Rude made his WWF debut in July 1987 as the newest addition to the Bobby Heenan Family. He feuded with "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff, before starting one of his most famous feuds with Jake "The Snake" Roberts. Rude had a routine where, before the match, he would make a show of removing his robe while insulting the males in the crowd and, after his victories, he would kiss a woman that Heenan picked from the fans. One of Rude's trademarks was his specially airbrushed tights that he wore during matches. In one storyline, he tried to get Roberts' real-life wife, Cheryl, to comply, aggravating Roberts. On another occasion during the Roberts/Rude feud, Rude came to the ring with a picture of Cheryl stenciled on the front of his tights. A furious Roberts charged the ring and stripped Rude, appearing to television viewers to leave him naked, although the live audience saw him stripped to a g-string instead.
Rude's next big feud was with The Ultimate Warrior and began in January at the 1989 Royal Rumble pay-per-view in a "Super Posedown" that ended with Rude attacking Warrior with a metal pose bar. With help from Heenan, Rude won the Intercontinental Championship from the Warrior at WrestleMania V, before dropping it back to the Warrior at SummerSlam 1989, due in large part to interference from "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. Rude then feuded with Piper, before resuming his conflict with the Warrior in the summer of 1990 after the Warrior had won the WWF Championship. The two battled in a cage at SummerSlam 1990; however, Rude failed to win the title and departed from WWF in October 1990. This departure came right before he was scheduled to feud with the Big Boss Man, which had its potential start when Rude started to make degrading comments about The Boss Man's mother.
Rude later returned to WWF as the "insurance policy" of the D-Generation X (DX) stable (Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Chyna). As a member of DX, Rude never wrestled, but would stay ringside during the group's matches. He once again left WWF after the Montreal Screwjob at Survivor Series.
Rude died on April 20, 1999.