Rick Rude against The Ultimate Warrior was a classic rivalry that defined the late 80s and early 90s just as the WWE was looking for a new star to replace Hulk Hogan. Rude’s professionalism in the ring and natural talent as a heel made him a perfect foil for the mystical white meat babyface that was being created in Jim Hellwig.
While these two were had contrasting personalities, and some serious friction between the two men went down due to different professional outlooks, they produced some great matches during a time frame that needed an antidote to the Hogan era of dominance.
10 Rude And Warrior Formed A Short-Lived Tag Team In WCCW
Rick Rude and The Ultimate Warrior’s rivalry began a few years earlier in 1986 in the renamed World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW) entitled the World Class Wrestling Association (WCWA) after it broke away from the NWA. Rick Rude held the NWA Heavyweight Championship and was the first-ever WCWA Heavyweight Champion.
Rude debuted in October 1985 and Warrior in June 1986. They joined forces for a brief run as a tag team before ending up feuding with each other in a series of matches with Rude’s manager Percy Pringle otherwise known as Paul Bearer. Warrior won the WCWA tag team titles with Lance Von Erich and the Heavyweight Championship before vacating the title and leaving for the WWE.
9 Warrior Forgot To Sell The Oil In The Eye During The Posedown
This segment is well remembered as the impetus for their long rivalry in the WWE at the Royal Rumble 89. With Jesse Ventura on commentary as a fellow Minnesota native, Rude had at least one fan in attendance. Rude set out the challenge for the Warrior and this visual spectacle was set up.
No doubt HHH and Steiner got some pointers from this when it was updated in 2003. Rude ended the display with “the muscular montage” to slay Warrior but just as his opponent went through his last pose, Heenan threw the oil into Warrior’s face. He forgot to sell the liquid, or was this intentional as just another power of the Ultimate Warrior?
8 Rude’s IC Title Victory Was His First And Only Title In WWE
It is surprising to fans that his only singles title in WWE came after his victory over Warrior at Wrestlemania V at Trump Plaza. Rude was only in the WWE for a short as his run lasted from 1987-1990, so just three years.
In the day and age of multiple champions with the current record holder holding the belt nine times in Chris Jericho and even Wade Barret holds five. This may seem like a slight to Rude’s ability despite the title being more prestigious back then. One of the reasons that he ultimately left WWE was over issues about moving up the card and being utilised properly amongst other reasons.
7 Warrior Received His First Loss To Rick Rude
After joining the WWE in June 1987 and making his televised debut in October 1987 on Wrestling Challenge as the Ultimate Warrior, the Dingo Warrior moniker was quietly retired in favour of something different. It is a little-known fact that Warrior was in fact pinned for the very first time by Rude in December 1987 at an untelevised House Show.
This fact would come back around again in 1989 as Rude became the very first person to hand Warrior a pinfall televised loss in his career in the WWE at Wrestlemania V. Albeit with Bobby Heenan’s help from interference after Warrior's 18 months of being active in the WWE.
6 Saturday Night Main Event Match Before SummerSlam 1990
For some unknown reason, the WWE decided to let these two face each other before the championship match at Summerslam on a Saturday Night Main Event. So giving away the bout on free TV with a count-out victory for Warrior made no sense and diminished the spectacle of the upcoming steel cage match.
If Warrior had received a beat down, or Rude had attempted to injure him, or even win via count-out some extra interest and heat could have been added to Summer Slam, plus an extra layer to the storyline. Giving away the encounter so close to the PPV leaves you scratching your head in terms of booking decisions.
5 SummerSlam Steel Cage Match
The traditional blue steel cage match made its very first appearance at Summer Slam, and it was a fitting way for the rivalry to end. The cage has made reappearances several times over the summer, famously in 1994 with the Bret v Owen rivalry, in the semi-main event then again with the Mankind v HHH rivalry that opened in 1997. Lastly, the Brothers of Destruction faced Kanyon and DDP in 2001, in a remodelled cage.
The cage morphed into the Elimination Chamber in 2003 to close the show, and then again with the Undertaker v Edge into Hell in a Cell 2008. This means that the Rude v Warrior match still holds the record as the only traditional steel cage match to have main-evented Summer Slam even after all these years. As well as the very first appearance of a stipulation match of it or any type at the event.
4 Backstage Confrontation With The Warrior
Accounts state that Warrior was working stiff in the ring and Rude was not impressed but being the professional, he dealt with it in the back, after Warrior had commented that “He was the Warrior and he could work stiff if he wanted”.
This ultimately led to an encounter after the match with Warrior being KOed by Rude, a legit tough guy who was notorious for starting and ending fights. Because of this incident, it is claimed Hulk Hogan refused to work with Rude at any point in the future citing he was dangerous. This may have ultimately capped Rude’s future progress in the WWE.
3 Rude Left WWE Over SummerSlam Pay
Although there was a combination of factors including his progress to the main event, and a lack of respect from the Warrior situation, Bruce Pritchard commented that Rude knew he was coming back to the WWE after his hiatus, to make Warrior look good and he was known for being a businessman.
Learning of the SummerSlam payout that Warrior received in comparison to his own, and feeling disrespected believing he was the better worker was the last straw. there was also some disputes over appearance fees. Rude left and spent a short time in several promotions before returning to WCW in 1991. Winning the then WCW International Heavyweight Championship and tearing up the promotion with a series of matches and a high work rate until his hugely unfortunate back injury in 1994 in Japan.
2 Multiple Matches Together
In total Rick Rude and Warrior faced each other on only thirteen occasions in front of cameras across their careers, with most of the matches occurring in the WWE. Only three singles encounters happened in WCCW. Their very first televised match in WWE occurred more than a year earlier from the IC switch in January 1988.
Their most active period was between Wrestlemania V and Summerslam 89 as they faced each other three times on the road to Summer Slam 89. They either ended in a count-out or a DQ. Their rivalry was therefore compressed into a four-year time frame and with Rude out of action due to his back injury when he returned to WCW in 1997, and Warrior having a short run in the company in 1998, they never faced each other again.
1 Matches Are Considered Some Of The Best Of Warrior’s Career
Rude was one of the very few people to have faced Warrior multiple times, bringing out the very best in him. Most of this was down to his own abilities, but Warrior deserves credit as well for his character work and intensity. Rude made Warrior look imposing, but also provided a great foil to his personality, and made fans believe that Warrior could be beaten, all in one package.
Their feud lasted from the Royal Rumble 89 to Summer Slam 1990 and moved through belt tiers from Intercontinental to World Title over eighteen months, during the era of only four big PPVs where rivalries were drawn out longer and had more meaning as a result.