Dustin Rhodes

[Matt D]

I haven't had time to listen to the new Wrestling Culture yet, but it looked like one of the talking points was about whether or not there weren't good Dustin matches from 96-97 that fell through the cracks. I'm working on a Dustin thing myself and that's a blind spot for me, so I'm going to run through a few quickly. There wasn't a general note for him so I'm making it.

 

Goldust vs Ahmed Johnson KOTR 1996:

 

I'm a little worried about Dustin filling up 15 minutes with Ahmed. This is for the IC belt and the issue, in part, was over Goldust giving Ahmed mouth to mouth the month before. First few minutes are well put together and all about Ahmed trying to kill Goldust and Dustin just surviving. He bumps well for him, rabbits around the ring and ringside area and eats offense while Ahmed plays out of control intense well, including a scary early match dive. Transition comes when Ahmed misses a splash in the corner and Dustin follows up with a stairs shot (which is what Ahmed tried to kill him with earlier).

 

The base for Dustin's heat segment is a grounded rear chinlock which is never the most interesting thing but he keeps it sort of interesting with kidneywork (butt drops and nice looking rabbit punches) and his little taunts/flourishes that get the crowd on him. Ahmed is sort of made to have high intensity comeback spots that go wrong. Grounding Ahmed makes a lot of sense from a logic point of view but it's not super compelling. Dustin does a pretty clunky blocked sunset flip as part of a more elaborate hope spot which I think is, in part due to the combined size of the two. His cut off is an awesome punch and followed up by even more awesome punches and a decent enough pile driver, which is something I'm not sure I can remember seeing Dustin use. They keep half losing the crowd but Dustin draws them back in with the theatrics and fondling and what not.

 

They do a great job of drawing out Ahmed's hope spots. The first was momentary, the second a bit more extended (and hopeful) and in the third he actually got to hit a lot of standing corner clotheslines before Dustin cut it off. He also hit a great Dibiase style fist drop, but that's a little beside the point. Then, with the next hope spot, which between Ahmed's late match selling and the WWE feel of "blocked punches = comeback," you think it's time, but Ahmed misses a big dropkick for the cutoff. Dustin's frustrated he can't put him away but he finally locks on a sleeper which is sort of the logical conclusion to all the earlier chinlocks. Dustin breaks it at two to slap and taunt Ahmed more setting up a mouth to mouth spot (which is something I just actually typed and actually the entire point of the match) and an Ahmed choke counter. Ahmed goes nuts in response and the fans momentarily go nuts with him. Huge spinebuster. Pearl River Plunge and the finish. Fans erupt at the pin and title change.

 

There was a tiny bit of a lull in the middle but weirdly it all played into the underlying story and the finish so I won't fault it. This was obviously a wonky story but Dustin executed it extremely well. I think it's actually a testament to him that he was able to make it work so well. I imagine people hated this at the time but if you actually break down the mechanics of it, I'm not sure anyone could have executed it better.

 

Bret Hart vs Goldust - Raw - January 22, 1996

 

After entrances and with three commercial breaks, this can't be more than six minutes. It's right after the Royal Rumble and is IC champion vs World champion. Bret's working a knee injury so this should be a good six minutes. Bret gives a clean break early. Goldust taunts in response. After the break Bret has him in a hammerlock but Goldust refuses to break clean and takes over with a nicely worked hammerlock of his own. Fans get behind Bret and he tosses Goldust out through the second rope. We have a SECOND commercial break and Goldust is back on top. Weirdly, he's working the arm despite Bret's damaged leg (which he's selling well, throughout). Finally Bret makes a comeback and Goldust finally tries to go for the leg but gets kicked out of the ring. He tries to take a powder and Razor stops him at the Gorilla Position and sends him back in. We get a THIRD commercial break and when we get back Bret's mid 5 Moves of Doom. He slaps on the sharpshooter and Goldust taps instantly. It's absolutely hilarious that we had three commercial breaks in a fifteen minute match, tops. What we actually got to see between the two of them was good, but come on. Also, really shoddy booking to give away this match, with a finish, where the IC champ got basically demolished by an injured world champion (and due to the cutting that's what it looked like certainly) on free TV.

