On this date in WWF/WCW history: Rick Rude appears on both RAW and Nitro on the same night

i remember that night

I feel like that era should have taken better advantage of Rude’s mike skills. I get that he couldn’t wrestle anymore, but man that was a guy that knew how to draw some heat.

I think Rude still may have appeared in ECW right around this time as well. He was heavily involved in the Bam Bam Bigelow vs Shane Douglas feud in ECW that was going on around this time in 1997. So I disliked both WCW and WWF Rude’s, as I was saddened to see Rude’s inevitable departure from ECW.

But I prefer the clean-shaven WCW Rude over the heavily-bearded WWF Rude. I think the missing beard was a great way to hammer in the point that Nitro was live and Raw was taped. And Rude’s verbal jabs concerning the Montreal Screwjob also gave the WCW Rude an edge here.

I remember how exciting it was seeing how wrestlers were jumping ship back and forth at that time. It gave the wrestling world a sense of cohesion. Two major companies and a small one but one big dynamic wrestling universe.

I will never forget this for as long as I live. This was before I was reading wrestling websites on the internet and paid little attention to the backstage workings of either company. So it really came out of nowhere and blew my mind. For like five minutes I remember thinking how the hell can he be in two places at once before remembering that Raw was pre-taped. One of the highlights of the Monday Night War in my opinion.

Eric smugness in the background is just oozing. His passion to run WWE into the ground help make and break WCW in the long run. It got them to #1 for a long streak but keeping his on on what Vince was doing instead of the goons in the back eventually became to much