While Dusty Rhodes will be remembered as one of the most popular and best babyface wrestlers ever, he actually made his first impressions in wrestling as a heel. His career started in 1968 when he was 23 years old and quickly formed a tag team with his close friend Dick Murdoch. They were known as the Texas Outlaws in the AWA. He worked mostly as a heel for those first few years before breaking out as a babyface. By 1974, they saw a lot of potential in him in the Florida territory run by Eddie Graham so they did a big angle where his tag team partner Pak Song and manager Gary Hart turned on him during a tag match by accidentally striking Rhodes while they were doing a tag team move. It wasn't really an accident, though, so Dusty fired back on Song and Hart. That led to Dusty becoming a beloved babyface as he sought revenge against his former allies. It was soon after this when Rhodes became a breakout babyface wrestler that was loved by many in the south and all over the world, but it may not have happened without his early days as a heel.
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