10 Weirdest Wrestling Characters (That Actually Worked)
4. Goldust
Quite what Dustin Rhodes, son of the legendary American Dream Dusty Rhodes (and accomplished wrestling star in his own right) must have thought when WWF creative announced that he would be dressed like a living Academy Award is anyones guess. However, the bizarre, sexually ambiguous, movie-obsessed Goldust is still a firm fan favourite to this day. This faux-gay, gilded transvestite first appeared in the mid 1990s and proceeded to weird out everyone he encountered from that day onwards. Mankind may once have opined that he had no friends growing up because he ate worms, but who would you rather befriend, the worm-eater or the guy that tries to fondle your goodies whilst wearing facepaint and a gold jumpsuit? Had Rhodes not jumped into the gimmick headfirst and fully embraced the character, this odd, 1990s take on the Gorgeous George gimmick (of course named for both Dustin and the Gold Dust Trio of the 1920s) would have failed completely. It is a testament to the talent and commitment of Dustin Rhodes that the character is still a hit 20 years later. See also: Stardust.
I am a professional author and lifelong comic books/pro wrestling fan. I also work as a journalist as well as writing comic books (I also draw), screenplays, stage plays, songs and prose fiction.
I don't generally read or reply to comments here on What Culture (too many trolls!), but if you follow my Twitter (@heyquicksilver), I'll talk to you all day long!
If you are interested in reading more of my stuff, you can find it on http://quicksilverstories.weebly.com/ (my personal site, which has other wrestling/comics/pop culture stuff on it).
I also write for FLiCK http://www.flickonline.co.uk/flicktion, which is the best place to read my fiction work.
Oh yeah - I'm about to become a Dad for the first time, so if my stuff seems more sentimental than usual - blame it on that!
Finally, I sincerely appreciate every single read I get. So if you're reading this, thank you, you've made me feel like Shakespeare for a day! (see what I mean?)
Latcho Drom,
- CQ
