Dusty: Reflections of Wrestling's American Dream

by Dusty Rhodes

  In January 2005, I had an opportunity over an unbelievable two week period to see so many of the guys I’ve talked so much about all in one place, nearly 90 of them that were a part of my life, and it really humbled me to be in the presence of guys that have helped mold my career and I’ve helped in some way mold their careers.

  At this one thing called Wrestle Reunion in Tampa, Florida, of the 80 guys booked, 79 actually showed up. Guys who I hadn’t seen in years were there. Everybody from Ron Bass to Dewey Robertson, the Missing Link, to “Beezer” Brian Blair, who’s now a politician down in Tampa … all those guys … Mike Graham, Jake “the Snake” Roberts, Dallas Page …

  During this three day deal, one of the things that stand out is when Mick Foley, Bill Apter, Terry Funk, Kevin von Erich and I were doing this question and answer session. It was so amazing for the fans that were there. And it was so amazing for all of us to be together. I was really overwhelmed. I was in awe of some of these guys. And yet when I walked in, the egotistical bastard that I am, in my opinion, and reflecting back for a moment, we were the selected Godfathers from that era. And I feel like I’m in charge or responsible for them guys. I want them all to prevail. I don’t want them to be sick … they’re like my babies. It was just tremendous seeing them all.

  One of the guys I got a real chance to observe was “Big Sexy” Kevin Nash. I’m associated with him a lot these days as he’s been working with TNA. I was sitting there at the autograph session and I looked over at him when he was signing autographs and talking to people and I thought to myself, of this new era, he is the most charismatic fucking guy that we have on our roster. He just exuberates charisma in the way he talks, the way he walks, the way he moves … he actually reminds me of my own chubby self back the way of how sure I was about things. But knowing too that money has been what drove him, and for a lot of baseball players, and a lot of football players, and a lot of basketball players, and a lot of hockey players, it’s the money. But it’s also about the athlete. And I thought to myself as I’m looking at him, something that had stood out lately at TNA, now that I’m writing and executive producing the show, is being around him, he has really taught me a lot because I always thought he was really creative. But I wish I really could have produced him back—which I did a little bit with the Oz character— but not to the point that I wish I had the full Kevin Nash like I have right now because he has that intangible ability to make you think it’s all about the money, man. But in reality he’s a throw back to that era where some guys would come in and say, “You don’t have to pay me tonight, just give me a belt. I want to be champion.” And when I watched him, I saw in his eyes that he may be kidding somebody, but he ain’t kidding me; it’s not all just about the money. It’s about the performance and the athletic ability … it’s about his respect for himself and for our business. So I took that away from there and I thought that was really cool as it made me look at him a little differently.

  And then I looked at Ron Bass, and I thought about when he was in Florida, he was as hot as can be and we drew a lot of money together. Jake Roberts, who, at this point in time, just came off another conviction or something. But there he was and he looked the same. Ronnie Garvin, Jimmy Garvin, Bobby “the Brain” Heenan, Cowboy Bill Watts … like I said, there were just so many guys from my past running around there.

  It was a great time to reflect and see all of these great stars in one place at one time and actually talking about the past. It was a beautiful, beautiful time.

  I just remember sitting there with Humperdink and Harley Race, and as I looked around the room, there were different people that would go up to a guy and a picture would snap, or someone would move to me and a different picture would snap.

  Just in the past few months, in finishing this book and writing about the things in my life and this business, I’ve really grown to understand how important an industry we have and how important it is to the fans and how important it is for the people to actually be able to touch us. And what a great justice we do for mankind in telling some unbelievable stories and doing some unbelievable things.

  It’s just like looking at A.J. Styles now and Jeff Jarrett with the NWA title, and Chris Daniels and America’s Most Wanted, and all these guys that are good … looking at these guys and seeing them do this unbelievable stuff, and seeing Dustin in there … it just makes me proud that I’m doing what I’m doing … and this reunion brought all that back to me.

