I'm pretty sure I read that Rude was an arm wrestling legend and a hell of a bouncer before entering the business. There is a story out there about Rude fucking The Ultimate Warriors shit up with open hand slaps backstage.

"F ACTS: After Rude graduated high school he began working as a bouncer in the sleaziest, nastiest, toughest establishments in the twin cities-Minneapolis. He quickly became known as being extremely tough as one night Rude had a dislocated elbow and his left arm had to be put in a sling. Rude being the tough guy he was, still showed up for work that night and had an encounter with a pro bodybuilder who shall remain unnamed as he was causing considerable trouble. No other bouncer did anything about it except for Rude who used his one good arm and open-hand slapped the man who was knocked out cold. It was really only a matter of time before Rude broke into the world of wrestling.

In 1982, he became a jobber under his given name, Ricky Rood and fittingly his moniker was “the toughest bouncer in Minneapolis”. His arm wrestling days shone through nicely in wrestling as he demonstrated that the Road Warrior Animal could not even budge Rude’s arm despite using both of his arms. One night in 1988, when Randy 'Macho Man' Savage who at the time was the top man in the WWF (now WWE) decided to go out to this one particular rough bar where all the NWA guys used to hang out. Savage enlisted the services of Rick Rude and Dynamite Kid who acted as his 'informal' bodyguards. With these two men to watch his back, there were no problems that night. Rude’s open-handed slap became legendary in itself as many stories emerged of him knocking out his fellow wrestler’s in real locker room fights. The 400-pounder P.N. News was knocked out with just one slap, tough guy Paul Orndorff (a pretty tough guy himself who kicked the ass of Big Van Vader backstage and bitten off the ear off Tony Atlas in a street fight) hit the ground hard and even the legend himself the Ultimate Warrior faced Rude’s disciplinary actions. During one particular wrestling match with the Warrior the pace of the match was slow as he was sore and stiff. After the match Rude told him he needed to pick up his game but the Warrior contested and said he could do whatever he want. Unfortunately, he too was knocked out by the Rude’s one arm slap.

In 1998, while partying at the hotel bar with all the NWO crew. Kevin Nash made a remark that pissed off Rude. The two men ended up getting into a heated argument. In his hotel room Rude offered Nash to settle this dispute with a good old fashioned fist fight. Nash backed down and subsequently checked into a different hotel the following night."