[1993-10-09-WCW-Saturday Night] Interview: Rick Rude

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Rude is interviewed by Tony Schiavone at home. Rude vents about WCW no longer recognizing the title he wears as soon as he wins it. Rude says as far as he's concerned, he beat Ric Flair, his belt says World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion, he's the champ. He also says WCW has had it in for him since he came in and took out Sting -- the biggest star -- right away.

 

Heels who can justify their point of view are missed.

[Kevin Ridge]

I like Rude questioning some of Flair's title victories. He has won Flair's title but is not recognize the same with the NWA getting kicked to the curb.

[PeteF3]

Lots of historical nuggets here--Rude brings up his opening night victory over Sting, his being stripped of the U.S. title, and then points out that Vader got to keep his belt despite being injured for longer. Rude's basically not wrong about anything he says, which is awesome. Great return to the Up Close format.

[ajtroma]

Rude does make a lot of valid points here.

[garretta]

Wait a second. If WCW isn't supposed to recognize Rude's belt, why is Tony still calling him the World heavyweight champion? Not the so-called champion, not the self-proclaimed champion, but the World champion without qualification. He knows WCW doesn't recognize that title anymore, so why is he, in essence, going into business for himself?

 

As for Rude, he's right all the way down the line, but as usual it doesn't do him a whole lot of good. The only good thing is that if he loses to Flair, he can keep the belt, since it's now his own personal vanity belt (at least until the NWA gets around to collecting it). I like how he looks the part of a World champion, and even though he's obviously still a heel, he conducts this interview with class and respect, kind of like Flair used to before he became a blowhard thanks in large part to Dusty.

 

I'd have laughed out loud if Rude had brought up Yoko or the WWF when he was mentioning all the other countries and/or continents and their champions. Don't forget, he acknowledged his time in the WWF at least once before during a WCW interview.

[soup23]

I have loved business man Rude in this build. He brings up a ton of great points and seems justified in what he is saying. I know the matches vs Flair are disappointing and he is still talking me into revisiting them. What a pro.