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Rick Rude
On
April 20th 1999, another member of the wrestling community passed away before
his time from what appears to have been the latest in an increasingly disturbing
series of drug-related heart attacks.
Here I pay tribute to 'The Ravishing One', and asks exactly how great the
body count must become before serious steps are taken to prevent more fatalities
at the hands of the pro wrestling lifestyle.....
"CUT
THE MUSIC".
A
common wrestling command.
And
yet, when issued by one particular grappler, it had the power to drive the
audience up the wall.
Why?
Because they knew exactly what was coming next:
"What
I'd like to have right now...is for all you fat, out-of-shape, inner city sweat
hogs...keep the noise down while I take my robe off and show the ladies what a real
man is supposed to look like.
"Hit
the music".
Ten
years before it became as much a part of the wrestling business as a
collar-and-elbow tie-up, 'Ravishing' Rick Rude had a routine.
And that famous piece of microphone work (usually featuring a localised
insult along the lines of "Louisville losers" or "Florida
flunkies"), along with the hands-on-head pelvic gyration which Val Venis
recently to call his own, helped Rick Rude evolved into one of the most
successful and enduring heels of the Hulkamania era....
BORN
ON DECEMBER 7, 1958, Richard Erwin Rood grew up in Robinsdale, Minnesota where
he attended high school with childhood friend Curt Henning.
After graduating from college with a degree in Physical Education, he
worked as a Minneapolis nightclub bouncer, alongside fellow gym rats Mike
Hegstrand (Hawk) and Joe Laurinaitis (Animal).
Rood's
reputation as a hard-as-nails street fighter and his chiseled physique and arm
wrestling prowess (he finished second in the 1980 US national finals and sixth
in his weight division in the 1983 World championships), made him a natural
candidate for a career in wrestling.
So, after training under Eddie Sharkey, along with the future Road
Warriors, he made his pro debut on a tour of Canada in 1983.
Despite
the Minnesota-based AWA being a grappling hotbed at that time, Rood never
competed in his home state promotion.
Instead, after completing the north-of-the-coarder swing, rookie Rick
gained fleeting employment as a bottom-of-the-bill babyface in the Georgia,
Mid-Atlantic and Mid-South territories.
Come
early 1984, Rood had made it to Memphis, that essential Eighties training
ground, where promoter Jerry Jarrett - recognising his true potential - renamed
him 'Ravishing' Rick Rude and aligned him with Jimmy Hart's main event heel
stable, 'The First family'.
During
his one-year stint in the deep South, Rude enjoyed a six-week reign as Southern
heavyweight champion at the expense of resident 'King' Jerry Lawler.
After
teaming up with King Kong Bundy for a two-week Southern tag title trade off with
The Fabulous Ones and hopping the divide from loathed to loved for a short
dispute with his former 'Family', 'The Ravishing One' headed South East to
Florida, where he became a two-time NWA Southern heavyweight title holder and
spent three months as United States tag team champion, in conjunction with
Jessie Barr.
Having
dropped his second NWA Southern strap to Wahoo McDaniel on October 2, 1985, Rude
and his manager Percy Pringle (now Paul Bearer) packed their bags and took off
for Von Erich country - namely, North Texas, home of World Class Championship
Wrestling - where Rude made an immediate splash by downing Iceman Parsons for
the American heavyweight belt.
During his eight-month reign, the championship was renamed the World
class Wrestling Association World title; 'Ravishing' also enjoyed a simultaneous
12-day run as World Class TV champ.
So,
with just three years' experience under his belt, Rick Rude's curriculum Vitae
was bursting with regional qualifications.
Indeed, he had achieved all he could in the territories; it was now time
for something bigger...
RUDE'S
FIRST TASTE of coast-to-coast exposure arrived in September 1986 when he
returned East to join the National Wrestling Alliance's last US stronghold, Jim
Crockett Promotions.
Surprisingly,
despite his obvious potential as a top-line singles heel, 'The Ravishing One'
was shoved into the tag team ranks.
