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Goldust


sek69

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In the spirit of Loss's changes I didn't want to just stick this in the "comments that don't warrant a thread" thread.

 

WWE on demand has debut matches as a theme this month, one of which is Goldust's PPV debut vs Marty Jannetty. Watching it made me realize just how underrated Dustin is since by all rights there's no way the Goldust gimmick should have been anything but Wrestlecrap at its finest. The fact that it not only wasn't, but was still viable in 2010, makes it even more apparent.

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Going on about how awesome Dustin Rhodes was/is has been done, as far as just Goldust goes..I remember seeing the first vignette and saying to myself, "I think that's Dustin Rhodes...what the fuck is this?". I wasn't following wrestling as much as I had/ would at the time, and hadn't watched WCW in over a year or two outside of a Saturday Night show here and there. I hadn't seen an Observer in years, and was way out of any loop.

At first I had the typical, "So Vince is making a guy do this stupid shit" reaction, but within a few more vignettes and then his debut, I thought Goldust was so awesome. The only thing I hated was his tights at first. For a glowing guy who was suppossed to look like a living Oscar statue they were drab, they looked liked faded yellow old tights.

 

I also remember him doing the "Razor, I Want You" stuff and thinking, "Holy shit, this fucking rules."

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I'm curious if the movie quotes thing at the beginning of his promos was something he found himself, or something someone in production gave him every time out. Because I always thought that was the best part.

 

The idea of making a wrestler look like an awards statue is just so ridiculous that it's genius.

 

The vignettes introducing him were very non-descript. They didn't show him at all.

 

From the initial run, there seem to be a few phases:

 

* Intro through In Your House in December - During this little window, he was just pushed as "bizarre".

 

* In Your House sending Razor Ramon flowers through Sable obsession - They never said it, and they did play up the "mind games" thing, but they clearly wanted you think he was gay. Early in this angle, Marlena is clearly the one interested in Sable, but they made changes to it. I've always heard it was because Bret Hart complained about it (along with Cloudy and a few other things they were doing at the time), but I'm not sure if that's true.

 

* Sable obsession through Lawler interview - Kind of floundering and not really doing anything important.

 

Goldust in 2002 is one of my favorite runs, mainly because it came out of nowhere. Early in the year, they brought back Venis, Godfather, Perfect and Goldust, and most seemed to be excited about the prospects of another Hennig run on top more than anything else. Hennig was gone within a few months and Goldust was pretty over and was one of the best parts of the show. I love the run teaming with Booker T, and the two of them reviewing The Scorpion King remains one of the greatest comedy segments in RAW history. The matches against Jericho and Christian were all really good, to a point where I prefer them to the Smackdown Six stuff.

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All these years, and I never realized he was supposed to look like an awards statue. Huh.

 

I think Dustin has to be up there in the all-time "bi-polar" wrestlers. The dude can be absolutely amazing, and he can go to abysmal. It seems to coincide with him being in WWE or a floundering promotion like late-period WCW or TNA.

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All these years, and I never realized he was supposed to look like an awards statue. Huh.

 

I think Dustin has to be up there in the all-time "bi-polar" wrestlers. The dude can be absolutely amazing, and he can go to abysmal. It seems to coincide with him being in WWE or a floundering promotion like late-period WCW or TNA.

Certainly had his wilderness years alright

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I remember the whole "Goldust hearts Razor" deal and then the subsequent angle of Marlena wanting Sable. I was 16 at the time and being in Canada, hadn't seen any ECW so that was one of the first "pushing the envelope" things I'd seen in wrestling. I remember thinking how "out there" it was and wanting to see where they went with it. Then they cut the character's/angle's balls off.

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Dustin was doing good work in 2001 WCW. Had a good tv match with Rick Steiner and at Superbrawl Revenge. One of the few matches Steiner had where he was not trying maim the guy he was working.

 

I'm a big fan of the match he had with Val Venis at Breakdown 98. He was working as a different character than Goldust but not really Dustin Rhodes either. He wrestles as clean a style as possible with no punches or uppercuts. Val keeps getting the better of him with cheap shots. Dustin gets mad and starts punching Val only to stop himself and get hit by another cheap shot by Val again. On its own a really good match and even better at setting up the return of Goldust.

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Guest Paul Kersey

All these years, and I never realized he was supposed to look like an awards statue. Huh.

 

I think Dustin has to be up there in the all-time "bi-polar" wrestlers. The dude can be absolutely amazing, and he can go to abysmal. It seems to coincide with him being in WWE or a floundering promotion like late-period WCW or TNA.

Certainly had his wilderness years alright

 

It kind of shows how dumb TNA are that they got Booker T while Dustin was doing the Black Reign gimmick and there was never one goofy backstage Booker meets Black Reign segment. I'd think that would write itself.

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The vignettes introducing him were very non-descript. They didn't show him at all.

The first one I recall seeing was on a Saturday morning show, and it was him in full makeup and wig with a fake Hollywood sign and setting behind him and he was quoting movies while introducing himself.

 

I think that was the second vignette. For a few weeks, I remember they just had his logo with Howard Finkel doing his ring introduction, and then this was the big "who is Goldust?" reveal.

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I wasn't a fan of Dustin & as a young teen during his WWF debut in 95 I hated him but looking back & rewatching matches I think he was @ worst solid thru his early to mid 90's run as Dustin or Goldust.

Same here, sort of. I didn't like him very much in WCW. I always thought he was a big awkward goof and sucked compared to guys like Austin, Regal, Cactus, Pillman and even Johnny B. Badd of the guys that were at that TV/US title level, plus I was more a fan of heels and thought he was too boring and bland. I just thought he was getting a push because he was Dusty's kid. The first time I really became a fan in fact was when Arn Anderson turned on him and Dusty came back to fight the Stud Stable, and that was basically the end of his WCW run. Looking back though, he was a lot better than I gave him credit for.

 

I thought Goldust was awesome from day 1 though. Such a great heel character for that time period. I was so pissed when he came in and beat Bam Bam in his debut match, lol, and I just couldn't wait to see him get the shit kicked out of him no matter who his opponent was

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