 Rude in 1988 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Richard Erwin Rood (1958-12-07)December 7, 1958[1] St. Peter, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Died | April 20, 1999(1999-04-20) (aged 40)[1] Alpharetta, Georgia, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Accidental overdose |
| Alma mater | Anoka-Ramsey Community College |
Spouses | |
| Children | 3 |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | "Ravishing" Rick Rude[1] Ricky Rood The WCW Phantom[1] |
| Billed height | 6 ft 3 in (191 cm)[2] |
| Billed weight | 252 lb (114 kg)[2] |
| Billed from | Robbinsdale, Minnesota[2] |
| Trained by | Eddie Sharkey[1][3][4] |
| Debut | 1982[3] |
| Retired | 1994[5] |
| Signature | |
 | |
Richard Erwin Rood[1] (December 7, 1958 – April 20, 1999), better known by hisring name "Ravishing"Rick Rude, was an Americanprofessional wrestler who performed for variouspromotions, including theWorld Wrestling Federation (WWF),World Championship Wrestling (WCW), andExtreme Championship Wrestling (ECW).
Rude wrestled from 1982 until his 1994 retirement due to injury, with a final match following in 1997. Among other accolades, he was a four-timeworld champion, athree-time WCW International World Heavyweight Champion, aone-timeWCWA World Heavyweight Champion, aone-timeWWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion, and aone-timeWCW United States Heavyweight Champion. Rude also challenged for theWWF World Heavyweight Championship and theNWA World Heavyweight Championship onpay-per-view cards, competing for the former in the main event ofSummerSlam in 1990.[6] Following his retirement, Rude managed multiple wrestlers.
In late 1997, Rude founded theD-Generation Xstable alongsideShawn Michaels,Triple H, andChyna. On November 17 of that year, in the midst of theMonday Night War, he became the only person to appear on the WWF'sRaw and WCW'sMonday Nitro programs on the same night, as the former was pre-recorded and Rude had left for WCW in the interim. He was posthumously inducted into theWWE Hall of Fame in 2017.
Rude was born inSt. Peter, Minnesota to Richard Clyde Rood and Sally Jean Thompson. He attended Robbinsdale High School inRobbinsdale, Minnesota withTom Zenk,Brady Boone,Nikita Koloff,Curt Hennig,John Nord, andBarry Darsow, all of whom later became professional wrestlers.[7] He was especially close with his childhood friend Curt Hennig.[8]
After graduating fromAnoka-Ramsey Community College with adegree inphysical education,[7] Rude worked as a bouncer for a short period and later did a small stint as an arm wrestler. He would first become known to the world of professional wrestling at that time. Rude trained as a wrestler under Eddie Sharkey, the same trainer responsible for training other wrestling stars likeBob Backlund,The Road Warriors,Sean Waltman,Austin Aries, andErick Rowan.[4] He began wrestling in 1982 as Ricky Rood, ababyfacejobber.[3] Rude lost his TV debut against Jos LeDuc on the November 6, 1982 episode of Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling.[9] He started withVancouver'sNWA: All-Star Wrestling before moving on to compete forGeorgia Championship Wrestling (GCW) and later theMemphis-basedContinental Wrestling Association (CWA). Rude debuted on the May 28, 1983 episode ofWorld Championship Wrestling, defeating Pat Rose with a dropkick. Gordon Solie interviewed Rude the following week, with Rude discussing transitioning from arm wrestling to pro wrestling and dropping weight to increase speed. He returned to Memphis in 1984, this time as "Ravishing" Rick Rude, an overconfident, arrogantheelmanaged byJimmy Hart.[10] Rude feuded withJerry Lawler and later his former partner,King Kong Bundy.[11][12] He later debuted in WCCW in a match againstKamala that he lost, and then went on to (NWA) affiliateJim Crockett Promotions (JCP) where he and a variety oftag team partnersfeuded withThe Road Warriors.
Rude was hired byChampionship Wrestling from Florida (CWF) in December 1984, where he was managed byPercy Pringle. He defeatedPez Whatley for theNWA Florida Southern Heavyweight Championship on January 16, 1985, and lost it toBrian Blair on April 10, 1985. He captured the championship again on July 20, 1985, when he defeatedMike Graham in the finals of a Southern title tournament. He held the belt until October 2 of that year when he dropped it toWahoo McDaniel, who was booking Florida during this time. While teaming withJesse Barr, he won theNWA Florida United States Tag Team Championship on April 16, 1985, and feuded withBilly Jack Haynes and Wahoo McDaniel over the belts, losing the straps to McDaniel and Haynes on July 9, 1985.