Still, success came quickly: with Manny Fernandez, he defeated The Rock
'n' Roll Express for the NWA World tag team title on December 6.
Rude
and Fernandez's five-month dominance of the tandem division - which included
numerous rematches with Rick Morton and Robert Gibson and battles with Rick's
former sparring partners Hawk and Animal - ending in controversy in May 1987
when 'Ravishing' exploited his primitive contract by jumping to the WWF without
losing the gold.
Having
plied his trade for eight different promotions since his debut, Rude finally
settled down.
He enjoyed a three-year run with the group, during which time he used
steroids to fill out his muscular yet slim frame, and honed his hard-as-hell
ladies' man image to become a bona fide bad guy superstar.
In
accepting membership of managerial ace Bobby Heenan's 'Family', Rick entered a
forgettable, body-fixated feud with former 'Weasel' chare Paul Orndorff.
It was not until the beginning of 1988 - by which the 'The Ravishing One'
had introduced the pre-match formalities and adopted the rude Awakening
neckbreaker as his patented finisher - that he really got his hands dirty in a full-on
grudge.
Doubling
as the name for Rick's post-squash match habit of snogging a ringside beauty,
the other Rude Awakening landed him in
hot water after he lost his temper when one prospective tonsil-hockey opponent
had the gall to reject his 'irresistible' charms.
That defiant female turned out to be Cheryl Roberts: Jake 'The Snake'
Roberts wife.
In
stark contrast to the parried turnover of today's squared circle conflicts, 'The
Ravishing One's' mid-card feud with 'The Snake' dragged on for most of the year,
with a dull 15-minute draw knocking both men out of the WrestleMania IV World
title tourney, and Roberts - who had taken the house show portion of their
rivalry - having the last high-profile word by eliminating Rude at the second
annual Survivor Series.
From
there, the 1988 Royal Rumble saw Rick use a chest expander cheap shot during his
pose-down with The Ultimate Warrior to set up a series over 'Paint Boy's'
Intercontinental strap.
In a double-barreled shocker at WrestleMania V on April 2, Rude actually
hauled 'The Uncarriable One' to a half-decent contest and - courtesy of a timely
trip and foot hold from Heenan - pinned the great lummox to life his first, and
only, WWF title.
Foul
means kept the gold within flexing distance of 'The Ravishing One's' washboard
abs until SummerSlam '89, at which an under-kilted distraction from Roddy Piper
prompted a changing of the guard back to The Warrior and set Rick up for an
underrated quarrel with 'The Rowdy One'.
As 1990 dawned and progressed, Rude finally received his first run at a
proper World singles title after former for, The Ultimate Warrior, snatched the
big one from Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania VI.
With
a date set for their third pay-per-view showdown - this time in a cage at
SummerSlam '90 - Rick made a very public display of his new. all-business
attitude; trimming his trademark long, curly locks, and embarking on a rigorous
training schedule, with WWF cameras in tow.
Nonetheless, when the smoke cleared from another commendable Rude
performance against the non-dimensional chump, The Warrior escaped 'Old Blue
Bars' and 'The Ravishing One' was left with nowhere to go but down.
As
fate would have it, while WWF match-makers began to lay the groundwork for an
uninspiring programme with The Big Bossman, Rude became embroiled in a financial
wrangle with Vince McMahon.
And, when no common ground could be reached, the two parted company
behind the really silly facade of Rick
being indefinitely suspended for making distasteful remarks about The Bossman's
mother...
SO,
FORMER INTERCONTINENTAL champ and recent number one contender to the WWF World
title, Rick Rude, was now a free agent, right?
Well....no, not completely
free.
While
'The Ravishing One' had quit the WWF, he was still under contract to Titan
Sports for another 13 months, which meant the obvious option of striking an
immediate deal with WCW was out of the question.
In the interim, Rick kept the pennies rolling in by proffering his
services on the US independent scene and accepting dates with All Japan Pro
Wrestling.
Eventually,
on October 27, 1991 at WCW's third annual Halloween Havoc pay-per-view, 'Simply
Ravishing' returned to the international spotlight under the masked guise of
'The Halloween Phanton', and handed Tom Zenk a squash-like Rude Awakening
battering.
