MikeCampbell Posted March 22, 2013 Report Share Posted March 22, 2013 He's always been a sentimental favorite, and watching his house show run with Warrior after 'Mania 5 has only made me appreciate him that much more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JazeUSA Posted March 22, 2013 Report Share Posted March 22, 2013 Rick Rude is in my personal top 5 favorites off all time. He had a ton of great matches, his Memphis run was a tad before My time but I've saw some brief stuff from some of the sets I have. His WCCW run w/ the late Percy Pringle was awesome to me as a child growing up. His matches against Iceman King Parsons, Lance Von Erich, & Chris Adams stick out to me. His NWA run was ok, I didn't like how he just quit the company w/o a notice while holding a belt w/ Manny but be that as it may they still had a good run while it lasted, they saw many good matches against the Rock & Roll Express. The WWF run saw many good performances, his matches against Ricky Steamboat were some of the best during his time there, he also got great matches out of Hulk Hogan & The Ultimate Warrior (how many can really say that). He even got quality matches against JYD, the Jake Roberts angle & matches were epic to me, I can even remember a certain match against Tito Santana that was great. Rick's WCW run was the best to me tho, the debut w/ the whole Phanton gimmick was funny, the huge feud w/ Sting was the best of his career imo. The Dangerous Alliance was the best faction in wrestling besides the Four Horseman EVER, matches in WCW against Brad Armstrong, Brian Pillman, The Z-Man, Marcus Bagwell, Barry Windham, Big Josh, Ron Simmons, but my personal favorite WCW feud was with Dustin Rhodes, man Rick got many, many great matches out of him. Lets not forget his Japan matches either, they were all solid, lastly back tracking a bit but I remember seeing him on the Arsenio Hall show pushing his match vs Warrior.... that had me laughing for weeks, I was saddened when Rick passed away, I think he was training for a in ring return for WCW, it would have been great to see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yo-Yo's Roomie Posted March 22, 2013 Report Share Posted March 22, 2013 Rude is someone who's always flattered to deceive for me. I think he has a great look, great gimmick, carries himself like a big star, cuts a great promo, but when the bell rings, more often than not, I'm left cold by his performance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Gennarelli Posted March 23, 2013 Report Share Posted March 23, 2013 Rude did the near impossible. Carrying Anabolic to credible, above average matches on many a night. Was one of the last great opponents for Jake Roberts before Jake became unwatchable. Would have been interesting to see him as Champ in either of the big 2 promotions, but injuries caught up to him before that could happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeCampbell Posted March 23, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2013 Would have been interesting to see him as Champ in either of the big 2 promotions, but injuries caught up to him before that could happen. He did have that run as WCW "International World Champion" in '93, with that fun Hiroshi Hase match in NJPW where he dropped it for a short spell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Sorrow Posted March 23, 2013 Report Share Posted March 23, 2013 Rick Rude always came off as a star. I loved the guy. And he was half of the greatest tag team of all time. Ravishing and Raging, The REAL Rn R Express, ""Ravishing" Rick Rude and "The Raging Bull" Manny Fernandez. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohtani's jacket Posted March 23, 2013 Report Share Posted March 23, 2013 Worst rest holds of all-time. Great worker but for that one terrible flaw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted March 24, 2013 Report Share Posted March 24, 2013 Worst rest holds of all-time. Great worker but for that one terrible flaw. Yes, and the camel clutch spot he made every babyface do where he'd eventually roll over and made them crotch themselves on his knees. I liked the spot. I just think he went to it too often. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KB8 Posted March 24, 2013 Report Share Posted March 24, 2013 I agree with the rest hold point. He's still one of my favourite wrestlers ever, though. And having the best sell of an atomic drop of any wrestler in history kind of makes up for the crappy rest holds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NintendoLogic Posted March 24, 2013 Report Share Posted March 24, 2013 The rest holds are a dealbreaker for me. They make it impossible for me to watch a Rude match of any length. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superstar Sleeze Posted June 9, 2013 Report Share Posted June 9, 2013 NWA World Tag Team Champions Rock N Roll Express vs Ravishin' & Ragin' - 12/8/86 NWA TV Is Ricky Morton still in that armbar? Ok, that's a bit harsh, but that Ricky Morton face in peril segment overstayed its welcome for me. I cant believe I just typed that sentence, but it is how I feel. What I loved about this match was the tension it created with the Morton's arm injury. You knew Gibson was going to get trapped, which he did, he also had a knee injury from the Andersons match. Gibson had no choice but to make the tag, but that left Morton exposed and the Awesome Twosome pounced on it. Then it kept going and going and going with armbar after armbar. You could see how green Rude was in this match as Manny did most of the heavy lifting. The home stretch was fine and a great finish for the match. I have never watched the full Andersons vs RnR match from Starrcade (the WWE dvd I got has it edited), but I would think it has to be better. I prefer Ole and Arn as workers in this time period to Rude and Fernandez in this time period. Ravishin & Ragin' basically work a textbook Andersons just without panache. Some of those armbars looked downright lazy, but thank God for Morton to cover their asses. This one left me wanting less. Basically, more variety during the heat segment would have been nice or more of a struggle from Ricky. Anything really to break up the monotony. I believe this is a rather highly regarded match so I will definitely watch it again down the road, but as a first impression I was disappointed but maybe I set my expectations too high. I thought it was a very solid, fundamental match, but did not reach that next echelon for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soup23 Posted June 9, 2013 Report Share Posted June 9, 2013 Good review Superstar and something we are talking about on the podcast today. I watched the Russians vs. RNR match and this one back to back and even though the Russian match was longer, I thought the variety of work made it far superior. I enjoyed this match and thought everyone looked pretty good save maybe some spots with Rude, but I was ready for something else to happen with the 7-8 minute armbar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sidebottom Posted June 9, 2013 Report Share Posted June 9, 2013 All the people who say he should have been world champion in WWE... I have to bawk at that I'm afraid. Still, brilliant ring gear, mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyonthewall2983 Posted June 11, 2013 Report Share Posted June 11, 2013 I maintain that the single greatest moment of the Monday Night Wars was when he appeared on both shows the same night, especially the shoot promo he cut on Vince. The look on Bischoff's face is fantastic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