  It actually took this egotistical son-of-a-bitch Dusty Rhodes out of character and made me the most humble man I could possibly be, being around this group of guys.

  But the one guy that really stood out, who I had an opportunity to see and talk to after 20 years, but not until the following week in Tucson, Arizona, was “Superstar” Billy Graham. Although we’ve talked on the phone on numerous occasions, to see him in person was something else. And he looked fabulous. He looked great. This was a guy who was supposed to be dead … liver transplant … and it was a 20 year reunion of us actually being face-to-face; he remembered to the day.

  My good friend Dallas Page was there and it was supposed to be kind of a surprise for me. The thing about Dallas is he understands the industry and what it means to me and what different guys meant to me and he was like in awe … it was like John Lennon was still alive and Paul McCartney walked in … and then to actually witness the meeting.

  As I walked in and looked at him, he stood up and we hugged for a long time. I had tears in my eyes … and my first instinct was to start to tell my stories. We talked about the industry and what happened, how many towns we’d sold out and we were just talking, man, recollecting … and “Superstar” and me have lived our lives together as this band of brothers on the Bob Dylan road.

  Bobby Dylan—Bobby D—was somebody that we would play every album, we would take every bit of what he said, and in my interviews, I would turn them into what the interviews were talking about. When a guy would turn on me, a bad guy, someone would do something to me, in Orlando I’d say, “I offered up my innocence and he paid me back in scorn, Orlando said come in I’ll give you shelter from the storm.”

  We said these things and interjected them at a time when it was unheard of in our business. We were the poet laureates from ‘74 on up in our industry and an opportunity to face off on that mega stage in New York City, Madison Square Garden, when Vince, Sr. was still alive. Or the next unforgettable moment was still to this day where people still call it the Garden, said they never heard a roar like that … there was no music, there was nothing that was played like a video or anything before you came out … instead the people stood to get a glimpse of these two guys, “Superstar” Billy Graham against “the American Dream” Dusty Rhodes.

  So we’re sitting there and having this conversation, and Dallas was sitting there too, listening, as he’s always at my side, and this Indian kid walks up who was in the opening match at the show—AWA show in Tucson, Arizona at the Casino Del Sol—he said, “Mr. Rhodes, excuse me …” not even thinking of what a moment he just walked in on. Not even thinking for a second how the Earth was moving right there as he walked in with these two guys sitting there.

  Jesse Ventura and Hulk Hogan admit to this day that we were the two guys that took their careers and where they wanted to be and took it to that different level.

  So the Indian kid looks at us and he said, “Excuse me, sir … Mr. Rhodes … I’m in the opening match. Would you please come out and watch my match and tell me how I did? It would be a great honor.”

  I said, “Sure, kid, I’ll do it.” Then he walked away. “Superstar” Billy Graham looked at me and said, “Brother … we’re on an Indian reservation … in Tucson, Arizona …two guys that filled up back to back to back Madison Square Garden … and this young kid wants you to go out and watch the opener?” And he laughed so hard, and we laughed at the moment … the kid didn’t even know what the moment was all about.

  And I did watch him, and he wasn’t bad and it was c
ool, but it was just something that took the edge off and it was something the two of us could relate to together.

  Then “Superstar” Billy presented me with a tape he had recorded of an interview that recently had showed Bob Dylan on 20/20 or some show like that. He was our way of thinking and how we interjected it in our talk and how we felt about him and we talked about that and as it went down to the old wrestling genre, Dallas would ask questions about this and that, people would come in and they’d trade off pictures and take pictures with us, of us … I was just sitting there looking at him and he said he was just amazed.

  “You look a little older in the face.” Obviously my body hadn’t changed, but he said, “You look the same.”

  His face looked the same too.

  I told him I could remember him posing and just walking around and interviewing and the interviews were unscripted. They were a battle back and forth between us as we talked about the match, whether it’d be in the Boston Gardens or Madison Square Garden or whether it’d be in Tampa, Florida.

