RIP Dusty Rhodes
 

Hard times today. RIP Dusty.

:(

Wow, a big piece of why I got into wrestling back in the 80's. This is kind of a hard one. RIP Big Dust!

That's too bad. I remember Dusty Rhodes from back in the day.

But, still, I think 69 is, like, 207 in Wrestler Years, so that's not too bad.

Best promo ever.

At least arguably the biggest celebrity I ever had a chance to actually work with on something (he was part of a client national sales meeting we worked on), I can't tell you hard surreal it was to realize that I was hidden in the back of a rural auditorium -- me in a tuxedo no less -- having coffee before daylight with The American Dream.

You had to kinda, well, it was wise to keep an eye on ol' Dust if you were doing business with him ... but at the end of the day, push come to shove, he delivered just what was asked of him. And that the whole thing was so unbelievable, so fantastic to the point I was basically pinching myself every five minutes or so says pretty much everything about what an icon he was to a kid who grew up watching him.

Rest in peace Dusty, and thanks for the memories.

Makes me wish even more they would of did a Stardust vs Goldust with Dusty as special guest ref at Wrestlemania this year or something. His work during the feud was gold.

From Florida. This is wrestling to me.

RIP Dusty

I can't even look at clips from his late WWF run, another total fuckjob by Vince. In fact in his book JJ Dillon speculates that the whole purpose of this gimmick was to embarrass Rhodes and "keep him in line" as there is only room for a big ego if it belongs to Vince.

The Texas Outlaws are kickin someones ass in heaven tonight.

Were the polka dots really that big of a deal? The character was basically the same as it always was, and wrestlers wore a lot of weird shit in the 80s and early 90s. Rhodes wore plenty of wacky stuff pre-WWF also. Maybe it was a rib, but I always thought the polka dots kind of suited him (and I remember tie dye being mixed in too).

And they certainly didn't bury him in the WWF. I looked it up, he had 3 1-on-1 losses in his entire run there - two house shows matches against Ted Dibiaise and Summerslam 1990 against Randy Savage.

Edit: He's also said it was his best year+ earnings-wise. He probably wasn't going to ever be a world champion in polka dots, but that shouldn't have been in the cards for him at that point in his career anyway.

If it was a rib or not we may never know for sure but Dusty thought it was rib himself. Same deal with giving him the manager "Sweet" Sapphire and giving his son the Goldust gimmick. He explains it pretty well on the WWE Network. I forget which exact show it is but it's one of the legends panels. Might be the worst gimmicks one.

Despite everything about him being booked as a joke he wasn't willing to go down without a fight and he just went out and worked his ass off and got it all over. It was the same advice he gave his son when all they offered him was the Goldust gimmick. He told him to go out there and work his ass off, make it HIS gimmick and not Vince's gimmick, and get it over.

I would have to go back and re-read the section JJ had on it, but yeah, it was definitely a rib including his valet. They did job him out pretty quick on the way out too. Vince was less than enamored with Dusty and Dillon went as far to say he almost thinks Vince brought him in for his own amusement.