Skip to main content

Worst in the World: Rick Rude vs Hawk-Clash of the Champions XXV

Some tag wrestlers go on to have very successful singles careers after they split from their tag partner. Guys like Shawn Michaels, Scott Steiner, and Booker T all went on to become main event superstars after successful runs in The Rockers, The Steiner Brothers, and Harlem Heat, respectively. Some wrestlers, however, don't see that kind of success...like Hawk. One half of the legendary Road Warriors & Legion of Doom, Hawk worked much better in tag matches with the help of his partner Animal. Despite this, Hawk would occasionally get placed in a singles match every now and then, even at one point (and I'm not joking) challenging RIC FLAIR FOR THE NWA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP. The match I look at in this post, however, is against Rick Rude at Clash of the Champion XXV. Rude, despite having a fantastic and legendary gimmick, was never the best wrestler, so let's see how this goes.
First off, this match is for Rude's WCW International Heavyweight Championship, which, interestingly, is actually the Big Gold Belt that they used for the WCW & WWE World Heavyweight Championships:
 I just thought that was cool. Hawk makes the first move and pushes Rude to start the match, followed by the two locking up. They push off each other and repeat, before Hawk tosses into the corner, which prompts Rude to complain about Hawk pulling his hair, which the referee actually gives Hawk grief over. I'm sorry but...is this ref blind. RICK RUDE HAS NO HAIR TO GRAB. It worked in the Al Snow-Too Much match because the ref was intentionally biased. It doesn't work here.
Hawk calls for the test of strength spot, which Rude avoids doing for entire minute before smartly battering Hawk instead, which (in perfect WCW fashion) the camera misses because it's zoomed in too close. Rude goes to work on Hawk before Hawk just no sells Rude slamming his head into the turnbuckle, followed by him doing the same to Rude. Hawk runs wild, including barely getting Rude up for a suplex, before Rude hits a back-breaker and goes to the top rope. Hawk blocks a flying nothing by getting his feet up and clotheslines Rude out of the ring. They brawl on the outside as the referee delivers a very fast 10 count for the double count-out finish.

The Verdict

Nothing match. There was nothing so horrendous about this match, but there wasn't anything good either. Also, the double count-out finish is sh*t, and is just a lazy way for people to lose without doing a job that the fans hate. I'm so glad this finish rarely happens anymore.

Rankings (Best to Worst)

  1.  Too Much vs Al Snow & Head-King of the Ring 1998
  2. Vampiro vs Sting-Great American Bash 2000
  3. Konnan vs One Man Gang-SuperBrawl VI
  4. Ultimate Warrior vs Hercules-WrestleMania IV
  5. Rick Rude vs Hawk-Clash of the Champions XXV
  6. The Chamber of Horrors-Halloween Havoc 1991
  7. Nikita Koloff vs Bobby Eaton-Bunkhouse Stampede
  8. Total Divas vs Other Divas-Survivor Series 2013
  9. The Oddities vs Kaientai-SummerSlam 1998
  10. Hulk Hogan vs Sid Justice-WrestleMania VIII
  11. Hollywood Hogan vs The Giant-Hog Wild
  12. Jake Roberts vs Andre the Giant-WrestleMania V
  13. Hulk Hogan vs Randy Savage-Uncensored 1998
  14. Al Snow vs Big Boss Man-Unforgiven 1999
  15. Mickie James vs Ashley-Royal Rumble 2006
  16. Christy Hemme vs Big Fat Oily Guy-Against All Odds 2007
  17. Vampiro vs Oklahoma-Starrcade 1999
  18. Junkyard Dog vs Moondog Spot-Wrestling Classic
  19. Hiroshi Wajima vs Tom Magee-All Japan Pro Wrestling 1988
  20. Kevin Sullivan vs Dave Sullivan-SuperBrawl V
  21. Steve McMichael vs Brian Adams-Road Wild 1998
  22. Scott Steiner vs Sid Vicious vs Jeff Jarrett vs Road Warrior Animal-Sin
  23.  Sable vs Tori-WrestleMania XV
  24. Sid Vicious vs The Nightstalker-Clash of the Champions XIII
  25. Greg Valentine vs George Steele-Heroes of Wrestling
  26. Abdullah the Butcher vs One Man Gang-Heroes of Wrestling
  27. Hollywood Hogan vs The Warrior-Halloween Havoc 1998
  28. The Royal Family vs Clowns R' Us-Survivor Series 1994
  29. Sting vs Jeff Hardy-Victory Road 2011
  30. Ultimate Warrior vs Andre the Giant-Saturday Night's Main Event (11/25/1989)
  31. The Doomsday Cage Match-Uncensored 1996 
  32. Kaitlyn vs Maxine-NXT (10/19/10)
  33. James Storm vs Chris Harris-Lockdown 2007
  34. John Laurinaitis vs John Cena-Over the Limit 2012
And up next in the Worst in the World is...

