10 Sweetest Examples Of WWE Payback
5. Breathing Fire
“Come not between the dragon, and his wrath” - King Lear
For a verrry long time, WrestleMania 3’s standout match between ‘the Macho Man’ Randy Savage and Ricky ‘The Dragon’ Steamboat was considered the best match in WrestleMania history.
From all appearances, people are going for the Undertaker’s first bout against Shawn Michaels these days. Still, that doesn’t affect the astonishing nature of the Savage/Steamboat contest, especially considering the time period involved. 1987 WWF was not a haven for technical masterclasses, let’s put it that way.
In amongst all the accolades given to the match itself, people tend to forget that the match was the culmination of a long and bitter feud between the two men. On an episode of Superstars in November 1986, Savage barely scraped a win over Steamboat for his Intercontinental Championship when the Dragon was counted out - and ‘the Macho Man’ being who he was, assaulted Steamboat as he was greeting fans at ringside on his way out. He injured Steamboat’s throat with the ring bell, keeping him out of competition until January.
During the intervening period, Savage would gloat about having ended Steamboat’s career - that is, until the babyface hero reappeared, saving George ‘The Animal’ Steele from the same kind of injury he’d received, and threatening revenge. The stage as set for their WrestleMania match, which completely stole the show as well as providing sweet catharsis for the good guy.
Best of all was the callback to that first post-match beatdown. Steele was in Steamboat’s corner for the match, and saved him from yet another larynx injury with the ring bell, paying him back for the rescue back in January and allowing Steamboat to pick up the victory, in the comeback of the year.
Of course, this ended Savage’s incredible, iconic 414 day run with the title. The Dragon was earmarked for an equally long babyface run, but upset management by asking for time off, and would drop the title to the Honky Tonk Man two months later. The rest is history… it just wasn’t the Dragon’s history.