His
memorable WCW debut was eclipsed a little over three weeks later at Clash Of The
Champions XVII, when Rick reaped the rewards of a Lex Luger assault on Sting's
left knee by pinning the immobile United States champion.
'The Ravishing One's' epic 13-month reign was, undeniably, the pinnacle
of his grappling career.
Throughout
1992, Rick shone as the crown jewel in manager Paul E.Dangerously's formidable
Dangerous Alliance, turning back challenges, by any means necessary, from the
likes of 'The Stinger', Rick Steamboat and Nikita Koloff, and captaining the
team which succumbed to Sting's Squadron in Wrestle War's classic War Games
blood bath.
In
a trivia note, Rude's Alliance tandem with 'Stunning' Steve Austin reached the quarter-finals
of the NWA World tag team tournament at The Great American Bash.
That night they fell to the duo of Barry Windham and Dustin Rhodes when
the future Goldust pinned the man who would be 'Stone Cold'.
While
'The Ravising One's' four falls to three, non-title defeat at the hands of
Steamboat in their strong 30-minute Iron Man match at Beach Blast was the
critical highlight of the year in WCW, Rude's August 12 performance in the final
of the NWA World title tournament at Sumo Hall, Tokyo blew it away.
Rick
had matched through the single elimination bracket (which doubled as New Japan
Pro Wrestling's second annual G-1 Climax tourney) with wins over Super Stong
Machine, Shinya Hashimoto and Kensuke Sasaki, before coming a cropper to
Masahiro Chono in a superb 30-minute
encounter that is widely regarded as Rude's finest hour.
Soon
after the hugely disappointing rematch with Chono at Halloween Havoc '92 which
'Simply Ravishing' won by virtue of a confusing disqualification ruling,
disaster stuck when a herniated disc in his neck forced him to vacate the US
strap and take more than two months off.
Rude returned to action in time for WCW's excellent Real Event tour of
the UK in March 1993, but, as time marched on, it became clear that the injury
had taken its toll on his in-ring dexterity.
After
failing to down his US title successor Dustin Rhodes in a dull Beach Blast Iron
man match for the held-up strap and losing their subsequent best-of-three
series, Rick turned his attention to NWA World champion Ric Flair.
However, while 'Simply Ravishing' succeeded in his attempt to dethrone
'The Nature Boy' at Fall Brawl '93, the match itself was a major letdown and
illustrated just how far both men had slipped.
A
falling out between WCW and the NWA left to Rude's belt being renamed the WCW
International World title.
It was fitting, then, that - despite his employer's refusal to
acknowledge the switches - a reinvigorated 'Ravishing One' dropped and regained
the gold in a March 199, foreign soil double-header with New Japan's Hiroshi
Hase.
Just
over three weeks later, Rick kissed the strap goodbye once again, 'officially'
this time, in a decent encounter with old rival Sting at WCW's awesome Spring
Stampede '94 pey-per-view.
A return bout was set for May 1 at NJPW's second annual Wrestling Dontaku
supercard at the Fukuoka Dome.
Little
did Rude realise it would be the final bout of his wrestling career....
DIVERIONARY
TACTICS from 'Ravishing's' new Japan valet Lady Love provided the opening for
the piledriver and top rope knee drop which made Rude a three-time International
champ.
A far mote consequential blow had been struck moments earlier, though,
when Rude landed awkwardly beneath a 'Stinger' plancha and severely damaged two
of his vertebrae.
Back
on US soil, Rude - who was scheduled to defend his belt against Vader at
Slamboree on May 22 - quit WCW amidst rumours over a bust-up with booker Ric
Flair and the possibility of his back injury being career-ending.
Despite
further conjecture regarding his impending return to the WWF, Rude disappeared
from wrestling altogether for the best part of three years, opting to cash in on
his Lloyds' of London insurance policy and file a lawsuit against WCW pertaining
to the injury he suffered in the match with Sting in Fukuoka.
