9. Referee Rudy Charles Does Stardust's Heel Evolution No Favors With A Blown Finish
Between his new(er) look and fiery post-match promo, Stardust did well to further establish his heel persona as cast against Goldust and his father Dusty headed into Wrestlemania. However, in blowing the "close, but no cigar" finish to their match, referee Rudy Charles ends up on this list. The most important piece of the puzzle that was the match between brothers Stardust and Goldust was the referee's ability to show that Goldust used some savvy veteran wrestling to narrowly defeat Stardust, leaving *just* enough room for his angst to boil over backstage. The match itself was destined to fall flat on the crowd, established brother tag teams fighting each other something that has always made more since in theory than in execution in wrestling history. Thus, in order to make such a certain-to-be-tepid response match work again requires the referee's ability to convey the narrowness of Goldust's victory to supply the heat for further business-to-be-done. Thanks god that Stardust's promo skills saved that segment overall.
Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
