9. Dustin Rhodes - A Great, Great, Wrestler At His Absolute Worst
Dustin Rhodes is awesome. He's been awesome since he was a rookie. It took some time for the hardcore fanbase to realize it, since they saw him as a beneficiary of nepotism, but by the time he was fired from WCW in 1995 for blading even though his direct superior had instructed him to do so, he was rightfully seen as a talented wrestler who got screwed by politics. When the WWF picked him up several months later at the time time that they hired guys like Al Snow and Chris Candido, the reaction was that Shawn Michaels would have a number of fresh opponents to have great matches with. Snow and Candido got prelim gimmicks, while Rhodes completely reinvented himself as Goldust. Being a heel didn't play to his strengths in the ring, but he did a brilliant job navigating the waters of a character that could have killed the career of a lesser performer. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xkin5d_goldust-wcw-debut-as-seven_sport In 1999, though, he left the WWF amidst personal problems and rumors that he asked Vince McMahon to buy him breast implants to somehow transform the Goldust character. He found a job in WCW right before Vince Russo was hired. Initially set to portray a new horror movie villain style character named Seven, he cut one of those newfangled "shoot promos" in his debut and became Dustin Rhodes again. He was far from the top of his game, though, a disappointment in and out of the ring, just a guy in the middle of the card. He disappeared from TV after less than six months, only to return when WCW had a month left to live for a fun program where he teamed with his dad against Ric Flair and Jeff Jarrett. Then WCW went out of business with Vince McMahon telling the breast implant story on the last Monday Nitro. WWE didn't pick up Dustin's contract. Cost: $500,000 in the first year plus a $50,000 signing bonus, $600,000 for the second year, and $700,000 for the third year. It's not entirely clear if Time Warner continued to pay him. If so he got two full years out of the deal before returning to the WWF as Goldust and going on a tear. For comparison, Ric Flair made $500,000 per year guaranteed plus $4,000 per house show, $5,000 per TV taping, and and $12,500 per pay-per-view event.
Formerly the site manager of Cageside Seats and the WWE Team Leader at Bleacher Report, David Bixenspan has been writing professionally about WWE, UFC, and other pop culture since 2009. He's currently WhatCulture's U.S. Editor and also serves as the lead writer of Figure Four Weekly and a monthly contributor to Fighting Spirit Magazine.
Cost: $500,000 in the first year plus a $50,000 signing bonus, $600,000 for the second year, and $700,000 for the third year. It's not entirely clear if Time Warner continued to pay him. If so he got two full years out of the deal before returning to the WWF as Goldust and going on a tear. For comparison, Ric Flair made $500,000 per year guaranteed plus $4,000 per house show, $5,000 per TV taping, and and $12,500 per pay-per-view event.