babylonianfrost Posted June 12, 2013 Report Share Posted June 12, 2013 Seeing Rood's early GCW stuff as a fairly generic babyface backing up Wrestling II and Pez Whatley against guys like Zybysko really open my eyes to just how infinitely better he was as a heel. If I had seen him in 1983 and never again, I would have assumed that he'd gone the way of a lot of other random territory mid-card babyfaces and disappeared; I've never seen his Crockett work but it's astonishing just how good he was, comparatively, even by the time he was in Memphis with Angel. I literally can't recall any part of any Rood GCW match that I've seen; in fact the only thing of any significance that I do remember of his time in the territory was his illegal count of Wrestling II over Zybysko during their feud over the National title. Turning heel gave him a massive charisma infusion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerryvonKramer Posted June 12, 2013 Report Share Posted June 12, 2013 This may be controversial but my view of Rude is that he didn't get really good until 1989. Watch him in 88 against Jake and he's not the finished product. I don't think he had the charisma levels in 87 tagging with Manny or for most of 88 in WWF that he did by 89. He's better in the ring too in 89. Could he have carried Warrior in 87? I don't know. 92 is far and away his peak year for everything. Does anyone disagree? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loss Posted June 12, 2013 Report Share Posted June 12, 2013 This may be controversial but my view of Rude is that he didn't get really good until 1989. Watch him in 88 against Jake and he's not the finished product. I don't think he had the charisma levels in 87 tagging with Manny or for most of 88 in WWF that he did by 89. He's better in the ring too. 92 is far and away his peak year for everything. Does anyone disagree? I think this is pretty accurate. He had some good performances before '89, but they were more isolated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomk Posted June 12, 2013 Report Share Posted June 12, 2013 I don't think this is that controversial of an opinion. No one is born fully formed. Rude debuts in 82 , stuff opposite Savage,Lawler is 84, stuff opposite Von Erich is 85, Rude and Fernandez is 86/87. Beefcake is a guy who debuted about 78 and the team with Valentine is 86. Rude isn't fully formed as a four year veteran let alone as a two year veteran but the degree to which he already is head and shoulders better than a seven year one working regularly on a bigger stage is apparent. Kris wrote a really nice memorial piece on Hector Garza. Hector Garza was one of the best wrestlers around from maybe 04-07, but as early as two years in understood how to carry himself and work like a star. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victory Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 One of my top ten favorites ( top three in the WWF). I wish he would of gotten to have feuds against guys like Savage, Bret or Perfect. The timing just wasn't there. Instead we get Jake, Piper, Warrior and Orndorff which were still solid. His WCW run was better. His matches against Sting and Steamboat are great. The only thing I didn't like about him is the spot where he let's the babyface pull his pants down so he can show his bare ass. How do you explain that when a non wrestling fan walks into the room? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Sorrow Posted June 13, 2013 Report Share Posted June 13, 2013 The only thing I didn't like about him is the spot where he let's the babyface pull his pants down so he can show his bare ass. How do you explain that when a non wrestling fan walks into the room? You just say "HE'S GOT A GREAT ASS!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. B.B. Rogers Posted November 17, 2013 Report Share Posted November 17, 2013 Rick's WCW run was the best to me tho, the debut w/ the whole Phanton gimmick was funny, the huge feud w/ Sting was the best of his career imo. The Dangerous Alliance was the best faction in wrestling besides the Four Horseman EVER, matches in WCW against Brad Armstrong, Brian Pillman, The Z-Man, Marcus Bagwell, Barry Windham, Big Josh, Ron Simmons, but my personal favorite WCW feud was with Dustin Rhodes, man Rick got many, many great matches out of him. Lets not forget his Japan matches either, they were all solid, lastly back tracking a bit but I remember seeing him on the Arsenio Hall show pushing his match vs Warrior.... that had me laughing for weeks, I was saddened when Rick passed away, I think he was training for a in ring return for WCW, it would have been great to see. I had been just discovering wrestling in 1991 and had seen a few WCW shows here and there, but the Sting-Rude U.S. title match from Clash 17 in Nov. 1991 is the match that hooked me for life. The story was great, with Rude the superbly cocky heel preying on the heroically injured babyface Stinger. It was a short, but awesome match, that was -- and still is -- one of my favorite "short" matches of all time. Rude's whole DA run was amazing, although he lost a lot of steam after that. I've never quite figured out why that is. Put him in the ring with Sting, Steamboat, or Rhodes and I could watch those matches all day long! His '92 Iron Man with Steamboat is a personal Top 5 for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. B.B. Rogers Posted November 17, 2013 Report Share Posted November 17, 2013 I agree with the rest hold point. He's still one of my favourite wrestlers ever, though. And having the best sell of an atomic drop of any wrestler in history kind of makes up for the crappy rest holds. Two words: Fuck yes! He sold it like fire shot out of his opponent's knee straight up his ass into his spine! Always a highlight of any Rude match for me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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