Golden Touch: How Dustin Runnels Crafted A Glittering THIRTY YEAR Wrestling Career

The Dust Won't Settle

Goldust Mandy Rose
WWE

It's February 2018 and Goldust has just lost a contest alongside Mandy Rose to Jimmy Uso and his real-life wife Naomi. The curious combos came together for WWE's experimental Mixed Match Challenge Facebook side project, and there's a cute coincidence buried within the make up of the match.

It utilised an endearing 'can-you-top-this' couples trope as a comedic aside to the usual bump-and-feed of WWE's largely directionless midcard, and of course, the golden couple couldn't compete with their rivals' contrasting chemistry. Unlike Mr and Mrs Fatu, Rose and Runnels couldn't commit to a kiss. It's been 20 years since the painted-up perennial paired with his own partner in the original twisted vintage of a legendary gimmick, but Dustin Runnels relationship with his much younger partner here couldn't be any further from his marriage to 'Marlena'. The age gap alone would have made Jerry Lawler blush - Dustin and Terri tied the knot when Rose was two, and divorced before she turned eight.

As the pushed stars in their respective divisions, the wedded pair took the win, but the 'Absolution' member entered comfortably her finest performance thus far as a member of 'Team RoseGold'. Away from the mechanical time-filling role on Raw, she brought lashings of action, comedy and romance to the role alongside her 'Bizarre' former Hollywood enthusiast. It was just another miracle worked by the main roster's most versatile performer akin to the Tuesdays he'd spent lending covert credibility to 205 Live weeks earlier. Dustin Runnels looked lithe enough to slot in with the Cruiserweights yet, now more than ever, he's worth his weight in gold.

CONT'D...

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett