Dusty Rhodes: The American Dream

There's not much to say about him that hasn't already been covered. But, now is the time to really look at his work, and judge him. (Just being honest; that's what we do.)

Disc 1
1 Dusty/ Dick Murdoch v. Bruiser/ Crusher- 5

2 Dusty/ Dick Murdoch v. Bruiser/ Crusher- 3(Best of 3 Falls)

3 Dusty/ Dick Murdoch v. Don Muraco/ Billy Robinson- 7(Best of 3 Falls)

4 Dusty/ Pak Song v. Eddie & Mike Graham- 3

5 Dusty b. Terry Funk- 3

6 Dusty v. Harley Race (Lumberjack)- 4

7 Superstar Graham v. Dusty- 6

The first match featured the always ultra stiff Bruiser and Crusher, and this match was no exception. There were some solid punches being thrown and no one was giving into the others. The 2nd match was of the same material, except a little messier and this time there was some blood thrown in. Billy Robinson is a wrestling god! ( not that fake cowboy that puts himself over in commentary every week.) His technique was as sharp as any professional I've ever seen work, and he could throw a great suplex. Muraco gets taken out by a crazy bump( he was really green at the time, but had a lot of energy) and Robinson comes back to win the match alone. After it, he takes a sick, bleeding head hemorrhage brain buster and a knee drop that would make federal prison inmates cringe. The match against the Grahams was short and void of much except some decent tags. Dusty loved to bump when he was a lot smaller. Dusty and Funk was a classic Dusty finish: the good guy wins a title, or a match, but actually had broken the rules earlier in the match, then gets the decision reversed. This seemed like an annotated version of a much better match they could have. Race and Dusty had a unique match; it featured very little memorable moments. Then, Rhodes and Graham built up to a great match, that featured Graham not wanting to lose cleanly and another Dusty finish.

Disc 2
8 Dusty v. Stan Stasiak- 6

9 Dusty v. Johnny Rodz- 3

10 Dusty v. Superstar Graham( Bullrope Match)- 5

11 Harley Race v. Dusty- 6

12 Race v. Dusty- 5

13 Tully Blanchard v. Dusty( Cage)- 7

14 Ric Flair v. Dusty( Cage)- 8

15 Lex Luger v. Dusty( Cage)- 7

16 Dusty/ Road Warriors v. Ivan Koloff/ Powers of Pain( Barb Wire)-3

17 Dusty v. Ivan- 5

18 Tully & Arn Anderson v. Dusty/ Sting- 7

19 Road Warriors v. Dusty/ Sting- 5

Stasiak had the physical attributes of a decaying corpse, but he could sure tell a story. I liked this match; it had a slow build and a clean finish. Rodz offered little in this brief encounter and I am surprised he's been a trainer for so long. Graham again proving that he had an ego. The fans were clamoring for Dusty to be champion, and they teased it again, but could not give them the pure satisfaction. Another false finish, but Dusty held his end of it up well. The first of these two Race encounters featured blood by the buckets and tons of great stiff moves. Race was very calculating and never wasted a single motion. The second match was Dusty actually winning the belt and was mostly him being pummeled which he did well, then hitting a great elbow for the belt. Very important match. Tully and Dusty had a hatred that up until then had only existed in the mind of the Nazi's. They ripped each other's flesh in Dusty's TV title win and fueled the fire for a great feud. Then, Flair and Dusty met head to head in his 3rd World Title win. It was different than he and Tully's encounter. This one went nearly 35 minutes, and yes, of course, more blood. But, it wrapped a great story in the long history of Flair-Rhodes. Ric did his best to put over Rhodes and his unique offense despite being the top guy in the business and not needing to. Rhodes and Luger was another great offering, another cage, but stayed mostly off the steel. They had some tremendous near falls and Luger was pretty mobile in his younger days. The barb wire match was brutal, albeit short and really didn't feature any moves, per se, but had some barbarism equal to a Kane Hodder performance. Dusty and Ivan by themselves fared better in some ways; they had a better face/heel chemistry that the fans can get behind. Tully and Arn's jobs were to take huge bumps for the fan friendly but sometimes over done offense of The Stinger and Old Dust( clever, huh?) and they did it quite admirably. There were some great double teams from the Horsemen as well, and a DQ finish. The Warriors did the complete opposite for the faces that Arn and Tully did, but it kept the match a bit more physical and brutal, which was fun while it lasted.

