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Dusty Rhodes


Grimmas

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  • 8 months later...
  • 7 months later...

I love Dusty as a promo and a character, but sadly not in the ring. I WANT to like him in the ring, because I like him so much outside of it, but whenever I see him I just don't.

 

He's a weird guy to say "recommend me some matches" about, but honestly I'd like to know what recommendations there are. He's not a guy who's best matches are immediately obvious to someone like me.

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He's better as a worker than he's being given credit for here, even if he's not elite. I don't think he's making my list, but he'd definitely be in my top 125 or 150, and it's possible with more viewing, I would have him in my top 100. The most recent match I watched of his was a title match against Flair in St. Louis on 01/01/82, which shows that he had a surprising amount of range as a wrestler.

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Dusty is an interesting one because he was definitely a gigantic star who was part of some successful and memorable moments after footage became more common, but we really caught his best days more than 60% joined in progress. There is footage of him when he was younger and of his babyface turn, but not nearly as much as I'd like to see.

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Not sure I could point to many Dusty classics, but do think the Flair match at Starrcade and perhaps a couple others are in that range. But I also enjoy just about every Dusty match I come across. His charisma kicks just about everything he touches north of watchable and is an underrated part of a slew of multi-man matches and brawls in Crockett and Midsouth. Absolute lock on my list. One of the few wrestlers, fair or unfair, where its near impossible to separate the in-ring from the out of ring because of sheer force of personality.

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For where I'm coming from, I really enjoyed the Flair Starrcade '85 match, but that's about it as far as liking Dusty matches. Didn't like the '84 match as much. I remember a Tully U.S. Title match being so-so. And I have this memory stuck in my head of a hideous Barry Windham match during his black glove phase that was so bad it turned me off both guys for a good while, and maybe I still haven't recovered.

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  • 5 years later...

I can’t say I am prioritizing Dusty for and feel like I have seen enough to say I don’t think I will rank him. 
 

When I am watching a run of TV Dusty jumps off the screen, runs memorable angles, and is basically the greatest promo of all time. I had never seen this arm wrestling storyline he did with Nikita in 1984 until this year and Dusty was amazing. 
 

But those strengths are not really at play in this project. Charisma should count for something and some of his matches have their moments, but I have seen too many stinkers. That Windham match referred to above is one of the worst I have ever seen. 
 

If we had a fuller picture I might feel different but we have what we have. 

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