Rick Rude & the Hall of Fame

[Goldie]

From Hogan winning the title to him winning it at Wrestlemania 9 there were a total of nine champions in nine years and two of those held the belt for a combined total of about a week (Undertaker and Andre). Savage only became a heel champion at the very end of his run so he has to mostly be counted as a face champion so that leaves Slaughter's 3 month run and Flair's combined 4 month run as the only time when there was a proper heel champion. That's a grand total of 8-9 months (including Savage post turn) in a 9 year period. Vince just didn't do heel champions until Yokozuna.

And even after Yokos 9 month (2nd) title run .... It went back to babyface Bret for 8 months... the heel (Backlund) had it a couple of days... where the next babyface (Diesel) held it for a year.
When Diesel came to drop it... it went to another babyface (Bret) for 5 months who in turn, dropped it to another babyface (Shawn) for 8 months ...
By the mid 90s... a few months was conisdered a decent title run... and it was the babyfaces who had them.

Even by 1997-98, where title swicthes became more common, the heels (Sid, Kane) tended to come up short... where babyfaces (Austin, Taker, Bret) still got a few months with it.... I can only think of a heel Shawn (97-98) who got more than a caretaker run .... untill heel Triple H powered through in 2000.

In a nutshell... it was difficult for a heel in the 80s and 90s because Vince felt safer (merhcandise sales) with a face holding the belt.
I honestly feel that if we had todays rate of title bookings ... Rude would have been WWF champ in 1990.
The IC title meant something in those days... so it shouldn't be sniffed at that Rude reached that level rather than WWF world title level.

 

[thebarber]

Pretty sure the only real reason Rude is yet to be inducted is that WWE tend to only induct one posthumous inductee each year at best, excluding 2004 when the HOF was relaunched.
With guys who have passed like Randy Savage, Davey Boy Smith, Big Bossman also worthy, Rick Rude is also a shoe in for induction down the track. The only guys who appear unlikely to EVER be inducted, now that WWE seems to have mended fences with Ulitmate Warrior and Lanny Poofo apparently relenting and letting them induct Savage, it appears Owen Hart(due to Martha) and Jeff Jarrett are really the only guys who could possibly have their cards marked NEVER in the current climate.