Disc 3

20 Dusty v. Honky Tonk Man- 5

21 Dream Team v. The Enforcers( Survivor Series Match)- 7

22 Dusty/ Sapphire v. Savage/ Sherri- 3

23 Dusty/ Dustin v. Dibiase/ Virgil- 3

24 Dusty v. Steve Corino( Bullrope Match)- 2

25 Dusty/ Dustin v. Flair/ Jarrett( Kiss My Ass Match)- 5

This final set of matches is the latter day of Dusty's career. He and Honky deliver a perfectly fine match that had great heel facials by Honky and beautiful, wobberlegging elbows by Dusty. The Survivor Series Match featured plenty of old great favorites( Santana, Martel, Bossman, Taylor) and a lengthy pretty well scripted match. The mixed tag was the match we've all seen from a pretty well known show( a little thing called Wrestlemania). Sapphire goes over with the "booty bump." I wanted to see what she knocked over later that night in her local Pizza Hut. A young understudy Dustin teams with his daddy to meet the Million Dollar Man and Dusty's own personal rib Virgil. They kept the rookies in the ring for the majority of the match, which ensured a low rating and many awkward moments where no one was doing anything. Dusty's ECW run was mainly for nostalgia: it certainly wasn't for ring work. He and Corino walked slowly around the arena and traded weak forearms while leaning on each other for support. A real waste of time. The Kiss my ass match was worked as a normal match and built up some excitement that the fans appreciated. It was neat to watch Dusty and Flair mix it up again after all those years.

Dusty Rhodes DVD - Disc 3

Disc 3:

1) Dusty Rhodes vs. The Honky Tonk Man – 5
2) Dusty Rhodes, Red Rooster, Tito Santana, & Brutus Beefcake vs. The Honky Tonk Man, Bad News Brown, Big Boss Man, & Rick Martel – Elimination Match – 5
3) Dusty Rhodes & Sapphire vs. Randy Savage & Sherri – 3
4) Dusty Rhodes & Dustin Rhodes vs. Ted DiBiase & Virgil – 2
5) Dusty Rhodes vs. Steve Corino – Bullrope Match – 2
6) Dusty Rhodes & Dustin Rhodes vs. Ric Flair & Jeff Jarrett – 5

Polka dots and tubby athletes do not mix. Rhodes and Honky had a typical excuse for a late-80s WWF pay-per-view match and not much more than that. The elimination match was formidable and it may not have featured crisp wrestling, it certainly featured some interesting teams. Damn, the mixed tag match sucked. Everyone mailed it in and Sapphire couldn’t wrestle a lick to save her life. Oh wait, she’s already dead. Never mind. Dustin Rhodes was so terribly green and tossing him in with Virgil was a very bad idea because the final product was enough to lull you to sleep. In the documentary, Rhodes’ stint in ECW isn’t even mentioned so why his only ECW pay-per-view match against Corino is on here is anyone’s guess. Rhodes bladed and the referee taped a cowbell to Corino’s head. The final match I already touched on in the review of WCW Greed. Looking at it on paper, you may scoff, however, everyone tried and the result was a very acceptable match which ended with Jarrett’s head up Dusty’s ass.

More from Dusty:
“Livin’ … on the end of a lightning bolt.”

The matches aren’t the only highlight on this set as peppered throughout are an astonishing 48 classic Dusty vignettes and promos along with a 90-minute look at the man himself. This three-disc set is a must have for any wrestling fans DVD collection. I found mine at Wal-Mart for less than $20 and I recommend that if you see it anywhere, no matter what the price, that you put down the baby butt-wipes and buy the DVD!

A final word from Dusty:
“Ow! That’s funky! That’s the American dream!”

Indeed it is.

