by Dusty Rhodes
Since that time, Mike’s been my agent and we’ve made a lot of money together. He’s a hardcore guy in that he knows how to negotiate, and because of that, everybody who does business with him doesn’t like him on most occasions. But the bottom line is he gets the job done. They don’t like it because they think it’s just the old school and they should be dealing directly with me, but I’ll deal with my heart instead of my wallet; Michael deals with the wallet. He’s been a great asset, and we’ve come to be good friends.
“Part of the problem some of these promoters have with me is they don’t understand that the fee can change depending on where the show is, what type of match it is and who Dusty’s wrestling. For example, a promoter in the Carolinas or Florida is going to pay more if he is working with Terry Funk or Tully Blanchard than let’s say a promoter in Wisconsin where Dusty would be working a local guy. Sometimes it depends on the economic situation of the area too, as typically they can pay a little more if their ticket prices are higher because they can afford to.”
—MICHAEL O’BRIEN
Meanwhile, time marched on for ECW, and they were getting ready to fold their camp. There were a lot of guys not getting paid, not getting checks, bitching and complaining, but Paul E. had that old-school promoter’s way of talking to his guys when they said, “I’m going to go in there tonight, I’m going to get my money, I’m going to tell that son of a bitch that I’m through and it’s all over. …” and they’d go in and have a meeting, and by the time they finished talking with Paul E. they were ready to knock down a wall—and that’s the way the old promoters were. You’d get ready to quit: “I’m leaving … I hate this territory … the money ain’t right here…” they would be leaving, one foot out the door, but that old fucking mentality talks them into staying.
I have a lot of respect for Paul E. He was a guy who when I was in charge of Jim Crockett Promotions and TBS, he always came to the production meetings. I never ran him off because he was always there, involved, but he took mental notes. It was kind of like he went to school and got paid to go by WCW. And as we know, back then they threw money around like it was fucking chocolate bars at a Hershey convention in Hershey, Pennsylvania. ECW was a good time, and it was a time that helped me out a lot and made me appreciate how people really respected the industry. Of course the matches with Corino and me, and the matches with Funk and me—that’s just legendary shit that went down during that period of time.
The independents were a little bit different. We had some huge houses. The biggest one, besides Lawler and me in Butler, Pennsylvania, outside of Pittsburgh, where we did 6,800 people, was in Davie, Florida, at the Rodeo Arena when they had Abdullah and Kevin Sullivan and Terry Funk and me. I talked about this briefly earlier, but it was a tremendous night because it was the old Miami, the old Fort Lauderdale crowd. I believe it was like 4,000 paid and it was great.
So the independents were off and on. I never went to a place that Mike got a booking for me where I didn’t get my money. It was usually waiting for me when I get there. The only time was for this guy Norm Connors in Pittsburgh, where we did the 6,800 house just before that—the bastard still owes me $750. But I don’t want to come across like it’s all about money, because it ain’t. It’s not the money, because $750 is beer money. It’s the point of what was going on, and I took him at his word. As I write this, it’s been almost two years now.
“I get a lot of requests literally from all over the world to book Dusty, and the most difficult thing I have to deal with, especially if I never heard of the group making the request, is researching who the person is and what wrestling organization it’s for; it’s important that the person and group are reputable. There are a lot of good promoters out there like William Moody and Marvin Ward in Virginia, Tony Hunter in North Carolina, and Jonathan Gold among others. These are the type of promoters who are businessmen and try to make their promotions successful through hard work. Unfortunately, there are also promoters out there who are really just fans who’ve found money somewhere and want to wrestle, making themselves the star.”
—MIKE O’BRIEN
Independents are tough, and Terry warned me, “There have been many nights I’ve seen guys go and not get their money; the houses being the shits.” I’ve often thought, “Here I am, ‘The American Dream.’ I’ve wrestled in front of 35,000 people or more, and now here I am in front of 35 people because this promoter doesn’t have a fucking clue.”
