On this date in WWE history: Rest in peace, Mr. Perfect

I loved the Perfect-Plex…. great finisher.

My favorite memory is the promo of him playing basketball where he hits the over the shoulder shot….perfect.

I’m relieved to learn that even straight wrestling fans noticed the bulge.

ANYWAY, Curt was similar to Superstar Graham in a way as he peaked a couple of years too soon. He was no doubt an incredible I-C Champ, and let a credibility to that belt that we’ve rarely seen since.

He had World Title Run written all over him, at least as a transitional champ (if Vince insisted on keeping him heel). But he wrecked his back on the eve of dropping the I-C Belt to Bret, took a year off, and showed back up in active competition a year later with a lot of rust.

But he was white hot after a well-booked face turn with Randy against Hall and Flair.

I really thought he was going to start climbing the ladder again but I remember reading a lot of stories about attitude problems backstage and badly worked matches (his Summerslam ’93 match with HBK was apalling).

Then he disappeared before SS ’93, showed back up at WMX for a heel turn and a feud with Luger, then disappeared again a month later, not to be seen again until late ’95.

To this day I don’t know the full story of why he kept coming and going. All I’ve read is that his back problems kept flaring up.

Yet he showed up in WCW in ‘97 as a full-time competitor so there’s probably more that went on behind-the-scenes with Vince than we know about.

Shame, because WWE needed all the help they could get in the mid-90s and Curt would’ve made incredible contributions with both the younger guys and the vets.

Its sad how things ended up for him. He looked so bloated and puffy and a shadow of himself in his last couple of years. The manner in which he died is even more heartbreaking.

Unfair comments about Rude and DiBiase. They played those characters to PERFECTION, and were as believable as heels as you could possibly get.

Repo Man and Bastion Booger were contrived. Ted and Rude were the real deal.

Especially Rude with the poofy hair and porn star moustache. If John Holmes was slightly better-looking and had ever trained in his life (which he didn’t), he would’ve looked like Rude.

Perhaps Ted looked a little silly with the fake tux he’d wear to the ring, but I think that was part of the appeal of the character.

Unless I’m misunderstanding what the commentator meant by “contrived”?

I’ve always took it to mean not necessarily a corny gimmick, but a corny gimmick that the fans see right through and don’t buy for a second (Saba Simba, Dynamic Dudes, etc.)