Dusty Rhodes DVD - Disc 2

Disc 2:

1) Dusty Rhodes vs. Stan Stasiak – 4
2) Dusty Rhodes vs. Johnny Rodz – 4
3) Dusty Rhodes vs. Superstar Billy Graham – Texas Bullrope Match – 5
4) Dusty Rhodes vs. Harley Race (MSG) – 6
5) Dusty Rhodes vs. Harley Race (Atlanta) – 5
6) Dusty Rhodes vs. Tully Blanchard – Cage Match – 6
7) Dusty Rhodes vs. Ric Flair – Cage Match – 7
8) Dusty Rhodes vs. Lex Luger – Cage Match – 6
9) Dusty Rhodes & The Road Warriors vs. The Powers of Pain & Ivan Koloff – Barbed Wire Match – 3
10) Dusty Rhodes vs. Ivan Koloff – 5
11) Dusty Rhodes & Sting vs. Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard – 7
12) Dusty Rhodes & Sting vs. The Road Warriors – 5

The match with Stasiak once again used the slow build technique which is forgotten nowadays. It was definitely and interesting match, especially since the referee looked like the local mechanic. I have no idea why the match with Johnny Rodz was offered up as it was definitely out of place. The only cool thing about it was that Gary Cappetta was the ring announcer. In the rematch with Graham, it didn’t seem like they had the same chemistry that they had in the match on the first disc. The thing that really irked me was that it had the same exact finish as the previous match. The match with Harley from MSG is something that you will never see again. It was a match for the NWA World Title contested on a WWF card in Madison Square Garden. The crowd didn’t really know what to expect as it seemed to me that they wrestled an NWA style match and not a WWF style match. It was definitely different than the match with Race from Atlanta that really didn’t offer much because, once again, it was on film. The cage match with Blanchard was decent as all they did was punch and shoulder each other. The crowd itself was really into it, as an old school NWA crowd was and absolutely loved it. What can I say about the cage match with Flair except that it was phenomenal. Nowadays when titles and cage matches don’t mean shit, both men busted their ass and produced one of the finest world title matches ever. Watch this match now! Luger, who needs some help sometimes to get over the hump, was guided by Rhodes and had another phenomenal match. The barbed wire match was a pile of crap and one of the worst matches presented. I’m not sure exactly what the point was but six men lumbering through a five-minute debacle isn’t any incentive to stay up until 2am. Rhodes and Koloff was your standard TV match from late-80s NWA. The fans were sent home happy with a Rhodes victory over the Russian Koloff. Rhodes and Sting against Anderson and Blanchard was pure magic and another essential match to watch. The same can’t be said about the Road Warriors match. It was good but if your miss it, you’re not missing much.

Dusty says:
“The man of the hour, the man with the power! I am the hit-maker, the record breaker. I got smile and grace and a lovely face. I’ll make your back crack, your liver quiver. If you don’t dig this match, your at the wrong address. And Superstar, when all the wrestlers in the back laughing and jokin’, the Dream’s out front … whoo … cookin’ and smokin’!”

Dusty Rhodes DVD - Disc 1

Nine hours of Dusty Rhodes matches and promos? I’ll need lots of caffeine.

Disc 1:
1) Dusty Rhodes & Dick Murdoch vs. Dick the Bruiser & The Crusher (3/9/73) – 6
2) Dusty Rhodes & Dick Murdoch vs. Dick the Bruiser & The Crusher (3/24/73) – 6
3) Dusty Rhodes & Dick Murdoch vs. Billy Robinson & Don Muraco – Best of Three Falls – 7
4) Dusty Rhodes & Pak Song vs. Mike & Eddie Graham – 4
5) Dusty Rhodes vs. Terry Funk – 5
6) Dusty Rhodes vs. Harley Race – Lumberjack Match (Florida) – 6
7) Dusty Rhodes vs. Superstar Billy Graham – 7

The first two offerings served up four certifiable legends. This was back when they actually used film to record the matches with. Rhodes and Murdoch were fairly new at this time and got worked pretty good by Bruiser and Crusher. Rhodes also bled buckets to add some authenticity as if the matches needed any extra to be good. The tag match against Robinson and Muraco is essential viewing for anyone who loves wrestling. It’s the epitome of the perfect tag match and Robinson’s death sell of a knee from the apron after the match was pure gold. I don’t know much about Pak Song, or as Dusty called him “the Korean from Korea”, but he really didn’t impress me. Why the match was on this DVD is beyond me. The match against Funk, was laden with interference from a gentleman commonly known as The Spoiler. Aside from spoiling milk, he definitely spoiled the makings of a good match. The lumberjack match from Florida was also on film and from a historical perspective was really fun to watch, although I’m sure the two had better matches. Our first offering from the WWWF was against Superstar Graham. It was a fantastic match and I was definitely digging the super slow build and the psychology they used. Although the count-out finish protected both men, I would’ve preferred a pinfall or submission finish.

