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jim cornette is an old carnie that cant accept that kayfabe is dead and that the wrestling business has changed and mostly moved on.. hes a good source for wrestling history but thats about it.
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Apr 3, 2022 00:51
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I just keep bringing up Other People's Money. "This company is dead. I didn't kill it. Don't blame me. It was dead when I got here. It's too late for prayers. For even if the prayers were answered, and a miracle occurred, and the yen did this, and the dollar did that, and the infrastructure did the other thing, we would still be dead. You know why? Fiber optics. New technologies. Obsolescence. We're dead alright. We're just not broke. And you know the surest way to go broke? Keep getting an increasing share of a shrinking market. Down the tubes. Slow but sure. You know, at one time there must've been dozens of companies making buggy whips. And I'll bet the last company around was the one that made the best goddamn buggy whip you ever saw. Now how would you have liked to have been a stockholder in that company? You invested in a business and this business is dead. Let's have the intelligence, let's have the decency to sign the death certificate, collect the insurance, and invest in something with a future." (And as said, yes, Devito's character was a ruthless corperate raider and liquidator, hell that's his character's NAME, but that doesn't mean he's WRONG.)
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Apr 3, 2022 01:17
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16-bit Butt-Head posted:jim cornette is an old carnie that cant accept that kayfabe is dead and that the wrestling business has changed and mostly moved on.. hes a good source for wrestling history but thats about it. I'm very curious if there is a transition for wrestling to take to avoid death like this. Everyone (fans and dorks like us) keep wanting to return to basics or get so extreme that it's unpalatable to mainstream audiences. Someone will figure this out, I'm curious what it looks like. But I feel that the answer is probably the MCU
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Apr 3, 2022 01:26
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Reposting my request for an effort post on Cody Rhodes in AEW (in case that was forgotten).
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Apr 3, 2022 01:39
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SirPhoebos posted:Reposting my request for an effort post on Cody Rhodes in AEW (in case that was forgotten). There's not a lot to tell. Cody talked a good line of poo poo about not being the other company, had maybe the match that got everyone onboard with AEW. Did a lot to push new guys. Tony took booking away from him, his own story kind of spun off in its own universe, then he walked away apparently when contract negotiation wouldn't give him booking back. All principals say there's no hard feelings, but there's a whole lot of silence on his leaving otherwise. The AEW locker room isn't chatty about internal dealings.
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Apr 3, 2022 02:01
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I've been dipping into Lucha video clips. I wanted Villanos I thru V to combine into Mega Villano.
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Apr 3, 2022 02:26
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villanoltron
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Apr 3, 2022 02:35
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Trollologist posted:I'm very curious if there is a transition for wrestling to take to avoid death like this. i think all fans really want is a match between two good performers with a storyline that makes sense within the confines of wrestling and without some kind of screwjob ending. at least thats what i want...
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Apr 3, 2022 02:37
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Dementropy posted:I've been dipping into Lucha video clips. Do everything you can to avoid watching the Flesh Atronach Federation, especially their PPVs. They make hardcore matches look like naptime at a nursery.
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Apr 3, 2022 02:39
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Vill-Ian-Oh.
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Apr 3, 2022 02:39
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SirPhoebos posted:Reposting my request for an effort post on Cody Rhodes in AEW (in case that was forgotten). I will start on this very soon. But in order to talk about Cody in AEW, I have to talk about Cody in WWE. And before I can talk about Cody in WWE, I have to talk about Dusty in WWF. Which I will have in a little bit.
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Apr 3, 2022 03:03
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I wouldn't mind reading more about how these old wrestling federations. I grew up in the Mid South Wrestling area and I don't know much about Mid South Wrestling.