Debuting on October 18, 1985, Rude jumped toWorld Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) along with Pringle, where he feuded withKevin Von Erich andChris Adams. During his time in WCCW, Rude captured theNWA American Heavyweight Championship on November 4, 1985. However, WCCW withdrew from the NWA on February 20, 1986, and changed its name to theWorld Class Wrestling Association (WCWA). The NWA American Championship was renamed theWCWA World Heavyweight Championship while Rude was still holding the title. As a result, Rude became the promotion's first world champion. After losing the title to Chris Adams in July 1986, he fired Pringle and briefly replaced him with his sister, Raven. He formed a short-lived tag team withThe Dingo Warrior, but the Warriorturned on him and became a face.
In September 1986, Rude returned to JCP and joinedManny Fernandez and his managerPaul Jones in their rivalry with Wahoo McDaniel.[13] Rude and Fernandez, known collectively as the "Awesome Twosome",[14] won theNWA World Tag Team Championship on December 6, 1986, fromThe Rock 'n' Roll Express,[15] and they began a feud that ended only when Rude left the promotion for theWorld Wrestling Federation in April 1987. To explain the sudden departure,Jim Crockett, Jr. aired a pre-taped non-title match where the Express defeated Rude and Fernandez and claimed that Rude had been injured as a result.
Rude made hisWorld Wrestling Federation (WWF) debut onSuperstars of Wrestling on July 15, 1987, as the newest addition to theBobby Heenan Family. His first major feud in the WWF was with Heenan's former muscle bound charge"Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff (whom Heenan had dropped after Rude joined the Family), their feud culminated in Rude defeating Orndorff on November 24, atMadison Square Garden. He would kickstart 1988 by challengingHulk Hogan for theWWF World Heavyweight Championship on January 9, at theBoston Garden but failed to win the title before starting one of his most famous feuds withJake "The Snake" Roberts.[16] Rude had a routine where, before the match, he would make a show of removing his robe (likely inspired byAustin Idol's disrobing routine) while insulting the males in the crowd (usually calling them "fat, out-of-shape sweathogs") from their hometowns and, after his victories, he would kiss a woman whom Heenan selected from the audience.[11] One of Rude's trademarks was his specially airbrushed tights that he wore during matches. In the Roberts angle, Rude tried to get Roberts' real-life wife, Cheryl, to participate (though not knowing when Heenan chose her that she was in fact Roberts' wife). After Mrs. Roberts rejected him and revealed who she was there to see, Rude became angry (after she slapped him and according to Jake, busting hiseardrum), grabbed her wrist, and berated her on the microphone when Roberts ran from the dressing room to make the save.[11] To retaliate a few days later, Rude came to the ring with a likeness of Cheryl stenciled on the front of his tights. A furious Roberts charged the ring and stripped Rude, appearing to television viewers to leave him naked (as indicated by black-spot censoring Rude'sgenital area),[17] although the live audience saw him actually stripped to ag-string.
Through mid-1988 Rude continued to wear a second pair of tights under the one he wore to the ring, including during his match against theJunkyard Dog at theinauguralSummerSlam. During the match Rude had the JYD on his back and had climbed to the top turnbuckle. While up there he pulled down his tights to reveal a second with Cheryl Roberts printed on them. After hitting the Dog with a flying fist, he was attacked by Roberts who had seen the action from the dressing room. Roberts attack on Rude caused the JYD to be disqualified, giving Rude the win. Rude lost to Roberts in a Rude Awakening vs. DDT match on October 24, at Madison Square Garden. Rude's feud with Roberts came to its conclusion when Roberts pinned Rude following a DDT during the1988 Survivor Series.
Rude's next big feud was withThe Ultimate Warrior and began in January at the1989 Royal Rumble pay-per-view in a "Super Posedown" that ended with Rude attacking Warrior with a metal pose bar.[18] With help from Heenan, Rude won theWWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship from The Ultimate Warrior atWrestleMania V, before dropping it back to Warrior atSummerSlam that same year, due in large part to interference from"Rowdy" Roddy Piper.[18][19]
Rude then feuded with Piper which led to a conflict between their respective teams at the 1989 Survivor Series in which both men brawled to a double count-out. Rude would go on to have many matches with Piper including inside a steel cage on December 28, atMadison Square Garden losing the majority of them, before having a brief program against Jimmy Snuka getting a win over him atWrestleMania VI.
