Rest in Peace to the legend, Dusty Rhodes

[Raziel]

 

 

People say Dusty booked himself on top, but I think if you look at the shows he really didn't. He was a featured part of the program, but a lot of the time he was working Arn or Tully or the Midnights. He had his runs with Flair, but no more than other perenial Flair challengers.

But if you had Dusty Rhodes on your roster, you would be a fool not to feature him.

 

I've always said that Vince was an idiot for booking Dusty as a midcarder during his brief time in the WWF.

He was the #3 face right behind Hogan and Warrior and worked with three of the top heels in the company, how could have they booked him higher than that?

 

Yeah.  Dusty's WWF fueds consisted of heel Bossman, DiBiase, and Savage.  No one was getting pushed higher than Hogan and Warrior at the time, so Dusty was about as high as he could get. 

[Curt McGirt]

I think a lot of the anti-Dusty stuff stemmed from people reading Flair's book, where he pretty much went after him. In retrospect I think all parties involved would say that bygones should be bygones. As Dusty himself said "if you don't have an ego you shouldn't be in this business" and that's what it all boiled down to. 

[MORELOCK]

The way I remember it, the "IWC" (though I don't think it was called that at the time) was all over Dusty for the Dusty finish and booking himself on top until around the time of his ECW run with Corino, when everyone suddenly loved him again. I don't think it had anything to do with Flair's book.

[MonteCarl]

That's exactly what it was. And it was typical ECW fan behaviour. Shit all over a guy who was in WCW or WWF, but as soon as they showed up in ECW, the roof blew off the place and said guy was a LEGEND and all of a sudden great again. See also: Sid & Jerry Lawler

[The Great ML]

When I wanna be happy or am in a good mood, I think Dusty Rhodes. I can't say that about much else. Dusty was probably the most fun guy in wrestling ever and is a big inspiration to me. You could make Dusty do anything and it would be entertaining. I like to channel Dustyisms in my everyday life and I'm gonna miss the big guy. I know Dusty is out there somwhere, dancing away in the stars and making everyone smile. Dusty will never truly die because at least a part of his spirit stuck with me.

 

My favorite Dusty lines:

"THERE'S A WOH-MAN IN THE MENS JOHN!"

"I'll just stay with Miss A here because that's the easiest to pronounce because in Texas we don't have anyone named Cookie Yamasaka." - Dusty on Itsuki Yamazaki on the JWP Wrestlewar 1991 match

"Miki Handa just got kicked right there in her Honda" - Same match

"That's my girl, MISS A"

"HE'S GOT A BI-SA-CUL"

"I used to do that to my brother all the time" - Dusty on a hardcore match where a guy had a trashcan on his head and got hit with a bat

"Homie don't play no rock n roll" - Dusty on Teddy Long

"Submit or Surrender, this is the WAR GAMES"

"THAT'S A TOILET SEAT...He got a commode lid!"

"Doo doo is good for me, and doo doo, is good for you"

"He got some PLUNDAH"

 

This is how I want to remember Dusty:

 

 

 

 

Oh Lord, everyone involved in that mixed tag at WrestleMania 6 is gone.

[Greggulator]

If the internet was easily available in 1987 and 1988, it probably would have been all over Dusty the booker.

 

Truer words have never been spoken. People would rip on him so much if then was now.

[Technico Support]

There was a period in Mid-Atlantic/Crockett when Dusty had the book and everybody had to reference Dusty in interviews.  It was like "where's Poochy" and rather insane.  Jimmy Valiant, for example, would be cutting a promo about his war on Paul Jones' Army and would have to add that Dusty had his back or something, just really awkward.  Dusty was the top babyface and every babyface's best friend and no matter who was cutting a promo, you had to be told that Dusty was the man.  It was rather neutering from a "getting over" perspective.  Every fan was essentially told that it didn't matter who their favorite guy was; he wasn't Dusty so, basically, fuck 'em.  I guess that's where some of the anti-Dusty sentiment came from.

 

But shit, as someone else here said, that's a booker problem, not a Dusty problem.  If the booker is going to make himself the top guy, the least he can do is be as awesome as Dusty was.

[Technico Support]

 

Oh Lord, everyone involved in that mixed tag at WrestleMania 6 is gone.

 

 

The worst thing about watching old wrestling is that you find yourself playing "count the dead people."  It's a sad indictment of the business when you're happy to hear that at least they died of natural causes and not the dreaded Wrestler Heart Attack.

[Jingus]

To be fair, plenty of Dusty's booking tenures led to eventual financial failure. There's lots of Captain Hindsight arguing as to why Crockett Promotions failed, but at the very least, Dusty couldn't save it himself. I'm told his stints booking in Florida were flops at the box office too. (Of course, this was during the period when EVERY wrestling booker who wasn't Vince McMahon was going out of business, and like 98% of wrestling companies end up failing.)

[Just Dave]

My tribute to the Dream. I'm not posting here to pimp site hits. I'm posting here because it's easier than writing out twice. This one hurt.

 

http://sb.gg/B7xV

[Nice Guy Eddie]

 

 

Oh Lord, everyone involved in that mixed tag at WrestleMania 6 is gone.

 

 

The worst thing about watching old wrestling is that you find yourself playing "count the dead people."  It's a sad indictment of the business when you're happy to hear that at least they died of natural causes and not the dreaded Wrestler Heart Attack.

 

Sometimes at night if I'm having trouble falling asleep, I'll start rattling off the dead wrestler list. That usually works. 