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Apr 3, 2022 03:36
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I'd be interested in learning how many wrestlers Mid-South had nicknamed "Hacksaw" or if it was just Butch Reed and Jim Duggan
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Apr 3, 2022 03:46
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Dementropy posted:I've been dipping into Lucha video clips. Combattler Villano
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Apr 3, 2022 06:06
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16-bit Butt-Head posted:i think all fans really want is a match between two good performers with a storyline that makes sense within the confines of wrestling and without some kind of screwjob ending. at least thats what i want... It sounds like a big problem is... well, mainly Vince, but also a mix of what happens when the inmates take over the asylum and don't have the patience to just get the basics right because they've seen it all before decades ago, so they're constantly loving with everything just to amuse themselves and don't really understand that they even have an audience anymore. Like what happened with comic books. The MCU didn't do anything revolutionary or even compromise any more than absolutely necessary- for the most part the movies are among the most faithful to the original material of comic book movies, for better or worse. They simply just had a plan and stuck to it, adjusting as necessary to audience feedback but without throwing all their toys out the pram because they got bored and/or didn't like what people said on twitter (see WB execs losing their poo poo over Snyder making them mere billions, and everything about the Star Wars sequels) and otherwise making unforced errors because of senility and/or cocaine reasons.
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Apr 3, 2022 06:31
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The inmates don't run the asylum in WWE because Vince has the final say on everything and even politicking scumfucks like HBK didn't always get what they wanted And yes Vince is the problem. AEW has the same kind of system where Tony Khan has the final say on everything but he doesn't have a team of TV writers who script every second of every show. He lets wrestlers pitch ideas and if he likes them then they work together to tell a good story. And while Tony Khan is certainly running a business and trying to make money, he's not the "maximize quarterly profits at the expense of everything else" type and he knows he's playing the long game. Khan also is a wrestling nerd and wants to book good wrestling, he's not delusional like Vince who claims that his wrestling promotion is "actually a global content company". Like seriously what the gently caress? How generic and boring is that? Anyway I have no idea where this post was going so thanks for reading I guess 
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Apr 3, 2022 06:54
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SirPhoebos posted:Reposting my request for an effort post on Cody Rhodes in AEW (in case that was forgotten). FullLeatherJacket posted:in the same sense that there was a Dan Carlin episode about Cleopatra that started as a continuous narrative from the Gracchi brothers, this should really be a single narrative piece that begins in 2013 with Bad Luck Fale asking Prince Devitt if he can eat all of the carbs that he's left over Highway To The Codyverse; or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Learned To Love A Giant AR Representation Of My Bad Tattoo; a narrative history of the Allcody beginning with Bad Luck Fale asking for extra chips The year was 2013, and Bad Luck Fale turned to Prince Devitt and asked, "you gonna eat those hot chips, mate?". And he wasn't, so they became friends and formed a stable. I mean, the chips part probably didn't happen, but the stable did. And it came to pass that it would be called the Bullet Club, and it's the reason Hot Topic sell wrestling shirts now and everyone does the Kevin Nash Hand Thing. So... for the most part in this thread people have talked about US/Canadian wrestling, but it's worth at least noting that there are distinct lineages and detailed histories that exist in Mexico, the UK (now dead, for the most part) and Japan. And I'm sure if you wanted some bitch-rear end nerd can come along and explain Rikidozan, the split of the JWA into All Japan and New Japan, the time that Antonio Inoki and Muhammad Ali had a proto-MMA match that likely shortened Ali's career, or the exodus to Pro Wrestling NOAH, or the time Antonio Inoki decided that MMA was the future and had his top stars fight Fedor Emilanenko in matches that could be described as "somewhat brief". But for most of the time, this was all presented in Japanese, to a Japanese audience, plus a few bitch-rear end nerds like Tony Khan and Eddie Kingston who would meet up to swap VHS tapes and talk about armdrags. Meanwhile, back in Soviet WWE, Cody Rhodes, the youngest son of Dusty Rhodes, had graduated from a gimmick where he would put paper bags over the audience's heads, through a gimmick where he grew and then had a moustache, into a version of his older brother's gimmick, where he would become Stardust. This gimmick might have been fun for a month or two. It lasted two years. Cody also by all accounts hated it and pitched several ideas to get rid of it which were promptly ignored, at which point he just asked them to release him from