It has become apparent that when the WWE Hall of Fame makes its way to the San Jose Arena this March, Randy Savage will draw one more house — and it will be a haunted one. The ghoulish manifestation of the Macho Man has pierced the veil between our world and the next (if you believe in that sort of thing), if only a little, and has been spotted on film. It’s indisputable. The one-time Macho King was seen surveying the current state of wrestling, and has no doubt weighed it, measured it, and found it wanting. We can only assume that his vengeance is close at hand.
Filling out a yearly batch of new WWE Hall of Famers can be a tricky thing. Who’s on good terms with the company, or willing to get back on good terms? Who would fans turn out to see get inducted? Who deserves to get in based on contributions to the WWF/E? who among those who did no significant work for WWE would bolster its vision of itself as the end-all be-all clearing house of wrestling history? Who hasn’t starred in porn within recent memory? Each of these is a serious consideration and the combination of all of them makes new lists daunting, particularly as the available pool of talent is slowly drained, year by year. That crunch has seen the cooling of relations between the company and several former champions who had been on the outs for a long time, though, which has been nice to see. We all would have loved to see such a rapprochement between WWE and Randy Savage, in the same vein as the (brief) reunion with the Ultimate Warrior, but will instead have to settle for a posthumous tribute by his greatest partner, Hulk Hogan, and his greatest brother, The Genius.
But this new evidence of Savage’s re-emergence into the world of the living only invites speculation on his intentions…and what spectral power he wields. Given the effort that he put into his grudges in life we might assume that they remain, but the Macho one also had mercurial tendencies and might have buried some old hatchets, as one sometimes does in old age. Certainly Hulk Hogan has said that the rift between the Mega Powers had been mended before Savage’s death. Perhaps. Perhaps he only wishes to gaze once more upon the woman whom he’d married barely a year before his heart attack. Perhaps he’ll be a friendly ghost. Perhaps after the Hall of Fame, on WrestleMania Eve, he will be followed by three spirits bringing Vince McMahon new awareness of the destructiveness he’s wrought with his venality, making him a kinder, gentler man just in time for the festive morn.
Perhaps. Or perhaps we will see the lights flicker during the Hall of Fame ceremony, not because of the Undertaker’s powers, but because The Madness has returned with some fights left to fight. And we stand in the face of The Madness at the cost of our very souls.
