Who was Richard Erwin Rood? , The professional wrestling world knew Ravishing Rick Rude, as a
professional wrestler who performed for many
promotions, most notably
World Championship Wrestling,
Extreme Championship Wrestling, and the
World Wrestling Federation, in the 1980s and 1990s.
[4] Among other accolades, Rude was a four-time
World Champion (a
three-time WCW International World Heavyweight Champion and
one-time WCWA World Heavyweight Champion), a
one-time WWF Intercontinental Champion and
one-time WCW United States Champion.
(December 7, 1958 – April 20, 1999) |
Career
Born in
St. Peter, Minnesota, Rood attended Robbinsdale High School in
Robbinsdale, Minnesota with
Tom Zenk,
Brady Boone,
Nikita Koloff,
Curt Hennig,
John Nord, and
Barry Darsow, all of whom later became professional wrestlers.
[5]
After graduating from Anoka Ramsey Junior College with a
degree in
physical education,
[5] Rood began wrestling in 1983 as Ricky Rood, a
babyface jobber. He started with
Vancouver's
NWA: All-Star Wrestling before moving on to compete for
Georgia Championship Wrestling and later the
Memphis-based
Continental Wrestling Association. He later left and joined the
National Wrestling Alliance affiliate
Jim Crockett Promotions where he and a variety of
tag team partners
feuded with
The Road Warriors. He returned to Memphis in 1984, this time as "Ravishing" Rick Rude, an overconfident, arrogant
heel managed by
Jimmy Hart.
[6] Rude feuded with
Jerry Lawler and later his former partner,
King Kong Bundy.
[7][8]
Rude was hired by
Championship Wrestling from Florida in December 1984, where he was managed by
Percy Pringle. He defeated
Pez Whatley for the
NWA Florida Southern Heavyweight Championship on January 16, 1985 and lost it to
Brian Blair on April 10, 1985. He captured the championship again on July 20, 1985, when he defeated
Mike Graham in the finals of a Southern title tournament. He held the belt until October 2 of that year when he dropped it to
Wahoo McDaniel, who was booking Florida during this time. While teaming with
Jesse Barr, he won the
NWA Florida United States Tag Team Championship on April 16, 1985, and feuded with
Billy Jack Haynes and Wahoo McDaniel over the belts, losing the straps to McDaniel and Haynes on July 9, 1985. In late 1985, he jumped to
World Class Championship Wrestling along with Pringle, where he feuded with
Kevin Von Erich and
Chris Adams. During his time in WCCW, Rude captured the
NWA American Heavyweight Championship on November 4, 1985. However, WCCW withdrew from the NWA on February 20, 1986, and changed its name to the
World Class Wrestling Association. The NWA American Championship was renamed the
WCWA 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 with
The Dingo Warrior, but the Warrior
turned on him and became a face.
In September 1986, Rude returned to Jim Crockett Promotions and joined
Manny Fernandez and his manager
Paul Jones in their rivalry with Wahoo McDaniel.
[9] Rude and Fernandez, known collectively as the "Awesome Twosome",
[10] won the
NWA World Tag Team Championship on December 6, 1986 from
The Rock 'n' Roll Express,
[11] and they began a feud that ended only when Rude left the promotion for the
World 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.
World Wrestling Federation (1987–1990)
Rude made his WWF debut in July 1987. Rude was managed by
Jimmy Hart and later
Bobby "The Brain" Heenan. He feuded with "Mr. Wonderful"
Paul Orndorff, before starting one of his most famous feuds with
Jake "The Snake" Roberts.
[12] Rude had a routine where, before the match, he would make a show of removing his robe while insulting the males in the crowd and, after his victories, he would kiss a woman that Heenan picked from the fans.
[7] One of Rude's trademarks was his specially airbrushed tights that he wore during matches. In one storyline, he tried to get Roberts' real-life wife, Cheryl, to comply, aggravating Roberts.
[7] On another occasion during the Roberts/Rude feud, Rude came to the ring with a picture 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,
[13] although the live audience saw him stripped to a g-string instead.
