Trained by Joe Blanchard, Virgil Riley Runnels, Jr. (October 11, 1945 – June 11, 2015), better known as ("The American Dream") Dusty Rhodes was just a common man, workin' hard with his hands. He was also a American Football player turned professional wrestler who, throughout his forty year career, portrayed a happy-go-lucky schlub facing off against more elegant and physically fit competitors. Contrary to his underdog image, Dusty was a tank in his prime, known and feared throughout various permutations of the National Wrestling Alliance.
Working in various wrestling organizations since the late sixties, Dusty joined Jim Crockett Promotions in 1978. Throughout the late seventies and eighties, he would engage in a number of high profile feuds, facing off against the likes of Terry Funk, Harley Race, Abdullah the Butcher, and especially The Four Horsemen; particularly their leader, the elitist braggart Ric Flair. Dusty would win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship
a total of three times, and in 1985, he delivered what became known as the "Hard Times" promo, considered Dusty's finest, and definitely in the running for greatest wrestling promo of all time.
In 1985, Dusty transitioned into booking what would eventually become World Championship Wrestling. As booker, Rhodes would develop a number of creative feuds and gimmick matches, including the WCW standard WarGames match. After openly defying a "no bloodshed" edict from TBS censors at Starrcade '88, Rhodes was fired from WCW. He would join the WWF in 1989, where he wrestled as "Common Man" Dusty Rhodes for two years, feuding with "Macho Man" Randy Savage. The most notable aspect of this period was the god-awful ugly yellow-polkadot unitard he would wear in the role. Some thought the costume choice was WWF owner Vince McMahon's way of humiliating one of his former competitors, but Dusty has always maintained the whole thing was his idea.
Rhodes would soon return to WCW as a booker (until he was supplanted by Eric Bischoff) and on-screen manager, and would join the commentating team for much of the 90s. Near the end of WCW's lifespan, Rhodes would briefly leave for a stint in ECW, before returning for one last feud with Flair.
After WCW's purchase and dissolution by the WWF in 2001, Rhodes would work for TNA, ROH, and various other indie wrestling leagues for the next five years, including Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling, a promotion founded by Rhodes himself. He was inducted into the NWA, Professional Wrestling and Lou Thesz Halls Of Fame. In late 2005, he would sign a WWE Legends deal, making occasional appearances on WWE programming from then on.
In his later years, Dusty worked on NXT as a promo coach, mentoring and inspiring a whole new generation of wrestlers. He called the developmental wrestlers his "kids" and many of them cite Dusty as a major influence in their character work and improved promo skills.
He is the father of fellow wrestlers, Dustin "Goldust" Rhodes and Cody "Stardust" Rhodes. He's raised some weird kids.
On June 10, 2015, paramedics responded to Rhodes's home in Orlando, Florida, after getting a call reporting that he had fallen. They drove him to a nearby hospital, where he died the next day. He was 69 years old. Following his death, NXT implemented the annualnote Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament in his memory.
"Lissen heah behbeh, Theese Tropes a' associated with Dusteh Rhodes, o' Da Amereecan Dreem... eef you weel!"
- Acrofatic: He’s just a common man, eatin’ cake with both hands. While just shy of "giant" status (he's 6'1), Dusty was stout enough to shrug off any offense, while nimble enough to counter his opponent's attacks two-fold. In his prime, he was almost a Lightning Bruiser due to how shockingly mobile he was. As Dusty put it himself during the famous "Hard Times" promo:I admit I don't look like the athlete of the day's supposed to look. My belly's just a little big, my hiney's just a little big, but brother I am bad, and they know I'm bad.
- All-American Face: "He's just a common man", "Son of a Plumber", etc. (These are both true.) He and MagnumTA called themselves "America's Team"
- Badass Normal: An average working class guy in the ring with the strange, otherworldly and larger than life characters of pro wrestling.
