I did not cause the downfall of Jim Crockett Promotions. Not by a long shot.
— Dusty Rhodes
I don't want to be someone saying 'Hey, why don't you use my boy?' You can ask Mr. McMahon or anybody. Never once. Cody calls his own shots.
My mom was from Germantown and was of German descent. She was a real force behind me and my dream. She was always my biggest fan, even when I was wrestling at an early age.
I can't explain it, but from the first day I stepped into a wrestling ring, I knew that one day I was going to be a big superstar. I knew that one day I would be the NWA World Heavyweight Champion like my hero, Lou Thesz.
If I could not be in this free and wonderful country - I wouldn't want to be anywhere else, mind you - Mexico is where I would live. I love Mexico, and I love the Mexican people.
You look at driving down the road, night after night, tryin' to make a town, getting $25 - that's hard times. It's our duty to make it good times for the fans that pay their money to see us perform each and every night.
Hard times are when a man has worked at a job for 30 years - 30 years - and they give him a watch, kick him in the butt, and say, 'Hey, a computer took your place, daddy.' That's hard times!
The business is my life, the ring my salvation, the locker room and roads my nourishment.
One night in 1974, I made the comment, 'Here I am, this fat kid, the son of a plumber. I don't look like a body builder; fist fight in a parking lot, it doesn't matter. I'm getting ready to sell out this building. I'm going to sell out Madison Square Garden one day. This is the American Dream. I'm living it.'
Terry Funk. Any time I got to wrestle with him, it was cool. Superstar Billy Graham was another one.
Dick Murdoch is a true Hall of Famer.
Kevin Sullivan? He's Anthony Hopkins. The Prince of Darkness. The devil himself. Against the 'American Dream' Dusty Rhodes, the chubby plumber's son from Austin, Texas. My God, those billboards go up, and you're going to want to go see it.
Believability and respect are two of the main ingredients in professional wrestling that are sorely missing today.
I wasn't always Rhodes, but I was always Dusty. I was never called Virgil - not by my family, not by my friends. Even my teachers at school didn't call me Virgil.
There's nothing like being a Texan, and I'm proud to be one.
I've wined and dined with kings and queens, and I've slept in the alley eating pork and beans.
I love teaching. I love coaching. I love teaching communications class. I love giving back to the kids and the industry.
When I became 'The American Dream,' they needed a hero down here. I had no money - I couldn't buy a car without being tied under - but I had to have a Cadillac with blue stars on the hood no matter what it cost because just driving in it will set how they look at me and perceive this guy; they'll know.
At the time when I started, coming out of football, I always used a forearm or an elbow. When it became Bionic is when I said it was Bionic. I went to some secret doctor in Istanbul who put some Bionic stuff in there.
They say behind every successful man is a powerful woman. And there is no more powerful performer I would rather be in the ring with for a conversation than Stephanie McMahon.
For as long as I can remember, my nickname was Dusty. I remember my dad naming me that because of the streets where we lived.
You pay your dues and work your way up through the system, whatever system there is - something guys in the business today don't really understand, don't have a clue.
One of the regrettable things in my life is that my dad was not around to see my stardom, to see me wrestle or to see what I achieved by the dream I had at an early age, influenced by where he would like to go.
What takes Hollywood weeks and months to film takes professional wrestlers and the companies behind them literally minutes to put together. A spontaneous explosion of emotion unleashed before your very eyes.
I admit, I don't look like the athlete of the day's supposed to look. My belly's just a little big, my heinie's just a little big, but, brother, I am bad, and they know I'm bad.
You don't know what hard times are, daddy. Hard times are when the textile workers around this country are out of work, they got 4 or 5 kids and can't pay their wages, can't buy their food. Hard times are when the autoworkers are out of work, and they tell 'em to go home.
If I'm selling, I want them all selling in the audience. If I'm coming back, I want them all coming back. If I'm bleeding, I want them bleeding. If I win, they win. If I lose, they lose.
The combination of old and new is what every wrestling organization should be like. That way, you have a chance to match up the legends in dream main events.
