The American Dream is dead… of course I am referring to the “American Dream” Dusty Rhodes he was a pro wrestler with his greatest success from the late 1970s to early 90’s. He was 69 years old when he passed away last week both of his sons followed in his footsteps in the ring. Dusty Rhodes came up in a time when the world of wrestling and sports entertainment was quite different. It was very much more about show business and cultivating a character and living it. For Dusty Rhodes his character was a down home Texas country boy with a bit of a Cajun accent born into poverty and pulling himself up by his bootstraps and accomplishing something for himself and his family. In 1986 I saw Dusty Rhodes fight “Hacksaw” Butch Reed in a steel cage match, there was blood everywhere, it was a brutal exhibition of the human condition, and it was not even broadcast on television, this was a house show for the fans. Wrestling in those days and before was more about the fans in attendance not for what they could play up for the cameras. But when the cameras were on Dusty Rhodes provided every bit of the show biz pizzazz that Oscar winning actors can give out. Rhodes was the best ever on the microphone. These promos given on television or to the crowd in attendance, started the element of giving the story lines to wrestlers and give them a unique angle for fans to gravitate toward. Dusty Rhodes was known as a blader, a wrestler who would at certain points in match if need be, pull a secretly hidden razor blade from his wristband and cut himself on the forehead or other body part so that the TV camera or the audience in the arena would see real bright red blood pour from his head this was only accentuated by his bleach blond hair that soaked in the blood for all to use. Blading would later be outlawed by the WWE, but it goes to show you the lengths Dusty Rhodes was willingly to go to make wrestling as believable as he possibly could. When Dusty Rhodes came up through the wrestling ranks it was all regional, there were pockets on wrestling organizations in the south, Texas and the Northeast, this to me was the golden age of wrestling when the sport had character and was not homogenized as it is now with the WWE. Today a character like Dusty Rhodes would not be able to prosper in the WWE, he was not good looking enough, or had the best body type or could be a Hollywood actor but that is exactly what wrestling is missing today, character.
