While “Ravishing” Rick Rude is usually associated with his tenure in WWE in the late 1980s, it was in WCW where he truly shone. Debuting in 1991, Rude had a terrific run in the company, holding the U.S. title for nearly a year and the “International” World Championship three times. One of the best heels ever, Rude was a terrific star whose career only ended with his back injury in 1994.
During that time, Rude had plenty of rivalries in WCW, either in his time in the Dangerous Alliance or by himself. Some were terrific programs against the best WCW could offer, others were lower-level feuds against poor workers. and then there were the times Rude had a good feud going until circumstances ruined the payoff. Here are how Rick Rude’s major feuds in WCW rank from worst to best as a reminder of the terrific star he was.
10/10 Erik Watts
It’s sad that Erik Watts is better known by his blatant push by his father, Bill (who was running WCW at the time), than anything he did in the ring. The rookie was way too raw to be pushed so fast and fans couldn’t buy him as a threat. He certainly didn’t deserve to take Rude, the man who’d beaten far better wrestlers, to several time-limit draws on TV.
It really looked like Bill Watts hoped Erik would be the guy to win the belt off Rude, but fans couldn’t accept him that way. Rude was the one who snapped Erik’s winning streak and the feud ended when Bill Watts himself was fired but this ranks as probably Rude’s lamest feud as even he couldn’t make Erik look good.
9/10 Masahiro Chono
This is a tale of two feuds. In Japan, Rude and Masa Chono had a fantastic battle for the NWA World title with arguably Rude’s best-ever match. Sadly, the WCW side was a disaster. The fact Chono couldn’t cut a promo didn’t help, as U.S. fans didn’t care as much about this.
It led to Halloween Havoc in one of the most boring bouts imaginable, rest holds, poor action, two refs and ending in an ugly double-DQ. It’s bizarre how this feud gave Rude both his best and worst major matches.
8/10 Road Warrior Hawk
This is a rather baffling fund for Rude and the Road Warriors. Dustin Rhodes seemed to have Road Warrior Animal be his surprise partner in a tag team match, only for Hawk to join Animal instead. For some reason, WCW thought Hawk was a great singles star to put against International champion Rude.
That led to an awful Clash of the Champions bout ending in a double countout. The feud ended fast to prove how the Road Warriors were never meant for singles work and even Rude couldn’t carry Hawk to a good bout.
7/10 Ron Simmons
This is one of three feuds for Rude in WCW that ended up not paying off because of a bad break. When Ron Simmons won the WCW World title in 1992, he was hot with fans but saddled with lousy challengers like the Barbarian. For Starrcade, WCW decided a champion-versus-champion bout with Rude was the perfect match.
It was built well in some tag bouts where Rude could get a pin on Simmons and Rude bragging he’d be a double champion. But on the day of Starrcade, it was announced Rude was injured and replaced by Steve Williams. Simmons then lost the belt to Vader, so this marred more than just Rude’s career.
6/10 Vader
Rude was one of the absolute best heels imaginable, so the idea of him as a babyface was a bit hard to believe. Yet WCW tried it in early 1994 with Vader and Rude clashing as Rude was the International champion at the time.
They got more heated in some promos and tag team matches, and the fans started to back Rude up. It was to come together for a title match at Slamboree, but before that happened, Rude suffered his career-ending back injury against Sting, who replaced him in that match. It was an intriguing idea of Rude as the face and a shame it didn’t get a chance to run more.
5/10 Nikita Koloff
While Nikita Koloff lost much of his passion for the business when his wife died, he was still hoping for a last push in WCW in 1992. When Rude’s feud with Ricky Steamboat finished, he and Koloff had a notable program for the U.S. title. One match became famous for setting up Jake Roberts’ WCW debut to attack Sting.
They had a few more battles and it was to culminate at Halloween Havoc 1992. However, Rude had his match with Chono, so Vader became his substitute with Koloff sustaining his career-ending injury. The lack of any payoff hurt this otherwise good feud.
4/10 Ric Flair
After being considered a dream battle for so long, Rick Rude and Ric Flair finally got into it in 1993. Having recently returned to WCW, Flair had won the NWA Heavyweight title, which later became the International Championship. They had a good match at Fall Brawl, where Rude used some brass knuckles to knock out Flair and win the title.
Their rematch at Halloween Havoc was also good, with Flair on the verge of winning after hitting Rude with his own brass knuckles before it was stopped. Flair would move on to beat Vader for the WCW World title to end this feud, which was a great clash between two fine performers.
3/10 Dustin Rhodes
Rude’s U.S. title run finally ended in late 1992 after he was injured before Starrcade, as mentioned in the Ron Simmons entry. The belt was held up for a bit before being won by Dustin Rhodes. When Rude returned, he naturally targeted Dustin (no pun intended!), leading to some terrific battles, including an Iron Man match for the belt.
Dustin was coming into his own at this time and Rude helped elevate him to a good level. The pair faced off in tag matches, but their singles bouts were also amazing and pushed Dustin as a star. These athletes had a great time facing off to make this a terrific rivalry for Rude.
2/10 Sting
Rude’s 1991 debut in WCW as the Halloween Phantom was a huge deal as he immediately targeted Sting. Thanks to help from Lex Luger, Rude defeated an injured Sting for the U.S. title and embarked on a fantastic run with the belt.
The pair had several rematches and often faced off in tag team bouts with both being terrific. It seems oddly fitting that it was against Sting in 1994 that Rude suffered his career-ending back injury as these two brought out the best in each other and made for some great matches.
1/10 Ricky Steamboat
It’s almost impossible for anyone to have a bad feud with Ricky Steamboat. Yet it’s still astounding how he and Rude had such an amazing program in 1992. The pair faced off in some sensational fights as Rude and the Dangerous Alliance targeted Steamboat, busting up his nose and ribs and even targeting his family.
Steamboat fought back, including him and Rude facing off in a classic Iron Man match at Beach Blast. Surprisingly, it was dropped with Steamboat beating Steve Austin for the TV title instead, but this was a great program that may rank as Rude’s all-time greatest feud.
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