his contract. WWE did, but they were also super lovely in claiming that they owned the "Cody Rhodes" name. Now, his real name is Cody Runnells, and his family's wrestling name is 'Rhodes', but you started out in WWE so it's our trademark and also gently caress you. Thus was born the wandering soul that would simply be named: CODY Later to become: THE AMERICAN NIGHTMARE, CODY At this point, he would also start bringing his wife to the ring, partially so everyone could look at his hot wife, but also because WWE had no copyright claim on "Brandi Rhodes", so in a classic piece of rules-lawyering, they could be introduced together as "Cody & Brandi Rhodes". He would bounce around various pro-wrestling ventures, including a now traditional month-long appearance with TNA, where whoever most recently got fired by WWE would show up in the Impact Zone to air their grievances and immediately demand a shot at the TNA world title, before leaving to go back to WWE or because they weren't getting paid what they thought they'd be. But by December 2016, he was being advertised as the newest member of the Bullet Club. And that's all fairly standard - there have been American wrestlers going over to work in Japan for decades. The run-down of previous champions they show before title matches in New Japan includes Vader, Brock Lesnar, AJ Styles, and, of course... Bob Sapp. Antonio Inoki really loved MMA. But there were a few moving parts here. When WWE went to a streaming service, New Japan followed suit, and for the first time were producing English-language content and commentary. At the same time, Bullet Club had basically gone nuclear, was moving merchandise at a ridiculous rate, and New Japan were essentially redoing the entire nWo angle with warring tribes of wrestlers, except where people actually won and lost wrestling instead of every show going off the air with a stupid brawl. Meanwhile, the Young Bucks had started a video blog that begins with them driving around talking about things they've eaten and bitching about how much they have to travel to events they booked themselves on, and slowly evolves into a behind-the-scenes Bullet Club documentary/skit-show featuring various Ring Of Honor and New Japan talent. So, by 2017, you essentially have the "3rd gen" Bullet Club of Kenny Omega, Cody Rhodes, the Young Bucks, Hangman Page and Marty Scurll running around doing The Kevin Nash Hand Thing, putting on very good matches for people who like that Japanese style, and doing a whole bunch of bits to camera where they basically did whatever they wanted. Including taking a lot of shots at WWE. Cody in particular loved taking shots at WWE. Such as this ROH promo where he wasn't exactly complimentary about Roman Reigns. Or when they recreated an old angle and showed up in the parking lot at RAW to do bits. And then there was a challenge. I have in my head that Roman Reigns said some bullshit on twitter (that he likely didn't even believe, but that would appeal to management) about WWE being the only company that could sell out 10,000 tickets, but Dave Meltzer definitely at least agreed with that, and then Cody & the Codyfriends came up with a plan. They were going to do a show, and it was going to have 10,000 fans. Entirely promoted by Twitter and by a Youtube show where they did the speech from Independence Day in the parking lot. It sold out in 30 minutes. It should be noted that they had huge assistance with All In - Ring Of Honor would essentially end up owning it as a TV property, and New Japan allowed both Kota Ibushi and Kazuchika Okada to wrestle on the show. But they sold 11,000 tickets off of doing the Youtubes. And then some dude who owned the Jacksonville Jaguars made them an offer. They'd get EVP positions on a new project. And that's why AEW exists. Because the Young Bucks had a video blog, and because people would pay to see Flip Gordon and Marty Scurll in 2018 (they died on the way back to their respective home planets). This was also the beginning of the expanded Team Cody Codyverse, with him bringing four manager to the ring with him, including his wife and (for some reason) Glacier. At one point he'd also bring out his dog, until it was pointed out that the dog was in visible distress in front of 10,000 people and elaborate pyro. And so, on the 25th May 2019, Cody would appear at the first ever AEW pay-per-view, where he'd have a a bloody match with his brother that got given five stars by Dave Meltzer (a completely subjective, arbitrary and ultimately meaningless achievement, sort of like getting told by Roger Ebert that your movie doesn't suck farts). On the way to the ring, he smashed a big fake Triple H throne with a big fake sledgehammer, in order to emphasise the ecumenical point that WWE Bad. Everyone else (who, to be fair, had never worked for WWE) very much took a party line that AEW wasn't at war with WWE and just wanted to make cool wrestling, but Cody had several points to prove, including "WWE bad", and "I'll get you, WWE". This led into a feud with Shawn Spears, where Spears would murder Cody Rhodes with a chair. The chair for this was supposed to be gimmicked (i.e. rigged), but however it was done left Cody with a legit cut to the back of his head. They also basically had to come out immediately after and say that the chair was bullshit, because WWE had long-since banned any chairshots to the head after Benoit turned out to have Alzheimers murderbrain, and it made the fans the wrong kind of upset. They never did it again, but at least