They
called Dusty Rhodes “The American Dream,” because that’s what he
embodied. Born the son of a plumber in Austin, Texas, he wasn’t meant to
grow up to be a WWE Hall of Famer, a three-time NWA World Heavyweight
Champion or a hero to people the world over, but the blue-eyed boy named
Virgil Runnels had conviction. “Get a dream, hold onto it and shoot for
the sky,” he’d say years later, and you knew he meant every word of it.
View these photos from the extraordinary life and career of The American Dream
Rhodes
began his ring career in the late 1960s as a villain, teaming with Dick
Murdoch as the treacherous Texas Outlaws. He continued to break the
rules until a defining moment in Florida in 1974 when he turned on his
devious associates Pak Song and Gary Hart and became a working-class
hero known as “The American Dream.”
From Atlanta to New York City,
crowds lined up to see Rhodes wiggle his behind and deliver his Bionic
Elbow to rivals like Harley Race, Ernie Ladd and “Superstar” Billy
Graham. Dusty never had the prototypical pro wrestler physique (
“My belly’s just a little big,” he famously declared, “but, brother, I am bad.”),
yet his ability to connect with audiences was singular. He had a TV
preacher’s knack for communicating his rags-to-riches story, a skill
which was summed up in his most famous line: “I have wined and dined
with kings and queens, and I’ve slept in alleys and dined on pork and
beans.”
Read: The sports-entertainment world reacts to Rhodes' passing
With his gutsy performances and electric charisma, this common man fought his way to the top of the NWA where
he waged a brutal and lengthy war against the legendary Four Horseman while
capturing the distinguished NWA World Heavyweight Title on three
separate occasions. He also became a creative force behind the scenes,
conjuring up inventive bouts like WCW’s oft-imitated War Games: The
Match Beyond.
When Rhodes came to WWE in 1990,
he introduced WWE fans to his son, Dustin —
a 6-foot-6 stallion who later redefined sports-entertainment under the
outlandish guise of Goldust. More than a decade later, Dusty did the
same thing when he brought the preternaturally talented Cody Rhodes into
the ring. His sons were more than capable of carrying on the Rhodes
family legacy, but The Dream could still rumble in the ring even in his
60s. He proved that four decades into his career when
he squared off against Randy Orton at Great American Bash in 2007 — the same year he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
It
would be difficult to overstate how much Dusty Rhodes meant to the
working-class people who sat down to watch television and saw one of
their own staring back at them. To the millions of Americans struggling
to make ends meet, Dusty was more than just an athlete or an entertainer
— he was living proof that “The American Dream” was real. May this be a
dream that goes on forever.
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