10 Dick Moves Promoters Used To Improve Wrestlers' Performances
4. Mocking Dusty Rhodes
Dusty Rhodes was twice a victim of Vince McMahon's vindictiveness in the late-1980s, but only when the joke was literally on him was he able to turn it back around on the wily promoter.
McMahon had christened Ted Dibiase's man-servant Virgil as a rib on Dusty (real name Virgil Riley Runnels Jr) during his time as a booker and wrestler for Jim Crockett Promotions, but went one further when he actually convinced Rhodes to join up with him in 1989. Taking the 'American Dream' and attempting to turn it into some sort of July 4th parade in human form, Dusty's working man schtick was instead repurposed as a polka-sporting 'Common Man'.
Out he went as one of North America's most iconic performers at the time, and did just that - performed. He just did it so well that audiences fell in love with him all over again.
It mattered not that his polka dot fascination was never explained (nor looked good), or that his dancing didn't exactly jive with the working class hero he'd portrayed so believably down. He was simply as good at doing one thing as he was others, and McMahon's Sports Entertainment silliness simply couldn't disguise it.