THE WAY I REMEMBER HIM
If I were to form a list of my all-time favorite wrestlers; Rick Rude would be right at the top, second only to Randy Savage. When I first started watching wrestling back around '87, Rick Rude was just arriving in the WWF as a "heel". Rick Rude got me interested in heels. I just loved the way he'd come out and work the mic before every match: "Cut the music! Right now I want all you FAT, OUT OF SHAPE (insert whatever city or state he was in) SWEAT-HOGS! To keep the noise down while I take my robe off and show all the ladies what a REAL man should look like." Rude eventually began adding a "post-match" Rude Awakening (an incapacitating lip-lock applied to a hand-picked female member of the audience) to his repetoire. So when Road Dogg or Shane Douglas use their versions of "Cut the music" to start a match, you can thank Rude. Hell! Val Venis owes just about his entire gimmick to Rick.
I had undeniable envy over Rude's physique myself. I'm not a homosexual but I always thought Rude had the most perfect body in wrestling! He was cut and not too big like the steroid abusing Hogans and Warriors in a time where it was more fashionable to be thick over defined. Rude was the first of a new generation of "pretty boy" wrestlers that were actually tough guys. To have the ladies in the audience shrieking with pleasure during the pre-match disrobing, while still having the guys in the audience take you seriously in the actual fight was something nobody before Rude had really accomplished, but that many have tried to emulate since.
Because Rude looked soo good, he was constantly in "Best Body in the WWF" feuds. In early '89 the Inter-Continental Champ, the Ultimate Warrior, decided to engage Rude in a posedown at the Royal Rumble. I still remember the sheer comedy of this! Everybody knew that Warrior was a bigger man than Rude in size but the flexing was to happen anyway. Rude showed up to the ring with a springy-stick-thingy supposedly to get Rude prepared to show his sinews. I saw this coming a MILE away but Warrior just stood there like a goof. As soon as the chance came, Rude took that stick to a posing Warrior and I just howled with laughter at Warrior's stupidity! :) Warrior, being the crowd favorite, still won. But two months later, it was Rude who was victorious at WrestleMania, as he took the Warrior's InterContinental Title, handing Warrior a rare defeat.
Rude eventually left the WWF to go back to the WCW/NWA, taking fans like me with him. Here, Rude captured the NWA World Heavyweight Title from Ric Flair on September 19, 1993. WCW withdrew from the NWA shortly after Rude won the belt, and the title was renamed the WCW International World Heavyweight Title. The stable in WCW soo much better complimented Rude's wrestling style. Tough and right to buisness. Gone were all the pre-match mic work and flirting with the ladies in the audience. Rude had many memorable matches with WCW Superstars: Sting, Vader, Brian Pillman(also deceased) and Dustin Rhodes.
Rude's in ring career came to a halt when he suffered a serious neck injury in Japan (I believe to Sting) that Paul E Dangerously later called the most serious he had ever seen. Rude went to announcing and managing. Even in this mode all of the major players in wrestling, WWF, WCW and ECW owe Rick a big dose of appreciation to making their Federations just "That much better".
My very most sincere condolences go to Rude's family for
their loss.
God bless you Rick Rude.
David DeGraffenreid
RICK RUDE OBITURARY:
Mr. Richard Erwin Rood, aka Ravishing Rick Rude, age 40,
of Alpharetta, a loving father and husband, was a member
of Alpharetta First United Methodist Church died April 20,
1999. Survived by wife, Mrs. Michelle Rood, Alpharetta;
daughter, Merissa Rood, Alpharatta; Richard Ryan Rood and
Colton Rood, Alpharetta; mother and father, Richard C.
Rood and Penny Rood, Larry and Sally Chiaferi, sisters,
Sherry and Nancy Rood, Robins Dale, MN; Cathy Carder, Las
Vegas, NV; Marcy Wheeler, Las Vegas, NV; brother, Michael
Rood, Minneapolis, MN; grandparents, Mrs. Ruby Wilson, and
Mrs. Brenda Allred, Tampa, FL; sister-in-law, Bridget Brown, Tampa, FL; 10 nieces, 7 nephews.
Funeral services will be held Saturday, April 24, 2 p.m.
in the Mansell Chapel of Roswell Funeral Home, Rev. David
Tinsley, officiating. The family will receive friends
Friday, April 23 from 6 until 9 p.m. Entombment Green Lawn
Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, please make contributions
to: The American Cancer Society, 3545 Cruise Rd., Suite
102, Lawrenceville, GA 30044.
Roswell Funeral Home, 950 Mansell Rd., 770-993-4811.
- Atlanta Journal Constitution
Resources:
WWF.com
Wrestlemaniacs
WCW.com
Major thanks to Steven Rychetnik for putting all the pics together and getting the logos on them.
I Couldn't have done this without him.
