Dusty: Reflections of Wrestling's American Dream

by Dusty Rhodes

  But when Vince had Bruce Pritchard produce a series of mini-videos for TV to show me working in different jobs like a coal miner in Pittsburgh and being “The Common Man,” all that kept going through my mind was this is “The American Dream” with a new name. I realized this was all designed to prove to the world that he could take a guy who was the biggest star in the country, and just make him into whatever he wanted to.

  Although we were good friends and were the same age, growing up together in the business with our dreams being similar in many ways, knowing how talented I was, this was going to be his way of saying, “I run the show.” But being like I am, he didn’t realize how strong I really was with the public.

  So there I was doing these videos like being a plumber, which in a way was a tribute to my dad, and being a meat cutter, which I thought was a cute skit. But the pizza delivery guy was done because Jim Herd, over at WCW, was hired from a pizza company as I explained previously, so that was a rib on him.

  And up there, ribs like that were pretty common, and a lot of them were pointed at me. Ted DiBiase’s black chauffeur, Mike Jones, who they called “Virgil,” was meant as a rib, but that backfired because that’s how he got over. Later on when Mike came to WCW they called him “Vincent.” Another one was One Man Gang, who they called “The African Dream” Akeem, who I loved. While that character was meant as a rib, if it had been around when I was booking the old Florida territory, they’d still be standing in line at the Tampa Armory to see him and me go one on one. Then there was Ray Traylor, who had been a bodyguard character in the NWA called “Big Bubba Rogers” running around in a Cobb County prison guard outfit as a bad guy now called “Big Bossman.” Well, Cobb County, Georgia, was where I lived, and I was considered the bad guy “boss” of the opposition; a prison of sorts if you will. So there were a few ribs on me, but all of those characters got over.

  Anyway, they were trying to decide what I would wear to the ring and they had me wearing every kind of outfit you could imagine. Well, a few years earlier the polka dot was big on the fashion scene, and it seemed every trendy magazine like Vogue and Glamour had featured them. It wasn’t just a crazy marketing scheme where they said, “You’ve got to wear this or you can’t work here.” It was never done that way. It was more Pat Patterson and me laughing about it one night out back.

  Pat, who I love dearly, and his life partner, Louie—who has since passed away, rest his soul—were talking to me about it and Pat brought up the marketing aspect of it. Well, after listening to him, we had to fucking do it, because it just made sense. So then he says, let’s put a common woman with the common man and the idea was to have a hooker off the street; tall and skinny in a red dress who kind of looked like a female version of Slick, who was one of the WWF managers back then.

  Terry Garvin, who was one of the road agents for Vince for many years, knew Juanita Wright as somebody who drove the wrestlers back and forth between the airport and the building in St. Louis. She was a big fan who loved the business and would do anything she could for the boys. I believe she was 50-something years old back then, and Vince agreed to bring her in and—this is the good side of Vince where he has a heart—it made her more money than she ever made in her whole fucking life. When she came in and I saw her, I said, “Oh my God!” because I just knew it would click.

  In a way I kind of felt it was Vince saying that this guy—me—is getting old, so let’s make him this goofy, mediocre character. But when I was riding in the car one time with Pat and an African American clerk who said to me completely out of left field, “You are the only one who can pull it off for us black guys,” talking about Juanita and me, who would now have the character name Sapphire, I knew I got one step up on them. As soon as he said that I just knew, because even in this ridiculous fucking getup I was still connecting with the people and I thought it would be fun to turn that around on them. So it backfired on him when I got over, but he took full credit and it ended up with me being there a year and a half making one of my biggest years financially without the headache and stress of being the boss.

  I had three great programs while there. The first one was with Bossman, and that was easy because I had given Ray, rest his soul, his first big break in the business. Then I had a program with “The Million-Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase, which was interesting because he was the guy who along with Vince came up with the “Virgil” rib, but we were professionals and did good business together, plus he was a second-generation guy and knew how this business worked. And then there was the big program with “Macho Man” Randy Savage. “Mach” made me a lot of money when I was up there—I loved the guy. “Mach” and I also had that before-yellow finger respect because he was another second-generation guy, his dad being Angelo Poffo, so “Mach” respected the business roots. Looking back, I consider it like they asked me to be in this huge blockbuster movie and paid me a shit load of money to play this character.

  Don’t get me wrong now. There were times that I wanted to go in and tell Vince to shove it up his ass, but Pat was always my voice of reason up there. He’d say to me, “Take a step back. Just relax here. Take it easy.” And really, he was right, as it was the most relaxing time for me in the business. For whatever the reason was, we all came out smelling like roses, and I remember putting my head in my hands and saying, “From here down, shoot me because from the neck up, that’s the real me. ‘The American Dream’ is still up here.” But deep down I was busting. I needed a creative outlet. I had the urge to get the hell out of there to settle some unfinished business.