everyone involved sells it like they just watched Cody die in real time. Come December, he's challenging Chris Jericho for the world title. By this point, he has a Codyvator and entrance music for he custom buttrock entrance music. Note the open shot at WWE and team of Codymans. He makes a rule that because he's management, if he loses, he'll never challenge for the title again. This was apparently legitimately Cody's idea and Tony Khan wasn't keen, but Cody was being given freedom to do what he wants. Of course, Cody's protege MJF turns on him (something that was obvious to everyone except Cody), Jericho retains and Cody can never challenge for the AEW world title. This naturally leads to a feud with MJF, where Cody will show up to the pay-per-view with a terrible neck tattoo despite only having one previous tattoo. Basically, he has a chest tattoo on his neck, and a neck tattoo on his chest. And he's doing all of the old poo poo his father would have done in the 1970s, where if in doubt you should get whipped for ten minutes by the heel on television until your back goes funny colours, and then you should bleed profusely in every match. That you show up to with your wife and your dog and your manager and three of your friends. And none of that is inherently bad, it's just very Cody, particularly when all of the other EVPs are very visibly doing something different. Of course, being unable to challenge for the world title doesn't prohibit you from creating a B-level title that you treat as your own personal fiefdom, and so Mike Tyson would present Cody with the (half-finished) TNT Championship after winning a tournament in front of a pandemic crowd of zero. And so began the bizarro-year of wrestling that will probably not be remembered anywhere (and can't really be held against Cody Rhodes in particular), where Cody Rhodes would defend the Codybelt each week in an empty arena against various up-and-coming stars, before very deliberately losing a squash match to Brodie Lee, going away for three months to do a talent show with Snoop Dogg, before coming back to beat Brodie Lee for the title in what would ultimately be Brodie's last match before his death later that year. What crowd there is at this point is starting to be a little iffy on Cody. Everything I've seen suggests that Cody winning the belt back wasn't an emergency decision to get the belt off Brodie and that it was always planned for him to come back as a big babyface, despite a dye-job that made him look like Robbie Rotten. At one point, he starts to refer to himself as the "Ace" of AEW, which I'm sure the actual world champion appreciated a lot. However, we don't really reach Peak Cody until May of 2021, where he embarks upon a feud with the star pupil of the AEW training school, Anthony Ogogo. This is one of the weirdest matched feuds I've ever seen. It feels like it was a feud written for Nick Aldis or William Regal, but since they weren't available, they went with a rookie. And absolute full commitment to a match based on "I'M NOT FROM HERE, I HAVE MY OWN CUSTOMS". In 2021. Whatever of old 1970s schtick you can pull through to the modern day, that isn't one of those things, particularly against a young British rookie with an Olympic pedigree and 90% of the match build being essentially babyface Cody Rhodes saying "if you don't like it here, why don't you go back wherever you came from" into a microphone. At one point, Cody points out that America is great because he's going to have a mixed-race baby. Anthony Ogogo is actually mixed-race. Cody Rhodes impregnated a black woman. (ok, tbf technically Cody is half-Cuban and he gets to be on the Hispanic appreciation day poster, but there's white-passing and like, white magna cum laude or whatever he is) So Cody gets to come out to his entrance music's entrance music in his Homelander costume and drive back the foreign menace, and everyone is basically in agreement at this point that he's doing a slow-burn heel turn and actually it's quite clever if you think about it nobody has told Cody this Instead he gets into a feud with Malakai Black where he insinuates that he's going to retire, and where key Codyverse member Arn Anderson basically says that Cody is a pussy who wouldn't execute a man with a Glock. This also involves a match with Andrade El Idolo where Cody (who is trying very very hard to get the fans to treat him as a babyface again) ends up setting he dumb rear end on fire and would have marks on his back from that match for a couple of weeks. By January of 2022, it comes out via Meltzer that Cody is now essentially working AEW without a contract, having expired at the end of the year. He teases that he's going to show up at the Royal Rumble with the TNT title, but he doesn't because it would make no sense for that to happen. The general expectation is that either they're just haggling terms or that this is part of the elaborate Codyverse heel turn strategy, where Cody is going to transcend to a meta-level where he works the company itself. But instead he drops the Codybelt to Sammy Guevara (who will apparently then gently caress on it), in his second AEW match that gets five stars from Meltzer, and AEW put out a press release to thank Cody and Brandi for their service. The general rumours that have been floated are that Cody wanted parity with AEW's new top guys (i.e. CM Punk), and the right to book his own poo poo, since Tony Khan had started pulling a bit harder on the reigns since some of this poo poo went down. It's also rumoured that there were issues with Brandi, who'd basically been given an office job that involved being Cody's wife and trying not to gently caress anything up, and who also supposedly had some responsibility for the women's division alongside Kenny Omega. Apparently many of the women there went to the guy with the highest rated singles and tag matches of all time to help put together their matches, rather than Brandi Rhodes, which was very rude and upsetting. But there was still considered a non-zero chance that this was all an elaborate Codyverse ploy or some form of brinksmanship, until a thing happened yesterday. https://youtu.be/zkMwhLLN0gM and that's why prince devitt not eating a carb means that stardust has an elevator now
