Interesting Facts about "Ravishing" Rick Rude

Interesting Facts about "Ravishing" Rick Rude

December 19, 2023

By Ryan Porzl

It's almost impossible to argue that one of wrestling's greatest heels was the legendary "Ravishing" Rick Rude. One of wrestling's biggest acts during the 1980s and early 1990s, Rude perfected the character of an unlikeable, arrogant, womanizing heel that knew how to flaunt his good looks while getting booed and hated by audiences everywhere. Sadly, Rude would be one of many during his generation to pass too soon which happened in 1999. This December would've marked The Ravishing One's 65th birthday and I decided to do another look at some interesting facts as this time we'll look at Rick Rude.

Note: I don't own the photos as I got them on Google. Credit to WWE or whoever owns them as I apologize for not knowing the exact owners.

Was A Four Time World Champion- We'll start with an obvious topic that I usually start with in my Interesting Facts articles. Rude was known for having his share of success in wrestling and winning world titles would be an example of that. Rude's first world title came fairly quickly in his career. In February 1986, Rude was in World Class as he was their top champion the NWA American Heavyweight Champion when World Class decided to break away from the NWA and go national. On February 20, 1986, World Class would announce their split from the NWA and with that, Rude, who held their top belt, would be declared the first World Class World Champion. Rude would hold the belt for nearly five months before losing it to Chris Adams on July 4th during World Class' Fourth of July Star Wars event. Many years later, Rude returned to world champion status towards the end of his career and again, backstage issues would make things interesting. By September 1993, Rude began pursuing Ric Flair and the NWA World Heavyweight Championship but at the same time, WCW would have a fallen out with the NWA over the direction of the world title among other reasons. With the NWA parting ways, WCW continued using the big gold belt (as WCW owned the rights to the belt) first as "The World Heavyweight Championship" before eventually renaming it "The WCW International World Championship". Rude would hold the International World Title on three occasions, a record for the short lived title. Rude first won it on September 19, 1993 from Ric Flair at Fall Brawl 1993 and would hold the belt until losing it to Japanese legend Hiroshi Hase during a New Japan tour on March 16, 1994. Rude then regained the title for a second time on March 24th at another New Japan show from Hase and lost it to Sting at WCW's Spring Stampede 1994 event on April 17th. Rude then regained it for the third time at New Japan's Wrestling Dontaku 1994 event on May 1st but would be stripped of the title on May 22nd at WCW Slamboree 1994 PPV after suffering career ending injuries during his title win.

Is The Only Wrestler To Pin The Ultimate Warrior At Wrestlemania. Was Only One Of Two Wrestlers To Pin The Ultimate Warrior On A WWF PPV- When you think of wrestlers regarding Wrestlemania, it's always the usual whether it be Hulk Hogan or The Undertaker or Shawn Michaels to name some. However, another to think of, at least involving the early years, is The Ultimate Warrior. Though, he didn't compete in many Wrestlemanias, he still left a huge mark. After debuting at Wrestlemania IV against Hercules, Warrior would have one Wrestlemania moment after another from defeating Hulk Hogan in The Ultimate Challenge at Wrestlemania VI to briefly ending the career of Randy Savage at Wrestlemania VII to squashing Triple H in The Game's Wrestlemania debut at Wrestlemania XII. However, despite beating some of WWF/WWE's all time greats, there was one time when Warrior was looking up at the lights at the Showcase of the Immortals and that was against Rick Rude. At Wrestlemania V on April 2, 1989, Rude faced The Warrior for the WWF Intercontinental Championship. In the end, Rude would score the pin in 9:36 when Warrior attempted to suplex Rude back in the ring from the apron only for manager Bobby Heenan to trip Warrior which allowed Rude to fall on top for the pin as Heenan held Warrior's leg without the referee seeing. With the win, Rude has the distinction of being the only man to defeat Warrior at Wrestlemania. Ultimately, Rude would only be one of two men to defeat The Warrior at a WWF PPV as the other would be Sgt. Slaughter when he defeated Warrior for the WWF Championship at the 1991 Royal Rumble. While Warrior would go on to avenge the loss in back to back Summerslams, Rude still left his mark in Warrior's career.

