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Deja View: Before Dustin Rhodes Was Fired By WCW for Blading, There was Dusty Rhodes

Posted: May 11th 2026 By: Brian Damage - RingTheDamnBell.com

Professional wrestling can be a very cyclical business. Many times you could be watching a match, a gimmick or a storyline and think to yourself…”I have seen this before.” Sometimes, you may be right, as many things in wrestling do get recycled over the years. Other times, it just may be something similar to something you saw years ago. In any case, Deja View looks at stuff that may or may not have been re-used in wrestling or something that was simply similar in nature that made you go…”Oh yeah, that’s where I remember that from.”

In March of 1995, Dustin Rhodes battled ‘The Black Top Bully’ aka Barry Darsow in a ‘King of the Road Match.’ The concept was Rhodes and Darsow would brawl on the bed of an 18 wheeler surrounded by a cage. During their match, Dustin bladed (cut himself with a razor to draw blood). This despite WCW’s very strict policy of “No Blood.” Dustin insisted that it was okayed by the producer of the match in Mike Graham. Rhodes said Graham got it approved by Eric Bischoff beforehand. After the match ended, Rhodes, Graham and Darsow were all fired from WCW for breaking the rule. Dustin ended up joining the WWF after getting fired.


Back in November of 1988, Dustin’s father Dusty Rhodes faced a very similar fate. Dusty was the booker in WCW which had just been purchased by Ted Turner. Turner’s executives deemed the use of blood in wrestling to be offensive and was banned from being shown on TV. Dusty who made a career out of bloodletting, was opposed to the new rules. In an act of defiance, Rhodes booked an angle where the Road Warriors turned on him and used a spike from one of their shoulder pads to cut open Dusty. The end result saw Dusty Rhodes fired by WCW. Not long after, Dusty eventually joined the enemy in the WWF.