ZBlogN

10 Things You Should Know About Dusty Rhodes' Wrestling Career In The 1980s

Debuting in 1967, “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes performed all over the National Wrestling Alliance territories in the 1970s, racking up title reigns left and right. However, once the 1980s rolled around, the beloved everyman babyface really hit his stride, particularly by wrestling for the promotion that would eventually become World Championship Wrestling.

RELATED: The American Dream: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Dusty Rhodes

During this decade, Dusty didn’t just hit the apex of the NWA multiple times, but he also had a hand in some of the biggest storylines and gimmick matches of the era, which still have an influence on the pro wrestling of today. Let’s take a look at Dusty Rhodes’ 1980s, from his achievements to his storylines to his legendary promo.

10 Three-Time NWA World Heavyweight Champion

Dusty Rhodes had dethroned Harley Race for the NWA World Heavyweight Title for a five-day reign in 1979, so by 1980 “The American Dream” was already a former champion.

In June 1981, Rhodes challenged Race for the title in the NWA-affiliated Georgia Championship Wrestling, winning back the belt for a more substantial 88-day run, which was ended by Ric Flair. Later in the decade, after much chasing of the belt, Rhodes finally defeated Flair for the title in July 1986, though he only held the Big Gold Belt for 14 days this time.

9 The Midnight Rider Angle

The 1980s saw Dusty take part in one of his more well-known storylines on two separate occasions. In 1980, a Loser Leaves Town Match resulted in Dusty Rhodes being forced out of GCW, only to return under a mask as the cowboy-themed Uvalde Slim.

The same fate befell Rhodes a couple of years later in Championship Wrestling From Florida, but this time the masked cowboy was known as The Midnight Rider. This latter angle is more well known, and the effect was the same: it was unmistakably Dusty Rhodes under the mask, but the bad guys couldn’t prove it.

8 Feud With Ric Flair & The Four Horsemen

Dusty Rhodes’ biggest rivalry in the 1980s was with “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair, who had become one of the top stars of the entire National Wrestling Alliance. While they’d clashed before, their big mid-1980s feud started with a massive betrayal: Dusty tried to save Flair from a beatdown, only for Flair and his friends to attack Rhodes and break his leg.

RELATED: Ric Flair vs. Dusty Rhodes: 10 Things Fans Forget About Their Feud

Flair’s crew became known as The Four Horsemen, and regularly feuded with Dusty. It wasn’t just Flair, either — while feuding with Tully Blanchard over the TV Title, Tully and the rest of the Horsemen broke Rhodes’ arm in a parking lot attack.

7 An Influential Booker

Dusty Rhodes started the 1980s as part of Championship Wrestling From Florida, but by the mid-’80s he joined up with Jim Crockett Promotions, which would later become WCW. As part of JCP, Rhodes wasn’t just a major talent in the promotion, but also worked backstage as a booker.

It was Dusty Rhodes’ booking ideas that would become the norm for professional wrestling companies going forward. In addition to escalating gimmick matches like WarGames (see below), Dusty Rhodes is also credited with innovating the concept of big pro wrestling events like Starrcade, which in turn inspired WrestleMania.

6 The “Hard Times” Promo

More than just a solid brawler with a great mind for the business, Dusty Rhodes was also ridiculously charismatic and adept at delivering promos. Ahead of his challenge for Ric Flair’s World Title at Starrcade ‘85, Rhodes delivered what ended up becoming his most iconic promo — and one of the most iconic ever.

Often referred to as “Hard Times,” Dusty delivered an impassioned speech likening Flair’s treatment of Rhodes to the plight of the American working class, which played incredibly well with JCP’s target audience.

5 Invented (And Participated In) WarGames

Given that The Four Horsemen were running roughshod (as they say) over much of WCW, it was only natural that some big showdown should occur. As booker, Dusty Rhodes — inspired by the film Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome — devised a massive match to bring the Four Horsemen angle to a climax.

That match was WarGames, a huge, violent cage match where five babyfaces including Dusty Rhodes, The Road Warriors, and others took on the Horsemen and their manager, JJ Dillon. The gimmick’s been repeated countless times throughout the years in both the indie scene and the majors like WWE and AEW.

4 The “Dusty Finish”

Despite regularly booking himself in the main event, Dusty Rhodes understood that, for babyfaces, the money was in the chase rather than the triumphant World Title victory.

RELATED: 10 Wrestling Bookers And The Most Famous Idea They Came Up With

As a result, Rhodes employed what was called the “Dusty Finish” — credited to Rhodes but originally devised by Championship Wrestling From Florida promoter Eddie Graham — wherein the hero would seemingly win the belt only for the decision to be overturned due to some technicality. It was a great way to keep a storyline going, but it also carried the danger of audiences becoming fatigued once they realized the formula.

3 Fired From WCW

In 1988, Turner Broadcasting bought Jim Crockett Promotions, which resulted in more changes for the company than simply a rebrand into WCW. One of the major Turner diktats involved putting an end to on-screen bleeding, which had previously been extremely common with JCP’s brand of Southern-style wrasslin’.

In late 1988, Dusty Rhodes purposefully ignored the rule and booked a segment where Animal of The Road Warriors broke off one of his shoulder spikes to stab Dusty in the face. This of course resulted in Rhodes’ firing from WCW.

2 Joined The Pacific Wrestling Federation

After WCW, Dusty Rhodes embarked on a new professional wrestling venture, as wrestlers Steve Keirn and Mike Graham — son of the aforementioned Eddie Graham — were looking to revive the defunct Championship Wrestling From Florida. Rhodes became a partner in this new promotion, which was called Professional Wrestling Federation to not limit itself to being a regional territory.

Dusty also performed on screen, becoming the first PWF Heavyweight Champion, but ultimately left the company once it was clear the promotion’s expansion wasn’t feasible.

1 Signed To WWE In 1989

From the PWF, Dusty Rhodes went straight to the rapidly expanding WWE, where he made his televised in-ring debut in the summer of 1989.

In WWE, Dusty’s working class background was played up, with vignettes depicting him working blue collar jobs, although he was given garish ring gear — a black singlet with yellow polka dots — that still has fans debating whether WWE was trying to make him look like a fool. Regardless, Dusty Rhodes enjoyed a decent midcard babyface push after arriving, ending the 1980s with a crucial addition to his WWE persona: his manager, Sapphire.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTErKeoqqSowaa%2BjZympmeWlrC1v4ytqaKumZZ6tbTIp56sZZSqwLXFjKufqJyVqHq4vsSsq6Whnpx6pK3RnpyrZWFuhXG%2FjLCunmWnmMRw

Lorie Orum

Update: 2024-05-20