Marc Mero On Working With Dusty Rhodes: “He Made My American Dream Become A Reality”

Marc Mero feels blessed to have worked with Dusty Rhodes.

Speaking with the It’s My House Podcast, Mero discussed the creation of his Johnny B. Badd character and credits it entirely to The American Dream, Dusty Rhodes. The former WCW and WWF Superstar also shares the inspiration for the gimmick and says that those were the best times of his wrestling career.

“Johnny B. Badd was Dusty Rhodes’ creation,” Mero began. “When he told me he had this character, this gimmick for me — I was just Marc Mero back then, trying to make it into the business. When he saw me he said, ‘I think I got this gimmick.’ He said to me, ‘Did anyone ever tell you that you look like Little Richard?’ Now, I thought he meant a wrestler named Little Richard, which I’d never heard of, so I said, ‘I’ve never heard of Little Richard.’ He goes, ‘You’ve never heard of Little Richard?’ and he starts singing and doing Little Richard songs. I go, ‘Oh, the singer Little Richard.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’ve never heard that before.’ He goes, ‘Oh, I think I’ve got a gimmick for you.’ The next thing I realize is he had this Johnny B. Badd character in mind and I got to tell you, Chris, it was probably the most fun I ever had in the business. When I look back on my career — the laughter and joy we had because here he is teaching this kid from New York to be this flamboyant personality from Macon, Georgia, with this outrageous character. He would show me how to walk and talk like he saw I should do. I’ll never forget the first time he wanted me to walk up to the microphone, he says, ‘You walk up to the microphone and say, ‘I’m so pretty I should have been born a little girl.’ I’d walk up and he’d go, ‘Oh, no no no no no.’ He kept doing it over and over and I got to tell you, Chris, we got laughing so hard we couldn’t even finish the promo of what he was trying to teach me because we were just busting out laughing at this outrageous character. [In Johnny B. Badd voice] ‘I’m a bad man. I’m so outrageous it’s contagious. I love to rock and roll. I strut and stroll and you, I’m going to drive you out of control.’ That’s what Dusty Rhodes would work with me on. The greatest time though, Chris. Even when I think about it I get this joy that just overwhelms me sometimes when I think about how blessed I was to work with the American dream because he made my American dream become a reality.”

Mero debuted the Johnny B. Badd character in May of 1991 and performed under that moniker until he left for the WWF in 1996. He would eventually reprise the character while in TNA between 2004 and 2005. Mero retired from in-ring competition in 2006 and now works as a motivational speaker.

Elsewhere in the interview, Mero talked about his and Sable’s decision for her to pose for Playboy in 1999. You can find his comments here. 

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