Rick Rude

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

I haven't followed wrestling in a while, but his character was always one I enjoyed. I also thought he gave tremendous effort in most of his bigger matches, and his ironman with the dragon is one of my favourite ironman matches. I always thought he was a great wrestler, but I never really see him discussed. For you guys more in the know, where would you place him, in terms of his in ring ability, drawing ability and character/mic ability? Is he comparable to top guys of his era and time? He wasn't much of a face, but he seemed to be a great heel.

 

Also interesting to note that he was part of a great crop of wrestlers that all graduated around the same time from the same school iirc. At the very least, they're all from Minnesota, I guess that's why they all went to the AWA at one point or another.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

He was good, but not great. He was a fantastic heel, but his ring work was only average. His strength was bumping like a madman and his promos. In the ring, I hated it when he'd slap on a chinlock for no reason, because it always killed the match.

[Guest Hass of Pain]

His WWF career was much better than Owen Hart and Curt Hennig who seem to be remembered these days for whatever reason as the most deserving heels of the last twenty years who didn't get a run with the title. Bad News would top that list for me incidentally.

 

Rude was never much of a draw, and as a worker was a guy who clicked well with some people (maybe consistently the best opponent The Ultimate Warrior ever had) and didn't click as well as he should have with some guys (Sting).

 

In terms of simply WWF tenures with all things considered, I would put him on the level of Tito Santana and Jake Roberts, slightly above Curt Hennig, and nowhere near the level of Roddy Piper or The Ultimate Warrior.

 

He wasn't doing well headlining in 1990. The WWF even made him cut his hair and cut back on his gimmick because they thought it would make people take him more seriously.

[Guest Dumb Monkey]

Wrestling ability: below average. Most of his matches were endless chinlocks. He was about 10 years late when doing 15 minutes of chinlocks in a 20 minute match was a good thing. Other than working miracles with Warrior and having a good couple of years in WCW, his wrestling is overlooked for a reason.

 

 

Promo skills: Very good, but the "for all you fat, ugly, [insert insult], keep the noise down while I remove my robe" shtick gets old fast.

 

 

Draw: Not much of one.

[Guest The Showcase]

His WWF career was much better than Owen Hart and Curt Hennig who seem to be remembered these days for whatever reason as the most deserving heels of the last twenty years who didn't get a run with the title. Bad News would top that list for me incidentally.

 

I'd say the most deserving heel of the last twenty years who didn't get a run with the title was Ted DiBiase. That's just my opinion.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I think Dibiase and Hennig would be a near tie. Owen would be a bit downaways, Rude towards the bottom. You could make a case for Paul Orndorff, possibly.

[Guest Arnold_OldSchool]

Hennig was one of Hogan's Worst drawing opponent's , and Warrior failed as a draw with Curt being his main rival as well

 

Must be that X factor that he was missing.

[Guest Hass of Pain]

His WWF career was much better than Owen Hart and Curt Hennig who seem to be remembered these days for whatever reason as the most deserving heels of the last twenty years who didn't get a run with the title. Bad News would top that list for me incidentally.

 

I'd say the most deserving heel of the last twenty years who didn't get a run with the title was Ted DiBiase. That's just my opinion.

 

If we expand twenty years to twenty-five, Roddy Piper easily defeats everyone for me. Dibiase is up there, but he is a little overrated in terms of his WWF run. I mean he only had about two healthy years in the WWF with probably the best gimmick of his era, and awesome as he was in the Mid-South (probbbbably my favorite babyface of the 80's), it's not like he really had that many truly standout matches in the WWF. It's easy to stay interesting when you've got Andre the Giant and a terrible, fifty-years-outdated racial stereotype to play off of. I'm not taking anything away from Dibiase because with more of an opportunity there is no telling how awesome he would have been, but to even suggest Dibiase or Hennig are in Piper's league when it comes strictly to their tenure in the WWF in insanity. Dibiase is more on Orndorff's level, but because not as many people were watching at that point and because Orndorff isn't a beloved guy on the internet or in history books, Dibiase gets overrated and Paul gets underrated. Cowboy Bob is incredibly underrated as well. His best heel work in the WWF was roughly one million times better than anything Owen Hart (R.I.P.) ever did in his career. Even Brian Pillman with a destroyed leg was more deserving of the title than Owen ever was. Same with the Iron Sheik in his stuff with Slaughter.

 

I mean Hennig and Rude and Owen and Dibiase were good, but if you go back to 1984 and 1985 as well as other periods, there is absolutely nothing that stands out about any of them that decisively puts them above others like Bob Orton, The Iron Sheik, Paul Orndorff, Bad News or even a guy like Christian. They are just guys that for whatever reason nostalgia and smarky fanatacism has shined brightly enough on to lose their weaknesses in the haze. Roddy Piper isn't even in the same world as these guys in terms of talent, drawing ability, longevity and mainstream recognition.

[snuffbox 0]

I think Greg Valentine was the best worker of the last few decades to not get a world title run. He could tell a really good believable story in the ring, could cut promos, and had a great look. He clicked with alot of workers (Piper, Tito, Steamboat, Hogan, etc) and could work either the old school style in long matches, hardcore brawls (Piper), gimmick matches (Piper, Tito). He was also a really good tag team worker no matter who the partner he worked with...Flair, Beefcake, Dino, HTM. He made two mid-card titles (US and Intercontinental) sem as important as anyone else who has ever held them.