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During the early days
of his career, Dusty teamed up with "Dirty" Dick Murdoch in a
team known as "The Outlaws". The Outlaws battled their
way through several wrestling promotions including the
American Wrestling Association (AWA) where they fought with
the popular tag team of the Crusher & Bruiser.
However Dusty's days
as a heel were not to be forever. After moving to the
Florida promotion, Rhodes turned face, becoming "The American
Dream". Rhodes was one of the most popular wrestlers in
the world during the 1970's.
His aspirations for a world
championship took Rhodes around the world. At various
times he competed for world titles in the American Wrestling
Association (AWA), the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF),
and the National Wrestling Association (NWA). On August
21, 1979 Rhodes won his first world heavyweight title by
defeating Harley Race for the NWA World Heavyweight
Championship. Rhodes held the belt for less than a week
but it would not be the last time he held the belt.
Dusty Rhodes shared
his vast experience with several rookies in CWF including
Terry Allen and Barry Windham, the
son of his longtime ally Blackjack Mulligan. Rhodes
shared his wisdom with these wrestlers as well as his
protection. For example when Harley Race attempted to
injure Barry Windham outside of the ring after Windham pinned
Race, Rhodes intervened, taking a piledriver on the floor in
Windham's place.
"The American
Dream" had many savage feuds in CWF. One of them was
against James J. Dillon who sent wave after wave of wrestlers
after Rhodes in an effort to drive him out of wrestling.
During a bunkhouse match between Terry Funk and Dusty Rhodes,
Dillon interefered in the match, throwing the referee out and
sending his henchman Kendo Nagasaki after Rhodes and
Funk.
Another much hated opponent for
Rhodes was Kevin Sullivan. The two had been former
friends until Sullivan began dabbling in the dark arts and
underwent a sinister transformation. Sullivan exhibited
a strange form of mind control over his charges including Jake "The Snake" Roberts. Rhodes
battled Sullivan many times until the two met in a "Lights
Out" steel cage match on Christmas night 1982. Rhodes
had things going his way until a mystery man disguised as
Santa Claus handed something to Sullivan, allowing him to
incapacitate Rhodes. As a result, Rhodes was now banned
from CWF for 60 days.
In Dusty's absence, a stranger
known as the Midnight Rider took up Rhodes' cause against
Sullivan. The masked man beared a physical resemblance
to Rhodes and there was intense speculation as to whether or
not Rhodes had skirted the 60 day ban. When Sullivan
protested the Midnight Rider being allowed to wrestle, NWA
President Bob Giegel made a ruling that if any NWA official
discovered the Midnight Rider was Rhodes, then Rhodes would be
banned from wrestling from a year. After that, Sullivan
was determined to unmask the Rider. Despite his best
efforts, the closest the Rider came to being unmasked was
after the Rider defeated "Nature Boy" Ric
Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
After winning the belt, the Midnight Rider was informed that
he would have to unmask before an NWA official in order to
verify his identity (per NWA rules). When the Rider
refused to unmask, the title was returned to Flair.
After Rhodes' returned to CWF,
things seemed to be going well for him. Kevin Sullivan
had recently lost a loser leave town match and as a result,
was banned from CWF for a year. During an episode of
CWF, Rhodes was on hand to sign a contract to wrestle for the
NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Rhodes didn't
realize that the real reason he was there was so he could be
honored for his ten years working in CWF.. Gordon Solie
and his fellow announcers surprised Rhodes with a special
ceremony in which various promoters, wrestlers, and
celebrities honored Rhodes' accomplishments. An even
bigger surprise occured when Rhodes' baby sister showed up
after CWF flew her in. Rhodes was delighted to see her,
that is until Kevin Sullivan showed up and threw a bottle of
ink in her eyes!
Rhodes was furious and demanded
that Sullivan be reinstated so he could take his revenge on
him.
After over a decade in Florida,
Dusty was recruited into Jim Crockett Promotions' Mid-Atlantic
Championship Wrestling (MACW) as both a booker and a
wrestler. Dusty made an immediate impact in MACW, taking
on the area's top heels and always keeping himself in the hunt
for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. On October
24, 1984, Dusty teamed with "Raging Bull" Manny Fernandez to
defeat Ivan Koloff and Don Kernodle
for the NWA World Tag Team Championship. The two held
the belt until when they fell to the powerhouse team of Ivan
and Nikita Koloff on March 18, 1985.
Just as he had done in CWF, Dusty
mentored younger babyfaces . In fact, some of he same
wrestlers Rhodes had mentored now wrestled in MACW such as
Magnum T.A. and Barry Windham. Rhodes continued to lend
his support and guidance to them in MACW.
As one of the top babyfaces in MACW
(later World Championship Wrestling). Rhodes led the fight
against the area's top heels, sometimes suffering for his
actions. One of the most brutal attacks on Rhodes
occured in September 1985 when he saved NWA World Champion Ric
Flair from a brutal two on one beating by the Koloffs.
After rescuing Flair, he was attacked by Ole and Arn Anderson. To Rhodes'
amazement, Flair joined the Minnesota Wrecking Crew in beating
him down. The
attack left Rhodes with a broken ankle and due to his
inability to wrestle, he was stripped of the NWA World
Television Title which he had held since March 1985 after
defeating Tully Blanchard.
The attack by the Andersons and
Flair was just the beginning of a long war waged by Rhodes
against the heel group that eventually became known as the Four Horsemen. Rhodes'
battles with the Horsemen included championship victories and
losses to the likes of Tully Blanchard, Lex Luger, and even NWA World Champion
Ric Flair.
As MACW evolved into World
Championship Wrestling (WCW), Rhodes mounted various
challenges for the top prize in the sport- the NWA World
Heavyweight Championship. The road to the championship
was long and hard with many twists and turns. At
Starcade '85, Rhodes appeared to have won the belt from Flair
but the decision was later reversed. It would not be
until the next year during the Great American Bash tour
when Rhodes would finally defeat Flair for his third NWA World
Heavyweight Championship. Unfortunately Flair quickly regained
the belt after getting help from his cohorts in the
Horsemen.
Rhodes distinguished himself
outside of singles competition as well. He teamed with
the Road Warriors to
win the NWA World Six Man Tag Team Championship and won the
1987 Crockett Cup Tournament when he teamed with Nikita
Koloff.
After a lengthy run in WCW, Rhodes
left for CWF during the late 80's before embarking on a tour
of the WWF. There, Rhodes earned notoriety by appearing
in some bizarre video vignettes to promote himself. Once
he appeared in the ring though, Rhodes won over the WWF fans
with his colorful interviews and unorthodox wrestling
style. Rhodes battled some of the federation's top heels
including the Honky Tonk Man, "Ravishing" Rick Rude, and the Big Bossman.
While he worked in the WWF, Rhodes
became associated with Sapphire, a heavyset woman who claimed
to be his biggest fan. Sapphire began accompanying
Rhodes to ringside and lending her support to him during
matches. When Rhodes began feuding with "Macho King" Randy Savage and his valet "Sensational"
Sherri Martel, Sapphire helped Rhodes counter Martel's
interference as best she could.
During Rhodes' feud with Savage,
Sapphire began receiving gifts from an unknown admirer.
Eventually it was revealed that "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase was trying to buy
Sapphire's loyalty. As he had done so so many times
before, DiBiase proved that everyone has a price for the
Million Dollar Man and Sapphire left Rhodes.
Rhodes was devastated and soon
began battling DiBiase and his bodyguard Virgil. During his feud with
DiBiase, Rhodes was joined by his son Dustin Rhodes, a rookie
wrestler who had just started working in the WWF.
After his successful stint in the
WWF, Rhodes returned to WCW in a non-wrestling capacity, using
his tremendous charisma to serve him as a color commentator,
both on WCW Saturday Night (or
"the mothership" as Rhodes nicknamed it) and on WCW
PPV's. At one point Dusty turned heel again and joined
the New World Order (NWO) for a brief spell as a
manager.
Like several wrestlers from his
generation, "The American Dream" lent his support to Extreme
Championship Wrestling (ECW) by appearing on some of their
shows.
After WCW was purchased by the WWF,
Rhodes appeared in Ring of Honor (ROH) and Total Nonstop
Action Wrestling(TNA). After working in singles and
tag matches for TNA, Rhodes eventually became their director
of authority.
Recently, Dusty came to work for
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) behind the scenes.
There were rumors that he would replace Eric Bischoff as
general manager of Monday Night RAW but nothing has come of
that thus far.
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