Savage's next big contender for the belt at that time was a competitor he was very familiar with.  The man he had defeated to capture the belt in early 1979 was coming back with a vengeance to capture the gold from his brother.  Yes, Leaping Lanny stated he would take the title from Savage thus the series of matches started throughout the area.  Lanny did win several clean pin falls over his brother in title bouts at that time, however, they were always in the first or second fall of a two out of three fall match.  So in the end of the feud it was still Randy proudly wearing the ICW belt.
 
After the series of matches Lanny gave a press conference saying he would no longer challenge his brother for the world title.  I don't remember what his line of reasoning was for this decision but much was made on the TV show as to Lanny's proclamation. 
 
One new competitor showed up in the ICW story line at about this same juncture.  The original sheik (FARHAT) was debuted as the promotions U.S. heavyweight champion.  This belt just seemed to spring up, as this title had never been mentioned previously by the organization.  It was noted that there was strong lineage to this belt, and that Angelo Poffo had actually held it prior in the 1960's.
 
NEXT MONTH:

We will look at the tag team ranks in the same time frame and see Randy Savage thrust into a face character for the first time in his ICW history.