[LP Steve]

Not much to add to all the eloquence above, except that I loved how the world champion's name always came out "Holly Wraith" in a Dusty promo. We used to yell that at Harley when he made his entrance in Jacksonville.

[RIPPA]

I wrote this in DVDVR #121 and now I am infuriated I can't find it online

 

 

El Dandy/La Parka/Psychosis vs. Lizmark Jr./Super Calo/Juventud Guerrera (Sat Night) 

Dusty’s fandom of El Dandy begins in this match as Dusty sees El Dandy for the first time and immediately falls in love with his physique or something. By the end of the match Dusty was yelling “PIN SOMEBODY EL DANDY!!!!!” Typical WCW Lucha six man as everyone ran through some spots to keep the crowd entertained and then everyone tries to kill themselves during the highspot train.(13) Tony continues to prove he is an idiot as he mixes up who La Parka and El Dandy are.(14)

 

13)  Highlighted by the super swank Psychosis tope. 

14)  There are 5 guys in the match with masks on. El Dandy is the one who isn’t wearing the mask. Plus he has the big perm and isn’t dressed up as skeleton. God Dammit, Tony you are supposed to stop the Q-Tip when there is resistance. 

[Josh Mann]

To be fair, plenty of Dusty's booking tenures led to eventual financial failure. There's lots of Captain Hindsight arguing as to why Crockett Promotions failed, but at the very least, Dusty couldn't save it himself. I'm told his stints booking in Florida were flops at the box office too. (Of course, this was during the period when EVERY wrestling booker who wasn't Vince McMahon was going out of business, and like 98% of wrestling companies end up failing.)

To be fair, a lot of Crockett's problems came down to overspending and overexpansion. Booking is a very distant third at best.

If you're referring to Florida in 1989, the territory was deader than dead at that point and nothing was going to revive it.

[Playa Shunna Ver 3.0]

Remember when Dusty broke tye wooden chair over Meng's head? Just sayin....

[Godfrey]

I skipped the Dusty tribute when I first watched Money in the Bank but I just watched it now and I'm not too proud to say it brought tears to my eyes when his sons inducted him into the HoF. It's sad to see a legend go, but I'm happy he went appreciated for his efforts and doing what he loved. Nobody can ask for anything more.

[Trocar Slush Weasel]

Bob Roop gets taken to the Fields of Ambrosia.

 

[PetrolCB]

Remember when Dusty broke tye wooden chair over Meng's head? Just sayin....

[Brian Fowler]

Yeah, so, the last fifteen minutes or so of that Dusty tribute... Jesus that hurt. Stephanie and Triple H both breaking down... God damn.

[Patrick B.]

14)  There are 5 guys in the match with masks on. El Dandy is the one who isn’t wearing the mask. Plus he has the big perm and isn’t dressed up as skeleton. God Dammit, Tony you are supposed to stop the Q-Tip when there is resistance. 

Well, just nearly spit Gatorade onto my computer keyboard.  Thanks for that.

[Rev Ray]

Since I was traveling in transit I didn't really get to chime in.  The Exile on Badstreet covering the life and times of Dusty was really good.  I never really got to see prime Dusty, but man, that boy could cut a promo. I wasn't aware of the Dusty/Bill Watts heel team combo, I image the mouth of Dusty and the bully Bill Watts must have been a great combo.  I think I really started getting into Crockett around the time of the Midnights/Magnum/Dusty feud which seemed to be built around a lot of Corny vs. Dusty "Yo Momma" joke promos.  Dusty calling the action on THE MUTHASHIP became a guilty pleasure for the Dusty-isms and my great sympathy for the person who had to do the closed caption translation of what Dusty was saying.

 

I'm not sure when this happened, but I seem to recall Pete mentioning some PPV where Dusty was on commentary and the wrestlers bumped the announce table and I think Dusty goes "My courvoisier!  i mean my water!"

 

Somewhere in wrestling heaven, Dusty and Dicky are eating ice cream in daisy dukes and cut off shirts the horror of Jim Barnett.

[Mick32]

My 3 year old son was watching the Dusty tribute video at the beginning of Raw last night and started off saying he didn't like Dusty. Two minutes in, and he said "He's cool, Daddy." He sure is, baby.

The post Raw Network tribute was tremendous. I'm a Cody mark, to be fair, but every time they show him inducting his old man and his voice cracks a little bit, I start to break down a bit. What an absolutely real, awesome, moment.

[thee Reverend Axl Future]

Meltzer was very hard on Dusty during his booker phase (and over-promotion of himself). Rhodes certainly inserted himself into any other feud that was getting over, but people forget what a monstrous influence the opinions in the WON had on wrestling fandom for better and worse. Dave's favorites and dislikes became the majority view unless one really really went out on one's own to find your own way. ECW never got proper coverage until after it was already becoming an influence in the biz, for example. Dave definitely acknowledged DR's legendary history but he was merciless in mocking his then-current role, persona and decisions. 

- RAF

The American Dream, RIP, one of my all time favorites

[odessasteps]

I know as a not yet smart 15-16 year old, i thought Dusty was over-exposed and way too much the center of attention. But i was already a heel fan rooting for the MX and the proto-Horsemen.

[mattdangerously]

Whatever his faults as a booker or wrestler, Dusty gave back much more to the business than he ever took from it. We are a very short amount of time away from a period of American wrestling completely dominated by guys on top who were directly influenced by Dusty Rhodes.