  “While we were in New York (WWF) together, he was upset about being in the polka dots. We were in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and he said, ‘I can’t do this anymore. I’m going to talk to Vince.’ Well, all the boys used to line up to have their five minutes or so with Vince, and Dusty comes out about ten minutes after going in and says, ‘He got me. He’s the best … I sat down and told him my whole life … I told him how I felt. Vince said, ‘I know. But who else can pull it off except ‘The American Dream,’ Dusty Rhodes?’ I got up and left. What could I fucking say? I was the only man who can pull it off. I knew it was a bunch of bullshit, but how do you argue with that?’”

  —JIMMY HART

  I think one of the things that frustrated me the most at the WWF was that they had writers trying to put words in my mouth, saying things I would never say. The first time there, Vince had me trying to read off of a teleprompter. Here I was, one of the greatest interviews in all of our industry and they were trying to put words in my mouth that I would never say. It took one of their writers nine times trying to write and rewrite what they wanted me to say until finally Vince had them just bullet point what they wanted so I could say it my way. I had noticed that when Hogan would cut his promos, they would have his bullet points and he would never use a teleprompter to read, so why was there a different standard for Dusty Rhodes?

  When it came time for me to leave the “Evil Empire” and go back to being “The American Dream,” I remember Pat asking me if I was going to be okay. I told him, “Don’t worry about me. Just take care of Juanita.”

  Juanita was a sweet lady, and she would hold all her checks because she never made that kind of money before. She didn’t know what to do with it. When I would see her she would ask me, “What should I do with these checks?”

  I’d say, “Cash those fucking checks. Cash them and put the money in a bank, in your icebox or a dress shop or something. Just cash them.”

  She made a lot of money, and of course she made huge money when she did the WrestleMania there with me. I was sad when I heard she passed away.

  When I went back to WCW as their booker, which back then it wasn’t quite the full-blown executive producer role just yet; at first it was really cool. But it wasn’t long before the politics of the business started in again, some of which I talked about a little earlier.

  “Dusty gave me the insight that somebody has got to draw the money. My dad always said that a night of wrestl
ing is kind of like the Ringling Brothers Circus. If you looked at the Ringling Brothers Circus and there were ten high-wire acts, you wouldn’t draw the money. You’ve got to have the clowns, you’ve got to have the midgets, you’ve got to have the jugglers, you’ve got to have the tumblers, you’ve got to have lion tamers, you’ve got to have that whole show every night of a wrestling event … and Dusty was the high-wire act or the lion tamer, or whatever you wanted to say. But the lion tamer or the high-wire act also had to have the jugglers and the clowns and everything else to make the show complete. Just a good main event isn’t going to do it. You need the whole package to make a wrestling show, so the people will come back week after week after week … and Dusty understood that better than anybody.”

  —MIKE GRAHAM

  There were just a few guys who said about me, “Man, what an asshole this guy is.” But when they really stop and think about it, they had no talent. I remember this one guy who used to badmouth me at WCW all the time was in all honesty booked because Jim Barnett called me in to his office and said please keep this guy here. Obviously that was the only reason the guy was there.

  You talk about behind-the-scene politics? That is the worst, when you get called in to an office and are told to make sure so and so stays in the territory and keeps his job. Barnett would tell me I didn’t have to do shit with these guys, but that’s the reason why they were there. Certain members of the wrestling crew were kept on not because they were talented, but because Jim Barnett, one of the most powerful men in all of wrestling at the time, wanted them to stay on.

  Now you’ve got to remember, I respected Barnett. My admiration for him was unreal, and I hope that has been apparent in what I have written about him thus far. He was my friend, booker, one of my mentors, and next to Eddie, the man I learned more from about this business than perhaps anyone else. But that is a part of the politics that you have to keep in mind. Because just like Andre would rib me to keep me grounded so I could keep things in perspective, Barnett would pull those type of power moves that sort of said, “You don’t have that much power just yet … you will, but you don’t have enough power just yet to tell me we can’t keep this guy here.”

  And it didn’t just happen at WCW, it happened in other territories too, and I’ve seen it my whole career. There were always guys who were kept on in a territory because someone wanted them to stay in that territory, whether it was the owner, the booker, or the top draw. Whoever had the power would leverage that clout and use it frequently. And some guys were given titles, even World titles, again not because of their talent, but because they were kept around for a particular purpose, and I’m sure if you use your imagination, you can guess what that purpose was. So these guys were going to be made stars no matter what the consequences were to the territory. Like I said before, I never cared who was fucking who in the ass, except when it directly affected our business. So as reluctant as I was to discuss this, this is something that had to be told, because sometimes it did affect our business, and it was and is a part of the business that is just wrong, but it nevertheless is a part of this business, the dark side of this business.

  On the positive side of that double-edged blade, however, if you were like me and always put business first, then that political influence meant you could not only book wrestlers who you knew had talent, but who you could trust and who you knew would draw. To me, that balance was important in order for both the office and me to be successful. So the thing is, a lot of people say this booker or that booker brings in their friends and sometimes that’s true, but if the booker or executive producer wants to keep his job, he sure as shit better bring in those friends who can draw. Because friends or no friends, if they don’t pull their own weight at the gate or through PPV buys, then you’re looking for a new job and somebody else is booking or executive producing.