Rude's next big feud was with
The Ultimate Warrior and began in January at the
1989 Royal Rumble pay-per-view in a "Super Posedown" that ended with Rude attacking Warrior with a metal pose bar.
[14] With help from Heenan, Rude won the
Intercontinental Championship from the Warrior at
WrestleMania V, before dropping it back to the Warrior at
SummerSlam 1989, due in large part to interference from
"Rowdy" Roddy Piper.
[14][15] Rude then feuded with Piper, before resuming his conflict with the Warrior in the summer of 1990 after the Warrior had won the
WWF Championship. The two battled in a
cage at
SummerSlam 1990, however Rude failed to win the title and departed from WWF in October 1990.
[16][17] This departure came right before he was scheduled to feud with
the Big Boss Man, which had its potential start when Rude started to make degrading comments about The Boss Man's mother.
[18]
World Championship Wrestling (1991–1994)
Rude made his way to
World Championship Wrestling, which had originally been
Jim Crockett Promotions prior to being sold to
Ted Turner in late 1988; he debuted as The Halloween Phantom at
Halloween Havoc on October 27, 1991, unmasking himself later that night.
[16] He founded and led
The Dangerous Alliance, consisting of himself,
Paul E. Dangerously,
Madusa,
Arn Anderson,
Bobby Eaton,
Larry Zbyszko, and
"Stunning" Steve Austin. On November 19, 1991, Rude defeated
Sting for the
WCW United States Heavyweight Championship and engaged in a number of high profile feudes, including one with
Ricky Steamboat. At one point during their feud, Steamboat suffered a
kayfabe broken nose in a gang attack.
[19]
In 1992, Rude and Madusa left The Dangerous Alliance and feuded with
Nikita Koloff. Rude challenged reigning
WCW World Heavyweight Champion Ron Simmons on several occasions but did not defeat him. In December 1992, Rude suffered a legitimate 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 33 year history of the title.
[7] Rude returned alone in April 1993 and tried to reclaim the title from
Dustin Rhodes, who had won it while he was injured. The title was eventually held up after several controversial finishes to matches between the two, although Rhodes regained the title in a rematch.
[20]
Rude switched his sights to the
NWA World Heavyweight Championship, making his intentions clear on August 28, 1993, when he was the guest on then-champion
Ric Flair's "A Flair For the Gold" talk segment.
[8] Rude defeated Flair for the title in September 1993 at
Fall Brawl.
[21] 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 the
WCW International World Heavyweight Championship, which Rude lost to
Hiroshi Hase on March 16, 1994 in
Tokyo,
Japan.
[21] Rude regained the title just eight days later in
Kyoto,
Japan.
[21] After dropping the title to Sting on April 17, Rude pinned Sting on May 1 in
Fukuoka to become a three time champion.
[21] Rude, however, injured his back during the match; 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).
[7][21] Rude retired shortly thereafter.
[7]
Extreme Championship Wrestling and return to the WWF (1997)
Rude collected on a
Lloyd's of London insurance policy and did not compete in wrestling again until 1996, when he joined
Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) as a
masked man who harassed
Shane Douglas, at one point spanking
Francine. He eventually unmasked and became a
color commentator before later aligning himself, for a short time, with Douglas and his
Triple Threat stable. During the ECW versus
USWA / WWF inter-company competition, Rude helped
Jerry "The King" Lawler defeat ECW mainstays
Tommy Dreamer and
The Sandman.
Rude later returned to WWF as the "insurance policy" of the
D-Generation X (DX) stable (
Shawn Michaels,
Triple H, and
Chyna).
[22] As a member of DX, Rude never wrestled, but would stay ringside during the group's matches. He once again left WWF after the
Montreal Screwjob at
Survivor Series. According to
Bret Hart, Rude stayed in the locker room during Bret's confrontation with Vince McMahon, later calling
Eric Bischoff and informing him what had happened was in fact real. As Rude was not signed to a full-time contract with WWF, and was instead performing on a "pay-per-appearance" basis, Rude was able to negotiate a deal with Bischoff and WCW, in part due to his anger over the Montreal Screwjob.