It
was his former Dangerous Alliance general, ECW owner Paul Heyman, who finally
lured Rude back into the grap game as the not-so-mysterious masked man whose
mission in life was to "F--k with 'The Francise'."
Rick's riling up of the ECW Television champion peaked at the group's
first pay-per-view, Barley Legal, on April 13, 1997: 'Simply Ravishing' paid off
Douglas' Triple Threat henchman Brian Lee to act as a decoy, while Rude
infiltrated Shane's riot squad security team and decked him with the best
looking shot of the show.
Perhaps
uncomfortable with the favourable response his pummeling of Douglas and risqué
Francine abduction episodes elicited, 'The Ravishing One' - now working with
Joey Styles' innuendo-prone colour man - reverted to his dastardly ways on July
19 at the ECW Arena.
After
double-crossing Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman - leaving the Extreme heroes prey
to a caged massacre at the hands of Jerry Lawler, Sabu and Rob Van Dam - Rude
actually joined forces with The Triple Threat and became their ringside
enforcer.
His 'handshake agreement' with ECW, in lieu of a formal contract, also
permitted Rick to hawk his 'insurance' services in the WWF, where he returned as
Shawn Michaels and DX's interference-runner on the August 11 edition of Raw Is
War.
While
Rude left ECW high-and-dry to a degree - by upping sticks in the middle of a
story line in which he had driven a
wedge between Shane Douglas and Bam Bam Bigelow and sided with the latter - the
real blushes came on the WWF's part when Rick appeared, unannounced and
clean-shaven, at the start of the November 17 episode of Nitro, and then turned
up that same evening on the pre-taped
Raw Is War.
In
terms of personal accomplishment, his take-the-money-and-run gamble was far from
rewarding.
In front of the cameras, as a member of the NWO B team, Rude swiftly
descended into mediocrity, being assigned the less-then-exhilarating task of
accompanying longtime friend Curt Henning to the ring and running interference
whenever necessary.
Soon,
after his disqualification-prompting attack in Henning's Fall Brawl '98 yawner
with Dean Malenko, Rude disappeared from WCW screens altogether.
From
there, Rick provided sub-par colour commentary for the Backstage Blast
mini-pay-per-views which accompanied the first Nitro of each month.
Besides bearing frankly unrealistic aspirations of becoming a heel
television announcer, the word was the Rude was also in intensive training for a
wrestling comeback.
Whatever
pipe dreams of an in-ring nature that Rude was clinging on to never had a chance
to materialise: at 5:00 p.m. on April 20, his wife Michelle discovered the
father of her three young children unconscious on the floor of their home in
Alpharetta, Georgia.
Rood was rushed to hospital, but passed away that evening from cardiac
arrest...
AS
OF TIME OF WRITING, the official cause of death has been recorded as being of a
massive heart attack.
The possibility of a drug overdose is still not ruled out, however, which
is understandable because a 40-year-old man in Rude's condition is
not high on the list of probable heart attack victims.
Not without the involvement of a substance or circumstance.
Rude's
steroid use was well known to his peers and industry insiders long before his
reluctant testimony in the 1994 trial of Vince McMahon on steroid distribution
charges.
It is no secret, either, that drug abuse - from cocaine to painkillers
and beyond - was prevalent in wrestling during the era in which 'The Ravishing
One' shot to fame.
Moreover,
despite the less demanding schedule that wrestlers benefit from nowadays, there
is no hard evidence that the potentially lethal cocktail of medical and
recreational drugs which, 'Dynamite Kid' Tom Bilington had openly discussed in
his auto-biography 'Pure Dynamite', have been filtered out of the wrestling way
of life.
As
perverse as it may sound, such a cleansing of the system will not append until
one of the top five stars in the business falls victim to the 'high life', and
the public outcry is so loud that the promoters have no choice but to act.
The sad reality being that unless such a high-profile fatality befalls
the industry within the next few years, then the list of recent drug-related
wrestling deaths - which includes Art Barr, Eddie Gilbert, Brian Pillman and
Louie Spicolli - will not end with the name 'Ravishing' Rick Rude.