Dusty Rhodes's 10 Greatest Legacies
1. He Is simply Irreplaceable
The famous wrestling journalist Bill Apter, a personal friend of Dusty’s, released a brief and very emotional video to pay tribute to ‘The Dream’. In it, he said that Dusty was “simply irreplaceable”. He hit the nail on the head with that one simple phrase. As this article has hopefully shown, there was nobody else quite like Dusty Rhodes. His legacies listed above will live on in the wrestling business long into the future, and subsequent generations of aspiring wrestlers will be able to find old Dusty Rhodes promos and matches to learn just how to get an audience to connect with you.
I was in attendance at the 2007 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony, the night before WrestleMania 23 in Detroit. That was the night that Dusty was quite rightfully inducted. I vividly remember how, during his speech, he commanded the attention of every single member of an audience of thousands. They were listening because they knew that the Dusty Rhodes story was well worth listening to.
His most famous rival, ‘Nature Boy’ Ric Flair, summarised the legacy of Dusty Rhodes perfectly on Facebook:
“All I wanted to be in 1972 was Rambling Ricky Rhodes. The Dream told me "you can make it on your own." He mentored me and taught me how to be a star. Dusty used to say “If you are going to pass by... why not in a Cadillac??” He’s the man who invented A Flair for the Gold and was a genius way ahead of his time. Much love to your family and more respect than can ever be measured. Love you Dream.”