Was Paul Orndorff's Final Opponent In The WWF- In the 1980s, as the WWF began their expansion throughout the United States and Canada, many names would come in and play a big part in it. Among them would be "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff. Debuting in late 1983, Orndorff would play a massive role in the WWF from the early to late 1980s from main eventing the first Wrestlemania with Roddy Piper against Hulk Hogan and Mr. T to taking part in one of the biggest feuds of the 80s with Hogan, Orndorff was a big player. Unfortunately, during the Hogan feud, Orndorff would tear his biceps and gutted it out for several months. After Orndorff eventually took time off following the feud concluding, Rude would enter the WWF and align with The Heenan Family. Upon his return in the summer of 1987, Orndorff left The Heenan Family and turned face, eventually beginning a feud with Rude. Perhaps, due to a combination of Rude being far younger with more upside as well as Orndorff's injury, Rude would mostly come out on the winning side of the feud, even eliminating Orndorff in the main event of Survivor Series 1987. Eventually, Rude would continue his feud with Orndorff until their last match at a WWF House Show on January 4, 1988 where Rude once again defeated Orndorff. The match proved to be Orndorff's last as he left the Federation after this and took two years off to recover from his biceps injury. Orndorff would eventually return to wrestling in 1990 as a journeyman before settling in WCW from 1992 to his retirement in 1995 outside of the occasional one time only returns. While Orndorff would return to the WWE in the 21st Century for appearances, including being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005, he never wrestled for the promotion again thus making Rude the final opponent for "Mr. Wonderful" in the WWF.

Bobby Eaton (left), Jim Cornette (middle), and Dennis Condrey (right)

Was The First Opponent of the Second Incarnation of The Midnight Express- When you think of all time great teams, it's almost impossible not to mention at least one incarnation of The Midnight Express. The Midnights originally formed in 1980 after "Lover Boy" Dennis Condrey and "Ravishing" Randy Rose paired up with the two eventually being joined by Norvell Austin. The team would dominate the southern United States between 1980-1983 for Continental Wrestling Association and Southeastern Championship Wrestling while Condrey and Rose would also compete for the AWA and NWA in 1987-1989 winning many championships. After the team broke up in 1983, Condrey made his way to Mid-South Wrestling where he would be paired up with Memphis imports "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton and manager Jim Cornette who became the second incarnation of The Midnight Express. As this was happening, Rude began his wrestling career and by the end of 1983, was still a young rookie and preliminary wrestler named Ricky Rood and made appearances for Mid-South Wrestling. On November 23, 1983, Rude would face The Midnight V2 in their debut match at a TV Taping (the episode was shown on November 26th) and obviously, came up short. On an interesting note, Rude's tag team partner was "Action" Mike Jackson, the guy who later became known as that athletic 70+ year old wrestler who made appearances for Impact Wrestling and GCW in the 2020s.

Was The Longest WCW United States Champion. Second Longest Overall United States Champion- Since 1975, one of wrestling's most prestigious championships has been the WWE United States Championship. Originally starting as the Jim Crockett version of the United States Championship, the belt would be around during Jim Crockett Promotions and continued when the promotion became World Championship Wrestling before the WWE bought the promotion and made it one of their own. For a title that's been around for nearly 50 years, it's no surprise many great legends have held it and Rude would not only be one but he would make his mark. Rude would win the WCW United States Championship from Sting at Clash of the Champions XVII on November 19, 1991. Rude would then dominate the belt throughout 1992 before a neck injury forced him to vacate it. His title loss is somewhat debated as December 1, 1992 is the date most have, however, Rude was making title defenses up to December 7th and a number one contenders tournament (which eventually became for the vacant title) began in January 1993. Regardless, December 1, 1992 is the popular date which still puts Rude's reign at 378 days. With that, Rude became the longest United States Title holder in WCW history and second overall in the near 50 year history of the belt with Lex Luger's third NWA United States Championship reign lasting 523 days between May 22, 1989 to October 27, 1990.

 

Was A Competitive Arm Wrestler- In professional wrestling, many who enter the business usually are talented athletes and many had aspirations of competing in a major sport before an injury or something would end it. Rude was largely no different. Before and early into his wrestling career, Rude was a competitive arm wrestler and did competitions where he placed second in the Nationals in 1980. In 1983, Rude would compete in the Arm Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas in the Light Heavyweight division (210 lbs.) where he finished 6th. Apparently, Rude would continue to be a good arm wrestler during his wrestling career as it's been apparently said that at some points some thought Rude could perhaps beat any professional wrestler in arm wrestling outside of multi time champion Scott Norton.  

