The Shakedown: Best Hair & Mustache Combo (contestant #3)

Welcome back to the Shakedown!

We enter week three of our latest “Monthly Mustache Shakedown” with a look at the “Best Hair & Mustache Combo.”

For week one we chose “The Big Mullet” Randy Johnson, who’s off to just a terrific start for the San Francisco Giants this season. In week two we looked at the doctor of deliciousness—former major league outfielder Oscar Gamble.

In week three we veer away from those silly staged sports like baseball and enter into the realm of my man Pat Imig’s expertise—professional wrestling. We take a look at one of the true 1980s mustache pioneers—none other than former pro wrestling stud, the late “Ravishing” Rick Rude.

Yes, Richard Erwin Rood (his real name was spelled differently) was often referred to as the world’s sexiest human life form. And who’s to argue with him? The man had two legs of what the administration and faculty at the American Mustache Institute refer to as the 1970s “Triple Threat” of fashion: the perm and the mustache. The only leg he was missing was a finely ribbed, tight-fitting turtle neck, and as there are no recorded photos of him ever wearing a shirt, we’ll give him a pass based on style points alone.

In the then-WWF, Rude was well-known for several knock-down feuds with other wrestlers. One of the most-famous of them was with Jake “The Snake” Roberts, who ironically was a finalist for the selection into this week’s “Shakedown.”

But Rude was really best-known for his ring entry routine where, before the match, he would make a show of removing his robe while insulting the males in the crowd and, after his victories, he would kiss a woman that his manager Bobby Heenan picked from the fans (see an example here of Rude’s greatness).

Plus, the dude also wore  specially airbrushed tights during matches. And that didn’t suck.

Sadly, Rude didn’t realize that his mouth protecting fur curtain was the ultimate performance enhancer, and he died on April 20, 1999, at the age of 40, after suffering heart failure brought on by an overdose of Gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) and steroids.

Rude will ever be remembered as a great person of Mustached American descent; as a fine wrestler; being really, really really, really good looking; and for being really, really, really, really good looking.

So keep your suggestions coming strong for the final week of the “Best Hair & Mustache Combo” as part of the latest “Monthly Mustache Shakedown.”

Bring it.

Round 3 - Best Hair & Mustache Combo

Week 1 - Randy Johnson
Week 2 - Oscar Gamble
Week 3 - Ravishing Rick Rude
Week 4 - April 23