And now, a quote from Dusty:
“I have obtained the goals that many men only lay in bed and dream about night after night. I have wined and dined with kings and queens, and I’ve slept in alleys and dined on pork and beans.”

The American Dream: The Dusty Rhodes Story (3-Disc Set)

1. Dusty Rhodes and Dick Murdoch vs. Dick the Bruiser and The Crusher - 6
2. Dusty Rhodes and Dick Murdoch vs. Dick the Bruiser and The Crusher - 5
3. Dusty Rhodes and Dick Murdoch vs. Billy Robinson and Don Muraco - 2 Out of 3 Falls Match - 8
4. Dusty Rhodes and Pak Song vs. Mike Graham and Eddie Graham - 3
5. Dusty Rhodes vs. Terry Funk - 3
6. Dusty Rhodes vs. Harley Race - Lumberjack Match - 3
7. Dusty Rhodes vs. "Superstar" Billy Graham - 7

I think it was just a burst of energy and excitement that led me to grade the first match as highly as I did. I was so eager to watch this massive collection of Dusty footage in one sitting, and nothing was going to deter me. Both matches against Bruiser and Crusher were good, of course, as seeing these four rugged pricks beating the hell out of each other is endlessly entertaining. One of the hidden gems on the entire set is the unbelievably beautiful tag match featuring Billy Robinson (my new wrestling God) and a very young Don Muraco. It’s shot in a dingy TV studio, but these guys give it their all, in a perfectly executed batch of phenomenal professional wrestling. It’s all there, you’ve got great story and psychology, manly mustaches, and Muraco taking a hellish bump against the ring post that’d make Mick Foley piss in his sweatpants. The following tag match isn’t worth noting, but is significant because it’s the bout where Dusty turned into a good guy and became wildly successful, and because Pak Song is referred to as the “Korean from Korea”. Pak looks like Antonio Inoki’s rebellious cousin, who’d never join the other siblings in games of Twister because he was too busy putting an iron claw on the family dog. I was expecting a war between Rhodes and Funk, but it was about as intense as Scott Hall passing gas on Sunny’s face on an international flight. The lumberjack match was ludicrous. The match with Billy Graham in MSG is legendary, as for one of the first times; McMahon featured a star from the south in the main event of one of his shows in New York, and boy, was it ever worth it! These guys tore it up, and had just a fantastic match that the crowd ate up like it was filet mignon.

Disc 2:
1. Dusty Rhodes vs. Stan "The Man" Stasiak - 5
2. Dusty Rhodes vs. Johnny Rodz - 3
3. Dusty Rhodes vs. "Superstar" Billy Graham - Texas Bullrope Match - 4
4. Dusty Rhodes vs. Harley Race - 5
5. Dusty Rhodes vs. Harley Race - 5
6. Dusty Rhodes vs. Tully Blanchard - Cage Match - 7
7. Dusty Rhodes vs. Ric Flair - Cage Match - 8
8. Dusty Rhodes vs. Lex Luger - Cage Match - 7
9. Dusty Rhodes and The Road Warriors vs. The Powers of Pain and Ivan Koloff - Barbed Wire Match - 4
10. Dusty Rhodes vs. Ivan Koloff - 4
11. Dusty Rhodes and Sting vs. Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard - 6
12. Dusty Rhodes and Sting vs. The Road Warriors - 5

I don’t know exactly why I gave Dusty’s match with Stasiak the score I did, since I currently can’t recall anything from it, but to play it safe, let’s just say I did because Stan “The Man” is that damn consistently super. Rhodes squashes Rodz like he squashed hookers in 46 of the states in the continental United States. Although on the documentary on the DVD, they put over the Texas bullrope rematch with Graham as something special, it fails to live up to the hype or quality of its predecessor. Both matches with Harley Race are really cool, and for separate reasons; the first, in MSG, is a slow paced psychologically-heavy match that’s overwhelmingly orgasmic, and the second, isn’t as good to me personally, but notable as it was the first time Dusty won the NWA championship. I also can’t recall a lot of the cage match with Tully, but I am a sucker for Blanchard, as well as blood, so that justifies the good score it received.