- Bash Brothers: with The Spoiler(one of the first), Dick Murdoch(probably the most frequent), Blackjack Mulligan, Magnum T.A., André the Giant, Mike Graham, Bugsy McGraw, Nikita Koloff, Buff Bagwell, Dustin Rhodes
- Bastard Bastard: Describes Cornette this way, saying it was why he never talked about his daddy.
- Big Fun: He's about the right size and to smile unironically with that polka dot headband, how could he be anything but?
- Big Good: In TNA as "The Director Of Authority". Obviously Jerry Jarrett and Panda were behind him but Dusty was in charge of most of the visible company running.
- Character Shilling: Dusty always generated a got a positive fan response in Ring Of Honor, but not even he could make The Carnage Crew baby faces.
- Charlie Brown from Outta Town: He LOVED this trope:
- Uvalde Slim!
- The Midnight Rider (easily his most famous version)!
- The James Boys! (w/Magnum T.A.)
- Covered in Scars: He had a heavily scarred forehead from years of blading.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Armed only with a policeman's cap, mixed metaphors, and a mouthful of marbles, he completes the burial of the Honky Tonk Man:I ain't been so excited since mah first date wit' Sally Goode! An' befize dat, the fax are een: da man say, 'Dusteh! I AM thee proprietor of Heartbreak Hotel! I AM da man dat wears da blue suede shoes! You can't sing!" Hya-ha! Proved ya wrong! "You can't dance!" You know I can dance circles 'round you! An' now you say, "prove to me in pu'lick, eef you weel: Come 'n get it at Summa'Slam!"
- Cuckoolander Commentator
- A living drunk post. Dusty's thick accent and bizarre speaking pattern makes it almost impossible to understand him, especially in the late 80's onwards. As WCW commentator, he gained quite the reputation for verbal diarrhea, so much so that "Insane Dusty Commentary" is a regular feature of Botchamania.
- They didn't even bother with Closed Captioning when Dusty Rhodes was on commentary. We haven't yet invented a machine that can understand him.
- The Belfast Bruiser (Dave Finlay) v. Lord Steven Regal match is great, too, mostly Dusty’s insane commentary about fighting a bear to the death. ("A big ol’ kodiak bear!") He means he had a few matches with Victor the Wrestling Bear in 1968. We apologize for ever doubting your bear-fighting prowess, Dusty.
- Come full circle when WWE revived CWF Florida, once Dusty's home promotion, as FCW and put him on the commentary table...and then apparently had second thoughts.
- Dance Battler: Of a sort. Dusty often used his quick feet to create momentum for himself or to mess with his opponent, and usually punctuated the Bionic Elbow with a little bit of funky dancing before impact.
- Diabolus ex Machina: So the wrestler that everyone loves has just won against his rival no one wants to see win. Hurray! Wait, sosandso interfered on the the fan favorite's behalf? That guy we all wanted to see win had his foot under the rope? The referee involved was obviously crooked? Accuracy of these claims be damned, the decision is reversed! Your hero is now the loser! You have just witnessed a Dusty Finish!
- Distracted by the Sexy: During the Harlem Heat (Booker T and Stevie Ray)-The Faces of Fear (Meng and The Barbarian)-The Public Enemy (Johnny Grunge and Flyboy Rocco Rock) match at WCW SuperBrawl VII, February 23, 1997, the camera panned the crowd and showed a woman with enormous breasts, prompting Dusty to say, "Oh my goodness gracious."
- Et Tu, Brute?: Dibiase buying Sapphire. Dusty was devastated.
- Everything is Big in Texas: Born in Austin.
- Expy: Not his ring work, but listening to his promos reveals that Dusty was clearly listening to Thunderbolt Patterson and Rufus R Jones.
- Eye Scream: The spot that ended his JCP career involved The Road Warriors stabbing him with one of their broken spikes here.
- Fashionable Asymmetry: A pad for his elbow, of course
- Finishing Move: The Bionic Elbow.
- Fire-Forged Friends: With The Russian Team in Jim Crockett Promotions, which lead to Nikita Koloff becoming Dusty's tag team partner after Magnum T.A. suffered a Career-Ending Injury in a car accident.
