What if Rick Rude didn't leave for WCW?

[CM Steel]

The late "Ravishing" Rick Rude was a good wrestler in his heyday. A former WWF IC champion. But in fall of 1997 Rick Rude returned to the WWF/E in a manager role for the new D-Generation-X featuring HBK, HHH, and Chyna. But only weeks into the newly form DX, Rick Rude appeared on both WWF RAW & WCW Nitro on the same night. RAW being taped told wrestling fans that Rick Rude had indeed jumped-ship to WCW to be apart of the New World Order faction.

Rick Rude did a shoot promo on Shawn Michaels & the WWF. And put over Bret Hart at the same time. WCW just had deeper pockets then the WWF had at that wrestling era. But what if Rude would have stayed in the WWF with DX instead? Would he have stayed in DX after Shawn Michaels lost the WWF championship to Stone Cold Steve Austin at Wrestlemania 14 in Boston? But a year after that, Rick Rude passed away. May he rest in peace!


But what if Rick Rude didn't leave for WCW?

 

[donfryeismyhero]

He left because of the Montreal Screwjob. Rude was long time friends with Bret & many wrestlers felt they wouldn't be able to trust & do business with McMahon because of that incident. So let's say it didn't happen & Rick stayed around, I could see him disappearing for a couple of months after HBK dropped the title to Stone Cold @ Mania, then reappearing as perhaps Val Venis' manager. The two of them could of no doubt put together some memorable vignettes & cut some great promo's together.

 

[justtxyank]

I like Rick Rude, but his time as a relevant member of a roster was over. The only reason he made a big impact at all was because he jumped to WCW. It would have been interesting to see what happened a few years down the road when he was training for a comeback.

It's hard to imagine what he would have done if he stayed in the WWF. Please note though that his jump to WCW had NOTHING to do with money. Rude was livid over the screwjob. He, Hennig and Hart were best friends and he joined WCW because he never wanted to work for McMahon again.

It's interesting to note that Rude KNEW he wasn't all that relevant anymore. In his speech on WCW Nitro when he debuted with the nWo he acknowledged that this was going to be his 15 minutes of fame and he wanted to use it to talk about things wrong with the business.

 

[closet_fan]

He was old school. Vince was really trying to phase all of that out, so I doubt he would have been an on-screen character for very long. But, I do think they would have given him some sort of backstage role. He really had a great mind for wrestling. And would have been a huge help in that aspect.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Rude was never going to stay once the screwjob happened, he waited and waited and then struck by being on both shows at once. You'd have to erase the whole screwjob for him to have stayed as it was the 2nd time he'd been sickened by Vince and his treatment of people.

The more interesting thread would be what if he stayed the first time...

The first time he was disgusted that he had been denied the chance to be WWE Champion in favor of Sgt. Slaughter, despite being the best heel they had. Second time was down to the screw job.

When Rude went to WCW both times he seemed revitalised, where as in DX he didn't really fit. Working with his friend Curt Hennig was a good role for him. Also at the time of his death, he was in training to return to full time action, many speculate it was this, coupled with his usual leisurely use of drugs that pushed his heart too far.

But... sake of argument he might have got the push the Bulldog did in 99...

If Rude had stayed first time:-

When Sgt. Slaughter won the title from the Warrior at The Rumble, it was already apparent that war was going to break out and Vince was going to use it, but he managed to convince Rude that he had a plan for him... Rude makes the run in on Warrior, in tandem with Savage and the two form an alliance.

This leads to the first ever "Triple Threat" match at Wrestlemania 7 with the stipulation that the lose must retire. Savage is pinned when Rude double crosses him and "steals" Queen Sherri - Savage reuinited with Elizabeth after the match. At Summerslam 91 Warrior famously tries to hold Vince up for Money before the "Match Made In Hell". While already promoting a wedding involving Savage and Liz, plan B is put into action. Warrior is "put out of commission" by The Undertaker leaving Hogan facing a 3 on 1 handicap match. Savage implores Jack Tunney to allow him to partner Hogan and is allowed to, leaving Liz unprotected. The Mega Powers are victorious over Slaughter and cronies and at Saturday Night's Main Event in September Rude claims that Liz left Randy cos she wanted to be with him, this angers Randy into a rash match which he loses when Liz kisses Rude. Rude reveals that he is in cahoots with Jake Roberts (who "brainwashed" Liz) and Jake attacks Randy with a Cobra, when Sid Justice makes a save, The Undertaker attacks him, a Tombstone to the concrete puts him "out" for a time.

Rude and Liz start to rise up the card and at Survivor Series an offshoot of the previous years "battle of survival" sees the stipulation where only one man can survive the Survivor Series. In the weeks leading up to the show, Hogan is defeated for the title by Undertaker, and then regains it. Leaving the title vacated and the "Sole Survivor" of Survivor Series would be the new champion with Hogan and Undertaker passing into the match automatically.

