10 Wrestlers You Never Knew Were Dead

6. Rick Rude

“Ravishing” Rick Rude competed in various territories in the 1980s before rising to prominence in the WWF. He would appear as an arrogant, narcissistic heel, posing throughout matches, insulting the males in the audience and leering at the women. During this time, he would go on to have a memorable feud with Jake The Snake Roberts, which began when Rude put the moves onto Jakes wife Cheryl. Over time this would escalate between the two, with the memorable high point of Rude wearing tights with Cheryl Roberts’ face airbrushed onto them. Rick would jump ship to WCW in the early ’90s, but would suffer an injury in a match with Sting and was forced to retire from in-ring action in ’94.
Rude would not be seen in a wrestling ring for three years, until 1997 when he appeared as a colour commentator for ECW. That same year, he would also rejoin the WWF, where he would become one of the original members of D-Generation X. His time in WWF was short lived, however, as he would leave the company following the Montreal Screwjob. Angry over what had happened, he exploited the loopholes in his part time contract with WWF to create something special. On November 17th 1997, Rick Rude appeared on WCW Nitro and publically bashed Shawn Michaels and the WWF for the Screwjob. Later that same night, he also appeared on the broadcast of Monday Night Raw, which had been taped a few days earlier. As well as this, he was also making appearances for ECW that same weekend. So not only is Rick Rude the only person to appear on Nitro and Raw on the same day, he’s the only person to appear for all of “The Big Three” over the course of a few days.
Rick Rude would die of heart failure brought on by an overdose of mixed medications on April 20th, 1999. He was 40 years old.