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For many years, contrasting stories have been told about Rick Rude's health towards the end of his life. The WWE Hall of Famer passed away on April 20, 1999, aged 40. His death was ruled as an accidental overdose, but some believe there is more to the story.
Rude boasted one of the most impressive physiques in wrestling in the 1980s and 1990s. Like many wrestlers in his era, the former Intercontinental Champion apparently took steroids to enhance his body. Some of Rude's co-workers have even said he went one step further by injecting Viagra directly into his penis.
In 2020, former wrestler Ken Patera revealed on The Hannibal TV that he spoke to Jim Neidhart two days after Rude's passing. Neidhart, Bret Hart's brother-in-law, and Natalya's father, allegedly claimed Rude had been told his penis was going to be amputated:
"He [Neidhart] said Rick just lost his f***ing mind because he had to go to the hospital and they were gonna amputate his penis," Patera said. "Well, his penis was the most dearest thing to him. So, to my knowledge, that's a true story."
John Nord, aka former WWE wrestler The Berzerker, spoke about the bizarre situation in a separate interview on The Hannibal TV in 2022. Nord elaborated on why Rude injected himself with Viagra in the first place:
"Rick had that, I guess you could call it, demon. He just wanted to get k*nky as hell and get numb, and then he would actually shoot it [Viagra] in his pecker. One out of a million guys will do that. That's just very rare. That's the extreme of the extreme."
Rude was widely viewed as one of the most talented wrestlers of his generation. He was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2017.
WWE official on his conversation with Rick Rude's wife
On a 2017 episode of Something to Wrestle With, WWE creative team member Bruce Prichard said rumors about Rick Rude committing suicide are "extremely silly."
Prichard added that he had a conversation with Rude's widow Michelle shortly after his death:
"A lot of rumor and innuendo. I spoke with Rick's wife the day after she found him, and she had indicated that prescription bottles and just the fear that, due to injuries and I guess he had been in an automobile accident recently, that he might have just overdone it and be an accidental overdose."
In the same podcast episode, Prichard explained why Rude disliked working with The Ultimate Warrior so much in WWE.
What do you make of this story? Let us know in the comments section below.