Was Only One of Three People To Have Been A Member Of Both D-Generation X and The nWo. Was The First To Have Been A Member of Both- Unquestionably, two of the biggest stables in all of American wrestling in the 1990s were D-Generation X in the WWF and the New World Order in WCW. Both companies played huge to massive roles in the business as well as their respective companies as the nWo is credited for WCW's increased fortunes and allowed them to do for two years what no one had been able to do in the last 40 years which was overtake and beat the WWF/WWE. DX proved to be one of the WWF's hottest acts during their time and a big part of the WWF's rebound at the end of the decade alongside the likes of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, The Rock, The Undertaker, Kane, and Mick Foley. Both had their benefits as the nWo revived the career of Hulk Hogan while making fellow co-founders Scott Hall and Kevin Nash bigger stars than they ever were while DX took Triple H to the next level, enhance The New Age Outlaws, and was a good vehicle to reintroduce Sean Waltman back to the WWF. However, Rude would play a part in these stables as he actually became the first and one of the few to have served in both stables as he was a co-founder of DX upon their formation in August 1997 and then immediately became a member of the nWo after returning to WCW in November 1997. Rude was actually be only one of three wrestlers to have been members of both legendary factions with Sean Waltman and Shawn Michaels being the other two.

Rude (left) with Chad Damiani

His Final Appearances In Wrestling Was As Co-Host Of WCW Backstage Blast- Rude made a big splash with his return to WCW in November 1997. However, despite the history making return (more on that later) as well as aligning with the nWo, Rude's WCW run was largely forgettable as he mostly spent it managing close friend Curt Hennig. In September 1998, both Hennig and Rude would be taken off TV with Hennig nursing a leg injury while Rude had a health scare with the fear being he had testicular cancer but it was later revealed to be spermatocele. After time away, Rude returned in February 1999 as the co-host of WCW Backstage Blast. Backstage Blast was a special airing of WCW Monday Nitro for DirecTV subscribers which replaced commercials with analysis from Rude and co-host Chad Damiani as well as exclusive backstage interviews. Rude's time on Backstage Blast were not well fondly remembered. Perhaps due to personal issues and training for a comeback, Rude notably looked very bloated and there would be one incident in March where he reportedly passed out between segments and his performance was said to be embarrassing. Rude would work on the show until leaving WCW in April 1999 with his last episode being the April 5, 1999 edition, fifteen days before his passing.

Was The First DX and nWo Member To Pass Away- As I always mention in these articles, not all these facts are good and this is the bad one for Rude. Rude ultimately passed away on April 20, 1999 at the age of 40 due to a combination of mixed medications including supposedly GHB. With his passing, Rude had the sad distinction of being the first DX and nWo alumni to pass away. As of 2023, Rude is only one of two DX alumni to pass with fellow co-founder Chyna passing in April 2016 at the age of 46 also due to an overdose. As for the nWo, several have since passed on including Curt Hennig, Brian Adams, Randy Savage, Big Titan (a member of nWo Japan), Miss Elizabeth, and Scott Hall. 

Was The First Member Of The Heenan Family To Win A Title In The WWF- Again, whenever you think about great factions in wrestling history, one that usually comes to mind is The Heenan Family. Led by legendary manager Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, The Heenan Family was one of wrestling's top groups beginning in the early 1970s to the early 1990s. Heenan led his family in many wrestling territories during it's two decades most notably in the AWA. Upon his arrival in September 1984, Heenan would bring his Family to the WWF and lead a who's who of legends. Rude would become one of Heenan's clients when he debuted in 1987. Unfortunately, despite the prestigious list of wrestlers recruited by The Brain and despite Heenan arguably being considered wrestling's greatest manager, The Heenan Family had quite the dry spell during their early years as despite Heenan debuting for the WWF in September 1984, he had yet to manage a champion going into 1989. Heenan and Rude sought to change that when Rude began a rivalry with WWF Intercontinental Champion The Ultimate Warrior at the 1989 Royal Rumble which led to a championship match between them at Wrestlemania V that April. While the match was mostly about the issues surrounding Rude and Warrior along with the title being on the line, Jesse Ventura would repeatedly bring up throughout the show leading to the match about Heenan's quest for his first title. As mentioned above, the dry spell ended when Rude pinned Warrior thanks to cheating on Heenan's part to win the title. With the win, The Heenan Family would finally have a title in their camp and Rude would officially be their first champion. After Rude's title win, the floodgates would open and the gold would pour into The Heenan Family over the next few years with Heenan leading two teams to the WWF Tag Team Championship in 1989 first with The Brain Busters (Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard) and then The Colossal Connection (Andre The Giant and Haku), he also recaptured the IC Championship two more times by leading Mr. Perfect to the gold both times, and finally, Heenan would get the big one when he led Ric Flair to the WWF Championship twice as his Financial Advisor.