The second cage bout, with legendary Flair, is nearly perfect. I can’t even summarize it, you just simply need to seek it out and add it to your collection, as Farrooq used to say, “by any means necessary!” Hell, Rhodes even carried Luger to a stellar cage match. The six-man barbed wire match was reprehensible, and a big mess; honestly, I only gave it points because seeing one of the Road Warriors wearing a hockey mask made me giggle. Rhodes beats Koloff in perfectly acceptable squash. I really loved the tag match against Arn and Tully, as Dusty and Sting make an interesting team, and all of these guys were so good at what they did during this time. The match with Sting and Dusty versus the Road Warriors wasn’t bad either, but I’d have loved to seen it develop into something much more.

Disc 3:
1. Dusty Rhodes vs. The Honky Tonk Man - 5
2. Dream Team (Dusty Rhodes, Red Rooster, Tito Santana, and Brutus Beefcake) vs. Enforcers (The Honky Tonk Man, Bad News Brown, Big Boss Man and Rick Martel) - Elimination Match - 7
3. Dusty Rhodes and Sapphire vs. "Macho Man" Randy Savage and Queen Sherri - 4
4. Dusty Rhodes and Dustin Rhodes vs. Ted DiBiase and Virgil - 2
5. Dusty Rhodes vs. Steve Corino - Bullrope Match - 1
6. Dusty Rhodes and Dustin Rhodes vs. Ric Flair and Jeff Jarrett - Kiss My Ass Match - 5

Dusty and Honky from Summerslam, we all know it, we all recall it being extraordinarily passable. Next, we go from just tolerable to totally awesome, with a vintage Survivor Series match that was totally better than I could have ever predicted. It’s not noteworthy for breaking any new ground, but everybody worked hard, and delivered. It’s just fun, and harkens back to when this concept actually worked, as today’s Survivor Series shows pale in comparison to the first half-dozen. The mixed tag isn’t very good, but as about as much as you could have hoped for. Savage is always a force to behold, and there’s something morbidly fascinating about watching Sapphire execute the most basic of maneuver. The next tag, featuring Dusty and his deadbeat son Dustin, was just awful. Dustin was greener than George “The Animal” Steele’s tongue. There were a lot of miscues and miscommunications in this retched pile of suck. That leads us to the absolute worst match on the DVD, and one of the shittiest excuses for wrestling I’ve possibly ever encountered. Here we have Corino, who’s supposedly a huge fan of old school wrestling, in there with a legend, and dragging him through a painfully sloppy brawl that’s insulting to everyone involved. I can’t stress enough how bad the finish is, and will go on record right now, and say that it’s one of the all-time worst fucking endings to a match. Dusty tried to tape a cowbell to Corino’s head, does a hideous job, and the referee (who’s supposed to be an unbiased official) has to hold the fucking prop on Corino’s head, so Dusty can elbow it and get his lame spot off. Now, this essentially denies any logic whatsoever, and totally shits on the rules and regulations that the sport is built upon. Just the principle of it kills me… how are you going to have a ref hold a foreign object on one competitor’s head to further his opponent’s attempt at bludgeoning their skull? ECW presented some of the most illogical and irrational wrestling in the history of the sport. Finally, the last match is from Russo-era WCW, which is scary. However, given all the circumstances working against it (Flair wrestling in the same clothes he went shopping at the mall in earlier) it’s still surprisingly decent. Plus, anytime you can get a chance to see someone rub their smelly ass all over Jarrett’s face is totally worth it.

WWE Vengeance 2006

The long awaited DX reunion … does anyone care at this point?

