00:00I'm not just the original Tribal Chief, I am the only Tribal Chief!
00:08Wrestling gets more than one, we are a family.
00:13If you look at WWE and pro wrestling as a whole on TV right now,
00:17it's obvious who the biggest modern stars are.
00:20Cody Rhodes, the undisputed WWE Universal Champion,
00:24and the man he took the title from at WrestleMania 40, Roman Reigns.
00:28If you ask people in 1988 who the two biggest stars in the industry were,
00:32you get people saying Hulk Hogan and Macho Man Randy Savage.
00:37The two biggest stars in the industry kept changing over the years.
00:40Maybe it was Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels at one time.
00:43Stone Cold and The Rock taking things to new heights.
00:46John Cena and Batista at one point, yeah.
00:49And it kept going from there.
00:51But how exactly are Roman and Cody Rhodes paralleled to the mega powers of the late 80s?
00:58This is Sportskeeda Wrestling, I'm Kevin.
01:01Join us as we take a small dive into the current mega powers of WWE,
01:06Roman and Cody, and compare them to those of the past, brother.
01:11Get down in the comments and let us know who you would make into a mega power tag team, brother.
01:16Oh yeah, dig it, yeah, yeah.
01:18You think you know all the wrestling stories?
01:21There's more you haven't heard yet.
01:23Join us on backstage pass.
01:26The original mega power storyline lasted only a year,
01:29but a long year in a different time with a different pace of television storytelling for WWE.
01:35But there was nothing bigger at the time than these two superstars.
01:40Hulk Hogan's four year reign as WWE champion seemingly came to an end as controversially as possible.
01:46On an NBC Network TV special of WWE's main event,
01:50in front of the largest recorded TV audience for pro wrestling in North America,
01:55the legendary Andre the Giant faced Hulk Hogan for the WWE championship
02:01in a massive rematch from the highly successful WrestleMania III.
02:06The expectations, to say, were gigantic.
02:09Nearly a year had passed since Hulk Hogan had the body slam that shook the world on Andre,
02:14retaining his title in front of a massive crowd at WrestleMania III.
02:18Hogan was screwed out of the WWE championship in this circumstance
02:22in a very wild scenario that involved the Million Dollar Man.
02:25Of course, a referee that had plastic surgery to look like another referee,
02:30and then Andre wins the title and gives the title away, his only reign with the WWE title.
02:37Yeah, but Andre had no plans to keep it.
02:40Instead, yeah, he forfeited this WWE championship to the Million Dollar Man.
02:44It was a confusing situation.
02:47But because of the illegitimate means in which the title was transferred,
02:50the WWE championship was declared vacant.
02:53This set up a tournament for the championship at WrestleMania IV in Atlantic City,
02:58where Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant would have a rematch that ended in a double DQ,
03:02eliminating both icons and really decreasing some expectations.
03:07Thanks to Andre and Ted DiBiase once again managing to reach the finals,
03:12the Macho Man Randy Savage faced him for the championship.
03:16With the help of Hulk Hogan, the Macho Man went on to embark on a year-long reign
03:21as the new fan favorite WWE champion with the beautiful Miss Elizabeth at his side.
03:27After that, Hogan went on a hiatus to film the critically acclaimed No Holds Barred movie,
03:35while Randy Savage carried the company on his back during a big boom period.
03:39He kept crossing paths with the devious Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase,
03:43who got Andre back by his side once more.
03:47It was the first ever SummerSlam event,
03:49where Randy Savage needed a partner to take on DiBiase and Andre the Mega Bucks.
03:55How do you oppose the Mega Bucks?
03:57This sets up Hulk Hogan returning as officially the Mega Powers were formed.
04:03And of course, who can forget that iconic scene where their hands shook?
04:07How will these elements be able to coexist?
04:10Yeah, the first time super elements coexisted, super powers, Mega Powers.
04:17Yes, the two helped each other out and were a strong alliance for a few months.
04:22It was quite the attraction to see two established big-name superstars as a tandem,
04:27very unique at the time.
04:29But to egos that big, the cracks began to show quickly.
04:33In a network TV confrontation that involved a furious Macho Man Randy Savage
04:38attacking Hulk Hogan backstage after a vulnerable and recently injured Miss Elizabeth screamed on for peace.
04:45Yes, he claimed that she has eyes for Miss Elizabeth.
04:49The jealousy became too much, a wild scene that led to the Mega Powers exploding
04:55over the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 5.
