Rick Rude

In the WWF, Rude was managed by Bobby "The Brain" Heenan and feuded with "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff, before starting one of his most famous feuds with Jake "The Snake" Roberts. Rude had a routine where, before the match, he would make a show of removing his robe while insulting the males in the crowd and, after his victories, he would kiss a woman that Heenan picked from the fans. One of Rude's trademarks was his specially airbrushed tights that he wore during matches. In one storyline, he tried to get Roberts' real-life wife, Cheryl, to comply, aggravating Roberts. On another occasion during the Roberts/Rude feud, Rude came to the ring with a picture of Cheryl stenciled on the front of his tights. A furious Roberts charged the ring and stripped Rude, appearing to television viewers to leave him naked, although the live audience saw him stripped to a thong instead.
Rude's next big feud was with The Ultimate Warrior and began in January at the 1989 Royal Rumble pay-per-view in a "Super Posedown" that ended with Rude attacking Warrior with a metal pose bar. With help from Heenan, Rude won the Intercontinental Championship from the Warrior at WrestleMania V, before dropping it back to the Warrior at SummerSlam 1989, due in large part to interference from "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. Rude then feuded with Piper, before resuming his conflict with the Warrior in the summer of 1990 after the Warrior had won the WWF Championship. The two battled in a cage at SummerSlam 1990, however Rude failed to win the title and departed from WWF in October 1990. This departure came right before he was scheduled to feud with the Big Boss Man, which had its potential start when Rude started to make degrading comments about The Boss Man's mother.
Rude made his way to World Championship Wrestling, which had originally been Jim Crockett Promotions prior to being sold to Ted Turner in late 1988; he debuted as The Halloween Phantom at Halloween Havoc on October 27, 1991, unmasking himself later that night.[16] He founded and led The Dangerous Alliance, consisting of himself, Paul E. Dangerously, Madusa, Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton, Larry Zbyszko, and "Stunning" Steve Austin. On November 19, 1991, Rude defeated Sting for the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship and engaged in a number of high profile feudes, including one with Ricky Steamboat. At one point during their feud, Steamboat suffered a kayfabe broken nose in a gang attack.[19]In 1992, Rude and Madusa left The Dangerous Alliance and feuded with Nikita Koloff. Rude challenged reigning WCW World Heavyweight Champion Ron Simmons on several occasions but did not defeat him. In December 1992, Rude suffered a legitimate injury and was forced to forfeit the United States Championship, thus ending his reign of nearly 14 months, a reign that still stands today as the second longest reign in the 33 year history of the title.[7] Rude returned alone in April 1993 and tried to reclaim the title from Dustin Rhodes, who had won it while he was injured. The title was eventually held up after several controversial finishes to matches between the two, although Rhodes regained the title in a rematch.[20]Rude switched his sights to the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, making his intentions clear on August 28, 1993, when he was the guest on then-champion Ric Flair's "A Flair For the Gold" talk segment.[8] Rude defeated Flair for the title in September 1993 at Fall Brawl.[21] As WCW had recently withdrawn from the NWA, WCW lost the rights to continue using the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. WCW created their own championship, dubbing it the WCW International World Heavyweight Championship, which Rude lost to Hiroshi Hase on March 16, 1994 in Tokyo, Japan.[21] Rude regained the title just eight days later in Kyoto, Japan.[21] After dropping the title to Sting on April 17, Rude pinned Sting on May 1 in Fukuoka to become a three time champion.[21] Rude, however, injured his neck during the match; unable to wrestle, he was stripped of the title (with the storyline excuse that he was found to have used the title belt as a weapon in the course of the match).[21][7] Rude retired shortly thereafter.[7]Rude collected on a Lloyd's of London insurance policy and did not compete in wrestling again until 1996, when he joined Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) as a masked man who harassed Shane Douglas, at one point spanking Francine. He eventually unmasked and became a color commentator before later aligning himself, for a short time, with Douglas and his Triple Threat stable. During the ECW versus USWA / WWF inter-company competition, Rude helped Jerry "The King" Lawler defeat ECW mainstays Tommy Dreamer and The Sandman.Rude later returned to WWF as the "insurance policy" of the D-Generation X stable (Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna).[22] As a member of DX, Rude never wrestled, but would stay ringside during the group's matches. He once again left WWF after the Montreal Screwjob at Survivor Series. According to Bret Hart, Rude stayed in the locker room during Bret's confrontation with Vince McMahon, later calling Eric Bischoff and informing him what had happened was in fact real. As Rude was not signed to a full-time contract with WWF, and was instead performing on a "pay-per-appearance" basis, Rude was able to negotiate a deal with Bischoff and WCW, in part due to his anger over the Montreal Screwjob.[10][23]Rude appeared on both WWF Raw is War and WCW Monday Nitro on November 17, 1997. A mustachioed Rude appeared on Nitro, which was live, and proceeded to criticize Shawn Michaels, DX, and the WWF, calling the company the "Titanic" (a reference to Titan Enterprises, as WWF's parent company was then known, as the "sinking ship").[1] An hour later on RAW (which had been taped six days earlier), Rude then appeared with the full beard he'd been sporting during his return to the WWF.[24][1] Rude also appeared on ECW's Hardcore TV during that weekend (November 14–16 as the show was syndicated differently depending on the market). Rude was still making ECW appearances while in D-Generation X.In WCW, Rude became a member of the nWo, managing his friend Curt Hennig.[7] When the nWo split, Hennig and Rude joined the nWo Wolfpac,[25] and they tried to motivate Konnan to defeat Goldberg, who was undefeated at the time. When Konnan was defeated by Goldberg, Rude and Hennig attacked him, later joining nWo Hollywood, the rivals of the Wolfpac. By late 1998, both Rude and Hennig were off WCW TV due to injuries. Hennig had an ongoing leg injury that year, and Rude was thought to have had testicular cancer which later turned out to be a cyst. Curt Hennig returned to the nWo from his injury at Starrcade 1998 without Rude, who was still unable to appear on WCW. Rude was rumored to be training for a full time comeback to active wrestling in early 1999.[citation needed]Rude died at the age of 40 on April 20, 1999 after suffering heart failure.[4] He is survived by his wife Michelle and their three children.[1] The cause of death may have been an overdose of Gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) and steroids.[26] An autopsy report showed he died from an overdose of "mixed medications."[27] Rude testified in 1994 that he had used anabolic steroids to alleviate pain in his joints and increase muscle mass.[28]