Rick Rude was at the very pinnacle of his career before it ended, having won his first NWA World Heavyweight Championship in 1993, going on to feud for the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship throughout 1994. However, all it would take is one unfortunate injury which was no one's fault to effectively end the 35-year-old star's career, then and there. Rude was on a tour of Japan with other WCW stars, with Rude vs Sting being pushed as a main event at many venues. On May 1st, Sting performed a suicide dive onto Rude, but as Rude caught Sting he fell backwards, landing on a part of an uneven, raised platform which caused him to severely damage both his neck and back, causing him to retire on the spot. The botched spot is effectively neither man's fault, as both Rude's catching position and Sting's attempt at a dive were both mistakes, given the circumstances. Rude would go on to appear in ECW, WWF and WCW programming as a managerial figure, until his untimely drug related death in 1999.
Sam is an experienced Film, Gaming and Wrestling writer, critic and journalist who was written for a vast number of different entertainment websites. Follow him on twitter at @Sams_Reel_Views.
