The Unknown Poster Posted June 11, 2015 Report Share Posted June 11, 2015 Wrestlingobserver.com Paul Levesque on Twitter just announced the passing of Dusty Rhodes. Dusty Rhodes was one of the most charismatic pro wrestlers in history and among the most popular wrestlers and biggest drawing cards of the 70s and 80s. Rhodes, born Virgil Riley Runnels Jr., but taking his name from a baseball star of an earlier era, was 69. The only details we've heard is that he had a fall at his house earlier today and his kidneys were shutting down and he started to get dehydrated. Rhodes is generally considered the biggest star in the history of the Florida regional territory and booked Jim Crockett Promotions in the 80s and WCW in the 90s. He's been working in WWE developmental for years as promo coach. Rhodes was a college football and baseball player at West Texas State, a contemporary of Bruiser Brody and Terry Funk. He got into pro wrestling after playing semi-pro football. He made his first name in wrestling as a heel, teaming with **** Murdoch, as the Texas Outlaws. The team held numerous championships, and had strong runs in a number of territories. Eventually they went their separate ways. Rhodes had become the top singles heel in the Florida territory when Eddie Graham sensed the crowd was starting to get with him because of his colorful interviews and mannerisms. Before the turn, Graham tested his theory in a world title match where Rhodes faced Jack Brisco, the champion, who had been Florida's most popular wrestler for years. He put a spot in where Rhodes delivered his elbow drop and Brisco, instead of kicking out, put his foot over the ropes. That one move caused the crowd to get behind Rhodes, proving Graham's theory. He then booked an angle where Gary Hart and Pak Song turned on Rhodes in a tag team match. Rhodes became the biggest draw and most popular wrestler in the state, with his first run setting box office records in most cities. He became a touring star, and would be brought into all the big money territories, whether it was the WWWF, AWA, Carolinas, Georgia or wherever as a main event attraction while mostly based in Florida. When Georgia Championship Wrestling starting getting a national foothold, Rhodes was its top babyface, with a feud with Ole Anderson & Ivan Koloff. In 1984, Rhodes moved to the Carolinas to become the booker for Jim Crockett Promotions. This led to a huge increase in business in 1985 and 1986, but things started faltering in 1987 and for a variety of reasons, between going with a pat hand and repetitive main event finishes, attendance fell while spending increased. Crockett sold the promotion to Turner Broadcasting in 1988 after significant money losses. Rhodes had a falling out quickly with Jim Herd, who was put in charge of WCW. This led to his run as the "Common Man" in polka dots with WWF. Some of this was retribution since Rhodes as booker was considered Vince McMahon's biggest adversary just a few years earlier in quest for national domination of the business. After being fired by McMahon after a few years as a headline wrestler, Rhodes active career was over and he went back to WCW, where he performed a number of roles including booking and television announcing. As far as an ability to work and control a crowd as a babyface, Rhodes would rank right with anyone at any point in pro wrestling history and was an unquestioned all-time great.Listen to Dave and Bryan talk about the story here: Wrestling Observer Breaking News Audio 6/11: Dusty Rhodes passes away Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y2C Posted June 11, 2015 Report Share Posted June 11, 2015 RIP to the son of a plumber, Dusty Rhodes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigg jay Posted June 11, 2015 Report Share Posted June 11, 2015 Sad to hear about The Dream. I was never a huge fan of his, at least initially, growing up. My 1st real exposure to him was at the end of his career when Vince saddled him with the polka dot gimmick. Once the internet era came along though, I was able to see video of him in his prime and I had a new respect for him and his abilities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Unknown Poster Posted June 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2015 He also was a booker and promoter. Gave us the infamous "Dusty Finish", where you do a title change on a house show to send the crowd home happy and then "reverse" it at TV. :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Unknown Poster Posted June 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2015 Being picked up by several mainstream news outlets: http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/11/entertainment/dusty-rhodes-obit/index.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon Posted June 11, 2015 Report Share Posted June 11, 2015 From all shoot interviews that I seen... The guy was a complete selfish a hole. The bionic elbow however was fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Unknown Poster Posted June 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2015 From all shoot interviews that I seen... The guy was a complete selfish a hole. The bionic elbow however was fun! That hasnt been the consensus from what I've seen. He put guys over. But when he was the boss (booker) people were going to have issues. Nature of the beast. For example, he and Flair were super close back in the day, put each other over several times. Then Dusty became booker and wanted to phase Flair out. Caused heat between them. But I guarantee today Flair would tell you they were best friends the whole time. Dusty was stubborn too. His "Dusty finish" helped kill the territory. He got himself fired when TV execs demanded no blood or excessive violence and he had the Road Warriors stab him in the eye with a spike. Ironically, his son Dustin also was fired for blading when blading was banned (when wrestling Bunkhouse Buck on the back of a moving truck). Dustin and Dusty were estranged for many years, reportedly because Dusty didnt approve of Dustin's then wife Terri Runnels. But Dusty seemed to have gained a second career in recent years working in Florida teaching promos and helping book NXT. If you remember the Cody Rhodes angle from a couple years back that resulted in Dustin being brought back, you'll remember Dusty also appeared on RAW confronting HHH and Steph. He pissed Steph off by putting his hand up to her face in a "shut up" gesture while doing a face to face with Hunter (ie. essentially dismissing Steph). She was irate and Dusty rarely, if ever, appeared on live TV again after that. Which is too bad because the segment was great and Dusty was 100% correct. Bruised egos though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jpan85 Posted June 11, 2015 Report Share Posted June 11, 2015 Hard Times! Hard Times! So long Dream Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Unknown Poster Posted June 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2015 Strange day/week. Dusty. Lee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atomic Posted June 12, 2015 Report Share Posted June 12, 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jpan85 Posted June 12, 2015 Report Share Posted June 12, 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goalie Posted June 13, 2015 Report Share Posted June 13, 2015 RIP Dusty. Lost a ton of weight and wasn't doing well. Sad for sure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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