  The only guy that really didn’t understand our gimmick, our stuff, our shtick, was Verne Gage and the AWA. He didn’t understand how charismatic and how unbelievable this thing could be between me and “Superstar.” He was heavy into the arm wrestling thing and that was working for him … Wahoo and the strap matches, that was working … and me and “Superstar” talked about that.

  So he left it with me and it was pretty chilly in Tucson, a beautiful day, but chilly for there and he’d come outside, watch a little bit of the match, watch Dallas and Erik Watts, and he had to go in as he couldn’t stay out because of the liver … he couldn’t stay out in the air a long time, but he looked great. We went inside … back and forth … he was getting tired toward the end of the show and finally it was just me and him left in the dressing room.

  Everybody was gone and I was taking the wraps off my leg and he would sit there in amazement. Then he said something that was so cool. He said, “You know, all of the people in our industry from our era, all of them, owe you and me a tremendous amount of gratitude because we proved that two polar opposites, two guys that don’t even look like each other, bodies that are not even close … that there’s a common bond of human nature in imagination that could talk 21,000 people, 20,000 people, whatever it was, into a building and have them in a fever pitch with a shake of the ass, a pose from the arm … in a fever pitch for them thirty seconds, and not do anything but tell a soft, easy to read story. It was that simple.”

  I said, “Man, it was so unbelievable what you just said. Dallas told me this one time when I was really down. He said to me, ‘You’re gonna get up and go over to the mirror and tell me what you see.’ He said, ‘I’ll tell you what you see. You see Dusty Rhodes, the American Dream. And no industry on this Earth, nowhere, no place, is there a bigger star.’”

  And then I told him. I said, “‘Superstar,’ you look in the mirror and you tell me what you see. Because the guy that revolutionized and changed the way we do our business is looking back at you.”

  And we hugged a long hug, said our goodbyes, and went out to the car … you know, life is so short sometimes, and we turned to each other and Bobby Dylan on an album that he came out a while back says, “It’s getting dark, I can barely see the light.” And he looked at me and he said, “You know, the darker it gets, the only light you’ll see next, is that light that takes you home.”

  What a great moment in the life of two guys that relived what they meant to the industry, but what they really meant to each other. All of that built on mutual respect.

  Now you know what the industry really means and how it’s come full circle.

  NOTE: According to the May-June 2004 edition of Loss Prevention magazine, Paul Jones is senior vice president of loss prevention for Limited Brands. He is responsible for overseeing the loss prevention, shortage control, and safety functions for more than 4,000 specialty retail stores, the supply-chain function, call centers, headquarters, and sixteen worldwide offices. Limited Brands includes Express, The Limited, Victoria’s Secret, Victoria’s secret direct and catalogue, Bath & Body Works, Henri Bendel, and the White Barn Candle Company.

  CHAPTER 15

  When you’ve been in the wrestling business for as long as I have, been at the creative forefront like I have, and seen or worked with the caliber of performers that I have over the years, you sometimes find yourself thinking, “Wow, I wonder what it would be like to work with this guy?”

  In that same instance, that question goes one step further from working a match to working a whole program. Then, sometimes strictly from a creative aspect, whether you were the “booker” in the old days or the executive producer today, you might start to wonder how this guy would work with this other guy? And then going one step further from there, taking the business aspect into account, you ask yourself the ultimate question, which is at the root of the wrestling business, “Would they draw a house?”

  You can have the greatest match in the history of the business, but if it’s between two guys who couldn’t draw flies if they were covered with shit, it means absolutely nothing. The bottom line is while this fancy stunt wrestling shit today is well and good, the business is not based on how many hurricaranas you can do, but whether or not you can draw money. If you don’t have the ability to talk and if you don’t have that natural charisma, it doesn’t matter how good you are in the ring; you won’t draw money. I’d rather have a guy who is a mediocre wrestler, but who can give a great interview and has great charisma, because of the two, the mediocre wrestler will draw more money than the guy who can do a quadruple somersault. In the old days it was drawing money at the arena. Today it’s drawing money through pay-per-view buys.

