminole, Florida, and crashed into a tree. His wife Barbara — Lynn Payne, whom he'd married on May 10, 2010 — was in the passenger seat.[29] He was fifty-eight. The autopsy found an enlarged heart and coronary arteries more than ninety percent narrowed.[30]

Hogan tweeted: "I'm completely devastated, after over 10 years of not talking with Randy, we've finally started to talk and communicate."[31] In 2015, Hogan inducted Savage into the WWE Hall of Fame.[17] The complexity of their relationship — professional, personal, competitive, resentful, respectful — was left mostly unresolved, as these things usually are. What remained was the work, and the work endures.

See Also

Sources & Further Listening

1. Mega Powers — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mega_Powers
2. André the Giant–Hulk Hogan rivalry — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_the_Giant%E2%80%93Hulk_Hogan_rivalry
3. "Reliving Andre the Giant's Controversial WWE Championship Win" — Bleacher Report. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2613881-reliving-andre-the-giants-controversial-wwe-championship-win-over-hulk-hogan
4. No Holds Barred (1989 film) — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Holds_Barred_(1989_film)
5. Brooke Hogan — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooke_Hogan
6. WrestleMania IV — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WrestleMania_IV
7. "The Summer of Savage: Inside the Macho Man's Explosive Run" — CBS Sports. https://www.cbssports.com/wwe/news/the-summer-of-savage-inside-the-macho-mans-explosive-run-to-the-top-of-wwe-30-years-later/
8. "30 Years Later: Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage — The Greatest Story in History" — FanSided. https://fansided.com/2019/04/02/30-years-later-hulk-hogan-vs-randy-savage-greatest-story-in-history-wrestlemania-5/
9. "Mega Powers Explode: Long-Term Storytelling Done Right" — WrestleZone. https://www.wrestlezone.com/features/legends/1072851-mega-powers-explode-long-term-storytelling-done-right
10. SummerSlam (1988) — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SummerSlam_(1988)
11. Survivor Series (1988) — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivor_Series_(1988)
12. SNME XIX review — Blog of Doom. https://www.blogofdoom.com/2016/09/16/wwf-saturday-nights-main-event-january-7th-1989/
13. Royal Rumble (1989) — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Rumble_(1989)
14. WWF The Main Event — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWF_The_Main_Event
15. WrestleMania V — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WrestleMania_V
16. "Every WWE Pay-Per-View Buyrate" — WrestleTalk. https://wrestletalk.com/stats/every-wwe-pay-per-view-buyrate/
17. Randy Savage — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Savage
18. Hulk Hogan — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulk_Hogan
19. WrestleMania VIII — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WrestleMania_VIII
20. Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage major matches ranked — The Sportster. https://www.thesportster.com/wrestling/hulk-hogan-vs-randy-savage-major-matches-ranked/
21. Miss Elizabeth — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Elizabeth
22. "Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage: The Mega Powers Explained" — Pro Wrestling Stories. https://prowrestlingstories.com/pro-wrestling-stories/hulk-hogan-randy-savage-mega-powers-explained/
23. "Details on Macho Man Randy Savage confronting WWE Hall of Famer for looking at Miss Elizabeth" — Sportskeeda. https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe/news-nobody-looks-liz-details-macho-man-randy-savage-confronting-wwe-hall-famer-looking-miss-elizabeth-exclusive
24. Angelo Poffo — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelo_Poffo
25. "Long-lost 1993 radio interview where Randy Savage blasted Hulk Hogan over Miss Elizabeth divorce" — Wrestling News. https://wrestlingnews.co/wwe-news/long-lost-1993-radio-wwf-interview-where-randy-savage-blasted-hulk-hogan-over-miss-elizabeth-divorce-finally-surfaces/
26. "Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth: Their Tragic True Story" — Pro Wrestling Stories. https://prowrestlingstories.com/pro-wrestling-stories/randy-savage-miss-elizabeth/
27. "Hulk Hogan reconciliation with Randy Savage" — Sportskeeda. https://www.sportskeeda.com/wwe/news-hulk-hogan-reconciliation-randy-savage
28. "Ranking the Most Memorable Moments of Legendary Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage Feud" — Bleacher Report. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2890246-ranking-the-most-memorable-moments-of-legendary-hulk-hogan-vs-randy-savage-feud
29. "Macho Man Randy Savage dead" — TMZ. https://www.tmz.com/2011/05/20/randy-savage-car-accident-macho-man-dead-dies-died-killed-wwe-wrestler-florida/
30. "'Macho Man' Randy Savage autopsy: enlarged heart" — CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2011/US/06/30/florida.macho.man.autopsy/index.html
31. "Hulk Hogan 'devastated' by 'Macho Man' Randy Savage's death" — CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hulk-hogan-devastated-by-macho-man-randy-savages-death/

Further Listening

• Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard — Mega Powers episodes, WrestleMania V episode
• 83 Weeks with Eric Bischoff — WrestleMania V retrospective, Hogan-Savage dynamic in WCW
• The Lapsed Fan — WrestleMania IV and V deep dives (multi-part)
• Grilling JR with Jim Ross — discussions of the Savage-Hogan dynamic and Elizabeth's role
• Dark Side of the Ring (Season 1, Episode 3) — "The Match Made in Heaven" on Savage and Elizabeth