04:58With Miss Elizabeth in a neutral corner for the match, Hulkamania would overcome Macho Madness
05:05with the Hulkster enduring numerous flying elbow drops to Hulk up and defeat Savage for the title.
05:11It's one of the best matches of either superstars career, maybe the best of Hulk Hogan's career in WWE
05:16and certainly better than his match with Andre the Giant at WrestleMania 3 in front of a bigger crowd.
05:21Yeah, maybe that's a topic for another video.
05:24There was plenty of time to show the growing animosity and insecurity between Randy Savage towards Hulk Hogan.
05:32Although we haven't seen too much of this pairing of Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns,
05:37the history is there, years of history.
05:40We could go all the way back 10 years ago, but let's keep it within recent memory.
05:44Cody Rhodes is the guy who defeated the man and humbled Roman Reigns,
05:50breaking down the bloodline as we knew it at WrestleMania 40,
05:53ending his years-long villainous run with the WWE Universal Championship.
05:59Now the role has reversed for Roman,
06:01returning kind of as a popular hero at the end of SummerSlam 2024,
06:05where Cody successfully defended the title against the new ruthless bloodline ruler in Solo Sokoa.
06:12When Roman Reigns returned to SmackDown on their USA premiere,
06:16it was first shown that Cody Rhodes maybe didn't want anything to do with the bloodline
06:20since he had been dealing with them for so long.
06:23But when Roman Reigns seemed to dismiss the idea of getting any help at all,
06:27Cody Rhodes came out and signed the contract,
06:30completely contradicting maybe the message he was projecting before.
06:34Not only that, but if you notice the last segment from the September 13th episode of SmackDown,
06:40yes, we're digging that deeply into it,
06:42you can see a visible insecurity in Cody Rhodes' body language,
06:46and some insecurity in Roman Reigns.
06:48These are guys who do not like each other.
06:50Ideally, maybe Cody didn't need to be that insecure.
06:54When he beat Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 40 with the odds stacked against him,
06:58that should have been enough for him to want to have nothing to do with Roman Reigns.
07:02But that's where the story gets deeper.
07:04Yeah, we thought it was finished.
07:06It's just about the undisputed WWE Championship,
07:09the prize at the end of the day.
07:11Whether he was the WWE Champion or not,
07:13Roman Reigns always feels like the biggest star in the industry.
07:17Whether or not he deserves it, some people put that title on him.
07:20But this is also a Roman Reigns that people feel could leave WWE any day for the call of Hollywood.
07:26So it's a tough challenge for both sides.
07:28Plus, you have Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes having a ton of history together.
07:33Who will be the face of WWE?
07:36Despite Roman Reigns now officially being labeled a good guy,
07:39nothing about his character has actually changed,
07:41which is the exact formula to create a megastar like a Stone Cold Steve Austin into The Rock.
07:47The entire purpose of the Hogan-Savage alliance back in the day was to lead to next year's WrestleMania main event.
07:53And while it seems fully possible that Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns 3 won't be happening at WrestleMania,
07:59who's to say that it can't?
08:00The alliance they have now, however long it lasts,
08:03doesn't seem like it's going to last that long,
08:05is only going to serve the purpose of building to this final showdown.
08:09The biggest difference with Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns right now
08:12as compared to the past is they don't even pretend to like each other.
08:15Cody and Roman will tag team as we record this at the upcoming Bad Blood event in Atlanta, Georgia.
08:22And the purpose of that match will certainly build up their odd alliance
08:26and hopefully come to a super collision, a trilogy ending match between the two.
08:32We've seen them at WrestleMania 39, WrestleMania 40.
08:35Will this be at WrestleMania 41?
08:37It's not exactly clear, but certainly it feels like it could get there.
08:42Or maybe we get a WrestleMania 41 main event before WrestleMania 41.
08:47Only time will tell.
08:49And as much as an alliance between Roman and Cody is simply just interesting on paper,
08:53there's always more money with them standing against each other in the ring.
08:59So while they may not be directly identical to Hulk Hogan and Macho Man Randy Savage of the Mega Powers,
09:05based on the two storylines, the Mega Powers of today, of this generation,
09:10look very interesting in the big picture of wrestling.
09:13Once again, who are two big, single superstars that you would pair together as a Mega Powered tag team?
09:20Let us know in the comments below.
09:28Thanks for watching.
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