Was Good Friends And A Long Time Associate of Paul Bearer. He Would Also Recommend Bearer To The WWF- During Rick Rude's legendary career, he became known for many reasons and among those was his relationship with many legendary managers from Jimmy Hart to Bobby Heenan to Paul Heyman while also being apart of legendary factions like Hart's First Family to Heenan's Heenan Family to Heyman's Dangerous Alliance. However, a manager most may forget he was associated with was none other than Paul Bearer. Bearer, real name William Moody, entered the wrestling business in the 1970s where he did some wrestling before finding his true calling as manager where he took on the name of "Percival Pringle III" or "Percy Pringle". By the 80s, Bearer was taking time away and became a mortician but by 1984, he returned full time to wrestling. Meanwhile, Rude had started to see an upward movement in his career after a successful run in Memphis' Continental Wrestling Association where he adapted the "Ravishing Rick Rude" character. In 1985, the two would come together in Championship Wrestling from Florida and would not only become wrestler and manager but the two would actually become good friends. During their time together, Rude climbed the ranks in CWF enjoying two runs with the Southern Heavyweight Championship (their top title) and one with the United States Tag Team Championship with Jesse Barr. By the fall, the two jumped to World Class Championship Wrestling where Rude's stock would continue to grow as he quickly won the promotion's top title in the NWA American Heavyweight Championship from Iceman King Parsons in November 1985. While as champion, WCCW would withdraw from the NWA and go national which resulted in Rude becoming the promotion's first world champion as mentioned above. Rude also enjoyed a brief run as Television Champion as well. However, the alliance ended in July 1986 when Rude fired Bearer after losing the world title to Chris Adams. From there, the two went their separate ways as Bearer continued in World Class while Rude jumped to Jim Crockett Promotions and then had his big run in the WWF. Fast forward to 1990, World Class would shut down and Bearer was out of work. In a tribute article Bearer made paying tribute to Rude on his website, he said things looked bleak for him as he struggled financially as he possibly had to cancel Christmas with his children and his car was repoed. As this happened, he would get in touch with Rude, who by this point was on the outs of the WWF due to a pay dispute. After bringing up his issues, Rude would call Vince McMahon and recommended Bearer for a job. Bearer would be flown in shortly after and earned a job as he signed with the WWF in December 1990. The timing couldn't of been better as the WWF had just debuted Mark Calloway as The Undertaker with Bruce Prichard under his Brother Love persona managing him. By January 1991, Prichard reportedly was suffering from personal issues and decided to focus more behind the scenes thus the need for a new manager for The Deadman. With Bearer signed and the WWF hearing about his time as a mortician, the thought was he be a perfect choice. Bearer debuted in February, introducing himself as Paul Bearer and would be given the reins of The Phenom which began a popular and successful six year run between them as well as the occasional reunions over the years while Bearer would also go on to manage other legends such as Mankind, Terry Gordy (as The Executioner), Vader, and Kane while enjoying an on again/off again two decade run in the WWF/WWE.

Was The First Foreigner To Make It To The Finals Of The G1 Climax- Since it's debut in 1991, New Japan's top tournament has been the G1 Climax which over the decades has arguably become the biggest tournament in all of professional wrestling, especially after the WWE did the King of the Ring tournament less often by the 2000s. The tournament, which is usually held in July/August is mostly a round robin tournament (with a few exceptions) that has had it's share of legendary winners and in recent years, has given the winner the prize of a title shot at the following year's Wrestling Kingdom show, New Japan's biggest show of the year. Rude would ultimately be one of many stars to compete in the tournament and would make his mark. In August 1992, New Japan held the second G1 tournament which notably featured an interesting prize as the winner not only won the year's tournament and the trophies that went along with it but they would also win the revived NWA World Heavyweight Championship which had been vacant since September 1991 after Ric Flair signed with the WWF. The tournament would also be one of the few G1s held under a single elimination format as opposed to a round robin one. For the tournament, WCW would be featured heavily as many of their wrestlers would enter with Rude being one. Rude fared extremely well as he would defeat Super Strong Machine in the opening round, then Shinya Hashimoto in the quarterfinals, and then Kensuke Sasaki in the semifinals which allowed Rude to punch his ticket to the finals. In the final round, Rude would face the most successful and dominate competitor in the history of the G1 Climax as well as the previous year's winner Masahiro Chono. In the end, Rude fell to Chono in 29:44 coming up short in winning the tournament as well as the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Despite the loss, Rude made history becoming the first foreigner or gaijin to make it to the finals of a G1. He would also be the last for the next twenty years as it wouldn't happen again until 2012 when Karl Anderson made it to the finals. Since that time, they've been joined by Kenny Omega (who became the first to win the tournament in 2016) and Will Ospreay.

