Dustin Rhodes Reflects On The Night He Discovered The Kind Of Character Goldust Needed To Be
The line was “You will never forget the name Goldust”. The man who portrayed him will never forget the night the character was born, either.
The nearly 35-year veteran is having fun and is still passionate. Dustin’s motto is “Keep Steppin,’ and he is doing just that. “The Natural” Dustin Rhodes was the guest for Fightful’s Wrestling Perspective Podcast with Lars Frederiksen and Dennis Farrell.
When asked if there was a moment when he realized who Goldust needed to be, Dustin would reflect on the day.
“It happened in Madison Square Garden, and it happened in 1996, I think. I was wrestling Savio Vega, and we’ve been making house show loops for weeks or months. I am getting my bearings trying to figure out the heel work, the character, and stuff like that. Every night he would want me to do certain things, and I would say no, I can’t, I can’t do that because I was scared to cross the line. This is back when Vince [McMahon] used to go to the house shows and be a fan at the curtains. He watched the shows to see who was getting reactions from the crowd and things like that. I was like, oh God, and we’re in the Garden. I mean, this is Puerto Rico; he’s Puerto Rican. The Puerto Rican population in New York is very high, and in 1996 it was crazy.” said Dustin.
“It was as simple as, okay, I’m going to do this tonight. I go out there, and I’m scared to death. We get to the point of the match where I’m going to do this, basically going behind him and rubbing up and down his chest. He turns around, he charges me, and I bail out of the ring, that simple. The rubbing up of the chest part is what really pissed off the fans,” he said.
Rhodes would win the WWE Tag Team Championship titles twice with his brother Cody Rhodes in his career with WWE.
Out of every up and down we go through in life, there is one thing most important to me above all else……Family! #WeAreDustysKids #AmericanDream #DustyRhodesFoundation #YouthSports @CodyRhodes @TeilMargaret #KristinDitto a pic.twitter.com/1PckVM4QRX
— Dustin Rhodes (@dustinrhodes) September 18, 2022
He said, “I was scared to death because I didn’t want to portray something I am not, but that’s show business. That’s what brings out characters. It makes them really good or really, really shitty. Then as soon as I heard that response from the New York crowd, they’re ruthless, it was like, holy shit. I just tapped into something. I thought I couldn’t do it, and I stepped over the line, and it worked. I’m just looking, and they’re yelling every kind of obscene thing to me that’s possible. They’re throwing stuff, they had to make an announcement to stop, or you’ll be ejected. They’re still throwing shit, and I’m dodging [things]; I roll back in the ring, and Savio was in the corner, just laughing, and I’m like, what the fuck are you laughing at? We locked back up, and I said, what are you laughing at? He said, see how easy that was. Now, watch. I’m going to make you do one more thing. I pushed him back to the corner, and he said, turn around and rub your ass in my crotch area. So, I did it right. I turned around and made these facial expressions. These weird-ass facial expressions, and he charged at me again, and I rode out again,”
“The rest was history from that point on in. Goldust became Goldust, and I found the character that night, and it was freaking cool. I had a nice run for a while,” said Dustin.
Rhodes would leave the WWE in 2019 to join All Elite Wrestling and face his brother Cody at the company’s inaugural Pay-Per-View Double or Nothing.
Official Statement: Done on my own terms. Thank you to the @WWEUniverse @wwe and the world of entertainment. #wrestling #DustinRhodes pic.twitter.com/dEwtjTm3Zg
— Dustin Rhodes (@dustinrhodes) April 21, 2019
Rhodes last wrestled on the March 20 episode of AEW Dark: Elevation, teaming with Keith Lee. Naturally Limitless (Dustin Rhodes & Keith Lee) would defeat Jessie V & Levi Night. The entire March 20th episode of AEW Dark: Elevation can be seen by clicking here.
