10 Greatest wrestlers who never became the World Champion

#7 'Ravishing' Rick Rude

Held a 'Big Gold Belt', but not the real one

'Ravishing' Rick Rude debuted for WWE in 1987 as a new client for the great Bobby Heenan.

During his time with WWE, Rick held the WWE Intercontinental Championship and feuded with the likes of Jake Roberts, The Big Boss Man, and The Ultimate Warrior, for both the Intercontinental Championship, and later the WWE Championship, but was unsuccessful in his only ever major WWE Championship match, at SummerSlam 1990.

Rude left WWE shortly thereafter and joined WCW. Shortly after, he challenged Ron Simmons for the World Championship on several occasions but was unsuccessful. Rick would become a 3-time WCW International World Heavyweight Champion, to which has often confused fans into thinking he held the actual World Championship due to it to being a 'Big gold belt', but the International World Heavyweight Championship was not a real World title, and only even had an active run from September 1993 until June 1994.

After years spent in the mid-card as well as a commentator in ECW and manager in D-Generation X, Rick sadly died on the morning of April 20, 1999, at the age of 40 from heart failure.