 

Goldust vs Undertaker - In Your House Mind Games (9/22/96)

 

This has to be one of Dustin's highest profile WWF matches, no? It's no DQ and right after Taker lost Bearer and the urn so he's a little vulnerable. Dustin's good in the opening shine here. He bumps, sells, and stooges for Taker (his selling of Old School is especially good) with he and Marlena getting a lot of opportunistic shots in, only for Undertaker to rise up again and again. Undertaker has a really nice standing vertical suplex. It's a little weird to see him use a hip toss out of the corner though. I was looking forward to the transition since I was wondering how he'd manage it. It's well done visually. Goldust gets some kind of "gold dust" out of Marlena's purse while Undertaker is distracted by her (and by distracted i mean lifts her straight up) and tosses it into Taker's face. He plays blind well as Dustin swarms in and out. My favorite visual moment is Dustin standing on the apron as Taker turns around; he lifts up Taker's hair with one hand so it's not over his face and then punches him with the other. This is good stuff. Taker's able to create hope spots just by breaking content or alternatively, by using any contact to strike at Goldust or toss him around and then Dustin's able to do some subtle stalking to cut it off due to the blindness. His offense looks really good. Nothing flashy but everything gritty a lot of it right to the eyes, including a claw and a great bootscratch. The final hope spot is Taker rising up and choking while Dustin taunts and it pops the crowd. Pissed off Taker in the corner was pretty great in 96. We still get a cut off and a nearfall after a powerslam as we cycle into the finishing stretch. Taker ducks a clothesline and hits his flying one. Dustin fights back but eats a nice looking chokeslam off the top and then the tombstone. Definitely a good match though they really didn't use the stips, probably due to Shawn vs Mankind later in the night.

[Gregor]

Earlier this year I watched a bunch of Goldust from around this time to see how good he was and came away unimpressed. These were some pretty positive reviews so I thought I'd check out the matches myself.

 

The KOTR match got off to a good start, and I really liked Ahmed hurling the steps at Goldust and Goldust doing the twirling bump off a clothesline. The way they built up Ahmed's hope spots was nice but other than that it was a pretty boring heat segment. Even if using chinlocks to build to a sleeper makes sense, there's probably another way to set up the sleeper that won't lose the crowd as much. That piledriver was awful. The finish was nice in that it was a good way to pay off the angle. These two didn't seem to have much chemistry, but Ahmed is one of the clumsiest looking guys on the roster at this point so that's not something to pin on Goldust. This was sort of a commendable effort from Goldust here, as the match never fell apart. After the hot start, though, it wasn't all that interesting, either.

 

Nothing happened in the Goldust vs. Bret match. That spot where Goldust took a swing at Bret while crashing to the mat was pretty cool. Too bad they followed it up with an awkward spot when Bret punched Goldust right as Goldust took out his legs. Goldust attacking the arm rather than the leg was weird but I can't complain because it wasn't even for one minute.

 

That Mind Games match - someone must have missed something, because this wasn't wrestled as a no-DQ match. They kept setting up these ref distraction spots that were completely unnecessary. Goldust's shots to the eyes were pretty good individually but I'm not sure that they added up to a good control segment, as they were all sort of interchangeable. There wasn't really any build. Goldust's chokeslam bump was really bad. I didn't think this was good.

[Matt D]

I obviously liked the mind games match more than you did, but I don't think we were that far off on the other two. I am a bit of an Undertaker apologist admittedly and I kind of enjoy watching the different ways guys believably keep on offense against him. I'm mainly grabbing stuff at random here.

 

Goldust (debut) vs Marty Jannetty - In Your House - 10/22/95

 

Dustin had been on house shows for about a month and a half before this, mainly going up against Bob Holly so this isn't his first time in the gimmick or working heel, but it's definitely early on and the first time on TV/PPV. Marty explodes from the get go causing Goldust to hit the floor and stumble around the ringside area/ramp. It's not the worst idea since it let's the crowd get a look at him without his wig/robe for the first time. Just when Dustin is about to turn around and rush back in Mary nails him with a clothesline which Dustin does his twisting bump for, onto the concrete. Jannetty rolls him in but he slinks right back out and sort of highsteps away. The body language wasn't quite down yet. He stalls around the ring as Jannetty does the chicken dance in the ring. Weird way to debut a character. They do a little chain wrestling, leading to a roll up by Goldust. After the kick out, he's ready with a huge punch. Jannetty comes back with a flurry of their own ending with a Frankensteiner. This keeps on for a bit, spirited stuff with some good strikes and back and forth. It culminates with a huge Dustin clothesline which Jannetty does an even larger flip sell for. Not how I would have started the match if I was debuting him, but it was good action nonetheless.

