[1993-06-26-WCW-Saturday Night] Flair for the Gold: Dusty Rhodes

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Flair is dressed like Dusty, wearing denim, a cowboy hat and cowboy boots! But Dusty comes out ... dressed like Flair, wearing a suit. (He's wearing black jeans, but it's Dusty.)

 

Interesting to see these two on good terms.

 

The Assassin comes out after a few minutes and tries to provoke Dusty in a fight.

 

I love Flair here when Dusty stands up and gets a little closer.

 

"Come on Dusty, give me your watch."

 

I suppose this is the best Flair for the Gold.

[El-P]

The Assassin looks like a bloated SM fetichist. I couldn't care less about Dusty vs Assassin. Ole, we're in 1993.

[Kevin Ridge]

Overload of denim by Flair. Doug Dillinger the civilian tries to play peacemaker between Dusty and the Assassin.

[PeteF3]

Fifi is really eager to get Dusty Rhodes' autograph. Cute. Dusty is now a "big time producer at Turner Broadcasting." Dusty is putting over Dustin and Rude when a DOORBELL rings. Oh, of course the Assassin would ring a doorbell before entering a set. He accuses Flair's guest of being a Dusty Rhodes imitator. Assassin is so fat and out of shape that his mask barely fits on his head, but there's genuine heat for this. At the time it really seemed like they were building to a match between these two, which was a terrifying thought. Assassin implies that he'll get Dusty back into the ring by going after his family.

 

God help me, because a Dusty/Assassin feud is not a direction WCW needed to be heading in, but I kind of liked this. The Assassin is still one of the greatest heels ever, and these are two old pros who know how to work the stick to get a reaction.

[soup23]

This was one of my least favorite Flair for the Golds actually and where Flair looked really old being compared as contemporaries to these overweight, retired wrestlers barbing at each other.

[garretta]

This had to be a rib on Bischoff the way the Black Scorpion was a rib on Jim Herd. You know, Eric asks for ideas in a booking meeting and Ole, just to be a smartass, says, "Well, why don't we bring Dusty out of retirement?" Eric asks who he can fight, and Ole says, "Well, it can't be Flair, since he's a face now. Harley can't bump much, and he's busy with Vader. Wait, I have it! Nick Patrick's dad. You know, The Assassin!"

 

The sad part is, this actually felt hotter than most of the other stuff WCW was doing at the time, and as long as they kept it short, they may have been able to put on a crowd-pleasing, if not good, match. But Pete's right; they didn't need to be teasing a legends feud as a major money-making program. If Hamilton (Assassin) wanted to bring someone in to go after Dustin and Dusty would have been in Dustin's corner, fine and dandy. I'm not sure who he would have gotten, but he obviously still had the verbal skills to be a good manager, probably better than Harley's, or even Fuller's as Col. Parker. But to tease not just one match, but a program between himself and Dusty? And to make it worse, it seems like they were implying that the Assassin might have been eventually revealed as Dusty's father. (Why else would Hamilton refer to "what (Dusty's) mother and I talked about"?) It might have been biologically impossible, but when there's money to be made, who cares about biology?

 

The rest of this was good, and I especially liked Dusty putting over Dustin-Rude before Hamilton interrupted. ​That's how you use the Dream as an onscreen character in retirement, Eric. It seemed when the feud first started that Dusty would be in Dustin's corner for their matches, but they never pulled the trigger on that, opting for this slop instead.

 

If this was a rib from Ole, none of us are laughing. If this was a serious idea........well, this is the company that just made Paul Roma a Horseman, so why should stuff like this surprise us?