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Apr 3, 2022 13:11
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Beeswax posted:The two are not mutually exclusive. Being a hypocrite does not make an argument less valid. Then again this is all down to personal taste and there is no right/wrong in the first place. I agreed The “young” Bucks(middle aged, balding, and ruthlessly just out for themselves to the active detriment of anyone around them) Kenny Omega, “The Dark Order” etc all are loving awful to someone who is just a casual It’s fine to say they are great but the audience they appeal to is small. It’s boring/stupid, I have no love for Cornette but he is right in this aspect. I know I may not get a Dave Meltzer 7 star match full of poo poo that’s boring as hell and hackneyed to me, flip flop, repeat. It’s impressive but not interesting. The cobra video from earlier is insulting, I’d be embarrassed to have someone see me watch it.
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Apr 3, 2022 13:23
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Corny speaks ill of the 80s WWF cartoon wrestling that I love, but then he rails against Wendy’s terrible French fries and I forgive him.
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Apr 3, 2022 13:31
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FullLeatherJacket posted:CODY CODY CODY CODY CODY So basically, cut a stripe from what happened with Hulk Hogan. No power (forced to be Stardust for years despite making various suggestions to move on), then given 'all the power' and while he had enough self discipline to not follow Hogan's footsteps, he wasn't strong enough to not let the fact that he now had his own giant canvas to paint on get to him and he tried to both make art and draw dickbutts. Hell, I don't blame him. I might have done the same. It also reminds me of Tiger Woods' meltdown, and how some analysis was that he'd been raised in a super heavy disciplined (re: repressed and restrained) fashion by his father to craft him into the golf champion he became, and when his father died in 2006, he was suddenly 'free', and he didn't handle said freedom well.
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Apr 3, 2022 14:13
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I started watching AEW just after Cody left, and I'm thankful for it. Everything I've heard about the Codyverse makes me happy to have never seen it. Some of the things that have happened have been questionable. It's been rumored the current Sammy and Tay storyline was supposed to be for Cody and Brandi, and it sucks. The sooner it's dropped the better.
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Apr 3, 2022 14:20
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FullLeatherJacket posted:THE AMERICAN NIGHTMARE, CODY RHODES i'd like to add at the beginning of AEW one time he filmed a vignette to build a big match he was having in tribute to ric flair it was just him and tony schiavone in a limo having an incredibly awkward conversation about nothing and it dragged on for what felt like 10 minutes Hefty Leftist fucked around with this message at 14:55 on Apr 3, 2022 |
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Apr 3, 2022 14:50
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Hefty Leftist posted:i'd like to add at the beginning of AEW one time he filmed a vignette to build a big match he was having in tribute to ric flair I need to find the very artsy one he did before the Jericho match where he's just zoning out while training and lying in a float tank and then the next week there's a Jericho parody version which is just a shot-for-shot remake with him lying in a bathtub overlaid with interview pieces from Virgil and his aunt's friend Helen about how when Jericho was a little boy he always dreamed of becoming AEW champion it's not as if the fans didn't actually like and appreciate Cody Rhodes on a certain level, it's just that he's trying SO HARD to be an old-school babyface that it crosses into self-parody, and it felt like he wasn't willing to lean into it I'm genuinely most disappointed that we never got a program with Cody Rhodes and C.M. Punk coming down to the ring to argue for twenty minutes over who is the most humble
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Apr 3, 2022 16:28
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FullLeatherJacket posted:and then the next week there's a Jericho parody version which is just a shot-for-shot remake with him lying in a bathtub overlaid with interview pieces from Virgil and his aunt's friend Helen about how when Jericho was a little boy he always dreamed of becoming AEW champion this is still probably the funniest thing AEW has done. they should have continued to do stuff like that.