  One of the things people both in and out of the business often ask me is how do I do what I do? In other words, how do I come up with a particular idea about a specific match? What is my thought process about creating a new tag team? How do I determine which wrestlers will face each other and for what titles?

  While I’ve given you just a little bit of an idea above of what goes through the mind of an executive producer like myself, I thought it would be both fun and educational to really show you what crosses the mind of a matchmaker by actually booking a fictional card that I’d like to call “Starrcade Prime.”

  I’m calling it “Starrcade Prime” for two reasons. First, because “Starrcade” was the biggest show there ever was before the advent of pay-per-view; and second, because every performer who I’ve chosen to be on this super card was considered as if he were in the “prime” of his career.

  Now, there’s a lot that goes into a selection process, so let’s consider the following: “Starrcade Prime” will be a televised event, but not a pay-per-view. Because of the caliber of matches, there’ll be two announcing teams that will switch off during the show. The first team will be the legendary Gordon Solie and Jim Ross, while the second team will be Gorilla Monsoon, Jesse “The Body” Ventura, and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan.

  I chose Gordon because he’s the guy who will be able to “tell the story” to the viewers of what is unfolding in the ring, while keeping it “real,” especially with the types of wrestlers I’ve chosen, because he had the big call. I teamed him up with J.R. because in many ways they are similar. J.R. would be able to add to the realism as he too has the knack for the big call, reinforcing what Gordon would be saying. Plus J.R. is the guy who I said earlier I would have when going to war. When he’s on his game, there’s no better. None. Because these guys are the best solo announcers there ever were in my opinion, and because they loved the business like no other two announcers I ever saw or heard, I think they would complement each other perfectly.

  Now, like a great tag team, the second team was chosen because of their chemistry. In my opinion, when it came to announcing teams, there was none better than when Gorilla teamed with either Jesse or Bobby. As a team, they had style, charisma, and were just plain entertaining. Gorilla was a great st
raight man to his more flamboyant partners. So, in order to keep the chemistry intact, I’ve decided to make this announcing team a three-man squad with Gorilla being the play-by-play pivot man between two really great color analysts.

  While no fan ever bought a ticket to come to an arena to see a television announcer, they certainly didn’t buy a ticket to see the referee. However, the great referees knew not only when to be seen and heard, but more importantly when to be the most important invisible person in the ring. The two guys in my opinion who had this quality the best, and therefore are my referees for this card, are Tommy Young and Earl Hebner.

  Just as important as the matches themselves, sometimes you’ve got to have the right building to create something special and the right person to promote that building. There are a lot of great buildings that come to mind. Some of my favorites include the old Sportatorium in Dallas, the Cow Palace in San Francisco, the Omni in Atlanta, the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis, Cobo Hall in Detroit, the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, and the Miami Beach Convention Center.

  Now, if “Starrcade Prime” were to be a pay-per-view, then hands down Madison Square Garden, the Mecca of wrestling if you will, would be the location and Vince McMahon Jr. would be the promoter, because he would know how to hype this thing like no one else. But since it’s not a pay-per-view, then the building of choice would be what I always considered the Madison Square Garden of the south—the Fort Homer W. Hesterly Armory in Tampa—and the local promoter would be Sam Mushnick, the legendary president of the NWA and promoter from St. Louis. In its heyday the Armory could hold about 5,800 people, 6,000 with standing room only. The ambiance of that building with that single spotlight over the ring in the darkened, smoke-filled building … well, that’s what wrestling was all about; every eye on that ring with no distractions. Man, I get goosebumps just thinking about that. While Sam never promoted Tampa, nobody knew how to promote a local event like him, not even the great Paul Boesch who became a multimillionaire by running just one city, Houston. Sam was one of the first promoters who utilized every medium there was to draw a house, and so he gets the nod for “Starrcade Prime.”