8 Times WWE Tried (And Failed) To Recreate Their Past Success
4. The Artist Formerly Known As Goldust Fails To Shock
Dustin Runnels has had a long, commendable career. However, it’s one filled with embarrassing spots.
When arriving in the WWF in 1995, he took on the bizarre Goldust persona: a Vince McMahon brainchild. After a tepid introduction, Runnels found a successful way to get a reaction by playing up the character’s flamboyant and androgynous aspects to get heat from homophobic audiences.
For a time, Goldust was the most over heel on the roster. However, in late 1996, the decision was made to turn him babyface, and while the initial fan reaction was positive, it quickly petered down into indifference, with Goldust mired in midcard irrelevance.
Thus, in late 1997, he was turned heel again, paired with Luna Vachon, and given the persona of “The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust.”
Obviously, the idea was to recreate the heat the original incarnation of Goldust garnered. Now, instead of just being a gay pervert, he was a multicolored S&M gimp. However, that didn’t garner heat so much as confusion from fans. And it’s not like in 1995 where Goldust was the most shocking, edgy thing on the show.
By late 1997, the WWF were more or less in the Attitude era, and so everyone was pushing the envelope. Goldust wasn’t shocking, he was just befuddling. Not surprising then that he would revert to his original persona months later (after a brief run as just Dustin Runnels), and the Artist phase was quickly forgotten.