What I would like to have right now is for all of you fat, out of shape, internet wrestling geeks to shut up if you want to listen to what I gotta say. Actually, Rick Rude did it much better and seemed to be born for professional wrestling. Graduating from Robbinsdale High School, the school that produced Barry Darsow, Curt Hennig, Nikita Koloff, and many others, Rude trained under Eddie Sharkey before kicking around the southern wrestling territories. Rude won a number of regional titles before heading to Jim Crockett Promotions in 1986 and winning the NWA World Tag Team titles with Manny Fernandez. The World Wrestling Federation actually interrupted this title reign in 1987 when they signed him and made Rude part of the Heenan Family. Rude entered into a hot feud with Jake Roberts when the womanizing Rude got a little too touchy with Jake's wife, Cheryl. Rude took to airbrushing Cheryl's picture on his wrestling tights, infuriating Roberts and causing him disqualifications on multiple occasions. Rude moved on to a feud with the Ultimate Warrior, winning the Intercontinental title from Warrior at Wrestlemania V and challenging him for the WWF title at Summerslam 1990. Rude seemed primed for a run at the top or at least as the major heel challenger until he made a jump to WCW. Rude became a solid, main event player in WCW, challenging Sting almost immediately and defeating Ric Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight title. Unfortunately, Rude's career changed forever when Sting hit him with a suicide dive in Japan, causing Rude to injure his back on a raised platform surrounding the ring, effectively ending his wrestling career. Rude continued to make appearances for ECW, WWF, and WCW. As one of the inaugural members of Degeneration X, Rude was working without a contract and actually made wrestling history in 1997. WWF's Raw show was still taped at the time and Rude jumped to WCW after he had taped an episode of Raw. As a result, a bearded Rude appeared on Raw and a clean-shaven Rude appeared on Nitro on the same night, something that will never happen again. For you history buffs, Rude also appeared on ECW Hardcore TV that same weekend, making an appearance for all three wrestling promotions in the same week. Rude began training for an in-ring comeback in 1999 but suddenly died in April at the age of 40. Officially called a "mixed medication overdose", Rude was a known steroid user who unapologetically used the substances to gain huge amounts of muscle mass. Rude felt that steroids were a necessary evil in order to earn money in an unforgiving business. While wrestling certainly may have killed "Ravishing" Rick Rude, Rude seemed to accept a brief life for his success in the business.
