Personal demons and lapses aside: for twenty years, Dustin Runnels has been an incredible professional wrestler. The eldest son of the American Dream Dusty Rhodes can talk, he can work like a fiend, he has great size, and the ability and conviction to get a character as problematic as Goldust over with both an Attitude Era audience and a modern PG era audience. Hes winding down his in-ring career clean and sober and delivering some of the best work of his life between the ropes most of which is devoted to getting other people over. And the person that Dustin Goldust would like to get over more than anyone is his younger brother Cody. When Cody Rhodes debuted the Stardust character, many of his supporters cringed. Theyre the same people that think that Dustin wasted the best years of his career on a bizarre midcard heel gimmick when he could have been a world champion. To a degree, theyre right: but title runs are a work. What matters is the body of work a performer leaves behind (and obviously whether theyve earned enough out of it: pro wrestling aint a charity), and Goldust is a legend for a reason. Cody Rhodes has everything his older brother has, and a great look to back it all up. Hes delivered on every weird, out-there character that WWE have thrown at him: Dashing Cody Rhodes was a riot, and sinister masked Cody Rhodes was a revelation: turning a simple broken nose into character development, and transforming himself into a cross between the Phantom of the Opera and a Bond villain. The moustache! The moustache was a gimmick so bad that it felt like a punishment, but Rhodes got the moustache over with the crowd on his own. And well always secretly miss Team Rhodes Scholars. With Stardust, hes taken his love of comic books and created a whole new iteration on the made-up weirdo character that his brother created and got over. No, its not a main event gimmick but thats not the point. No one else could deliver this character, those lines, like Cody Rhodes, and he and his brother were over as a babyface tag team. Thats why when the Dust Brothers broke up and Stardust turned heel on Goldust, they deserved more than a single match against one another at a nothing pay-per-view like Fastlane. This feud could have gone for months. It could have taken a hiatus when their legendary father tragically died and then kicked into an even higher gear afterwards. More than that, Stardust versus Goldust could have made Cody Rhodes career, turned him into the main eventer that hes always secretly been. Thats what Dustin was after, and WWE let him down. Cody Rhodes is possibly the finest all-round performer in the company, more old school than old school, a young, good-looking and gifted wrestler with a stellar pedigree and a commitment to storytelling and character that many Hall Of Famers dont have. The crowd are begging for a reason to love him. Stop messing around and give it to them.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
