Ravishing Rick Rude leaving WWF in 1990

By Scott Keith on 10 March 2018

Hello Scott.

Quick question that I don't think anyone has ever brought up. How much did Ravishing Rick Rude leaving in 1990 affect Kerry Von Erich? If you remember, Rude was just starting a feud with the Big Boss Man. Logic dictates that feud would have culminated at Wrestlemania 7 if Rude stayed(lot easier to stretch out feuds back then obviously). With Boss Man still programmed with Rude, that leaves Mr. Perfect free to continue his feud with the Texas Tornado and they probably have a blow off match at Mania(with Perfect retaining as Bret Hart would be the obvious guy to still dethrone him).
Obviously history doesn't change much but didn't Rude leaving have an impact on Von Erichs WWF career? Cause once Rude left, they needed someone big enough to feud with Boss Man who was hot at the time and, in my opinion, at his peak as a performer. So WWF kind of switched gears and moved Perfect away from Von Erich and onto Boss Man and in turn moved Von Erich over to Dibiase for a little bit before the Virgil turn.
Would Von Erich and Perfect continued to feud all the way to Mania if Perfect wasn't needed for Boss Man due to Rude leaving or was Von Erich just too un-trustworthy at that time to run with as a top mid card act?
I believe Tornado had a match at Mania that year anyway but it was very low on the card and no where near a high profile match as wrestling Mr. Perfect for the IC title would have been. But for the life of me, I can't remember Tornado's opponent. Do you????
Thoughts?

No chance. Von Erich was basically an emergency replacement for Beefcake in that spot, and it was immediately apparent that he was going to be a disaster due to the various issues we've detailed in the Observer recaps via hilarious memes. By the time Rude was leaving, they had completely given up on Kerry and got the IC off him so he didn't end up being the first WWF titleholder to die on their watch.