“Macho Man” Randy Savage vs. Jake “The Snake” Roberts
We now enter the final month of 1991 and amazingly enough, we have one last PPV to do and that is this special show entitled This Tuesday in Texas which was an interesting show to have especially since it was less than a week after Survivor Series. As a result, Survivor Series ended up being a glorified pimp show for this show as this felt like the more important show especially given one of the matches was this one. After being out of the ring since Wrestlemania, Randy Savage was finally back in action and he was set to face arguably one of the hottest heels in the company at that time in Jake Roberts as this issue has been brewing since the summer. While it was a bit of a douche move to almost have people overlook Survivor Series and put the focus on this show, you knew that it was going to do fairly well given how hot this feud was.
This feud really kicked off back at Summerslam when during Savage and Elizabeth’s wedding reception, she opened a gift to reveal a cobra and they were attacked by Roberts and the Undertaker only to be saved by Sid Justice. Savage would begin petitioning WWF President Jack Tunney to be reinstated as a wrestler though Tunney would refuse, and Savage would ask the fans to call in and convince Tunney to reinstate him as he continued to vow revenge on Roberts. Savage would resume wrestling on the house shows in October under the alias of “Mr. Madness” and would regularly defeat Roberts, and then after Justice suffered an injury he would also petition Tunney to reinstate Savage to take his place in the Survivor Series match. On the 11/23 Superstars, Savage confronted Roberts who attacked him and tied him in the ropes before unleashing his king cobra which bit Savage in the arm, and at Survivor Series Tunney announced that the cobra was banned from ringside and that Savage would be reinstated as he declared Savage would face Roberts here. He would pull Roberts out of his Survivor Series match as a result and the two men would cut promos on each other at Survivor Series. Again, while it made Survivor Series feel like a lesser show by having the two not wrestle until this show, it did make this show feel important by having Savage make his in-ring return here.
Both men cut really good promos before the match, and Savage gets a big pop from the crowd while Roberts was red hot as a heel as Savage wastes no time and attacks Roberts from behind during his entrance. He rams Roberts into the post and pounds on him before tearing at his face and he throws him into the ring, and he kicks at Roberts and rams him into the buckle before pounding on him in the corner and he tears at his face again. He rakes Roberts’ face across the top rope and whips him into the other corner before hitting a back elbow, and he goes up top and hits an axehandle on Roberts who rolls outside to regroup and Savage follows out after him. He nails Roberts from behind and pounds on him before tearing at his face and he throws him back into the ring, and Roberts begs off as the ref holds Savage back and Roberts gets a shot in before tossing Savage over the top to the floor. Roberts goes outside and pulls Savage to the floor only for Savage to pound on him though Roberts sends him into the post, and both men roll back into the ring only for Roberts to roll back outside and he pulls Savage outside before ramming him into the post twice. Both men roll back into the ring though Savage rolls back outside to regroup and then he returns to the ring, and he tries to battle back only for Roberts to rake the eyes and he hits an atomic drop on Savage. He drives the knee into Savage’s arm repeatedly and tries to tear the bandages off as he rams the arm into the buckle, and he blocks a ram into the buckle as he rams Savage into the buckle before going behind him only for Savage to hit a back elbow. Roberts pounds on the arm only for Savage to catch him ducking with a kick though Roberts recovers first and pounds on Savage, and Savage ducks a short clothesline and nails a high elbow as both men counter a whip and Savage sends Roberts into the corner. Roberts catches Savage with a knee to the face and he hits the short clothesline before setting up for the DDT only for Savage to ram him into the corner, and Roberts collapses to the mat as Savage goes up top and hits the flying elbow which gets the three and he wins the match. After the match, Savage goes outside and grabs a chair only for an official to keep him from bringing it into the ring, and Savage kicks the official away and grabs the bell which he brings into the ring. He grabs at Roberts only for the ref to take the bell away from him and Roberts hits the DDT on Savage, and both men struggle to their feet as Roberts hits a second DDT on Savage and he taunts him before going outside. He starts to head to the back before returning to ringside and he pulls out the bag with the cobra in it which he slides into the ring, and he taunts Savage with the bag as Miss Elizabeth runs down to the ring and she tries to protect Savage. Roberts slaps Savage in the face and yells at Elizabeth as he continues to taunt them and Savage tries to get to his feet, and Roberts grabs Savage and holds him up while taunting Elizabeth and then he hits a third DDT on Savage. Roberts grabs the bag and threatens them with it as he unties it and pulls out the glove which he puts on, and he stomps on Savage as Elizabeth tries to cover him up and Roberts tells her to beg for Savage’s life. He takes the glove off and then he grabs Elizabeth by the hair as he slaps her in the face in a shocking moment, and he grabs the bag again as a second referee comes out along with Jack Tunney and they force Roberts to head to the back as Roberts says there was no snake in the bag. Later in the night, Roberts gives a tremendous promo as he takes pleasure in what he did and begs Savage to bring Elizabeth back when they face off again, and then Savage gives a passionate promo as he vows to get Roberts and get his revenge.
The match itself was pretty good as both men worked hard and put on a solid match. Despite having been out of the ring since March, Savage looked really good in his first big match back and Roberts was hitting his stride by this point and they had really good chemistry considering they haven’t fought much throughout the years. While the match ended up only going 7 minutes which I’m sure disappointed some people, the crowd was red hot for it and they kept up a frenetic pace so having it be short made it better. However, the match itself played second fiddle to what happened after the match with Roberts slapping Elizabeth which was shocking for the time, and you knew given the promos that this feud was a long way from being over and they would face off again. The crowd was red hot for the match and popped huge for Savage when he won, but they are left in shock by Roberts’ actions. Savage gets the win over Roberts though Roberts gets the last laugh here as this issue isn’t over yet.
Grade: ***1/2
