December 18, 2020 / By mobanmarket
What I’d like to have right now is for all you basement dwelling internet idiots to keep the noise down while I show you all the next edition of DRS2EBRaSAGG.
While Warrior’s strategy changes after his loss to a more familiar style Rick Rude is consistent in his plan of attack. His plan is to beat Warrior about the head until he is knocked out. Starting out with the greatest top rope missile drop kick of all time at Wrestlemania V Rude again and again came up with new and innovative ways of trying to bash Warrior’s skull in. Then at Summerslam 1989, the best match of the bunch, Rude not only piledrives Warrior he then picks him up again but instead of piledriving him he nails the GANSO BOMB of all things ten years before Toshiaki Kawada would do it to Mitsuharu Misawa.
The Summerslam ’89 match is the second best Warrior match by DRS2EBRaSAGG calculations only surpassed by Wrestlemania VII. There is a flow to it that creates a sense of drama. You have very credible nearfalls coming from such things as a GANSO BOMB and Warrior flying off the top rope. The match also has Jesse Ventura infamously tearing into Tony Schiavone after he tries to explain that it was okay for Warrior to hit Rude with the IC Title Belt because they were on the floor. This leads to a great moment in their Saturday Night’s Main Event match when both man are on the floor and Heenan is distracting the ref Rick Rude smashes Warrior in the face with the WWF Championship Belt getting his revenge as well as furthering his focus on the head with the idea of softening Warrior up for the Rude Awakening.
Finishers playing an interesting part in these matches. Whether it be the neck breaker known as the Rude Awakening or Warrior’s Gorilla Press/Splash combo the way they were used in these matches was very well done. In Rude’s case in every match he found Warrior fighting his way out of the Rude Awakening. Warrior powered out of it at Wrestlemania V and at Summerslam 1989 and then Rude would eat a clothesline. At Saturday Night’s Main Event Warrior again powered out of the Rude Awakening. However, this time Rude ducked the clothesline and caught Warrior in the gut with a back kick dazing him enough to nail the Rude Awakening for the first time on The Ultimate Warrior. Warrior kicked out, but it was still an awesome spot.
After that Warrior began Shakin’ Dem Ropes and they went to the finish. There are a lot of really nice little touches in that SNME match actually. For instance after the aforementioned belt spot Rude goes back into the ring and starts counting Warrior down with the ref. Heenan runs over, says something, and Rude tears ass to the floor so he can throw Warrior back in the ring. Presumably Heenan reminded Rude you can’t win the title on a countout. After the match Rude cut a promo stating his intentions for the Summerslam 1990 cage match including his plan to come off the top of the cage onto the Warrior.
At the Summerslam 1990 cage match the finishes of the two men intersected. In every match Warrior’s first attempt at the splash was always met by him landing on Rude’s knees. In the cage match after Warrior powered out of the Rude Awakening yet again he went for the big splash and Rude got his knees up yet again. This allowed Rude to immediately hit the Rude Awakening. Instead of going for the pin, WWF rules with the big blue cage were random on whether pins/submissions counted here they did, or trying to escape Rude fulfilled his promise by climbing to the top of the cage and coming down onto the Warrior’s head. Then instead of trying to win he did it again, but it was pushing luck too far as Warrior caught him with a shot to the gut on the way down followed by the Gorilla Press Slam allowing Warrior to escape the cage and retain the title.
There might be some overrating of this match here, but they worked this cage match like a cage match. There was blood which is a quaint notion these days. The cage was used as a weapon. There were familiar spots. Rude came off the top. There was some serious drama especially when Heenan tried to help Rude escape, but Warrior fended him off. It was a much better cage match than you can possibly see today in WWE.
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