But I was just out doing what I knew how to do best. That was my job and vocation, to be in this industry. It was rough at the beginning, and even though I work for WWE, independents are still a big part of my life. I’m determined to always do my best when I go to work for somebody and they pay me big bucks.
“Well, having Dusty in my NWA Arena for Hardcore Hell 2004 was literally a ‘dream’ come true. And it wasn’t just the genuine thrill all of us felt when he was introduced, when he hit the ‘flip, flop and fly’ at the end of his match, or when he pointed at the Wildside sign. What was amazing was that Dusty sat in the go area nearly the whole night, watched every match, and talked with all the wrestlers. Here was one of the biggest stars ever in professional wrestling making everyone feel special. So, having Dusty at NWA Wildside was ‘special’ because he is.”
—BILL BEHRENS
But, getting back to ECW, they let me into their inner circle, and I made some really great friends while I was over there like Sandman and my brother New Jack, and those guys were really great to me, and I will never forget it, because Paul E. took me in and picked me up when I was really down.
Jim Ross talks on occasion about those of us who’ve fallen from grace. I think we all fell from grace at one time, even the biggest stars do. I remember when Ross had gotten fired by Eric Bischoff—that’s falling from grace because Ross had so much power at the time. But he worked his way back, reinvented himself, and now is in a good position with Vince. And that’s what I’ve done too, but instead of with Vince, I did it with TNA. I enjoy being around the young kids like A.J. Styles, Monty Brown, and Abyss, and seeing some of the old stars too, like Jeff Jarrett, Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash.
ECW was a good thing. I made a lot of money on the Acclaim ECW game. There were some good times there. I enjoyed working with those guys at ECW. Every single one of them put his heart and soul and life on the line, really, literally, every night. Sabu and Terry Funk had one of the most brutal, unbelievable matches I’ve ever seen in the history of wrestling to this day, and they had a great heel in Shane Douglas. Shane to me is a throwback to Rick Rude, who I thought was the greatest heel of the ‘90s. I think Shane was that type of heel, just a tremendous talker and savvy about what’s going on in the ring. I got to see a lot of guys, a lot of young guys while I was there, seeing them performing as best they could, and they took it serious! They were all pissed at Paul E. at the start of the night and they rallied around him at the end of the night. ECW was a great experience for me at a time when I really needed to get back up from that fall from grace or whatever you call it, but I never stopped being “The American Dream,” and that was really cool.
In a way ECW was like Japan, as respect was so important there; well, respect was important in Japan until recently, anyhow.
My first trip to the land of the Rising Sun was when I with the AWA working for Verne Gagne. In Japan I went to work for Hisashi Shinma as that’s who Verne used to deal with. In the late ‘70s Shinma would actually be a figurehead president of the WWWF for Vince Sr. Anyway, Murdoch went with me there and he had been with Baba all of those years, but I talked him into going with me. He remained with Baba most of his career there as that was where his loyalties were. I loved Baba and I worked for him a little bit, but when I became a star, my loyalties were with Inoki for a couple of reasons. Not only because he treated me right—the respect was unbelievable toward me—but because Eddie Graham, Duke Keomuka, and Hiro Matsuda, pretty much the whole Florida office was affiliated with Inoki, and I had respect for them.
And respect in Japan was so much different than in the U.S. even to this day up until just recently. There was real respect for the guys who went over and the ones who brought them there, and I remember Inoki would bring some of the older guys there all the time like Lord Blears. They would even bring Barnett over there one time with me. Inoki had a tremendous respect for the past—and so did Baba for that matter—it was unbelievable the way they treated the American wrestlers.
