When discussing the best wrestlers to never win the World Championship, three of the top heels that I always hear are Rick Rude, Mr Perfect and Ted Dibiase. While Rude and Perfect found success elsewhere (Perfect being AWA Champion and Rude holding the NWA Title) none of them were able to win the World Championship in the WWF. All three man have a lot in common, they have all battered Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior at one time or another and all have links to the Intercontinental Championship.
If it wasn't for Ted Dibiase, there wouldn't even be an IC title. When Dibiase came into the
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.the first time, he was the reigning North American Champion. Once he became a wrestler for the company, the title was renamed the
To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 20 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.North American Championship. However, once he lost the title to Pat Patterson, it was renamed the Intercontinental Championship and a faux tourney in Brazil was created. Rick Rude held the IC Title in between two Ultimate Warrior runs, but once Warrior won the WWF World Title, he was stripped of the title and Mr Perfect won it in a tournament.
Getting back to all three mans feud with Hogan and Warrior. This was the only time any of them had a a run in the main event. Ted Dibiase was the first when he came into the WWF for the second time, he let everyone know that he was after the World Championship. After several failed title matches against Hogan, Dibiase found a way to buy it through Andre and Dave Hebner's twin brother, Earl. For the rest of 1988, Dibiase would stay in the title picture until finally dropping out in the beginning of '89. From then until he retired in 1993, Dibiase was stuck wrestling with not as talented wrestlers who needed to be carried (I'm looking at you Virgil) or old timers who while great at one time, were no longer as great as they once were (Dusty Rhodes). With the exception of Dibiase's own Million Dollar Title, he would never come close to being a singles champion again.
For Rick Rude, his main World title push came in his final active year as a wrestler for the WWF, 1990. His 1989 IC title feud with the Ultimate Warrior now became a feud over the World title. However, Rude failed to become champion on a few dates including Summerslam 1990. As for his fellow Minnesota native, Curt Hennig, Perfect began 1990 in a feud with Warrior and Hulk Hogan as the middle man to begin their feud for Wrestlemania 6. On one edition of Saturday Night Main Event, Hennig destroyed Hogan's World Title (Rumored to later on become the Hardcore Title). Once Warrior won the World Title, the two of them had a few Champion vs Champion matches across the country, however; Hennig never won the World Title. Sadly, for Hennig, his body began to give out on him the following year and he was forced into an unknown break from the ring or even a premature retirement. By time he came back more than a year later, things were changing dramatically for the company and Hennig didn't quite fit in there. It doesn't help matters that his body never truly recovered though.
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So there's a little background on all three wrestlers and how close they came to winning the World title. Which one do you feel would have been the best World Champion and why?
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