Dusty: Reflections of Wrestling's American Dream (35 page)

Goldust vs. Freddie Blassie

In a match that would probably be more suited for the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles than the Tampa Armory because of it being a Hollywood type of match, there would be no title on the line necessary for this one. In what I believe to be the best gimmick to hit wrestling since
“Gorgeous” George Wagner in the 1950s, Goldust, to have him against the “Hollywood Fashion Plate” Freddie Blassie, just fits. I have always thought of Dustin as being one of the greatest athletes in the business, not because he is my son, but because of his ability. He makes what he does in the ring look so easy, almost effortless. Take those qualities and put it with the guy who was one of the first people in our business who understood the power of exposure beyond wrestling in Blassie, who guest starred on different TV shows like The Dick van Dyke Show and such, and you have a match that’s a perfect ten on the entertainment scale.

The Fabulous Moolah vs. Kay Noble

As the only females on the card, this one would be for the Women’s World title and features Lillian Ellison, who dominated the women’s division of pro wrestling as The Fabulous Moolah for some 30 years in a match against the toughest woman who I’ve ever seen around a wrestling ring, Kay Noble. While Moolah was salty in her prime, personally I would pay to see this match because Kay was one of those rare women who could put an ass whooping on a guy if she were so inclined to. I’d expect this match to be nothing short of stiff, tight and something that is a bit more meaningful than the tits and ass shows we see today with women’s wrestling.

So there you have it. That’s my All-Star line up for “Starrcade Prime.” I’m sure it included a few surprises and even a couple of disappointments, but that’s the way the wrestling business is. It can’t be perfect all the time.

It’s pretty common that after I put together a creation, I often think that what I’ve done is both good and bad. I think it’s important for you to know that in order to be successful in the wrestling business as a booker or executive producer, the person who has creative control, you have to be critical of yourself in order to push yourself to the next level and in order to stay on top of your game. If you don’t, you’re not only letting your fans down, but yourself as well.

While I would have loved to work some other top people onto the card like Andre the Giant, “Superstar” Billy Graham, and Magnum T.A. to name just a few, sometimes you have to know when not to book people for fear of overkill, because as we’ve been saying all along here, “business is business.”

It was also hard not to include the two best managers in the history of wrestling in my opinion, “Playboy” Gary Hart and Sir Oliver Humperdink. Like the great referees who knew when to be seen and heard and when to be invisible, these two guys were the best at knowing when to keep their hands off and when to be involved. Their timing was impeccable. While having two very distinct styles, they knew how important it was to keep the focus on the wrestlers and not on themselves. They knew how far they could go without going over the top and they knew when to actually go over that line in order to make a statement for the good of the business. Plus, by being around the business from an early age, they each had that very important sixth sense of knowing what was the right thing to do in order to protect their talent.

While there were very good managers throughout the years, and I’m sure some of you will argue with me saying that Lou Albano or Jimmy Hart or The Grand Wizard or Jim Cornette or Paul E or even J.J. Dillon was the best, and they were all great in their own regards, but to me Gary and Hump were simply a cut above the rest and just the best of the best.

I was glad, however, that I was able to find spots for four of my top five performers of all-time onto the card: Jose Lothario, Dick Murdoch, Fritz von Erich, and Wahoo McDaniel. The only one who didn’t find his way on the card actually wrestling was Eddie Graham, but because he would have been the head booker, well, hell, I guess that makes up for it.

So there you go. Now you’ve had the chance to get inside my head for just a little bit and understand more of what it takes to play matchmaker in the greatest business on Earth, professional wrestling.

C
HAPTER
16

I
n late 2004 we ran a contest on dustyrhodeswrestling.com to search for the top ten fans of “The American Dream,” Dusty Rhodes. While I’ve always said that if not for you, my fans, there would be no “Dream,” we were overwhelmed by the thousands of responses and heartfelt sentiments that were sent in through the web site or by email.

To say that it was hard to pick the top ten from all of those submissions would be an understatement. That is why in addition to the top ten, I’ve also chosen 15 fans to receive Honorable Mention here.