Ah, Rick Rude, go away.
Thanks for reading. Be sure to share if you enjoyed. Also, check out my Patreon.

Comments

More from The Wrestling Section

Worst in the World: The Gimmick Battle Royal-WrestleMania X-Seven

(Special thanks to Frost for suggesting this match. If you'd like to see a match covered on the Worst in the World, leave a comment down below.) WrestleMania X-Seven. Heavily considered the not just the best WrestleMania, but the greatest wrestling show of all time, WrestleMania X-Seven took place during the hottest period in the WWF's history, and features just about every one of the hottest acts in wrestling at the time. An undercard featuring the likes of Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, William Regal, Kane, and the Big Show. One of the biggest female stars in the history of wrestling in Chyna. A killer TLC match between the Dudley Boyz, the Hardy Boyz, and Edge & Christian. A wild brawl between The Undertaker and Triple H. A massive main event between Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock. Hell, even the father vs son Street Fight between Vince & Shane McMahon. It's a star-studded affair. However, there's one match that sticks out like

Worst in the World: The Last Rites Match-TNA Destination X 2007

(Special thanks to an anonymous user for suggesting this match. If you'd like to see a match covered on the Worst in the World, leave a comment down below.) An often discussed aspect of professional wrestling is the backstage politicking of Hulk Hogan. Throughout his career as a major attraction in wrestling, Hogan's philosophy has always been to protect Hulk Hogan...OK, sometimes he'd help Ed Leslie, but most of the time it was to protect Hulk Hogan. Because of that philosophy and Hogan's influence as a top guy, there have been multiple instances where a company's booking and other wrestlers have suffered as a result. Would having Mr. Perfect win the 1990 Royal Rumble made sense and could have elevated a rising star and potentially created a new main event player? Yes, but that would require Hogan to not win, and that doesn't work for Hogan, so he wins the Rumble even though he doesn't need elevating. Would booking Randy Orton to beat Hogan at SummerSlam 20

Worst in the World: D-Generation X vs Brothers of Destruction-Crown Jewel

This match didn't need to happen. After Triple H and the Undertaker had one of the most brutally bad matches of 2018 at Super Show-Down not even a month earlier, nobody wanted to see them try to wrestle again. Also, nobody wanted to see Shawn Michaels come out of retirement after his fantastic sendoff in 2010, especially for a match like this. But here we are, Triple H & Shawn Michaels facing The Undertaker & Kane in 2018. The combined ages of these four at the time is 206. That's a number you'd expect to see from a match at Heroes of Wrestling. And anyone can come up with their own reason as to why this match is happening, but that would just be ignoring the actual reason. For those of you who don't know, Crown Jewel was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. That might not seem like important information, but you can't really discuss this match without mentioning it. Despite the numerous reasons that running shows in Saudi Arabia is morally wrong (their abuse

Worst in the World: What is the Worst Wrestling Match of All Time?

  Note: This series is based off a YouTube series " The Search for the Worst " by I Hate Everything, where he reviews every movie on IMDB's Bottom 100. It's a great, funny series and I'd recommend checking it out. Have you ever just thought to yourself "What is the worst match of all time?"? I don't mean something like a boring John Cena-Randy Orton match, I mean a match where the wrestlers have zero chemistry, little wrestling ability, or literally no idea what they are actually doing. I've thought about this for a while, and I've decided to finally figure it out. So I'm going to watch any match that is: a) A winner of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Award for the Worst Worked Match of the Year. or:  b) Listed on the 100 worst rated wrestling matches of all time on the Internet Wrestling Database .   (Note: Some matches appear on awards that aren't on the list.) There are 115 (EDIT: Now 99)  matches on here. I pu

Worst in the World: WrestleMania XV: The Ragin' Anticlimax

(Special thanks to an anonymous user for suggesting this post's idea. If you'd like to see a match covered on the Worst in the World, leave a comment down below.) 1999 was one of the most important years in the history of the then-World Wrestling Federation. After being thoroughly beaten in the ratings battle by WCW for nearly two years, the WWF had regained its footing mid-1998, and would head into '99 on a winning streak in the Monday Night Wars that would never end. At the same time, WCW had begun to fall apart, with the now infamous Fingerpoke of Doom being the first of many nails in the coffin of the company. With their main competitor going from a genuine threat to a distant second, the WWF was absolutely on fire. With that said, it's kind of surprising that, in one of the best years the company ever had, the WWF put on one of the worst WrestleManias of all time in WrestleMania XV. It feels weird to say that. After all, this is the show that featured the first Wre