5 WWE Superstars who were instantly removed from new factions

#3 Rick Rude left D-Generation X (WWE, 1997)

Rick Rude's WWE contract ended shortly after D-Generation X formed

Rick Rude’s name is rarely mentioned when WWE looks back on the history of D-Generation X.

The one-time WWE Intercontinental Champion was one of the original D-Generation X members when the faction formed on October 13, 1997.

Rude, whose full-time in-ring career came to an end three years earlier, began working as a bodyguard for Shawn Michaels around the time that the D-Generation group was put together.

Michaels, Triple H, Chyna, and Rude only joined forces for four weeks before Rude left WWE and became a member of the nWo in WCW.

Sean Waltman (aka X-Pac), who later joined D-Generation X in March 1998, explained on the WINCLY podcast in 2019 why Rude did not belong in the group.

“Rick Rude, he walked out and left the company and it wasn't on good terms. I don't get anyone trying to make the connection there. No disrespect to Rick, but there was that segment on TV the following week when Shawn pushed the little guy over. That was an easy role to replace. He was just there and wasn't the spirit of DX.”

Rude was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2017.