They are in alphabetical order: Robbie Boyette (Greer, South Carolina); Frank Cabanski (Houston, Texas); Dominick Giorgianni (Gresham, Oregon); Rick Ingram (Longmont, Colorado); Dan Keefe (Falconer, New York); Malcolm A. Madison (Hilton Head Island, South Carolina); Reginald Moody (Cincinnati, Ohio); Dale L. Murphy (Lakeside, Arizona); Mark Roth (Hartford, Connecticut); Zach Thompson (Topeka, Kansas); Robert D. VanKavelaar (Williston, Florida); Andrew B. Weiner (Atlanta, Georgia); Brian Westcott (Meridian, Idaho); Ben Williams (Lusby, Maryland); and Dan Wojcik (Davenport, Iowa).

Like those who were chosen for the top ten, each of these fans captured a unique memory of me, and I thank them as I do you for letting me be a part of their life and yours, even if it has only been for a short period of time in the grand scheme of things.

So without any further delay, here now are my personal top ten selections and the winners of the “Why I am Dusty Rhodes’s Biggest Fan Contest,” each of who has received an autographed copy of this book from me.

10. Marc Wiggins. Sacramento, California

As a youngster growing up in Oakland, California during the
‘
70s, I was right in the middle of the Big Time Wrestling territory, so I was introduced to the sport by guys like Rocky Johnson, Pat Patterson and Ray Stevens. As I got older, during junior high school, I began reading wrestling magazines like
The Wrestler, Inside Wrestling
and later,
Pro Wrestling Illustrated.

It was in early 1976 when I read how Dusty Rhodes was on the trail of the current NWA World Champion, Terry Funk. I was riveted. Everything about him, his appearance, his relentless pursuit of the title and the way he talked, it was as if he was talking to me personally because he didn’t try to portray himself as noble or heroic or above the fans. He was one of the guys, who at that point I still hadn’t seen wrestle yet; I had just seen the pictures in the magazines.

In seventh grade I began to wear a gold elbow pad. My own “Bionic Elbow,” if you will. I started my own wrestling organization, featuring myself and several other eighth graders, but I was the champ [it was my idea] and had a new name … “Dusty” Wiggins. I used the “Bionic Elbow” to ward off the bullies, it only took one taste and they left me alone—and that is a direct result of “The American Dream’s” influence on me.

The first time I saw Dusty wrestle was on TV during the summer of 1977. My cable company had an all-sports channel; this was in the days before ESPN or Fox Sports Net. This particular all-sports channel would show the WWWF shows from Madison Square Garden, and at the time that was a huge deal since there was no way to see those wrestlers who were on the east coast.

One day the champ, “Superstar” Billy Graham was going to defend against Dusty Rhodes. I was on the ceiling for the entire match! I had never seen anyone light up an arena like that before. It was electric.

The match ended in a count out loss by Graham. After the match, Rhodes took the house mic from Howard Finkel, the ring announcer, and said, “I came a long way to whoop your ass Graham, and this ain’t over, baby!”

Now that I had actually seen him wrestle, that was it. I was hooked. I remember seeing a picture of him in a satin jacket, so of course I had to have one. He wore a ZZ Top T-shirt in another photo; I had to have one, even though at the time I had no idea who ZZ Top was.

The next time that I saw Rhodes was again on TV. But this time it was from the Central States area. Big Time Wrestling had gone out of business and the Central States promotion had begun to show their TV show out here and Rhodes was having a match with Tank Patton. After the match he was in the ring doing a live interview and during the interview there was a black woman in the crowd who was completely beside herself at the sight of Rhodes. She was jumping around and running in the aisles. Rhodes saw this and stopped the interview, saying, and I remember this like it was yesterday, “Come here, baby. Come here and gimme some of that brown sugar!” With that she jumped into the ring and he kissed her, which sent her into orbit. I thought that was the coolest thing that I ever saw.

