Dusty Rhodes's 10 Greatest Legacies

When Dusty was running the show in Jim Crockett Promotions (the NWA), he was essentially public enemy number one for the WWF. The late 1980s saw a fierce wrestling war, with the two promotions running head to head shows. The most notable example of this was when the NWA ran their first ever pay-per-view, Starrcade 1987, the WWF decided to run a brand new PPV event, the Survivor Series, on the very same night. Not only did they do that, but they told PPV providers that if they did not carry the Survivor Series exclusively (i.e. not carry Starrcade), then they would not allow them to carry WrestleMania IV the following spring. 

This put a huge spanner in the works for the NWA. However, with any bitter war also comes childish behaviour and name calling. The ‘Billionaire Ted’ skits of the mid 1990s are an example of this. So when the WWF hired a wrestler called Mike Jones to be Ted DiBiase’s downtrodden servant, Bobby Heenan suggested, as a rib, that they name him Virgil, after Dusty’s real name. Bear in mind that most casual fans would have no idea who Virgil Runnels was, so this was a true inside joke.

Ironically, when Dusty jumped to the WWF, he ended up on the opposite side of the ring to his namesake at the 1991 Royal Rumble, when Dusty teamed with Dustin to take on Virgil and DiBiase. This was the match where Virgil finally turned against his employer and turned babyface.