 

Goldust's control segment is strong for the most part. His offense is well paced and a grounded chinlock works here because Jannetty is good at working from the bottom and keeping it interesting. One thing that's coming out from watching these (as well as endless babyface Dustin matches) is that he's very good at pacing and layering hope spots. At one point Jannetty looks like he's going to clothesline Goldust on the top rope from the apron but actually snapmares him outside instead, which is a crazy spot. The cutoff here is that (apparently signature) Jannetty kidney bump into the post. After a suplex in, Dustin goes back to the chinlock base. Again, at the time, I could see why people might not have liked this element of Dustin's work, but against the right opponent it's tried and true and effective to lead into hope spots. They flub a Jannetty flip over counter to a back body drop, but then he misses a splash into the corner and you'd swear his face goes right into the post. Goldust follows up with a DDT for a two count, but Jannetty comes back with a rocker dropper. Instead of going for the pin he goes for the fist drop off the top. Goldust moves. Jannetty lands on his feet and hits a fun elbow drop on a kneeling Dustin. Three fired up clotheslines later, Jannetty goes for the fist drop again, only to eat a foot. Goldust gives him the thumbs down and a goardbuster for the three.

 

This was definitely good but way too competitive for a debut. Good match, wrong circumstance.

 

Goldust vs Savio Vega series

 

There are something like five matches between these two, so why the hell not.

 

Goldust vs Savio - Raw 10/30/95 - Goldust TV Debut

 

This is the Halloween show and Vince in prisoner garb is awesome.

 

 

Like the PPV debut, It's all about the entrance. Awesomely, Dustin rushes in before the lights come on. He's working a methodological heel well early on, letting his shots sink in and mean something. He feeds right into an energetic early Savio comeback. Dustin hangs on to the ropes to avoid a dropkick and takes back over, tossing Savio into the ring post shoulder-first and then honing in on the arm/shoulder. The man has a nice looking clubber. I'm just saying. Also nice is bending the arm around the ringpost from the floor. His grounded top wristlock is more interesting than the chinlock bases I've been seeing. Savio comes back. Savio gets nailed in the arm and stumbles into a seated position in the corner. Dustin follows up with a great running knee to the arm in the corner. Goldust misses a charge into the corner and Savio comes back with three clotheslines, making sure to sell the bad arm, even when he's doing his little celebration stomp, which is a nice touch. Finally, Dustin ducks the spin wheel kick, which makes for a nasty bump, comes right back with a running kick to the shoulder, and finishes with an awesome hammerlock pin. This was really good, probably not as good as the longer Jannetty match but it made for a more effective debut.

 

Goldust vs Savio Vega - Raw - April 15, 1996

 

The idea of Vince watching Duckman is a little surreal to me. They're killing time here to lead up to the Ultimate Warrior match at In Your House. Vega's sort of at the height of his push in WWF, feuding with Austin and what not. Dustin was really working in the fondling and what not here. It's both a bit more overt than what, let's say Adrian Street would do, with a bit more contact, but it's also less effective in general I think. Street was really good at using it to manipulate his opponent and the crowd and while Goldust generates heat with it, I don't see it work quite as well into the narrative of his matches. He's definitely getting heat in this match though, enraging Vega and then running away. It doesn't lead to Goldust taking advantage though. He eventually gets back into the ring and Savio just gets in some aggressive shine offense, which Dustin takes well but it sort of defeats the point of the mind games.

