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just watching vintage with rude vs steamboat and was just wondering, was it a big deal like it is nowadays when someone joins the other promotion when rick rude joined wcw

 

For me, when he joined in the early 90's it was a massive thing. Rude was class, a top line talent to feud with the best guys in their company.

When WWE stars join TNA these days i don't think its a big deal as all apart from Jeff Hardy have been due to the talent becomming stale, fired, released etc.

 

If Beer Money, Joe or A.J were to get signed by WWE, that would be a BIG thing in my opinion.

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just watching vintage with rude vs steamboat and was just wondering, was it a big deal like it is nowadays when someone joins the other promotion when rick rude joined wcw

 

Are you talking about his 1997 run or his 1991-1994 run?

 

If he was wrestling Steamboat at the time in question I

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Are you talking about his 1997 run or his 1991-1994 run?

 

Presumably the 91-94 run as he was wrestling.

 

To be honest in 91 I'd say the answer to the original question was no. Back in the early 90s in the States WCW was a confused organisation who's fanbase had shrunk back to the hardcore and was markably different to the WWF's. As far as I am aware there's no evidence Rude popping up in late 91 (debuting at Halloween Havoc) shifted ratings or buy rates. What it did mean though was the possibility of a creative resurgence in the first 6 months of '92 as the Dangerous Alliance formed and became the rock around which multiple great feuds (Alliance vs Sting, Rude vs Steamboat, Austin vs Windham etc) formed leading to a series of great TV (Windham Austin best out of 3 falls) and PPV matches (iron man @ Beach Blast, War Games 92). Of course WCW lost confidence, lost Heyman (although he was dodgy), brought in Bill Watts which led to some very odd changes, and generally stumbled around mixing great PPVs (Superbrawl 3)and shite for several years.

 

In 97 Rude appearing on Nitro was a shock but formed more of a general picture of WCW resurgence rather than meaning anything for ratings in itself.

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It was a big deal because Rude was one of the first top WWF stars to make the jump to WCW. A month later Ricky Steamboat returned. WCW got really good in 1992 after a disappointing 1991 including Flair leaving.

 

it was big deal, only problem was it took from oct 90 to oct 91 to get to wcw, i enjoyed rude in d-x, lucky for us jack tunney forgave rude for his comments about boss mans mum, also i heard when he died he was acytually in training to come back and fued with austin

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Was this when in storyline Rude was "insulting the Big Boss Man's Mom"?

 

Were they going anywith that story, or was it an excuse to cover him going to WCW?

 

 

it was cover story for contract problem, then vince put 12month no compete clause in contract release

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Was this when in storyline Rude was "insulting the Big Boss Man's Mom"?

 

Were they going anywith that story, or was it an excuse to cover him going to WCW?

 

 

it was cover story for contract problem, then vince put 12month no compete clause in contract release

 

Thank you, it did seem a bit of a cop out, "fired for insulting someone's mother" I thought, even at 11 years old "people have done a lot worse than that!"

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Good thread/question.

 

The next question is a big deal to whom?

 

For the smart fans of the time - I'm really not sure (so I won't guess) and it will be a year before I get up to then in the Observer back issues I'm reading.

 

For the 'regular' fans (I won't use the term 'casual' because I know a lot of people who were following a good half dozen wrestling shows on TV over here and spending all their pocket money/spare change on numerous magazines a month at that point which is pretty serious fan to me) I'd say yes it was a pretty big deal albeit not as big as it could have been because of the fact he'd been off TV for a year at that point. Had he gone straight from feuding with Warrior in WWF to being revealed as 'The Black Scorpion' and feuding with Sting in WCW a year earlier it would have meant much, much more. Which makes sense why McMahon didn't let that happen.

 

In terms of the creative side of the promotion then yeah it gave them a top heel to base the Dangerous Alliance faction around. Even though I was a fan of The Enforcers tag team (and their excellent entrance music) I think if you'd just stuck those two with Eaton and Austin it wouldn't have had the same impact.

 

That era with Rude and Steamboat's returns also seemed to coincide with the time WCW started to really develop a bigger following in the UK.

 

As for the OP's question about TNA it probably wasn't as big a deal as Angle or Hardy joining TNA but compared to the majority of other TNA signings who went straight from WWE I'd say it was up there.

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I don't know whether this is just Wrestling Internet Bullshit , but seems as good a place as any to ask...

 

The reason I've heard that Rude left WWF is because he asked/informed Vince he'd be coming off the 'vitamins' for a while as he and his wife planned to try and start a family. Vince didn't like the idea of his newest main even guy dropping size (with it being pretty important to Rude's gimmick) and they had a falling out over it.

 

Bullshit or not? Anyone?

 

Rude certainly looked a little smaller and more natural when he arrived in WCW, he also added the hairy-chest look, perhaps to cover for the loss in chest size/definition?

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