| HistoryText | - Aleksei was born in a small town in Russia during the height of the Cold War. He lived in a rugged terrain and with a rough life. He would get into several fights, giving him a hardened, easily angered, and battle thirsty personality. As a teenager he became a thug for the Russian mafia. While there he became rivals with one of his gang's leaders named Sergei Kravinoff, a man from a high standing Russian family who looked down upon people like Aleksei. One night when Aleksei was at a bar, he got into a brawl with several of the patrons beating all of them in a brutal brawl. The fight was seen by a Russian fight promoter he offered Aleksei a job as a wrestler. Thinking it would be an easier source of income, but still getting to pummel people, Aleksei accepted. After rigorous training, and some steroid abuse, Aleksei became a well known champion wrestler in Russia known as the Rhino.
Eventually he went to New York City to take part in a contest to see if anyone in America could defeat the Unstoppable Rhino, offering a large sum of money to anybody who could. Aleksei took down several opponents , but was eventually faced by a smaller fighter known as the Amazing Spider-Man. Aleksei chuckled at the sight of him and thought it would be an easy fight. The two engaged in a short but fierce wrestling match, Spider-Man taking him down in only a few minutes. This hurt both Aleksei's pride and his reputation. That night he went to a bar and got drunk. He got into a fight with another one of the patrons who taunted him for losing to a "pip-squeak" and beat him to near death. Aleksei was arrested and put in a holding cell. He was visited by his promoter and learned that he was pulling back all of his promotion. Industrialist Norman Osborn heard about what happened and thought that this could be the perfect opportunity to test a project that his company was working on. Norman visited Aleksei in prison, offering to bail him out and pay him a large sum of money to a test subject for the experiment. He agreed knowing that it was his easiest way out of prison, and hoped that whatever Osborn was offering him could help him get payback against Spider-Man. The experiment was to test a compound in an attempt to re-create the super soldier serum. This particular formula being created from studying the blood of the Incredible Hulk. The compound drastically increased Aleksei's strength and body mass, but set him into a fit of rage. He violently broke out of the lab with only killing Spider-Man in his mind. Spider-Man eventually confronted him during his rampage and managed to stop him after a long and brutal battle. He was eventually calmed down, but kept the drawback of the possibility of going into a blind fury if angered enough. When Doctor Octopus formed the first incarnation of the Sinister Six he broke Aleksei out of prison and gave him a powerful armored suit with Rhino motif to match his wrestler persona. And thus he was the supervillain known as the Rhino.
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