Dustin Rhodes Speaks On Goldust Character, Feud With Piper, More

Former WCW, WWE and TNA Superstar, Goldust aka Black Reign aka Dustin
Rhodes joined Kayfabe Wrestling Radio Tuesday Night. In a nearly 20
minute interview, he talked about the creation of the Goldust character,
his father’s wrestling and how that effected his career decision, his
use of ring psychology, his time tag teaming with Booker T, his teaming
with Ricky Steamboat and what he learned from it, his hopes for a
heavyweight championship run, what he wants to do before he retires and a
host of other topics.


Would he still have been a wrestler if his father (WWE Hall of Famer Dusty Rhodes) wasn’t part of the business-

“Probably not. Just growing up, watching it all the time because dad
being in the business probably was the one factor that lead me to be in
the business. So, if he was not, then I have no idea what I’d be doing,
probably playing football or something like that; maybe be in the NFL by
now. Who knows?”


What he learned from the feud with Roddy Piper-

“I mean the
whole learning how to actually work heel. Working heel works different
for me; being Dustin Rhodes for so many years and then a giant switch of
a character and everything. It took me a while; it took me about six
months) to figure out Goldust and it was pretty tough trying to figure
it out. You know, I was frustrated because stuff wasn’t working and then
finally I do one thing that works and you kind of hold onto it and kind
of build off of that. That’s kind of how it got started.”


The importance of ring psychology in the professional wrestling business-

“Psychology is so hard to learn these days; you can’t really teach it.
Psychology is storytelling; it’s knowing when to do a certain move as
opposed to not doing it; how to make that first person in the front row…
there’s always someone out in the arena (out around ringside) that does
not want to be there, that hates pro wrestling and can’t stand it, that
doesn’t believe in it, he’s only there because of their kids; they’re
only there to see John Cena or someone like that. And that’s my job,
that’s who I pick; there is always one and I’ll find them. I’ll look for
them and I’ll work my whole match to get around this one individual,
whether it be female or male. And towards the end of the match, they are
on their feet and you can actually see something in their eyes change, a
spark in their eyes change… at the end of the match when they are on
their feet and you can actually see ‘wow, this guy made me a believer’,
then my job is done right.”


The Goldust character and issues with it-

“When Vince sat me
down and explained the character, explained that the character was
androgynous; I seriously had to go home and look up that word cause I
had no idea what the hell that meant. But he explained it to me; I
thought ‘Ok, let’s give this a shot’, and he said ‘I’m going to be
behind you no matter what, Dustin. There’s going to be a lot of people
talking’. But he kept using the word androgynous; never used the word
gay or anything like that, so me knowing what that means now, I’m going
out there and try to dress the part but not really understanding how to
act the part of the Goldust character; he had me trial and error stuff. I
did a few things and they didn’t really work, so I was frustrated and
finally one night I felt it clicked. I was with Savio Vega, and I owe a
big deal to Savio Vega for helping me get this character over because he
really kicked it into gear for me, and he said go behind me and start
to rub up and down my chest. I was really against that and didn’t want
to do it, but I though ‘what the hell, let’s try it’. So I tried it, it
worked, people became unglued, pissed off, angry, saying ‘what the hell
is wrong with you’, you know just horrible stuff but I was like ‘Damn,
this is fun, this is awesome. I got this’. And from that point it was so
easy, so easy that Vince had to tell me to tone it back a bit.”


Being a Heavyweight championship and his hopes to one day obtain it-

“Things just came natural to be and I think maybe some things that held
me back in the past; I’m a little hot-headed and not patient enough and
I get frustrated very, very easy. That could have led to a lot of my
not getting a world title run and things like that. It’s no easy job
being a World Heavyweight Champion; these guys like Cena, Sheamus, these
guys are modeled around that and are champs for a reason. They can go
out and do it 300 days a year and not bitch or complain and do whatever
is asked of them: appearances and whatever is asked. And they can work… I
fought for it a few times, with Austin, with Shawn Michaels, with Bret
(Hart) and it just didn’t progress. I don’t know what much else to say
about it except everyone who gets into the professional wrestling
business wants to be the World Heavyweight Champion. If they don’t, they
don’t need to be in the business. I want to be World Heavyweight
Champion, but unfortunately, that didn’t happen… I’m not going to retire
until I win the NWA World Heavyweight Title, the same belt my dad had.
I’m going to win that title before I hang it up.”