When wrestling fans reflect on superstar tag teams composed of main event talents, few compare with The Mega Powers. Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage joined forces and battled opponents like The Mega Bucks (Ted Dibiase and Andre the Giant) and The Twin Towers (The Big Boss Man and Akeem). Indeed, the only thing more iconic than the partnership between these two legends was the rivalry it gave way to when The Mega Powers broke up.

The Mega Powers Friendship Gave Way To A Blood Feud Between Randy Savage And Hulk Hogan

The fall of 1987 saw Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage interact multiple times before formally announcing themselves to be The Mega Powers, with a famously dramatic handshake that sealed the deal. From there, Hogan was instrumental in helping Savage win the vacant WWE Championship at WrestleMania 4—evening the odds against Andre the Giant’s interference, and ultimately hitting Savage’s opponent, Ted Dibiase, with a steel chair to set up the finish.

The Mega Powers partnership kicked into high gear. The seeds for the split showed up, though, when the most iconic version of Miss Elizabeth helped the team win at SummerSlam 1988 by stripping off her skirt to produce a distraction. The Macho Man took issue with Hogan's engagement with her. The issue played out more overtly at Survivor Series, where Savage was visibly upset with The Hulkster’s attention to his valet, and their issue only intensified when Hogan accidentally eliminated The Macho Man from the Royal Rumble.

A February TV special billed as The Main Event proved to be the breaking point for the duo. Hogan temporarily abandoned Savage in their tag team encounter with The Twin Towers, to carry an injured Elizabeth to the back. After Hogan returned, Savage slapped him in the face and abandoned him, in turn, to fend for himself. More than a spat, the feud was officially on when Savage proceeded to attack The Hulkster backstage after the match.

The Real Life Intentions Behind The Formation And Break-Up Of The Mega Powers

There are a few central principles that can explain Randy Savage’s world title push from 1988 to 1989, and by extension The Mega Powers storyline. Hulk Hogan needed time off from the road to film the No Holds Barred film movie. Meanwhile, as Bruce Prichard has discussed in both the case of Savage in 1988 and The Ultimate Warrior in 1990, the company saw real appeal in having not just one, but two heroes who could legitimately be pushed as the face of the company. Finally, there was the inevitability most fans saw coming from a mile way, but nonetheless enjoyed the ride for: The Mega Powers exploded.

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In the tradition of men like Paul Orndorff and Andre The Giant before him, not to mention men like Sid Justice and Shawn Michaels down the road, The Macho Man was The Hulkster’s tag team partner and kayfabe best friend who ultimately turned heel to feud with him. The storyline made logical enough sense from a plot perspective and had the added benefit of offering fans emotional investment of not only seeing a heel vs. a babyface, but a heel who’d broken up a team they were invested in. Hogan vs. Savage was, in hindsight, especially shrewd booking. Savage, in his prime as an in-ring performer, offered The Hulkster one of his best in-ring rivals of the original Hulkamania run, not to mention one of his greatest matches at WrestleMania 5.

The Story Between Randy Savage And Hulk Hogan Didn’t End When The Mega Powers Exploded

An underrated piece of The Mega Powers legacy is that Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage positively dominated the WWE PPV main event scene for over a year. Hogan helped Savage beat Ted Dibiase in the main event of WrestleMania 4, then The Mega Powers headlined SummerSlam. Hogan and Savage were the last men standing from their Survivor Series main event. From there, despite Big John Studd winning the Royal Rumble, Hogan and Savage stole the show with drama of The Hulkster accidentally eliminating The Macho Man. They headlined WrestleMania 5 one-on-one, and then it was Hogan and Brutus Beefcacke vs. Savage and Zeus closing out SummerSlam.

The Hogan-Savage story would roll over to WCW five years later. When Savage debuted in late 1994, there was immediate intrigue whether he was The Hulkster’s ally or enemy. The two teamed up on a number of occasions throughout 1995 and, interestingly enough, it was Hogan who ultimately turned heel on Savage by Bash at the Beach 1996, launching the nWo. The two feuded off and on, adding to their catalog of major matches, before The Macho Man joined the nWo to put them back on the same side. They’d go their separate ways again with Savage taking an early leadership role in the now Wolfpac. Even outside the cloud of nWo shenanigans, Hogan took another world title off Savage in 1999. Interestingly enough, their final on-air interaction would end up seeing the two circle back around to being on the same side, as Savage made an abbreviated return, coming to the aid of Hogan’s Millionaire’s Club.

The Mega Powers have long captured the imagination of wrestling fans as both a tag team with unparalleled star power and heated rivals. There’s the added intrigue of real life drama between the two, with rumors about Savage alternately feeling wronged by or jealous of Hogan’s stardom and interactions with Miss Elizabeth. The fact that fans still speculate about the relationship between the two marquee stars to this day, over a decade after Savage passed, is a testament to how compelling they were. The formation of breakup of The Mega Powers was one of the greatest stories in the history of wrestling.