The critics said that he couldn’t win the NWA title, that if he didn’t win it in 1976, then he would never win it. He refused to listen and while he didn’t get it from Terry Funk, he did take it from Harley Race and he went on to win it on two other occasions. He never stopped competing.

It wasn’t until 1980 or so that I actually got a chance to see “The American Dream” live. He was working with the Florida promotion and they had decided to run a few shows in San Francisco. Rhodes had a U.S. title shot against Dick Slater. I was there and he won the U.S. title that night! Watching the “Bionic Elbow” live was like nothing I had ever seen. I had been to the Cow Palace many times to see Pat Patterson and Ray Stevens, but this was like a rock concert … it was an event … this was Dusty Rhodes in my city! It didn’t get any better than that!

In 1984 Oakland cable systems finally got TBS and World Championship Wrestling, this was right around the time before Starrcade
‘
84, which unfortunately was before pay-per-view so I didn’t get to see it. But I was riveted at 3:05 every Saturday afternoon until January 1986 when I left for college. But all those Saturdays had so many memories: Rhodes unveiling his “Gorilla,” “The Midnight Rider,” battles with Ric Flair and the Four Horsemen, teaming with Magnum T.A. and in later years forming the “Superpowers” with Nikita Koloff and being in six-man tag-team matches with the Road Warriors.

In 1989 or so I was at a friend’s house who had a big satellite dish and he wanted to show me the WWF show from Boston on NESN (New England Sports Network), and there he was in the WWF! I knew that he hadn’t been on TBS in a while and now he was there. That was during the time that WWF was in their “marketing to nine-year-olds” phase, so as a rule I would never watch, but that all changed with the arrival of Dusty.

I got such a kick out the vignettes of Rhodes as “the Common Man,” especially the one where he played a gas station attendant and asked the timeless question, “Ever seen a dipstick before, baby?”

I have followed Rhodes’s career back to WCW, ECW, and now NWATNA. There are so many more memories of watching and reading about him that I could probably fill a book myself, but to the man known as “The American Dream,” I just want to say thanks for helping me become the man that I am today.

9. Ron Heim. Honolulu, Hawaii

I consider myself to be Dusty Rhodes’s biggest fan because we go way back. From those humble days in Hollywood, Florida, to the present day in Honolulu, Hawaii, Dusty has been a hero, an entertainer and as I have come to look back, a teacher. This essay has allowed me to reflect on over 30 years of “The American Dream.”

I am looking at these words on a color monitor but I think about the black and white television set on Saturday mornings in Hollywood, Florida. We were too young to learn much from Dusty Rhodes back then except how to deliver the “Bionic Elbow” on our couches [and each other] and to talk with that southern drawl. We all tried to be like Dusty using his words and mannerisms, but as I got older, those words began to have meaning, and “The American Dream” became more than entertainment, it became lessons of life.

The entertainment turned into teaching when I entered high school. I first learned that I was different and not accepted by other people because of my social background. My father worked two jobs to support us, but I was on a subsidized lunch program. When I pulled out that card to pay, people would make fun of me. I resented my parents for the shame it caused me. Now it was one of the best motivators of my life. Another lesson I learned was when I joined the wrestling team. I was still watching Dusty each weekend and I thought that with my confidence and charisma, I would become a champion. I was wrong, and learned about it quick. It took talent, which took dedication, discipline and focus. I learned the hard way, but I learned.

One of the biggest lessons Dusty taught me came later in my life as I live so far from my parents and have become someone they are proud of. Like I said, my dad worked two jobs to support us and he gave his all for his family. As I sat down to write this, I began to think of the times my dad took us all to see Dusty wrestling at the Hollywood Sportatorium or the Miami Beach Convention Center. I remember my mom crying when Dusty got hit from behind and knocked out and I remember how our energy was drained and we all lost our voices after the matches. We always went to see Dusty. It was exciting, fun and pure energy. Today though, I see a lesson of how my father must have been so tired from working and still managed to take us to the matches. I don’t think he loved wrestling as much as we did. He loved to see us love something like wrestling and “The American Dream.”