10 ECW Stars Who Died Too Young

9. Big Dick Dudley

The Dudley Boys - Bubba, D-Von and Spike - are of course very famous due to their exposure as members of the WWE roster, but in ECW there were a lot more than just the three members of the Dudley 'family', including Snot Dudley, Broad Street Dudley, Dances With Dudley, Dudley Dudley and the leader of the group, Big Dick Dudley.

Alex Rizzo began wrestling in 1986 after training with noted trainer Johnny Rodz and soon began touring Puerto Rico and the Northeast independents. He found his way to ECW in '94 as 'Big Dick Dudley', teaming with Dudley Dudley as the original Dudley Boys.

Soon the family grew and Rizzo was pushed to the side in something of an enforcer role. He certainly had the size for it at 6ft 6in tall, weighing 320lbs and built like a brick you-know-what house. His most notable feud came against Spike Dudley, which pitted the biggest and smallest members of the Dudley clan against one another.

But that was pretty much his peak and, fed up with how little was being used, he left ECW in 1999. He returned to the world of the independents, Puerto Rico and ECW rival XPW, which he helped co-found. Unfortunately, Rizzo was involved in a number of automobile accidents which left him on the shelf for extended periods of time, causing his career to stall.

Rizzo - who had a reputation as a legit badass outside of the ring - died on May 16th, 2002 of kidney failure. He was just 34-years-old.