 

First Wrestler To Appear On WWF Monday Night RAW and WCW Monday Nitro The Same Night. Appeared In The Big Three's TV Shows Over a Period Of 72 Hours- From September 4, 1995 to March 26, 2001, the American wrestling scene witnessed one of the hottest periods it ever had: The Monday Night Wars. For over five and a half years, the two big names in the business in the WWF and WCW would go head to head on Monday Nights for rating supremacy. In many ways, the MNWs would be a big part of the American wrestling scene changing dramatically as wrestling largely went from being about attendance and house shows to Television ratings to the point where fans no longer had to wait for the show to come to their town and buy a ticket to see the big matches, now, they can watch it from the comfort of their own home. PPVs also became more important during this time as well. The WWF and WCW would each have their share of victories and defeats as they threw everything they could at the other in the hopes of winning the week short term and the overall war in the long term. In the five and a half years this war went on, many big moments took place and many dates would be important. One of those dates was November 17, 1997 and it saw Rick Rude not only play a massive role but perhaps be the most memorable moment of his career. Prior to the date, Rude returned to the WWF on the August 11, 1997 RAW after a seven year hiatus where he assisted Shawn Michaels in defeating Mankind and revealed himself as Michaels new bodyguard/insurance policy. With Mankind rival Triple H and his bodyguard Chyna at ringside, this is viewed as the unofficial debut of D-Generation X. Rude would work as a member of DX for the next three months where he and Chyna largely provided muscle and interference while Michaels and Triple H took center stage. As is well documented, Rude's WWF run was interesting as he was never signed to a contract upon returning. According to WWE executive Bruce Prichard on his podcast, he revealed while Vince wanted Rude back, he was adamant that he didn't want Rude under a contract as he didn't know how long he intended to use him and with Rude in the middle of a lawsuit with WCW over his 1994 career ending injury, it looked like they had nothing to worry about. Then at Survivor Series 1997 on November 9th, the Montreal Screwjob changed things for Rude. Due to his close friendship with Bret Hart, Rude would call WCW head Eric Bischoff that night explaining what happened and how he wanted back in. After Survivor Series, Rude worked the live November 10th RAW and the November 17th RAW which was taped on November 11th. On November 17, 1997, WCW opened with an nWo promo but as all members came out, Hollywood Hogan would come out last only to stop and point at the entrance and out came Rick Rude, who had settled his WCW lawsuit and was newly signed. Rude would cut a promo bringing up the Montreal Screwjob and referred to the WWF as "The Titanic" which was likely in reference to WWF's parent company which was then named Titan Sports. Two hours later, during the second hour of the taped RAW, Rude then appeared doing his usual bit with DX. As some have pointed out, Rude notably grew a beard during his time in the WWF but shaved it for his WCW return only to then appear with the beard on RAW hours later. Rude became the first person in the wrestling business to appear on an episode of WWF RAW and WCW Nitro the same night and would be the last until the final WCW Nitro on March 26, 2001 where the show was simulcast with RAW that night. As if that wasn't impressive enough, Rude also made history appearing on ECW during this time frame. Rude had worked for ECW since his return to the business in January 1997 after a three year hiatus. During his ten months with the promotion, Rude proceeded to spend most of it either feuding or aligning with ECW legend Shane Douglas or doing color commentary for shows. Rude's last appearance was on ECW Hardcore TV during the weekend of November 14 to November 16 (Hardcore TV was syndicated so when it aired depending on the market) which means Rude appeared on all three of the "Big Three's" top shows over a 72 hour period which was never done before.