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Apr 3, 2022 16:38
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That was such good stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0WsXcPNZSo
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Apr 3, 2022 17:18
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Germansimp posted:That was such good stuff: I miss when AEW would do these awesome weird pre-tapes. Now everything's just someone stood in a lit up trailer talking about how adoptees aren't loved or whatever.
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Apr 3, 2022 17:35
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216A posted:I agreed The “young” Bucks(middle aged, balding, and ruthlessly just out for themselves to the active detriment of anyone around them) It's funny that Tony had to tell the Bucks to stop jobbing themselves so much and then people come in with takes like this.
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Apr 3, 2022 19:40
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Two questions. Has anyone ever jerked off on the belt before they were scheduled to lose it? Also, how old is this Cody dude? If the stickers that I see on the backs of late model trucks, and 1999 Pontiac Grand Ams is any indication, people named Cody don't live much past the age of 22 or so.
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Apr 3, 2022 20:32
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A few years back some wrestlers' private pics were leaked and showed somebody skeeting on an NXT belt, yeah.
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Apr 3, 2022 20:41
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Gavok posted:And before I can talk about Cody in WWE, I have to talk about Dusty in WWF. Dusty Rhodes was a big deal in Jim Crockett Promotions, which was absorbed into Georgia Championship Wrestling/World Championship Wrestling. While there were better wrestlers in the ring and definitely better looking dudes in every direction, the guy could connect to a crowd like nothing else. This flabby, funky dude had charisma pouring out of him. He had his problems, of course. Namely as a booker who had himself win all the time and ran some of his bigger ideas into the ground. Like the infamous “Dusty Finish” where a face would win a title match and either immediately after or the next day, the ref would be all, “Actually, it turns out there was some bullshit technicality I didn’t notice, so we’re just going to pretend the match never happened.” Most of all, he did not get along with standards and practices at Turner Broadcasting. They did not want any blood and let me tell you, one things that the Rhodes family loves is bleeding all over the place. Just look at any picture of Dusty’s Ruffles potato chip of a forehead. He did a storyline where the Road Warriors got pissed and stabbed Dusty in the eye with one of their shoulder spikes. WCW kicked him out the door right after that. Dusty was brought into WWF eventually, which was natural in one sense, but also...interesting. Vince McMahon always seemed to have an axe to grind when it came to Dusty in particular. In fact, there are no less than THREE WWF personalities from the late-80’s/early-90’s who existed for the sake of making fun of Dusty. 1) Virgil. Ted Dibiase’s manservant and bodyguard was named after Dusty’s real first name. 2) Akeem the African Dream. At one point, WWF decided to take their mountainous biker One Man Gang and transform him into a guy who thinks he represents Africa. Debuting the gimmick in a segment that is impressive in how racist it is, Akeem’s whole deal was meant to parody Dusty’s tendency to dance around and talk jive. 3) Reo Rodgers. A very shortlived character played by Bruce Pritchard, Reo was just a heel commentator and backstage interviewer in the form of a bad Dusty impression. He was around for maybe a month before they dropped it. While Dusty got to actually interact with Virgil and Akeem, Reo was introduced years after Dusty had left the company. The big talking point about Dusty being in WWF was that Vince had him wear yellow polka dots on his gear. People will treat this like the most horrible, petty act, like this was worse than the Montreal Screwjob. Personally, I never saw it as a big deal. He was already an ugly fat dude bouncing around in his underwear. Sorry that Vince “made him look ridiculous.” Dusty was given a solid spot in the upper-midcard, but a spot that unfortunately did not come with any chance for growth. It was an era where Hulk Hogan was the champ and the best you could do is have him temporarily be replaced with someone who was Hogan-esque like Randy Savage or the Ultimate Warrior. Dusty presumably could have been Intercontinental Champion, but the stars never aligned with that. Instead, he was given Hogan’s leftovers. He would take on those who Hogan was done feuding with, albeit with less formulaic matches. Dusty’s main feuds were against Big Boss Man, Randy Savage, Ted Dibiase, and he even had a match or two against Akeem (Spider-Man pointing at Spider-Man) in there. In addition to one of the greatest theme songs in wrestling history, Dusty was soon accompanied by Sapphire. Sapphire was a middle-aged black woman who was a Dusty superfan and would eventually go from sitting in the