 

Commercial break ends with Savio doing a corner ten count on Dustin. I really like his mannerisms here trying to avoid getting punched. He reverses it into a hot shot which I don't think I've ever seen before but it's a really great transition. To be fair to my point above, Lawler sells it as Vega not going to a pin somewhere in there when he had the chance because he was so mad at Dustin's earlier antics. I don't think the match itself shows that though. By this point Dustin had worked in the buttslam which gets a good reaction and gives him plenty of time for the histrionics. We go back (again) to the rear chinlock as a base, though it's seated this time which looks a little better. Dustin decides he's not getting enough heat so he punches Savio in the head and takes the house mic, insulting the crowd mid match and saying that he'd kiss each and every one of them. This leads directly into a hope segment which the crowd is, unsurprisingly, very into. Dustin cuts it off and starts slapping Savio repeatedly, which leads to another hope spot and kickout, followed by Dustin going up and getting crotched and then hit by a great superkick from mat to the top rope. Savio tries to follow up with a Superplex but Dustin cuts it off with a headbutt and then a kiss, only to dive right into a boot. The crowd is really into this. I had some problems with how the gimmick operated in the early part of the match, but it's being utilized to a huge degree during the heat segment and that I think is really effective.

 

Savio really makes his comeback after the boot, with giant punch reversals and clotheslines an an atomic drop that could be felt in the back row. We come back from another commercial right into a ref bump. Marlena grabs for the belt and tosses it to Dustin as Savio tries to wake the ref. Tim White has come out to help the downed ref. They do a great job of drawing this out with Savio hitting two superkicks to avoid belt shots before finally picking it up and nailing Dustin with it right in front of White but not the still groggy Hebner, who turns around and counts the three. White immediately rolls in to try to explain what happened. The crowd is really excited but it's obvious the Dusty Finish is in effect. Monsoon comes out to throw out the match, to strip Goldust of the belt and to set up a rematch for the next week. Good match once it got going.

 

Goldust vs Savio Vega - Raw - April 22, 1996

 

Again, this is a time killer, heat-wrangler, angle-extender, shine-giver to further Austin vs Savio and give Dustin something to do while he waits for Warrior at the PPV. It was also taped almost immediately after the last match as part of the third Raw taping of the night, so the crowd almost has to be sort of weird for it.

 

They do some brawling to start followed by Goldust doing one of the best clothesline bumps I've ever seen him take. Dustin tries to take a powder and slow things down but Savio follows him right out, chops him and drags him back in. Dustin immediately hits the ropes. Savio puts his head down and Dustin slides right between his legs and hits the grounded upwards punch. Nice transition. Dustin having that punch (and its brother, the uppercut) in his arsenal means that he can take over believably at almost any point in a match. It's such a great move to cut off comebacks with too. Another thing I like about this pairing is Dustin's size advantage. It means he can do things like a corner splash that wouldn't make as much sense against Ahmed or Taker. He follows it up with a kiss to prime the fans for a tease of a Savio comeback comeback. He misses his second corner splash but gets in a perfectly timed low blow mule kick when Savio tries to capitalize. Clever wrestling.

 

Dustin follows up the low blow by working on the leg. We get a hope spot reversal to lead us into a break but when the commercial ends, Dustin's back working on the leg, including a nice looking grapevine leglock and apron shot. Pretty good heat segment with Savio limping around the ring and Dustin picking his shots and cutting off hope spots by kicking at the leg. This all inexplicably leads into a seated rear chinlock, which Dustin does well and Savio sells well in and lets us have an inset Warrior promo but I don't get why they couldn't have used a leg submission here to accomplish the same thing. We do get a nice hope spot right after the promo ends, with Dustin trying to jump on the back and Savio turning quickly to get a knee up for the foul. It's Savio's bad leg so he sells it after the fact which is a good touch that lets Goldust take back over. Goldust hits a weird looking legdrop and then stalks outside, standing on the steps and holding Savio's legs with the pole between them. After taking too much time, Savio slams his head into the pole by pulling sharply with his legs which wakes the fans back up. Savio gets back to his feet in the ring, but Austin walks out, distracting him and letting Goldust do this great kick from the floor just under the bottom rope to take out Savio's leg.

 

Goldust comes in and mounts the ten count but Savio shoves him off and hits a clothesline. He gets cut off on a splash when Goldust gets his legs up, bringing us to another break. We come back to Savio getting a two count on a small package but then eating the turnbuckle for his trouble. Goldust immediately goes for the curtain call, but Savio floats over (making sure to sell the leg on the landing; he's great at that) and hits a big spin kick, but only for a two count. Savio has a flurry, gets cut off after trying a back body drop but then reverses into a roll up. Marlena hops on the apron to distract the ref and Austin intervenes, nailing Vega with the million dollar belt. Goldust rolls over to get the three count and recover the belt.

