An American Dream Dies – RIP Dusty Rhodes

Eat. Sleep. Write obituary. Repeat? Dammit, I didn’t want to have to do two in a row.

Even if you’re not a fan of wrestling, Dusty Rhodes is a name that might be familiar. In a world of muscle men and fitness freaks, the man originally born Virgil Runnels was flabby, goofy looking, and sported a massive splotchy birthmark on his belly. Yet his gift of gab and lightness on his feet made him a multiple-time world champion, the likes of which we won’t likely see again in today’s more image-obsessed version – though it’s telling that when Vince McMahon finally persuaded him to jump to the then-WWF, he actually acknowledged “The American Dream”‘s past, something he never did at that time. And other then putting him in a polka-dot outfit, he didn’t really change a thing about the man who had gotten there on his own terms.

As a behind-the-scenes booker, Dusty was often known for questionable decisions, including the way he would frequently end title matches in screwjobs, and his push of son Dustin long before the kid was ready for it (when he finally came into his own, it was with the Vince McMahon gimmick of Goldust). In the end, though, such things have left everyone in the business with both a Rhodes impersonation and some hilarious anecdote that just makes you laugh and think yep, Dusty WOULD do that.

Dusty’s appeal is something that has been too lost on promoters today – though TNA seems to be rediscovering it with Grado – the appeal of the regular guy. Most of us will never look like Hulk Hogan or Batista, but a LOT of us sure do look like Dusty, minus the roadmap of scars on his forehead from years of blading. We may not move like Dusty, or rattle off a list of poetic put-downs in that weird lisp of his, but he was a people’s champ in the era when Ric Flair was the villainous face of the decadent ’80s. His genetics live on in both Goldust and the even more talented Stardust (who somehow avoided his father’s physique), but his legacy lives on in anyone funny-looking or different that can rise to the top of a stacked-against-them profession regardless. Never the picture of health, he slimmed down a lot in recent years, which I would have hoped might lengthen his lifespan.

Maybe it did…but not by enough. The literal Dream has died – long live the dream.