[10][23]
Return to WCW (1997–1998)
Rude appeared on both
WWF Raw is War and
WCW Monday Nitro on November 17, 1997. A mustached Rude appeared on
Nitro, which was live, and proceeded to criticize Shawn Michaels, DX, and the WWF, calling the company the "
Titanic" (a reference to Titan Enterprises, as WWF's parent company was then known, as the "sinking ship").
[1] An hour later on
Raw (which had been taped six days earlier), Rude then appeared with the full beard he'd been sporting during his return to the WWF.
[1][24] Rude also appeared on ECW's
Hardcore TV during that weekend (November 14–16 as the show was syndicated differently depending on the market). Rude was still making ECW appearances while in
D-Generation X.
In WCW, Rude became a member of the
nWo, managing his friend
Curt Hennig.
[7] When the nWo split, Hennig and Rude joined the nWo Wolfpac,
[25] and they tried to motivate
Konnan to defeat
Goldberg, who was undefeated at the time. When Konnan was defeated by Goldberg, Rude and Hennig attacked him, later joining nWo Hollywood, the rivals of the Wolfpac. By late 1998, both Rude and Hennig were off WCW TV due to injuries. Hennig had an ongoing leg injury that year, and Rude was thought to have had
testicular cancer which later turned out to be a
cyst. Curt Hennig returned to the nWo from his injury at
Starrcade 1998 without Rude, who was still unable to appear on WCW. Rude was rumored to be training for a full time comeback to active wrestling in early 1999.
[citation needed]
Death
Rude died on April 20, 1999 after suffering heart failure.
[4] He is survived by his wife Michelle and their three children.
[1] The cause of death may have been an overdose of
Gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) and steroids.
[26] An autopsy report showed he died from an overdose of "mixed medications."
[27] Rude testified in 1994 that he had used
anabolic steroids to alleviate pain in his joints and increase muscle mass.
[28]
[edit] In wrestling
[edit] Championships and accomplishments
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Who is Christina Rene Hendricks? The entertainment and acting world knows Christina Hendricks as an American actress known for her role as Joan Holloway in the AMC cable television series Mad Men, and as Saffron in Fox's short-lived series Firefly. Hendricks was named "the sexiest woman in the world" in 2010 in a poll of female readers taken by Esquire magazine.[1]
Hendricks was born May 3, 1975 in Knoxville, Tennessee, and raised in Twin Falls, Idaho, from third through eighth grade. She holds dual British and American nationality, as her father is British.[2] While in Twin Falls, she began her acting career with Junior Musical Playhouse Company, with roles in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Grease.In 1989, her family moved to Fairfax, Virginia, where Hendricks appeared in several Fairfax High School plays and local community theater. 
Hendricks has made a number of guest television appearances, starting as a regular in the series Beggars and Choosers. Since then, she has starred in the series The Big Time and The Court, opposite Sally Field and Craig Bierko, as well as the legal drama Kevin Hill. She has also had recurring roles in ER and Firefly and guest-starred in episodes of Angel, Miss Match, Tru Calling, Presidio Med, Without a Trace, and Las Vegas. Hendricks starred opposite Kip Pardue in South of Pico. La Cucina, an award-winning indie film, premiered on Showtime in December 2009 and stars Hendricks as a sexy writer opposite Joaquim de Almeida. She has appeared in four episodes of the NBC TV show Life in the recurring role of Olivia, detective Charlie Crews' soon-to-be stepmother and Ted Earley's love interest. She also starred in music videos for "The Ghost Inside" by Broken Bells, and Everclear's "One Hit Wonder".[citation needed]
In July 2010, Hendricks' hourglass figure was highlighted as a positive influence for women by UK Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone, who said "Christina Hendricks is absolutely fabulous...We need more of these role models. There is such a sensation when there is a curvy role model. It shouldn't be so unusual."[7] Hendricks commented in September 2010 that the media is too focused on women's bodies and not their actual talents, "I was working my butt off on the show [Mad Men] and then all anyone was talking about was my body."[8]
