Dusty Rhodes Tribute: 10 Awesome Moments To Remember

6. Winning The NWA World Title

Until about the late 1980s, there was no more prestigious championship in all of wrestling than the NWA world title. Because the National Wrestling Alliance was made up of many different regional territories, a committee had to vote on who would become champion, so to earn that honor usually meant that promoters from all across the United States held you in high regard and saw money in you. Dusty Rhodes won the first two of his three NWA championships from another one of the all-time greats, the legendary Harley Race. The two had a bloody rival that tore down houses all across the country and were putting on revolutionary matches for the time period. The first win came at a house show in Dusty's home base of Tampa, Florida in August of 1979 at the Armory, a fabled wrestling venue. Unfortunately The American Dream held the belt for less than a week before dropping it back to "Handsome" Harley. He'd win it from Race once more a couple of years later in Atlanta, this time managing to hold onto it for several months. The man who unseated him as champion? None other than "Nature Boy" Ric Flair, for the first of his unparalleled amount of championship reigns. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2c_vO4Zf2M Rhodes would win his third and final world title back from Flair at the 1986 Great American Bash, but with Dusty the old saying "the money is in the chase" proved to be true, as he was a far better challenger than a champion.