"What I'd Like To Have..."

-"What I'd like to have right now, is for all you fat, out of shape, inner-city sweathogs, to keep the noise down, while I take my robe off and show you what a REAL sexy man, is supposed to look like... Hit the music."-
(Ravishing Rick Rude, 80's-90's)
Rick Rude was a hated man. A true heel, Rude made a career out of flaunting the fact that his perfectly chiseled physique was a far cry from the less than svelte anatomy of your average pro-wrestling fan.

Starting his career in the national territory system in 1983, the Minnesota born Richard Roode made his way from promotion to promotion, honing his craft and working on a character that drew guaranteed hate with little effort.
Rude arrived in the World Wrestling Federation in 1987, managed by Jimmy Hart at first but best remembered as a major player in manager Bobby Heenan's "Heenan Family" faction.

"Ravishing" Rick Rude would arrogantly stride to the ring and the call for his music to stop. Amidst deafening boos, Rude would slowly and deliberately recite the above phrase (or a variation of) before revealing his spectacular body to the audience. As a final insult, he would select an attractive woman from the audience and plant a sloppy kiss on her big-haired mush, known as "The Rude Awakening" Another Rude trademark was to have a huge variety of airbrushed tights, rarely wrestling in the same outfit twice.

Rick Rude was a master of the fine art of being a badguy, or "heel" as they are known in the business. Rude was capable of taking his act from town to town and achieving the same reaction from the audience due to his obnoxious arrogance and rule bending tactics. Rude was also aware that, in many cases, the job of the heel is to make the good guy, or "face", look incredible. Like a villain in any good action movie, the heel's role is to make the crowd hate him so much, that they will pay money to watch him get his face kicked in by the current flavour of the month hero.
This is a subtle art that all the best heels from any generation of pro-wrestlers are masters at, Rick Rude being one of them.

Rude plied his trade in the WWF for three years, feuding with Jake "The Snake" Roberts and The Ultimate Warrior, who Rude defeated to win the Intercontinental championship. The ravishing one then left the WWF to join up with rival company WCW, where he feuded with such legends as Ric Flair, Sting and Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, whilst also having possibly the single most ass-kicking entrance theme ever written. Rude continued to appear in the late 90's in less physical managerial roles for both companies and the renegade upstart ECW promotion.

Rick Rude passed away from heart failure in 1999 at the age of forty, his contributions to the business will be solidly remembered and his trademark entrance routine and verbal abuse is the stuff of legend.