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WWE Hall Of Famer Dusty Rhodes Appreciates His Fans

Posted: Jul 17th 2010 By: CMBurnham

The American Dream Dusty Rhodes is a wrestling legend, especially in Florida. So when Florida Championship Wrestling, the feeder group to WWE, convinced Rhodes to tour some Florida cities in July, it became a big event.

To help promote the tour, here is another installment with Rhodes in a recent interview, before the tour.

Did Dusty Rhodes, The American Dream persona, helped bridge gaps between races in the 1970s and 80s?

``Here's what I teach the young kids about the interviews of capturing an audience. The Black community, the Latin community, the cowboys, the rednecks, the attorneys, all of them loved Dusty Rhodes the American Dream because I took a 2-minute interview time with Gordon Solie and made it an event. I made that two minutes an event, sometimes bigger than the match. I would use current stuff, and I had an opinion on it. I knew I had power enough to do it.

``Like Gov. Martinez, I could walk into his office when he was governor.''

Bob Martinez was the 40th Governor of Florida (1987-91). Prior, he was the mayor of Tampa (1979-86). Tampa was the base for Championship Wrestling from Florida.

``There were times [CWF Promoter] Eddie [Graham] would say, `Listen, we need to get this sheriff in. He's good for the town. He's a good guy.' I would say, `OK, let me study what he's done.' I would get on flatbed trucks with my closest friend Monsignor [Laurence] Higgins here in Tampa, and we would go around.

``I could drive to a place Bexley's Ribs [in Tampa] in the Black community. I had an Eldorado Cadillac with stirrups down the hood, and I would leave it out front, and they would watch it for me. I would get ribs, would bring them out, would eat them on the hood, 3 and 4 in the morning, when I would come from town, because I believed that the American public in Florida, everybody that was a Dusty Rhodes fan believed that I could come and have dinner with them. That I would sit there with them. That I would have a beer with them.

``Athletes today just don't have that mentality that without the money being paid by the people they're entertaining, they would have nothing. They would have no big contracts. There would be no money. The most important people to me are the fans, my fans. I just try to get that over to these [FCW] kids, when they're talking WWE Universe and what they're going to be doing.

``That's why John Cena is such a huge star. The kids, everyone loves him. With me, it was the common man. The thing with Kevin Sullivan starts. We fight, fight, fight, and my fans know in the end ole Dusty's going to come out on top or at least he's going to give it 100 percent. I made sure they understood that.

``I walked into the country bar, get up on stage, sing country music. I can go to a blues place and do the same thing. Attorneys would call and say, `Can I get tickets? I know it's sold out.' My attorney at the time [famous] Henry Gonzalez said there's some people who need to come to Miami to the Convention Center, and I would say, `Yea, bring em on back.' Suits and ties. It was almost like the Willie Nelson era. He brought all the hippies and everybody together. I was Blessed by being able to do that.

``I was singing a different song than the old time wrestlers who were saying, `Be there Friday night, and I'm going to kick this guy's %^&.' I was just singing a different song. I knew how important the fans were to me and my family and to put food on my table. The fans were bigger than Dusty Rhodes. They were the American Dream.''

Tags: Dusty Rhodes, WWE