The way they treated the business, up until just recently, was with a handshake, and that was all you needed. But my entire perspective was changed about that with the new breed of promoters there. I was scheduled to work a Hustle show for Dream Stage Entertainment (DSE)—a PRIDE/Zero-One co-promotion—for a certain amount of money, and those guys, Yoshi Nakamura and company, took years of honor and respect and threw it to the wind. The new regimes over there, the people who are running the companies, have no respect for the business whatsoever. What they did to me, as far as waiting until the last week and actually canceling me out of the tour, would have never been done before. It was all over something like $3,000 more than what they were going to give, which they promised on a handshake and came on top of what I was making; just to ensure I would make the same amount as before. And they also canceled Dustin with no explanation, just cutting us off at that point with no respect letter to come later or any offer of “Here’s half of it up front,” or whatever. So, as far as I’m concerned, it’s changed from that time—from when my mentor in Japan was Matsuda, and like I said, I respected him unbelievably. Massa Saito, better known to fans in the U.S. as Mr. Saito, was my closest friend from Japan as he also worked for the Inoki office, and I made a lot of great friends over there. Inoki I respect to this day.
Being able to get in there was whatever it was, but to be told a week before you’re getting your bags packed and ready to go, at a time in my life and my age where you count on certain contracts to be fulfilled, it just looks and smells like a bad independent deal, man. “No, we can’t run. … We’re not running this weekend. … We can’t pay you this amount of money, we can only pay you this amount. If you want to take a pay cut, you can come. …” Take a cut? Come to what? Shit, it was very disheartening to know that all the ones who had come before them, the Japanese guys, the amount of respect they had for the industry and for me … and what had been done, that this group, Zero-One, and Hashimoto was a big fan of mine, and I’m sure he wasn’t involved in the decision making on this thing, I’m sure it was people higher up, or with this new regime that wanted wrestling and shoot-fighting to be all in one, when we know it’s not. So, it was just amazing and has left a sour taste in my mouth.
Back in the early days, Japan was some fun times. We’d stay six to seven or eight weeks, like the Australian tours; 13 weeks with Murdoch. They were fun, but man, you wanted to go home. You weren’t making a lot of money, but it was a great experience for a young guy in the business. Even when the business started to get tarnished and exposed in the States, Japan was still sacred ground. Everyone from the top promoter to the bottom fan held you in high esteem and treated you with a level of respect that rivaled the great sumo wrestlers. And it grew from the time Michelle went over there with me to when Inoki and I were working. I would go over for one week or whatever. It was phenomenal. I love Japan, second only to Mexico, as far as my favorite countries to go visit. I have a lot of respect for those who brought us to the dance. There’s not much more I can say about that except when they disrespected me at the end, Zero-One, PRIDE and DSE will always remain in the back of my head … phenomenal … not even a letter.
It’s kind of like when I first started with TNA. There were times I thought the TNA office ran their place like a leper colony. A lot of guys were kept in the dark unnecessarily, as they never knew if they were going to be on TV or not. I guess the office just really appeared disorganized and unfocused, and to me there was no mystery how they got 10 or 15 million dollars in the hole in two and a half years. Their focus was in the wrong place, and a lot of the young guys felt they weren’t being respected. Jerry Jarrett had me in there, and I have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for Jerry, as he’s one of the leftover Godfathers from the old days—I often said to him up in the office that he and I were playing poker while everybody else was playing Go Fish—but to have a 50-something-year-old as your biggest babyface, well right there it tells you there is something wrong with that whole picture.
The money was great and I enjoyed doing what I did, and the office respected me tremendously. But me being the top draw was like the Grammy Awards a few years ago when Tony Bennett walked out and won a Grammy away from those younger guys—he took away the spotlight from the kids who really needed it, just like I was taking away the focus from the young lions at TNA. “Who the fuck is this guy and why is he singing? Why is he wrestling? Why is he still here?” Well, I felt like Tony Bennett. So when I became executive producer of TNA, I still kept my on-air personality, but I de-emphasized the focus on me and put it back on the guys it should be on, like A.J. Styles, Monty Brown, and even Dustin. It’s all about respect. If you want to be respected by others, you have to start by respecting others. It’s like Bob and Dixie Carter, the majority owners of TNA. They had a tremendous amount of respect for me, and I in turn had an enormous amount of respect for and gratitude for them.