  “When Dusty left to go to New York (WWF), I ended up without a job because the suits at WCW didn’t know me. I went two years with no insurance and I was completely upside down. When Dusty got the call from Turner to go back as a booker, he took the job with the understanding that I would be his assistant and he brought me in and gave me an opportunity to make a living – he didn’t have to do that, but he did. While it was more physically demanding than I could really handle, Dusty opened a door for me when I had nothing in my life going for me.”

  —”MAGNUM T.A.” TERRY ALLEN

  So a lot of times when you see a booker or executive producer with a successful track record bring in certain people, while at first you may think he’s just bringing in his friends, the odds are he’s bringing in people who he can trust and who can help him accomplish his goals. After all, friendship is friendship, but “business is business.”

  “A lot of people have knocked Dusty’s booking. But when you’ve been a booker for as long as he has, he probably booked a thousand workers … so he’s got five hundred workers who liked him and five hundred workers who thought he was the shits, because in every match somebody has to win and somebody has to lose. He did a lot of wonderful things … he worked with a lot of wonderful people … he did a lot of wonderful angles.”

  —TERRY FUNK

  CHAPTER 11

  If you were to ask 20 wrestlers, “What the most important aspect of their industry is … the most important thing they can do?” what would you say their answer should be? If they’ve got any sense for the business in them whatsoever, they’ll give you one answer and one answer only—draw a house … or in today’s world of PPVs, generate a high buy rate.

  That right there is what our business is really all about. It ain’t about the politics, although the politics do exist. It ain’t about pleasing internet and sheet writers with fancy stunt wrestling moves, although all of those guys may have their own opinions on the business. It’s all about giving the majority of the fans a show that is so entertaining it draws them back to the next show so you can do it all over again.

  You don’t need to be a fucking rocket scientist to understand that drawing a house is the backbone of our industry. You don’t need to know why E=mc2. But to be successful in the wrestling industry, you should know how to get from point A to point B, and understand that the shortest way to get there is a straight line.

  How do you do that? You create storylines that have some believability in them. You have feuds that settle scores. You have angles that hit close to home. You look closely at pop culture and try to imitate what’s going on in the world around you. You use formulas that have worked in the business for 100 years and will work for the next 100 years. Do you really think “Stone Cold” Steve Austin was the first guy to drive a truck into a building and drink beers? Hell, I did that in ‘75-’76, right in the Tampa Armory, only difference is I didn’t do it on TV. The thing is, though, if you do it right, if you carry out your plan correctly, people will remember those storylines, those feuds and those angles for years to come, no matter how many other people come after you and copy what you’ve done.

  I’ve been one of the fortunate ones in the business who has been able to do some of those things correctly, and so with that in mind, in this chapter I’m gonna talk about some of my famous feuds, some of my favorite storylines, some of my favorite angles, and some of the people who were involved in them with me. I’m also gonna talk a little bit about some of the guys who I’ve met during my career, and finally, I’m gonna talk about the one thing that everybody seems to want to talk about with me—the so-called “Dusty Finish.”

  There have been so many people who I have worked with over the years from the early days right up to the independents and TNA. It’s hard enough to stuff my 30-plus-year career into a few hundred pages, let alone a few paragraphs … it’s kind of like trying to fit into your favorite size 42 Levis even though you’re a size 46; while most of you is in there nice and snug, some of you just ain’t fitting in.

  Anyway, there are so many guys who I can talk about, like Don Muraco. His nickname was “Magnificent,” and for a damn
good reason. Don Muraco was the first really clean-ass natural best worker in the business, bar none. His background was surfing off the North Shore of Oahu in Hawaii—Sunset Beach—so he had unbelievable balance. There were nights when he used to work and when he was on, holy fuck he really was “Magnificent”! Unfortunately, however, there were also nights when he didn’t give a shit when he was at work, and in those cases it was like a fucking train wreck. Muraco first came to prominence on TBS in the angle that turned Roddy Piper from a heel to a babyface, when it looked like Don was going to attack Gordon Solie. Piper jumped in, and like they say, the rest is history. Some of Don’s matches in the Fed with “Superfly” Jimmy Snuka were classic, and in the Yellow Finger era he went from being “Magnificent” to being called “The Rock” and doing those God-awful videos like “Fuji Vice.”

  Another of those guys was Jos LeDuc. Although he didn’t call himself Canada’s greatest athlete like Gene Kiniski or “Bulldog” Bob Brown did, LeDuc was known as “The Canadian Freight Train” and drew so much fucking money in the South and in Florida, it is unbelievable. But people today would ask, “Who’s Jos LeDuc?” These fuckers wouldn’t know Jos LeDuc from a douche or a dirt rag. But LeDuc was one of the toughest motherfuckers there was. In the days before video promos were real popular, LeDuc did one where his back was against a wall and he held a truck at bay, which was revving its engine, with just the power of his legs. That little video right there put asses in the seats because just like Pak Song broke rocks with his bare hands like I talked about earlier, and that was legit. LeDuc held that truck back with his legs and that was legit, too.