The teams are:-

Rude's Brood - Rude, Jake & The Natural Disasters v The Macho Madness -Savage, Big Bossman & Legion Of Doom (Rude & Jake survive)

Roddy's Rowdies - Piper, Bret, Steamboat, Bulldog v A Flair For The Gold - Ric Flair, Ted DiBiase, IRS & The Mountie (Ricky Steamboat & Bret Hart survive - Flair and Piper brawled to the back)

The Cobra Corps - Sgt Slaughter, Texas Tornado, The Rockers v Col. Mustafa, The Beverly Brothers & the Warlord (Survivors Sgt. Slaughter & Texas Tornado)

Team Nasty - Nasty Boys, Beverly Brothers & Skinner v The Bushwhackers, The New Foundation & Virgil (Survivors: The Nasty Boys)

Final Match Of Survival - For the Title -

Hogan, The Dragon, Bret Hart, Sgt. Slaughter & Texas Tornado v Rude, Jake, The Nasty Boys & The Undertaker. Rude quickly eliminate's Slaughter, Hogan takes out the Nasty's in quick succession while the Undertaker demolishes the Tornado. This leaves Rude, Jake and Taker v Hogan, Steamboat & Bret. Bret beats Jake with the Sharpshooter before being counted out after a DDT on the floor. It is now 2 on 2... Hogan is disqualified when Sid returns and rolls Taker into the casket he had planned to put Hogan in (as Sid is not in the match, it is "outside interference" and Hogan is eliminated) As Hogan and Sid argue and push each other outside the ring, Steamboat tries to capitalise on the distraction by catching Rude with a flying bodypress. Rude rolls through and with a handful of tights wins the match and the title!

Rude is bullish as Champion, boasting of how he beat 3 former champions in one night and telling fans to keep the noise down to see what a real champion looks like. In the run up to the Royal Rumble, Hogan and Sid continue their rocky friendship and battle against The Undertaker. Bret Hart is challeneged to an IC title match by Jake Roberts and Randy Savage and Rude battle over the countries house shows for the title. In late december, things are thrown for a loop... During one of Rude's intro's, Ric Flair interrupts and says how he has heard him say he is a real champion now for too long and his "real worlds championship" means HE is a real champion, that Rude had beaten someone "he had already beaten" and to be the man you have to beat the man.

Rude tells him the only way he is getting a title shot is to win the Rumble, but that there are a lot of guys who want him and Flair doesn't have the heart.

At the Rumble, Jake wins the IC title (he drops it to Piper the following night) which comes down to Flair and Sid with the same ending as the real 92 Rumble. Flair entered at #1 and has defied the odds the odds and throughout the match slowly turns face. Hogan and Sid have exploded into a feud and Rude is so angry that he makes the mistake of slapping The Undertaker for not making sure the job was done. This costs big time him with a Tombstone and a loss to Savage by DQ when Taker interferes on him, turning face.

From there, Flair beats Rude at WM8, Hogan beats Sid, Undertaker beats Jake and Bret beats Piper and 5 years on Randy Savage and Ricky Steamboat have another classic for the #1 contendership with Savage taking the win.

 

[CaptainPuertoRico]

Incredible booking, THTRobtaylor. It's nice to know I wasn't the only kid with that active of an imagination with booking my action figures MONTHS done the line haha. The only minor critique I can give, and it's not necessarily even a fault, is you having all the faces go over at WM. Realistically, Rick Rude was a great heel at the time, but Sgt. Slaughter is iconic. I mean, I prefer Rick's stature and ability to Slaughter's, but Slaughter was on freaking G.I. Joe! I am a huge fan of ROH guys like Daniel Bryan Danielson, CM Punk, Austin Aries and the like (pardon my IWC sheep-like tastes) but those guys wouldn't have had a snowball's chance in hell of being world champion in the 80s or early 90s. Punk, MAYBE. The mic work and acting he's been doing lately with the Legends, Cena, Ryback and especially Vince this past Monday are cementing him as a great heel and character in general. But I hear the ratings are hitting new lows, so maybe they DO need more juiced-up, goofy characters to bring in a larger audience. All I know is I prefer wrestling to sports entertainment. I always preferred Bret and Shawn to Warrior and Hogan but casual fans need size and five moves of doom as something with which they can identify. Rude would have never gotten pushed over Slaughter.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Thanks... I was too old for toys, but I used a lot of games line TNM back in the 90's to sim my way through the WWF - still do with Total Extreme Warfare.

In the Flair case though the turn would only really be cemented by winning the title. How WWE should have used him rather than as a heel.

Of course Rude left because Slaughter was brought in to feud at Hogan's request, after refusing to work with Rude as being "too small". Slaughter bombed and thus so did Flair, Sid and Lex Luger - all as knock ons from that poor booking of Slaughter taking the title.

 

[thebarber]

only thing wrong with all of this is Rude left straight after Summerslam 1990, months before Slaughter was brought back to feud with and beat Warrior. Rude left WWE because Vince would ot put the WWE Title on him, not having him go over Warrior who Rude was a far superior worker than. This is fact. Instead he got booked in a shitty feud with Big Bossman and the tv story that took him off television was about comments Rude made about Bossman's mother. Rick Rude was old school, a legitimate hard man in the industry. He saw the writing on the wall in WWE, his 3 year contract was up for renewal, so he left for WCW to further his career, which he did.

 

[HBsam31]

When Rude left the first time he definitely made and impact in WCW. The second time around though he was really only the guy that was on both shows in the same night. He even kinda acknowledge that fact in his first WCW promo. If the whole screwjob didn't happen, and Rude stayed I could have seen him managing HBK until he lost the title and left. Then Rude could have managed and up and coming guy which I think would have been cool. I had heard he was training for a comeback, but his life ended about a year after all this. Such a talented star and injuries really took a lot from him. RIP Rick Rude.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Slaughter was on the way in before Summerslam and working notice, in those days booking plans were made long in advance. That the Iraq conflict happened as it did was a "bonus", as Hogan had hand picked Slaughter as the guy he wanted to work with and Slaughter was just gonna go "rouge" until it did...so they turned him to an Iraqi sympathiser... It was clear by Summerslam that both Warrior and Hogan were "anti-Rude" so yeah he left.... my ideas were based on if he hadn't left, which was the idea of the thread...