In a way it’s like this new thing I’m doing, motivational speaking, even though I suppose you can say I’ve always been a motivational speaker through my interviews and promos. After all, isn’t that what we’re supposed to do in pro wrestling—motivate people to buy an arena ticket or to buy our pay-per-view?
But in a way, it’s a lot deeper than that, and I guess I always knew that. I guess I always understood that my story was the story of the people and that’s really what people respected about me, and because it was their story, that’s what I really, deep down respected about them.
“I have been a longtime fan of Dusty. I was a young boy who was captivated with professional wrestling. I watched Dusty Rhodes come into the Boston area of the WWWF where I lived and stand up to the bully of the day, ‘Superstar’ Billy Graham. He electrified the city of Boston and the WWWF fans … I was raised in humble settings and was a professional wrestling fan and played the sport of judo. Dusty became my motivation in judo. The story of ‘The American Dream,’ the son of a plumber who went on to sell out Madison Square Garden and win the world title is one I latched onto and believed in. I was the son of an electrician and was inspired by Dusty to never give up, stand up against the odds and be what you want to be … live ‘The American Dream.’ I went on to win the state championships and was the National Judo Champion for several years and went on to be the captain of the U.S. Judo team that toured South Africa. I kept the vision of ‘The American Dream’ with me as I competed for years. So besides entertaining me for years, Dusty inspired me to reach for my goal, be persistent, and make it happen.”
—PAUL JONES, SVP, LIMITED BRANDS
How can I get in front of more than a hundred corporate executives from a company like Limited Brands and talk about wrestling? I can’t, because it’s not about wrestling and never has been. If you read this book and walk away from it without understanding that these words are really about family and friends and sacrifice and overcoming obstacles and being everything you push yourself to be … and you respect yourself for who you are, what you do and how you do it … well, then read the book again.
“I asked Dusty to speak with a group of 110-plus Loss Prevention executives who are on the top of their game. My goal was to have Dusty articulate his journey of ‘The American Dream.’ Most of the people were not wrestling fans, but all of the people got fired up, reenergized, and were ready to live their ‘American Dream’ after hearing Dusty speak. He speaks from his heart, is a straight shooter and captivated the audience. Dusty’s story is so much more than wrestling. It’s a story of passion, guts and achievement. He has a career as a motiva
tional speaker, for sure.”
—PAUL JONES, SVP, LIMITED BRANDS
So, getting back to Japan, that disrespect ate at me. They had Steve Corino email me and put him in the middle of the thing and caused heat between him and me, which there shouldn’t have been, because even a letter of apology from Nakamura would have been acceptable. You see, this is Dusty Rhodes, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, and an email that says, “Oh yeah, they want you to take that cut in pay if you want to come.” What’s not to want to go? The first time I was there with Zero-One, we did 14,000 people with me against Mil Mascaras in a six-man that drew as much as anything they had over there at that point in time. So, as far as I was concerned, I earned my way back over even at my age now, to go over there and have the right to be respected.
When I called Nakamura in Japan, he acted so surprised, but I felt he was full of shit. I told him in all my years of being in this business I had seen it all, but this was very embarrassing. He said he would call Corino, who handled the bookings for the American guys, or as the Japanese refer to the foreigners, gaijins. Quite frankly, at that stage in my life, I was too old for that shit! But if Matsuda were alive, it wouldn’t have happened, because that’s how much respect he had in Japan, whether it was with New Japan or All Japan. If he’d even been with a different company, it wouldn’t have happened. He probably would have had somebody’s legs broken. But that’s the way it was, and that’s the way it is, because “business is business,” and mutual respect is such an important and integral part of our business.
How important and integral is it?
As I look back at things that happened in my career, there are people that are so outstanding, you forget about what you love or respect about them times and situations.