Rude resumed his conflict with The Ultimate Warrior in the summer of 1990 after Warrior had won theWWF Championship. Rude began rigorous training in preparation for the Warrior, and took a more serious approach by neglecting women and cutting his hair short (a style he would maintain for the rest of his career). The feud culminated in asteel cage atSummerSlam 1990, wherein Rude was defeated by the Warrior.[20][21]
Next, he was scheduled to feud withBig Boss Man, which had its start when Rude's manager Bobby Heenan started to make degrading comments about Boss Man's mother. Rude would later backup the statements and call out the Boss Man. Rude was scheduled to be a part of a team called the Natural Disasters at the Survivor Series, consisting ofEarthquake,Dino Bravo, andThe Barbarian against Hulk Hogan and Boss Man's team, but was replaced by Haku after being suspended indefinitely by Jack Tunney. Tunney explained that Rude's comments towards the Boss Man were the reason for his suspension and that his manager Bobby Heenan was obligated to wrestle the Boss Man in his place. In reality, Rude had a dispute with WWF owner Vince McMahon that led to him leaving the company.[22]
After leaving the WWF, Rude attempted to join Herb Abrams'UWF. Still under contract with the WWF, his former company sent a cease and desist order that prevented Rude from appearing on UWF television.[23] He would not wrestle again until May 18, 1991, when he appeared at the TWA Spring Spectacular II event held by the Tri-State Wrestling Alliance in Philadelphia, PA. He facedPaul Orndorff and lost by disqualification.[24]
In July 1991, Rude joinedAll Japan Pro Wrestling for their Summer Action Series 1991, making his initial appearance at a show in Yokosuka, Japan. In his first match on the tour, he teamed withJohnny Ace to defeat Billy Black andJoel Deaton. In singles matches Rude was undefeated, beating Isamu Teranishi andAkira Taue. His final appearance came on July 19, where he teamed with Johnny Ace in a losing effort toDan Spivey andStan Hansen.[25]
Rude also appeared inInternational World Class Championship Wrestling (IWCCW), where he had confrontations withThe Honky Tonk Man.[26]
After spending a year wrestling on select shows on theindependent circuit, as well as a July 1991 tour forAll Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), Rude returned to WCW, which had originally been JCP prior to being sold toTed Turner in late 1988; he returned under amask as The WCW Phantom atHalloween Havoc on October 27, 1991, unmasking himself later that night.[20] He ledThe Dangerous Alliance, consisting of himself,Paul E. Dangerously,Madusa,Arn Anderson,Bobby Eaton,Larry Zbyszko, and"Stunning" Steve Austin. On November 19, 1991, Rude defeatedSting for theUnited States Heavyweight Championship and engaged in a number of high-profile feuds, including one withRicky Steamboat. At one point during their feud, Steamboat suffered akayfabe broken nose in a gang attack.[27]
In 1992, Rude and Madusa left The Dangerous Alliance and feuded withNikita Koloff. Rude challenged reigningWorld Heavyweight ChampionRon Simmons on several occasions but failed to win the title. In December 1992, Rude suffered a legitimate neck injury and was forced to forfeit the United States Championship, thus ending his reign of nearly 14 months, a reign that still stands today as the second longest reign in the almost 40-year history of the title.[11] Rude returned alone in April 1993 and tried to reclaim the title fromDustin Rhodes, who had won it while he was injured. The title was eventually held up after several controversial finishes to matches between the two. After a 30-minute Iron Man Match ended in a 1–1 draw atBeach Blast on July 18, a best-of-three series was set between the two onSaturday Night; Rude won the first match on August 28, but lost to Rhodes twice on September 4 and 11, losing his chance at regaining the United States Heavyweight Championship.[28]
Rude switched his sights to theNWA World Heavyweight Championship, making his intentions clear on August 28, 1993, when he was the guest on then-championRic Flair's "A Flair For the Gold" talk segment.[12] Rude defeated Flair for the title in September 1993 atFall Brawl.[29] As WCW had recently withdrawn from the NWA, WCW lost the rights to continue using the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. WCW created their own championship, dubbing it theWCW International World Heavyweight Championship, which Rude lost toHiroshi Hase on March 16, 1994, inTokyo,Japan.[29] Rude regained the title just eight days later inKyoto, Japan.[29] After dropping the title to Sting on April 17 atSpring Stampede, Rude pinned Sting on May 1 atWrestling Dontaku inFukuoka to become a three-time champion.[29] Rude, however, injured his back during the match when, upon receiving asuicide dive at ringside, he landed on the corner of the raised platform surrounding the ring; unable to wrestle, he was stripped of the title (with the storyline excuse that he was found to have used the title belt as a weapon in the course of the match).[11][29] Rude retired shortly thereafter.[11]
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Rude collected on aLloyd's of London insurance policy and did not appear in wrestling again until January 1997, when he joinedExtreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) as amasked man. Rude debuted atHouse Party, declaring that hisNew Year's resolution was to "fuck with the Franchise" (Shane Douglas). Rude went on to repeatedly harass Douglas, at one point spanking Douglas'valetFrancine duringCrossing the Line Again. He eventually unmasked and became acolor commentator before later aligning himself, for a short time, with Douglas and hisTriple Threat stable. In the main event ofECW Heat Wave 1997, Rude made a one-off return to the ring in a six-man tag team match, where he partnered with ECW mainstaysTommy Dreamer andThe Sandman to faceJerry Lawler and ECW starsRob Van Dam andSabu, only to betray Dreamer and The Sandman. During the ECW versusUSWA/WWF inter-company competition, Rude helped Lawler win matches against Dreamer and The Sandman.