- Garbage Wrestler: Not what he's best known for, but Rhodes was a five time brass knuckles champion between the Von Erich's Big Time Wrestling in Texas and Championship Wrestling From Florida. He also had a reputation for winning bunkhouse brawls.
- Good Ol' Boy: Played this to the hilt; complete with a ten-gallon hat, a ranch, and a faithful ass named Zeb who followed him to the ring [!].
- Heel–Face Turn: Dusty was a heel for a long time, teaming with Dick Murdoch as the Texas Outlaws. He was also a blink-and-you'll-miss it member of the nWo.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: In 1974, when Manager Gary Hart turned on him, Dusty turned face and never looked back...until he randomly turned on Larry Zbyszko during Zbyszko's match with Scott Hall at nWo Souled Out 98, January 24, 1998. Of course, after disappearing following the Outsiders' split in May at WCW Slamboree 98, he returned following Ric Flair's victory over Eric Bischoff on the WCW Monday Nitro after Starrcade on December 28 to celebrate the win.
- During Cody's heel run, Dusty would occasionally turn up & act as a face, until he turned heel to help Cody. Since these were only one-shot appearances, Dusty was back to being a face the next time he turned up.
- You may also discount Dusty in TNA as well, as that is what people who collect data would call negligible. It was more an angle than part of his career.
- Humiliating Wager
- The Midnight Rider revealed "Lucifer" to be Kevin Sullivan after defeating him in a Loser Leaves Town Cage match for CWF Florida in 1983
- The next year in CWF Florida the Midnight Rider defeated a Costume Copycat in a mask vs mask match, after a cage match victory wasn't enough to make him go away. It turned out to be Kharma(FKA Gene Lewis or Molokai when in Sullivan's Army Of Darkness), whom Rhodes had been feuding with for awhile when not wearing the Midnight Rider mask.
- I Was Just Joking: TNA Lockdown was the brainchild of Dusty Rhodes, though the more accurate term may be brain fart. One of the bookers in the Creative meeting got flustered and said something along the line of, "why don’t we put this in a cage too?! So stupid..." Rhodes jumped at it, saying, "Weh hell lez jus' put E'RY mash inna cage, daddeh!" The TNA President, Dixie Carter, leapt from her chair saying it was the greatest idea anyone's ever had. She knew so little about wrestling that she didn’t know it was a joke. And that’s how Lockdown came to have wall-to-wall cage matches — because Dusty opened his pie hole during a meeting and laughed at it.
- Insufferable Genius/Southern-Fried Genius: "A bit of a bellend, but scary-talented in certain areas" sums up his time as booker.
- It's Personal
- Against Jim Cornette and The Midnight Express in Jim Crockett Promotions. He held onto his grudge with all incarnations of the Midnights well into his independent circuit career.
- Against Terry Funk in Carolina Championship Wrestling for costing Rhodes what was his final chance to become NWA World Heavyweight Champion again against Jeff Jarrett.
- Jive Turkey: The single biggest influence on Dusty was Muhammad Ali.
- Legacy Character: He has a few, not just Dustin and Cody.
- Memphis legend Troy Graham (1949-2002)'s masked gimmick the Dream Machine involved him blatantly imitating Dusty, with the idea being that the fans were supposed to think Dusty was under the mask.
- The Japanese wrestler Gedo (Keiji Takayama) is a huge fan of Dusty and of 1970s southern-style wrestling and has been called "The Dusty Rhodes of Japan." Gedo defeated Evan Karagias on the April 25, 1998 WCW {Pro}, and announcer Mike Tenay called him "The Japanese American Dream."
- Willie "Da Bomb" Richardson - best known for his appearances in CHIKARA with Da Soul Touchaz - calls himself "The Urban-American Dream", is Acrofatic like Dusty was and sometimes uses the Bionic Elbow.
