Well, this is what Bret wrote in the Calgary Sun back in April 99 when he died......and it seems to confirm it was the Screwjob that Bret was referring to on his DVD.
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www.brethart.com/column/april24.aspI am a year his senior.We travelled the same roads.
Now he walks with angels.
There but for the grace of God go I.
Rick Rude was anything but ... rude.
In any circle of friends and phonies, you take the good with the bad.
And the bad makes you appreciate the good even more.
At the height of my road days, when 300 fights in 300 towns a year was
normal, strangers became family and family became strangers. You can't pick
your family but you can pick your friends. Rick Rude was one of the best
picks I ever made.
He was a smile on my face and everybody else's. He got a big kick out of my
drawings so this one's for him, because I think he'd like it.
He was a great family man. He loved his wife. He was one of those kind of
guys who never took his wedding ring off. He put a white piece of tape around
it when he went into the ring. He was the kind of guy that when you needed
someone to back you up, he wouldn't flinch at all. Not for money. Not for
anything.
When McMahon and his sidemen barged into my dressing room in Montreal, Rick
was there. He was one of the guys who refused to budge. Refused to allow me
to be put in a compromising position.
Rick Rude stayed there to make sure my back was watched.
There were -- and are -- some people who think the whole thing that happened
between McMahon and I was a hoax.
Rick was the one who called Eric Bischoff and said 'I was there. I was in
the room and this is what happened.'
When I was forming new business relationships in WCW, Rude's call protected
me and saved me from a lot of doubt because even Eric Bischoff had to
question whether this was a set-up or not. I was always grateful to Rick for
making that call and for being with me in the room that day.
You statisticians, be sure to note that Rick Rude is the only guy who
managed to appear on both Raw and Nitro at the same time -- because Raw was
taped in advance on the night Rick showed up for a live Nitro and told the
world that what McMahon did to me was real and wrong.
I'd like to think Rick was defending me -- and he was -- but what he was
really defending was 'time-honoured tradition.'
The irony is that at the height of his popularity, Rick's Ravishing
character, the sexy playboy with the gyrating hips, caused a stir with some
conservative viewers, which Rick actually found amusing and took as a
compliment because it was sort of like being compared to Elvis on Ed
Sullivan. With overt sexuality accepted (by some, but not by me) in wrestling
today, it's hard to believe that Ravishing Rick was a controversial cutting
edge character only a few years ago.
The difference is that Rick did it with class. With taste. Your kids could
watch him.
Mine did. They looked up to Rick Rude as a great wrestler and when he came
to visit our house, they found out he was also a great man. When my oldest
son, Dallas, was a little kid, his mean imitation of Ravishing Rick couldn't
be beat.
I don't know if there's any great cosmic reasoning that can help a kid
understand why dad is in another place.
I only know that while he was here, Rick Rude was a great role model to his
kids, to kids around the world, and to those who forgot that how you play the
game is more important than winning it. But make no mistake about it, Rick
Rude was a winner.
Rick was world class heavyweight champion in the southern U.S. when McMahon
signed him at the height of the '80s wrestling boom. He was a successful
intercontinental champion during a hot feud with the Ultimate Warrior, which
culminated in a world title cage match at SummerSlam '90. Rude lost. He went
to WCW and held the U.S. title, beating a feisty, up and coming guy then
known as 'Stunning' Steve Austin.
No doubt Stone Cold learned a lot wrestling against Ravishing Rick that day.
And ... Rick Rude beat The Hitman the only time I ever fought him. (Italy,
1989). I was making the transition from tags to singles and I don't know if
it was that Rick wanted to see what I had or show me what I needed.
I always knew he was tough but that's the day I found out that he always
gave 110%, no matter how the small the town or if the cameras weren't
rolling.
Ravishing Rick vs. The Hitman is one of those rare lost classics.
The 'lost classics'. Brian. Kerry. Bravo. Adrian. JYD. Studd. Andre ... the
list goes on so long it's scary. So many. So young. So talented. So needed.
So missed.
I was going to say I'd give anything to be at the strategy meeting I know
they're having but ... I'll stay here and be a 'fat, out of shape, sweathog'
just trying to do what's right. And what's right is not to let what they
lived for -- and died for -- decay any further, until there's no respect left
for wrestling's fallen heroes.
