8 Reasons Rick Rude Deserves WWE Hall Of Fame 2017 Induction
7. He Was The Intercontinental Champion, Back When That Meant Something
Over the past year, The Miz has done a lot of great work rebuilding the Intercontinental Championship. Despite all that, though, the belt is nowhere near where it was during the 1980s, and it was during that period that Rick Rude became champion.
Feuding with The Ultimate Warrior, Rude defeated the future WWE Champion for the Intercontinental Title at WrestleMania V, dealing Warrior one of the few pinfall losses of his career. Those circumstances, combined with the small number of Pay-Per-View events at the time, made Rude's victory seem more important than most world title changes these days.
Though Rude's reign was ultimately short for the era - he would lose the championship back to Warrior at SummerSlam - many people retain fond memories of Rude as IC Champ, especially with the belt airbrushed on his tights. He's also responsible for one of the few watchable feuds of The Ultimate Warrior's career, which is nothing to sneeze at.