When Roddy Piper was feuding with the incomparable Rick Rude late in 1989, they decided to settle their differences in a Cage Match. Because that’s what men do when they really hate one another: they lock themselves in a cage together to ensure no escape from the close physical contact and forced intimacy.
To build heat for the match, Rude provided a sexy pre-match interview where he grinds out some pull-ups on the cage bars while threatening (or sexually teasing) Roddy Piper: “I don’t want to finish you off right away, Piper. I want to play with you!” For some reason, people have interpreted that statement as homo-sexual innuendo.
Like most pro wrestling matches that are designed to press our homo-erotic buttons, the point of this battle is to determine who is the Real Man, the Top, the Alpha Male:
Piper wears a skirt into the ring (submissive) but soon starts kicking Rude’s ass (dominant.) Rude is buff and ripped (dominant), but his body is also hairless and therefore sissified (submissive).
Roddy Piper strips off the thick leather belt that holds up his kilt, and proceeds to whip Rude like a sex slave. Kinky!! The cage is now more of a fetish dungeon than a sporting venue.
Rude places himself in submissive poses — pressed against the bars, down on his hands and knees, bent over the ropes. He presents his bare back (and his ass) to Piper, willing accepting the lashes. Piper meanwhile grinds his hips in a suggestive manner.
In the eyes of the audience, the ideal relationship in pro wrestling is the homo-social relationship. Therefore the fans expect the men to stay in the ring together, remaining in contact and wrestling. This is why fans get frustrated if one man is thrown out of the ring, interrupting the match, separating himself from his playmate in the ring.
The cage match amplifies the homo-social context because the men are restrained by more than just ropes — instead by steel fencing. They are locked in together and neither can escape the cage walls. If one man tries to break free (of the homo-social bond), he is rightfully punished. In Rude’s case, his tights are pulled down to expose his ass and imply a rape.
Likewise, when Piper tries to break free of the cage, he is punished similarly by having his own ass exposed. He is further emasculated by falling onto the ropes to destroy his manhood.
Piper is now feminized, emasculated, and forced to serve in the submissive role by the dominant male — Rick Rude.
Rude may be flamboyant and sissified with his long flowy hair, smooth torso, and baby-blue tights, but he has taken control over the Real Man, the “Hot Rod”. This exchanging of power, this role reversal between male and female archetypes, is very exciting for the fans to watch.
The ball busting continues as Rude drives a knee into the “Hot Rod’s” hot rod.
By the way, you can catch the second half of this match on YouTube, which does include Rude’s cheeks on fully display for several minutes.
There is also a website dedicated to Rick Rude that features many more screen caps from this sexy match.
The feminized wrestler, the one portrayed as submissive, is the one with his pants pulled down, his buttocks exposed like an invitation. When rude attempts to escape out the open cage door, he is again punished by being partially stripped. From this point forward, Rude will portray Roddy Piper’s impotent “bitch” for the majority of the time, his ass cheeks hanging out, his balls busted on the steel cage (much more devastating and permanent than Roddy’s earlier emasculation on the ropes.)
After some serious ball abuse inflicted on both men, the “Hot Rod” is able to nut up and defeat his buff opponent. Rude is out cold in the ring while Piper simply walks out the door .
So let’s sum up what Piper did to Rude and you tell me if this scene was intended to be homo-erotic: he locked himself in a cage with Rude, whipped his bare backside with a leather belt, bloodied him, pulled down his pants multiple times, crushed his nutsack, and then knocked him out cold.
This match does beg one question: If the audience consists overwhelmingly of hetero-sexual males, then why are these two attractive men acting out sexualized homo-erotic scenes inside a cage? Who precisely was this gay burlesque act geared towards?
I’ll never forget how intense this match was to me when I first saw it on VHS in the early ’90s. It was the first time I saw a wrestler’s ass bared–and we got to see it for most of the match! Rude was already the most arousing figure in wrestling for me, so this one just tipped me over the edge. A cocky, sexy heel bare-assed and humiliated–what more could I want?