CWF #22 Page #2
Of course, there is nothing I remember more fondly than the morning of Saturday, August 25, 1979 when I turned on the television and heard Gordon Solie announce that Dusty Rhodes had finally defeated Harley Race to become the National Wrestling Alliance World Heavyweight Champion. I promise you, the instant that show was broadcast, half the state of Florida considered themselves the World Champion right along with Dusty. Dusty had finally proven us right and had shown that even though evil can win battle after battle, good always wins the war. By the same token, I remember the weight of the world resting on my shoulders the following Saturday when we saw how the dastardly and evil Terry Funk had helped bring an end to Dusty’s glorious five-day reign as champion.
My first experience of seeing The Dream live and in person was in 1981 at Spruce Creek High School in Daytona Beach. It was Dusty’s first appearance in the area (at least in the few years I had been attending matches) and it was the first SRO crowd I remember in that gymnasium. You see, previously, my parents and I had always been able to walk up to the box office and purchase our ringside seats 45 minutes before match time. When we arrived on this particular night, there was a line snaking out the door waiting for tickets. Needless to say, we did not get ringside seats; as a matter of fact, we considered ourselves very lucky to have brought enough Kleenex with us to dab at our nosebleeds in our bleacher seats.
I couldn’t tell you what or who was on the undercard that night, but I can tell you about the main event of Dusty Rhodes versus Dory Funk Jr.! I can tell you about Jr. taking off his ring jacket only to have Dusty steal it, give it the booty rub and the snot blow and throw it back to Dory. I can tell you about the crowd wincing in pain as Jr. had Dusty in his painful spinning toe hold. I can tell you about the crowd shuckin’ and jivin’ as Dusty did his patented wind-up to give Dory his left after several rights. I can also tell you about the magic moment that Dusty won with his bionic elbow. I guarantee you, every fan who left that night knew they had gotten their money’s worth and couldn’t wait for the next event in the city.
Let me assure you too that it wasn’t just us young marks for wrestling in general who were sold on Dusty, the Bionic Elbow and the Million Dollar Smile. Practically everybody in the state knew who he was. I remember very clearly all of my 3rd grade classmates had two heroes: Richard Petty and Dusty Rhodes. My mother was only interested in the matches of two wrestlers in her life: Bobo Brazil and Dusty Rhodes. My mother’s chiropractor watched Championship Wrestling from Florida every week just to see Dusty. I would take my programs from matches to my mother’s office and regale her colleagues with stories of Dusty’s exploits. Dusty was a phenomenon and he transcended pro wrestling.
For those too young to remember the Dusty Rhodes I’m talking about, I encourage you to try and find some video of Florida wrestling from prior to 1980 and allow yourself the privilege of getting caught up in the spirit of the times. For those who were already too cynical to see what Dusty meant to a generation of fans in Florida, I ask you to step back and view that things from another perspective. Was Dusty’s work rate particularly high? Not really. Could Dusty fly through the air to deliver perfect dropkicks or moonsaults? Of course not. Was Dusty a mat technician? Absolutely not. For all of the things Dusty wasn’t or Dusty couldn’t do, think about what he could do. He could deliver some of the best promos in the business. He could get an arena behind him like nobody else. He could sell out arenas from Florida to Louisiana and New York to Detroit. He had charisma that can’t be explained.
The next time you see or hear somebody talking about Dusty’s merits and are tempted to point out bad booking, bad television announcing or self-promoting, I ask only that you stop for a moment and think about what Dusty meant to Florida and wrestling in those preceding, glorious years.
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