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Dusty Rhodes Talks about being Inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame

Posted: Mar 17th 2007 By: CMBurnham

Dusty Rhodes will cap his long and storied career when he's inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame March 31 in Detroit.

Not only did "The American Dream" hold a number of titles in the National Wrestling Alliance -- including three runs as NWA World Heavyweight Champion -- but the working-class hero also has passed the business on to his sons. Dustin wrestled for years as Goldust, and his Rhodes' youngest son, Cody, wrestles in Ohio Valley Wrestling, a training ground for WWE.

Rhodes talked to The Detroit News in Bakersfield, Calif. last month and fondly recalled the highlights of his career, including his early days wrestling at Detroit's Cobo Arena.

Take us back to the moment you knew you were going to become a professional wrestler.

Growing up as a kid in Austin, Texas, my dad was a hard-working plumber, and Friday nights we'd go to wrestling. I played football and baseball of course, and all the different sports, but I always had this dream of doing something special. Every Friday night I would go and watch these guys -- amazing athletes, doing great things and entertaining a great number of people -- and I said "man, I'd like to try to do that." I went through university, West Texas State U., I played a little football, I knocked around -- I was just a young pup. I said this is what I want to do, and I got started down in Texas, at home and in San Antonio, and here I am now.

What do you consider your career highlight?

Two or three things really stand out in my mind. One was the first time I headlined the Garden, because as a kid we read a lot about it. Madison Square Garden, that's the place to be, that's the ultimate goal. And walking into the Garden, wrestling Superstar Billy Graham for the World Wrestling Entertainment Heavyweight Championship was really huge for me.

There were a lot of celebrities there, a lot of friends of mine from down in Florida. George Steinbrenner had bought a ticket and was sitting in the third row, my mom was still alive then she was there -- that was overwhelming for me. Harley Race in Atlanta, Georgia in the old Omni, Winning the NWA World's Heavyweight Title for the first time was very important, that let me really know I was on the right track. It wasn't about the money, it was about the fans.

Looking like I look -- I'm not a bodybuilder by no means -- and having a relationship with the fans like I've had through the years if I was losing, they were losing. If I was winning, they were winning. If I was crying, they were crying. That's probably the most important thing as far as entertaining large groups of people is that athlete that you are, and maintaining such a special relationship with the fans.

How are you able to build a relationship with your fans?

With all the great ones it just comes natural. You relate to what's happened in your past. I was given two minutes most of the time on television to do an interview for towns such as Orlando, Florida, Austin, Texas, wherever it was, and I took that time to not only promote the match, but to talk to them about where I grew up and who I was. I was one of them, and I always in search for that American dream which I still am, even today.

I wake up in the morning looking for that American dream that so many people miss, so many kids don't really understand what it means to go out and capture that American dream, or ride on the end of a lightning bolt and jump off and grab another one before it crashes into the ground. They put the handle on me as "The American Dream." That doesn't mean I'm the American dream, that I'm the best there ever was, it just means I've captured portions of it, and that's so important. That's the thrill of the chase for me.

When you came to the building to see me, like me or not, and you paid your money, when you left that building, I gave you your money's worth. That was the most important thing to me. Money came along -- hell, I've made enough money to buy Miami, and as Jimmy Buffett would say, I've (flushed) it all away. So what, you know what I mean? I'll make more tomorrow.

Where did the "American Dream" tag come from, and how did you take it and run with it?

I think around 9 or 12 years old, I can't remember how old I was, I'd been working in the summer for my dad. He was a plumber, I wasn't a plumber by no means. I was a ditch digger. I'd worked with a man named T.C. Lee down in Austin, and T.C. Lee would be in the ditch all day long and he'd be working there, and I'd be digging the ditch and he'd be standing on the shovel, and he said, "Someday, man, you're gonna get that American dream," and it hit me.

In 1974, talking with the late great Gordon Solie down in Florida, Ali and Cosell were really hot at that time, and in the wrestling world me and Gordon Solie were on the same wavelength with them. We were linked up, almost, in wrestling and boxing, and my rap was so important to the public. And I said one day, "I'm the American Dream Dusty Rhodes," not thinking what was going to happen. So it's been 30-some-odd years that I've become the American Dream for the common man, the common folk.

How does it feel to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame?

You're humbled by something like this. I've always said I don't want to go to the Hall of Fame until I retire. I'm just resting right now, I'm not retired. I wake up in the morning and I just wanna be the best and make a million dollars and just entertain people and have a good time and fulfill my dream 'til they put me in that pine box and send me back to Texas.

Who's going to induct you?

It's going to be very special. My two young sons are going to induct me, which is something very unusual and different for us. It's going to be a special night for me.

Is it going to be an emotional night for you, as well?

I'm a very emotional guy. I can cry at the drop of a hat, and then whoop anybody that says, "Hey, why you crying you big ol' baby?" I'm very emotional and passionate about this industry. Without the fans I would have never been able to do any of this. They put food on my table, they put cars in my parking lot, they built me homes, they did some special stuff for me.

I want to give back, tell some stories that night, I want to keep it upbeat, but it's going to be an emotional night, and hopefully I don't break down and bawl like a baby.

How will it feel being back in Detroit?

I started in Detroit at Cobo Hall. I cut my teeth with my partner Dick Murdoch in Detroit many years ago. Bobby Seger's my main man. Kid Rock's my main man. I'm Detroit orientated.

I started right there in Cobo Hall with the great Bobo Brazil and The Sheik and all those guys. We became World's Tag Team Champions in 1969 there, me and Dick Murdoch. That was a long time ago, but Cobo Hall was very special to me. Detroit was always a very special place for me to be, and I'm really glad it's happening in the city.

What do you remember about those early Detroit days?

Oh the Detroit days were wild, man. It was chasing women and drinking and having a good time and winning championships.

You come from Texas and you go to Detroit, one of the things I remember was it was so cold, man. I came there with the pointed-toe, roach-killing cowboy boots on, and a straw hat and a little jean jacket, and I walked out in that blistering cold, buddy, I say, "Whoo man!" It was so cold.

I remember in Detroit, I wrestled the Sheik there in one of my first main events, and I had not been in the industry very long. And I remember walking out there and just feeling that rush of emotion. The Detroit fans, they were blue collar, in-your-face fans, if they didn't like you they didn't like you. And the Sheik was -- we're talking about the original Sheik -- he was the man, buddy, in Detroit. He owned it. And we had riots and people jumping in the ring; the early days were pretty, what I call, Wild Wild West.

Me and Murdock had stayed out wherever you could get a room for $6 a night that had two beds in the thing. We finally got enough money that we moved downtown, and the first big place we ever stayed in Detroit was the Pontchartrain Hotel downtown, right across from Cobo. So I'm down there in the bar, I've got about $100 in my pocket, I'm spending what I can, I'm sitting outside next to a guy, I said, "Man I've seen this guy in the newspaper somewhere." He didn't know me from anywhere, this is my first year in the industry, and finally I looked over at him and I'm sitting next to Bobby Orr, one of the greatest hockey players of all time.

I remember he had a patch over his eye, I had a patch over my eye, and I got to thinking it kind of broke the ice. I said, "Man, did you get in a fight? What's going on, man?" I didn't want to seem dumb. And I said Bobby, "Growing up in Texas, I was a big fan of yours," which he knew I was lying, cause we ain't got no hockey team in Texas back then. (Laughs.)

Sitting there, I talked to him for awhile, so there's tremendous memories with Detroit and me and the fans. They used to have the old country bars there, bars where we'd go and listen to country music after the matches. We were living fine, man, living real.