1) Kurt Angle vs. Randy Orton – 5
2) Umaga vs. Eugene – 1
3) Mick Foley vs. Ric Flair – Best of Three Falls Match – 4
4) Johnny Nitro vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. Carlito – 5
5) Rob Van Dam vs. Edge – 6
6) Kane vs. Impostor Kane – 2
7) John Cena vs. Sabu – Extreme Lumberjack Match – 4
8) Shawn Michaels & Triple H vs. The Spirit Squad – 3

The Angle/Orton rematch wasn’t quite as good as their match at One Night Stand, probably because they were wrestling in front of a WWE crowd and not a rabid ECW crowd. They teased a spot where Angle was going to suplex Orton from the apron through a table, which was probably the high point of the match. Umaga and Eugene was on the show for some unknown reason. To further add to the stupidity of the match, Eugene brought out Doink, Kamala, and the walking human wasteland himself, Hacksaw Duggan. Boo for Eugene’s burger flippers and boo to WWE for insulting our intelligence with this match. To be honest, I can’t remember a thing from the Flair/Foley match except for Foley intentionally getting himself DQed. There’s only so much you can do with seven minutes on a pay-per-view and they pretty much did it, much to the disapproval of everyone watching at home. The three people involved in the triple threat match tore the house down. They did a swank tower of doom spot which pretty much had JR at a loss for words and everyone in the stands creaming their pants. RVD and Edge had a good match and one of only two matches on the card to go over 15 minutes in time. While it wasn’t groundbreaking, it was refreshing to see someone other than Cena work with Edge. The Kane match was beyond bad and the crowd booed it out of the building. The funny thing is that they killed the program off on Raw the next night with no explanation whatsoever. Cena and Sabu had a standard hardcore brawl which featured Cena giving Sabu and FU over the top rope and through a table. The problem was that Sabu almost missed the table and almost killed himself. The highly promoted reunion of DX was a letdown and working with the very untalented Sprit Squad didn’t help any. Vinnie Mac needs to realize that nostalgia only works for so long and right now, I’m sick of it.

9th Annual WWE Unforgiven (Sept. 17, 2006)

1 Johnny Nitro v. Jeff Hardy- 5

2 Kane v. Umaga- 3

3 Spirit Squad v. Highlanders- 3

4 Degeneration X v. McMahons/ Big Show (Hell in a Cell)- 4

5 Trish Stratus v. Lita- 4

6 Carlito v. Randy Orton- 4

7 John Cena v. Edge (TLC)- 5

The event was pretty okay; not to say there wasn’t a lot of effort put into the matches. Hardy and Nitro put together a lot of innovative spots and Nitro was working a body part. They had a good teased ending, a few of them, that paid off, but we had Melina interference. Hardy bumped pretty good and seems to have adopted his old style back. Kane and Umaga were swinging leather and having a decent match. They were both throwing big punches and kicks, but the ending came quickly; a double countout. The tag match had a cool feel to it, kind of an old school tag match that never truly got started. It didn’t have any memorable spots or really hot tags so I couldn’t rate it too highly. The Hell in the Cell was pretty damned violent. Big Show absolutely looked atrocious. He didn’t take one real legit bump the whole match; instead he relegated himself to the big goofy guy who gets outsmarted. Shane was putting in one of his hardest nights of work in years, but Vince didn’t seem to be a big factor. HHH got his ear cut pretty severely and Michaels was working pretty hard, so the match had it’s ups and downs. All the big spots did seem pre-planned( as Brian pointed out to me), and I would have enjoyed it more if some of it seemed more off the cuff. It had the feeling of a culmination of a feud, which is hopefully what this was. Trish’s last match had some decent spots, and was given more time than it usually would be. They teased her not winning, but I think it was the right call to give her a little recognition on the way out; after all, they have treated her, at times, pretty badly( of course who haven’t they done that to?" Carlito and Orton could’ve produced a pretty good match, and were even said by JR to try and steal the show, but they did nothing of the sort. They didn’t even go ten minutes, yet they put in some decent wrestling, finished with a RKO off a springboard. The TLC match featured several, several table bumps, yet I think the single table one Cena took was the best; definitely the stiffest. Cena winning the title was a shot to the Canadian fans, yet I think it is the best move for their long term plans, although I think Edge could probably have better matches with more people. A very acceptable PPV.