The WCW Conspiracy Iceberg EXPLAINED!

3. Rick Rude’s Real Cause Of Death

Wrestlers love to call the fans marks. 

This attitude stems from the days of yore, in which the general idea was not to build a legacy and wrestle the match of the night, but to manipulate the public into thinking that wrestling was real or close to it. This mentality still prevails, in some circles, but the wrestler who carries this attitude in the 2020s is projecting for the most part. It’s always the wrestler who never made it who seems to loathe the fans the most. Funny that. 

The irony is that many wrestlers are marks for the industry or themselves. They are the ones who almost invariably go too long to get more pops. They are the ones who hold on too long, destroying their bodies, limping out to bask in some bleak approximation of the limelight. They are the ones who are lost in the space between reality and kayfabe. Using a specific example, consider the conspiracy theory that arose from the tragic, premature death of Rick Rude. 

Rude was perhaps the most aesthetically pleasing body guy of the 1980s, sporting an incredible physique not possible without the heavy use of anabolic steroids. The strain placed on his heart resulted in its failure, which, combined with an overdose of pain management combination, resulted in his death, at 40, on April 20, 1999. 

Some within the industry dispute this, maintaining that a despondent Rude died by suicide. Rude, so the urban legend goes, killed himself after doctors advised him that he would need to amputate his penis after a botched attempt to increase his sexual performance. Ken Patera believes this to be true, saying as much in a shoot interview with Hannibal. The Honky Tonk Man and Greg Valentine also think the story is legitimate. 

Firstly, Rude was very visibly suffering the symptoms that led to his death on TV in the weeks prior. He was puffy and bloated and obviously struggling. Secondly, this rumour never haunted a guy who played a clown or a grand sumo master or police officer, did it?

Rude played a sex-obsessed womaniser on TV. Of course some wrestlers believe that theory.