- Leitmotif
- You Can't Judge a book by the Cover, his general NWA
- A piece by Ryuichi Sakamoto called Kakutougi Theme in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, which was also used by Fighting Opera HUSTLE. NJPW later used American Dream by Freedom
- Old Time Rock and Roll by Bob Seger in WCW, later used the Jimmy Hart piece Rockhouse
- Common Man Boogie in the WWF. This one became synonymous with Dusty by the time he passed, and crowds always exploded the instant they heard it. "American Dream" was as perfect an opening for the song as you could get, and to this day it remains one of the most memorable wrestling themes ever recorded.
- This Is Why by Reckless Fortune by reckless fortune in ECW
- Midnight Rider by Willie Nelson in Ring Of Honor
- Leotard of Power: With polka dots.
- The Man Is Sticking It to the Man: Ole Anderson accused Jim Crockett of such when he got an airplane to fly "the common man" around in.
- Martial Arts Head Band: In the WWF
- Not That There's Anything Wrong with That: He accused Cornette and the Midnight Express of being more than just business partners but said he was content to say to each his own until they got in his business.
- Older Sidekick: Sapphire was ten years his senior.
- Our Presidents Are Different: The tag team the New Breed (Chris Champion and Sean Royal), in 1987, were billed from "The Future". They claimed that, in the year 2002, robots were common and, apparently, Dusty was President of the United States.
- Parts Unknown (as the Midnight Rider): "Diablo Canyon, CO"
- Perky Female Minion
- Baby Doll, after she stopped wrestling
- Sapphire in the WWF, who even tagged with him at Wrestlemania VI against Randy Savage and Sherri Martel.
- His assistant, Traci Brooks, while he was an authority figure in TNA.
- Power Stable: Dusty Rhodes' Family (Florida), with Blackjack Mulligan, Barry Windham, "Cowboy" Ron Bass, The One Man Gang and Mike Rotunda.
- As a heel in the 1970s, he was a member of Gary Hart's Army.
- Then there was his short-lived run with the nWo.
- Power Trio: Dusty and his former enemies, The Road Warriors, won the NWA World Six Man Tag Team Titles twice.
- Precision F-Strike: From the Harlem Heat-The Public Enemy Texas Tornado Match at WCW Uncensored 97, when one of the Heat had been laid out:"They laid his old tired ass out! Oh, excuse me at home, everybody!"
- Pretty Fly for a White Guy
- Joining the WWF had the added effect of turning Dusty black: He gained a Jheri curled female valet (Sapphire) who was selected from the crowd — the joke being that he’s just a common man, so he should have a common valet — and a funk entrance theme ("The Common Man Boogie") which he still had towards the end of his life. Move over, Isaac Hayes. This angle might have a kernel of truth: Dusty wanted to bring in a black prostitute to be Sapphire, and already had one in mind.
- Revisited in WWE's FCW Revival, where Dusty was the blackest commentator besides Abraham Washington.
- Rags to Riches/Riches to Rags: Discussed in his promos, most famously his "wined and dined with kings and queens" promo. Which is also true, although he had a car to sleep in after turning to pro sports his football career stalled and it would be a few years before his wrestling career took off.
- Red Baron: "The American Dream," "The Bull of the Woods," "Stardust."
- His son Cody would take Stardust as his own moniker for awhile in WWE, possibly as a tribute to Dusty, becoming a counterpart to Goldust, and the two briefly had Dusty as their manager in both their 'dust' characters and under their real names.
- Reset Button: During his initial stint at WCW, Rhodes, burnt out by constant competition with the WWF, became notorious for an over-reliance on ambiguous endings to matches; particularly ones in which a face had scored a major victory against a heel, that would later be
overturned for trivial reasons. These sorts of unsatisfying wrap-ups are referred to in the wrestling community as "Dusty Finishes" to this day. - Ring Oldies: He was still wrestling from time to time in his early 60s.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Of a sports variety. His classic rivalry with Ric Flair was designed to mirror the Lakers-Celtics rivalry that was huge at the time, pitting the flashy, stylish and flamboyant (Flair/Lakers) against the no-nonsense, workmanlike, determined style (Rhodes/Celtics). As history can tell, it achieved massive success for both the NWA and the NBA.
