How Good Was Dusty Rhodes Actually?

Dusty Rhodes is a man with a complicated legacy when it comes to the wrestling business. His ability to reach out and touch the audience’s soul is what every performer aspires to. He is a babyface that would work in any era because of that God-given charisma and speaking on behalf of the eternal struggle of every working man and woman of every ethnicity and sexual preference.

As a booker, he influenced the likes of Paul Heyman and Paul Levesque. The biggest names in the business have learned their most sellable character traits directly from the teachings of Dusty Rhodes. His fingerprints are all over one of the biggest commercial boom periods in wrestling history, including his story of struggle being a crucial part in the end of Cody’s story at WrestleMania 40.

However, while Dusty Rhodes would be in the conversation for The Top 10 Most Influential People To Ever Grace Professional Wrestling, that is not mirrored in his draw as a top talent or his merits as an in-ring technician. Names as derided as The Ultimate Warrior and Goldberg found themselves as bigger pop culture icons than Dusty ever managed to be. They drew more dollars than Rhodes, despite not having a slither of his talent (with all due respect to both performers in question).

As is the case with way too many great performers over the decades that he was in charge of wrestling’s biggest company, Vince McMahon’s nihilistic personality threw a major spoke in the wheel of Dusty’s legacy. It can be argued that, until Cody’s redemption arc, more people knew Dusty Rhodes for his polka dots than his infamous speech about “Hard Times,” and that is a crime against the business itself.

Ultimately, Dusty’s promos and personality have benefited from YouTube and TikTok shining a light on his best years in the NWA. A less vindictive booker would have made him one of the stars of the Golden Age of WWF, a more “wrestling-friendly” promoter than Eric Bischoff would have found a more prominent role for him in WCW, and his work in ECW shows that he could’ve been a hell of an asset to McMahon’s Attitude Era, too.

As it stands, Dusty Rhodes’ legacy is in the art of professional wrestling, and his biggest moments are lived through his son and the performers of today. This may sound bittersweet, but there are very few wrestlers who have ever had Dusty's influence while alive, and even fewer that continue to influence the business this long after they’ve passed. 

8/10