Dustin Rhodes Believed Pitch To Become Goldust Was A Rib At First

Dustin Rhodes has recalled what he originally thought when WWE pitched the Goldust character to him.

The character known as Goldust was one of the most unique gimmicks in WWE history as Dustin Rhodes did his best to portray this character that was obsessed with Hollywood while playing mind games with his opponents. Goldust was known for rubbing body parts against his opponents during matches, touching his own body in an awkward way and even kissing some of his opponents.

When Vince McMahon originally pitched the character, Dustin had come off a run in WCW using the Dustin Rhodes name, which meant that everybody knew he was the son of wrestling legend Dusty Rhodes. However, Vince had something else in mind for the man that used be called “The Natural.”

On a recent episode of Chris Jericho’s Talk Is Jericho podcast, Dustin admitted that he thought the Goldust character was just a rib (meaning a joke).

“A lot of people say, hey, you know, Vince ribbing dad by putting the polka dots on him? And I had that in the back of my head too, is he ribbing me for this? But at that point it was like, you know, I had been trying to follow in my dad’s footsteps for so long. And it was like it’s not working man, I gotta get [over], I have to do something else and we had a falling out which was the worst thing, worst decision of my life ever.”

Dustin talked about how Dusty didn’t like the idea originally, but Dustin said he thought it was a chance for him to step out of his father’s shadow to be his own character. Dustin would be right since he was a three-time Intercontinental Champion including two title reigns in 1996.

“I just look at it as me stepping into my own shoes and trying to do something on my own and did it and it worked and got over and you know, went through a lot of transitions and different characters, switch ups and changes. When he (Vince McMahon took away the over-the-line stuff because it was pretty harsh towards the end of it or like around 1998/1999, he started pulling it back a little bit.”

“And I couldn’t understand why, because I was young still, right, I was just like 26 years old or whatever it was, I couldn’t understand why he was doing this. It’s so over right now, why are you doing this? So it’s like, we need to do something else.”

As he continued, Dustin talked about the awkward phase of his Goldust run around 1998 when he had a different look and was paired with Luna Vachon.

“I had pitched the artist formerly known as Goldust and brought in Luna. And I suggested Luna because Luna fit that. And I knew, and she was great. And it worked a little bit, but that just gave it a little more, you know, Goldust a different side of Goldust, you know, this, now he’s just a freak.

“He’s just this creepy freak just will do anything, right? And everybody saw that I would do anything. And I would, I would do anything. To continue getting this, try to get this character over, because I love wrestling.”

“I want to make whatever I have work, because this is all I know, man, this is all I’ve ever wanted to do. And it’s like, Hey, man, let’s, let’s find a way to make this work.

After the “freak” run of Goldust ended, he had a successful run in the early 2000s as Goldust when he was paired with Booker T as a popular babyface team where Dustin wouldn’t wear the robe or wig as often.

“And then it became after that, that Goldust was no longer hated that they just kind of fell in love with the character wherever I went, and you do a little bit of the mannerisms or whatever. And they remember that. And that’s where it kind of went from there. Right?

“I didn’t like wearing the wig anymore, you know, and stuff like that and got rid of the wig and the robe stuff. And every once in a while I would wear it, but I just hated wearing it after that.”

Dustin Rhodes continues to wrestle for AEW while also working behind the scenes for the company as well.

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