Austin Region, Chicago Subregion, Second Round (6) Edge vs. (11) Rick Rude

[Richard Blonoff]

This is a second round match in the Austin Region, Chicago Subregion. It is a standard one on one match. It will be held at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois.

#6 Edge

VS.

#11 Rick Rude​

Polls will be open for three days following a one day period for discussion. Voting will be based on who you feel is the greater of the two competitors. Post your reasons for why your pick should win below. Remember that this is non-spam and the most votes in the poll win. Any ties will be broken by the amount of posts of support for each candidate, with one vote per poster.

Also remember that this is a non-spam forum. If you post a response without giving a reason for your selection, it will be penalized for spam and deleted.

 

[Poop Master Flex]

Gotta go with Edge on this one. I made it pretty clear how I feel about Rude in his previous match up and even though he's one of my favorites I can't put him over Edge on this one. There's not a whole lot that needs to be said on the situation that hasn't already been said, Edge is one of the most decorated individuals WWE has ever had winning every single accolade he could possibly win in that company. He's had numerous matches (both in singles and tag teams) that were MOTY candidates/winners, he was one of WWE's top guys for over 5 years, he main evented Wrestlemania, he's stole the show at that same event at least 3 times and he was a draw.

It's going to take someone a little more accomplished than Rude to take Edge out of this tournament and there's no reason why Edge shouldn't move forward on this one.

 

[Tastycles]

Edge is really underrated, I think. It's not very often that a wrestler who looks and wrestles like Edge gets to the top of the business, but by being a hard worker and having a great use of character he was able to get over with the crows at large. Similar to Rude, I guess. The difference is that Edge got the rewards for his efforts more often than Rude and I think on balance has had a much superior career.

 

[NSL]

In a straight wrestling match, I'd probably give the win to Rude. In a competition to see who can steal more wrestler's wives, I'd give the nod to Rude.

But in the world of kayfabe, nothing Rude has accomplished compares to Edge, and that's really a shame. The match to this might be boring as all hell, but the promos and segments leading up to the match would be superb. It'll make me feel better, to think Edge uses all sorts of shenanigans to win this, including Lita and/or Vicki interfering.

 

[Richard Blonoff]

I've made it know that I feel these forums overrate Rude a bit, but this is a match between two very good heels. Edge was able to do it all, from tag team star to main event draw, he was the complete package for WWE. Rude would put up a fight, but he would go down to Edge and his shitty spear. Seriously Edge, your spear is garbage.

 

[Spidey Revivey]

Well this would have made for some hellacious moments. Rick Rude was a great heel. He knew how to get people to hate him way before being a heel was cool. Edge is the quintessential cool heel. Gun to my head, I think Rude was better at being the bad guy. But this isn't a tournament to crown which one was better at being the villain. It's about who was the better wrestler. Edge has the better legacy of the two. I honestly think his moveset was for shit, but in an objective argument The Rated R Superstar goes above and beyond anything Rick Rude did in his career.

Rude does have better facial hair though, so I can be swayed.

 

[NegativeFeedback]

Edge is really underrated, I think.

He's one of the few people to actually make it to the FINALS in one of these tournaments. He's very far from underrated.

Edge is clearly winning this. Rude has never made it past Round 3, and probably won't ever since he never really reached the heights that his talent and potential would've allowed.

 

[NSL]

He's one of the few people to actually make it to the FINALS in one of these tournaments. He's very far from underrated.

If I'm remembering correctly, Edge's run was heavily backed by a barrage of essays that no one cared to read, as well as people that saw them and thought "There must be something to this" and voted for him.

Edge is clearly winning this. Rude has never made it past Round 3, and probably won't ever since he never really reached the heights that his talent and potential would've allowed.

Edge will probably win this, but I don't think he "clearly" wins this. His gimmick, when he was The Rated R Superstar, was basically Rick Rude, modernized. Rude doesn't get past the gimmick rounds, because that was never his style, and it would be hard to vote for him over a guy like Edge, in that environment, considering the things we've seen Edge do in those matches.

Head to head, I'd say this is a solid match-up, especially factoring in their abilities in the ring. I'd even say that Rude could cut a better promo.

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

Edge here. Accomplished more, the face of a brand and really a more illustrious career. Horrendous finisher in the spear, the Impaler DDT was better to be honest but still Edge.

I'll let it be known that Rude is one of the best heels of all times. I somehow came across his program with Jake and his wife and WOW! Both those guys put on a clinic, splendid stuff.

 

[Hulkamaniac]

The problem here is that these are going to always favor more recent wrestlers. On top of normal recency bias, you also have the fact that there have been more people "elevated" to Main Event status then were during the 80's when the Ravishing One was at his absolute peak. It's a function of the times, and it's unfair to hold that against the wrestlers from that era. The entire company revolved around Hogan and the entire nature of the industry involved minimal title changes and BUILDING to those moments, thus longer title reigns, thus fewer people were champs.

We're talking about a guy in Rick Rude who beat the Ultimate freaking Warrior right in the middle of his prime run. On top of that, he has the GOAT manager, Bobby Heenan in his corner.

Edge's success is a product of his era. Rick Rude wins on a roll up after Heenan grabs Edge's legs while he's running the ropes, distracting the Rated R Superstar. After the match, Lita leaves with The Ravishing One.

 

[nightmare]

Edge has a bigger resume and more titles than Rude & Heenan could hold for a five second pose. He would find a way to counter Heenan's presence & take home a win against Rude. The guy made a career out of beating some big names & having memorable moments, not just coasting off one big win & the greatness of his manager like Rude did for the most part.

 

[Hulkamaniac]

As an addendum to my prior post, use it as a thought exercise. If we were to simply switch both wrestlers into each other's time periods. Who would be more successful? Rude would have been a multiple time world champ and Edge would have been below where Rude was in the 80's, probably shoved into a tag team that never gets the belts. He's a Killer Bee in Rude's era. Rude is a world champ in the current era. And oh my God, imagine Rude's gimmick in the Attitude Era. He's the richest man's version of Val Venis with World Titles.

 

[Prince Vee]

Edge is arguably the better one than Rick Rude. Every other posters had talked about their accomplishments and hard work, not to say the least, their ability to draw the crowd. But we all had forgotten that Edge also had a huge fan base when he was a face. We can't argue that Rick Rude had worked like wonders as a face but Edge has. Edge can suit in any role he is assigned which makes him win this match. Close call, but Edge wins with the Spear.

 

[The Brain]

Well that's disappointing. Uh guys, this is the internet. From what I understand we're supposed to like Rick Rude. Actually this one is a coin toss for me. I don't fault anyone for voting Edge but I am surprised by how much of a blowout this is. Rude has been dead for 17 years and hasn't wrestled in 22 years. I guess he's starting to be forgotten. That's too bad. I'm getting my post in here just in case there's a comeback in the next twelve hours and it comes down to the tiebreaker.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I expected it to be a closer result than this. Like The Brain said, I think modern fans are starting to forget about Rick Rude to an extent because he passed quite a long time ago and therefore can't appear in "legends" segments on WWE like so many others do. He isn't in the HOF (should be) and isn't really mentioned on TV so I suppose it's no wonder he's taking a beating here.

Edge was very good, but I think his amazing list of accolades is more than it should be. The amount of World Titles he won (albeit most were short runs) is more than Rock, Austin, Hogan and pretty much anyone else, and I don't think he's on THAT level. He is a fantastic performer though, and reinvented himself as the Rated R character after years of being the babyface. I think he deserves to beat Rude, but not by the margin we're seeing here.