- The Rival:
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: According to Kevin Sullivan, "People get upset because Dusty Rhodes had a favorite talent... and it was Dusty Rhodes."
- Springtime for Hitler: Vince probably had a good belly laugh at that outfit. Dusty stuck it to the WWF and got himself over despite their "help".
- Start My Own: His Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling promotion in Marietta, GA, which ran from 2000 to 2003.
- Stout Strength
- Tag Team
- The Texas Outlaws, with Dick Murdoch
- America's Team, with Magnum T.A.
- The Superpowers, with "The Russian Nightmare" Nikita Koloff
- Take That!: To rival booker Vince McMahon. While not exactly enemies, they had a pretty subtle and jabbing relationship over the years which was settled when Steph gave him a job in the 90s.
- Virgil's name was a parody of Dusty's real name, Virgil Runnels, and a subtle jab at how he would constantly "talk black."
- The Akeem character was also a rib on Dusty. They turned One Man Gang into a character who thought he lived under the delusion that he black and nicknamed himself the "African Dream." Apparently nobody told Vince that there were white people who were natively born in Africa. The gimmick worked for awhile before he returned to being the One Man Gang. Dusty didn't seem to take it personally, and even booked the Gang pretty well when he got to WCW.
- There's a persistent, possibly true rumor that when his son debuted in the WWF, he was given a gimmick so bad it might've been a career killer out of some twisted hybrid of yet another joke and outright revenge on Dusty. Fortunately for everyone involved, Dustin learned to revel in the gimmick, made it his own, and transformed into a beloved elder statesman of the business.
- Talk Show with Fists: "The Dew Drop Inn".
- Tournament Arc
- Won the NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship Tournament of 1978
- In 1980 he won the NWA United States Tag Team Championship Tournament with Bugsy McGraw, also while in CWF Florida.
- Won the 1984 Cadillac Cup while in Georgia Championship Wrestling.
- Won the Bunkhouse Stampede, as series of bunkhouse brawls, four years in a row while in Jim Crockett Promotions... that is to say he won every last one they held
- He won the Jim Crockett, Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament in 1987 with Nikita Koloff as his partner
- Trope Codifier: Along with The Crusher, Dusty was the original "working mans hero", a gimmick that would eventually reach even bigger popularity with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, as well as The Rock (who proudly called himself "The People's Champion").
- The Unintelligible: In his later years, Dusty became just about impossible to understand, as his already thick southern accent combined with what might possibly be concussion damage essentially turned his speech into word slurry.
- Verbal Tic: "Daddy-O", "lissen heah", "eef you weel", "behbeh", "jack!"
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: At the start of his career, he had what could be charitably described as a thick Texas accent with a heavy lisp. By the end of a long career of hard living and harder knocks, exactly what he had was anyone's guess.
- Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: Wasn't just a wrestler, booker, manager, commentator, "director of authority", and coach but his WWF gimmick saw him return to his working class roots in a different odd job every other month, or even week.
- Working-Class Hero: Referenced in his legendary "Hard Times" promo:"...And hard times, are when a man been working the job thirty years—thirty years!—they give him a watch, they kick him in the butt, and say, 'Hey, a computer took your place, daddy'! That's hard times!"
- Wrestling Family: His sons are Dustin "Goldust" Rhodes and Cody "Stardust" Rhodes. His daughter-in-law for a while was Terri "Marlena" Runnels. He can also count Fred Ottman and Jerry Sags among his brothers-in-law.
- Wrote the Book: The Texas Death match with Billy Graham was a classic example of what would become "hardcore" wrestling long before that was a thing, and his later bullrope matches would lend further credence to gimmick matches (for better or worse).
- Your Mom: Made fun of Cornette's momma when he learned Jim was a Momma's Boy.
