[1993-09-11-WCW-Saturday NIght] Rick Rude vs Dustin Rhodes

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Rude was pretty done by this point, but this is super heated in the last few minutes. Flair does color commentary. After a ref bump, he grabs a chair, but Flair intervenes and takes the chair. This leaves Rude prone to a quick schoolboy, Dustin wins the U.S. title, and Center Stage ERUPTS. Seriously, it's an insane pop.

[El-P]

It's kinda sad to see how much Rude has dropped off since coming back from the injury. He's still got awesome maneurisms and good selling, but he's obviously not taking that much bump anymore and he's got a much more limited offense than before. It was really obvious with the entire Dustin feud, using mostly restholds even in tag matches. I didn't realize before that Rude's work dropped like that. Good match anyway, and the finish is indeed super heated. Maybe that's working with a damaged Rude, but I didn't feel like Dustin was as good as he was could be either during that feud.

[Kevin Ridge]

Well that is not going to make Rude happy. Rick goes to hit Rhodes with a chair but Flair who was doing commentary interferes. Rhodes rolls up Rude to become new US Champion. Having gone back and watched 92 Rude does suck to see injuries catch up to him. Could have added so much more to mid 90's WCW.

[PeteF3]

I liked what we saw, and it was a good way to have Rude put Dustin over while keeping him strong and building heat for the Fall Brawl match. Rhodes wins the U.S. title that has seemingly sat vacant since Johnny Valentine's plane crash.

[soup23]

The action looked hot and the pop was HUGE showing that even though 93 WCW has had a ton of shit, they genuine moments can still generate an awesome reaction from the Center stage crowd.

[garretta]

I would have felt this more if we'd seen clips from the first two matches as well. There's really no way to tell how good or limited Rude is at this time based on three minutes; it doesn't seem like he's changed much at all to me.

 

Jesse's indignation over Flair's interference made the clip, as did the sight of Flair and Dustin sharing a hug, albeit a brief one.

 

I didn't get much of a look at Rude's Flair tights; maybe there's a longer look coming in the clip from their match at Fall Brawl.