front row to being in his corner. Apparently, Dusty wasn’t a big fan of this, but people dug it and it really sold the whole “champion of the common man” gimmick he had going on. To give you an idea of how he was getting Hogan’s leftovers, Hogan main-evented WrestleMania 5 by beating Randy Savage for the title. Their feud would keep going until the end of the year. Immediately after, Savage would be busy feuding with Dusty and WrestleMania 6 would have Dusty and Sapphire defeat Savage and Queen Sherri in the company’s first mixed tag team match. It wasn’t until SummerSlam that Dusty’s run started to hit a snag. I guess it became apparent that Dusty only had a few months left and was planning on returning to WCW (where, once again, he would be given booking power), because it all went downhill. Sapphire was written off TV due to Ted Dibiase paying her a shitload of money to betray and abandon Dusty. Dusty found out about this during a match with Savage, so by running off to find Sapphire and getting counted out, Dusty basically lost his long-running Savage feud. Dusty’s young son Dustin was brought in to help him take on Dibiase and Virgil. A tag match was put together for Royal Rumble 1991. How buried was the Rhodes family at this point? The focus going into the match was how Virgil was starting to lose his patience working for Dibiase and was ready to turn on him. The match had a major miscommunication between Virgil and Dibiase for the sake of Dibiase getting pissed and setting up a post-match confrontation to set off Virgil’s face turn. It’s just that EVEN THEN, Dibiase and Virgil still won! In any other situation, Dusty and Dustin would have won this because that’s how wrestling logic works, but even after the big in-story gently caress-up, Dibiase still won the match and the aftermath made people forget Dusty was even there to begin with. Dusty and Dustin went to WCW. Funny enough, Dustin left WCW under similar circumstances as his father years earlier. He was in a King of the Road match, where he and his opponent wrestled in the back of a truck as it drove down a long stretch of road. He and his opponent Blacktop Bully cut themselves open to add some blood to the match and despite the PPV being called Uncensored, WCW made sure to edit the poo poo out of that match to hide as much blood as possible. Dustin returned to WWF in the mid-90’s to become Goldust. While he would be fired and rehired a million times over, the Goldust gimmick would become a huge mainstay in the company up until the late 2010’s. As for Dusty? After Royal Rumble 1991, he worked with practically every wrestling promotion under the sun in one way or another. WWE brought him back in in 2005 and inducted him into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2007. He was inducted by Dustin, as well as another one of his sons. People online noticed how charismatic the younger son was and wondered how long until this kid got himself a WWE contract...
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Apr 4, 2022 00:00
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Gavok posted:
I always thought it was more that Vince was trying to make him look ridiculous whereas he already pretty much did and seems to have known that. It's not like it mattered to him.
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Apr 4, 2022 00:10
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dusty raised himself some weird kids
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Apr 4, 2022 00:19
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dusty was overflowing with so much natural charisma that he made the polka dots work in his favor
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Apr 4, 2022 00:20
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he took them to the paywindow
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Apr 4, 2022 00:38
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Dusty had a big bruise on his jiggly belly that never healed like the storm on jupiter
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Apr 4, 2022 01:54
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Cody Rhodes loving sucks and lmao that he crawled back to WWE after all the making GBS threads on them he did in AEW. I expect he'll get a good faith push for a bit before he "pays his dues" for abandoning Vince.
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Apr 4, 2022 01:57
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Also lmao if anyone is wasting their time watching Wrestlemania tonight
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Apr 4, 2022 02:00
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vince will murder cody
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Apr 4, 2022 02:42
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tony kahn was right to not give cody booking power because you should never make an active wrestler the booker
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Apr 4, 2022 02:44
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Yeah giving a wrestler booking power seems to be the downfall of most organizations in the past. Also wrestlers with insane creative control like Hulk Hogan.
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Apr 4, 2022 02:49
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