On August 11, 1997, Rude returned to the WWF as the "insurance policy" of the group that would become known asD-Generation X (DX) (Shawn Michaels,Triple H, andChyna).[30] The D-Generation X name was first used on October 13, 1997. As a member of DX, Rude never wrestled, but stayed ringside during the group's matches. A few days after theMontreal Screwjob atSurvivor Series, Rude once again left the WWF. According toBret Hart, Rude stayed in the locker room during Bret's confrontation with Vince McMahon after the match in Montreal, and later calledEric Bischoff, informing Bischoff that what had happened was in fact real. Rude was not signed to a full-time contract with the WWF, and was instead performing on a "pay-per-appearance" basis. Rude was able to negotiate a deal with Bischoff and WCW, in large part due to his anger over the Montreal Screwjob.[14][31]
Rude appeared on both the WWF'sRaw Is War and WCW'sMonday Nitro in the same night on November 17, 1997. A mustached Rude appeared onNitro, which was live, and proceeded to criticize Vince McMahon, Shawn Michaels, DX, and the WWF, calling the company the "Titanic" (a reference to Titan Sports, as WWF's parent company was then known, as the "sinking ship").[1] An hour later onRaw Is War (which had been taped six days earlier), Rude then appeared with thefull beard he had been sporting during his last few weeks in the WWF.[1][32] Rude also appeared on ECW'sHardcore TV during that weekend (November 14–16 as the show was syndicated differently depending on the market). Rude was still making ECW appearances while he was inD-Generation X, as the WWF and ECW often co-operated in terms of talent.
In WCW, Rude became a member of theNew World Order (nWo), managing his friendCurt Hennig.[11] Thus, Rude became the first wrestler to be part of both DX and nWo. When the nWo split, Hennig and Rude initially sided with the nWo Wolfpac during May 1998.[33] But their time with the "Red & Black" was very brief. AtThe Great American Bash, they turned on fellow Wolfpac memberKonnan by attacking him after he lost to the then-undefeatedGoldberg, resulting in Hennig and Rude both joining nWo Hollywood instead. By late 1998, both Rude and Hennig were off WCW television due to injuries. Hennig had an ongoing leg injury that year, and Rude was thought to have hadtesticular cancer which later turned out to be aspermatocele. Hennig returned to the nWo from his injury atStarrcade without Rude, who was still unable to appear and was not included in the nWo reunion that happened during January 1999. Rude officially left WCW in April 1999, with his last appearance coming on the April 5, 1999 edition of WCW Monday Nitro Backstage Blast.[34][35]
In 1976, Rude married his love interest, Cheryl Holler. The couple later divorced in 1982. Rude married his second wife Michelle in 1988, and the couple remained together until his death in 1999. They had three children together, Richard Jr., Merissa, and Colton. His younger son, Colton, died on September 3, 2016, in amotorcycle accident inRome, Georgia, at the age of 19.
Bret Hart has claimed that despite his womanizing character, "Ravishing One" persona, Rude was a devoted family man who never took his wedding ring off even during matches, but instead covered it up with tape.This is a claim made in error as video footage of Rude competing shows.[36]
Rude was found unconscious by his wife and died on the morning of April 20, 1999, at the age of 40 when he suffered fromheart failure. Anautopsy report showed he died from an overdose of "mixed medications".[37] At the time of his death, Rude was in training for a return to the ring.[34] The effects ofgamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB), anarcolepsy prevention drug, may have contributed to his death.[38]
On March 6, 2017, it was announced that Rick Rude would be inducted into theWWE Hall of Fame.[39]Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat inducted Rude.[40] Michelle, Merissa, and Richard Jr. accepted on his behalf.
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