 

Really good match.

[Grimmas]

This is what I had to say about the Savio Vega match.

 

Goldust vs. Savio Vega for the Intercontinental Title – WWF Raw, April 22, 1996

 

Dustin continued on in WCW for a few more months, but was fired in March 1995 for blading on pay-per-view. From there he went to the WWF and debuted in September of 1995. He did not show up as “The Natural” we had learned to love, but as a brand new character called Goldust. Goldust, nicknamed “The Bizarre One” was a man dressed like the Oscar award who was obsessed with movies. He was also either gay or pretending to be to play mind games with his opponents. Goldust was so ahead of the times and drew so much heat, they had to tone it down after a few months and even give him a female valet (his wife Terri as Marlena). This is after he has been the I-C Champion and now it’s been tied up after a match with Savio Vega, the week prior. Here is the rematch to determine the true I-C Champ.

 

This match is very basic. Savio Vega shines in the beginning. The middle is all Goldust working over the knee. The ending has Savio’s come back and almost win, however Marlena gets on the apron and distracts the referee leading to a roll up pin for Savio, however the referee doesn’t see it. Steve Austin (who had come to ringside earlier) hits Savio with the Million Dollar Title giving Goldust the win.

 

Dustin playing the Goldust character is a little jarring after him as the natural babyface. His strength is selling and as a heel he has to be the one dishing out the punishment, so it takes something away. However, his taunts and the spot in the corner where he is doing the ten punches and ends it with a kiss are really awesome here.

 

Final Rating: : ** ½

[Matt D]

Goldust/Savio II

 

Four Man Battle Royal (Goldust/Savio/Sid/Austin) - Raw 8/18/96

 

I actually watched this after the following two matches, so I'm in a much worse mood now. I'm hoping for something here. This is for a title shot. Sid does his kneeling pose and Goldust is immediately on him. Everyone swarms Sid and get him over the top but he comes back in and chokeslams everyone as the crowd chants for him. Austin and Goldust work together against Vega right until Austin (with a really dark mustache which makes him look like Darsow) turns on Dustin. We go to commercial and come back with Dustin in charge. A double feature shows us how Goldust just barely saved himself during the break. Austin clotheslines him out of nowhere again but Dustin catches him on the top rope and superplexes him down. It was kind of a weird visual due to his height. Savio, recovers and takes over until Austin and Dustin start working together against him again. He ducks a double clothesline and starts to clear house though. We get a nice spot where Austin athletically saves himself only to end up in a Vega catapult to get eliminated. Austin rolls back in and beats on Vega before leaving. Goldust sort of casually tosses Vega around the ring until he reverses an irish whip. Vega puts his head down and I guess the drop down head smash was more of a signature counter for Dustin than I thought at this point. Anyway, Dustin goes for the Curtain Call, Vega Floats over, hits the spin wheel kick, but this is a battle royal, so he has to get him out. Dustin ducks a clothesline and tosses Vega for the win.

 

Goldust vs Savio - Raw - 2/24/97

 

My first foray into 97. Savio's in the nation by this point. Miguel Perez is on commentary. I think Goldust might actually be a babyface by this point. This was somewhat JIP with Savio in control. He has a nice side slam which is a kind of weird move for a guy his size. They're woo-ing his corner chops, which is fairly early for that sort of thing. Now Dustin gets to layer in his hope spots. He has a nice little spot where he rolls out of the ring and out of the camera view. Sunny (who is with the Nation I guess?) hugs PG-13 which is astoundingly surreal. Crush walks around the ring and just haphazardly piledrives Goldust on the protective mat while Savio distracts the ref. There's definitely a chaotic element to the Nation being out there. Savio jaws with the spanish announce team as the crowd chants whatever the hell they want to and makes constant noise.

 

Goldust gets rolled in and eventually fights out of the corner including some flowing stomp punches that he didn't do as a heel, but he's too banged up and Savio takes right back over with an eyerake. Savio works the Trap Claw. Dustin just sort of lays there, until Savio stands him up and tosses him against the ropes. Nice little hope spot with two ducked clotheslines and a big cross body before its cut off with a nice spin kick but it's all a little lifeless. I'm cool with Andre or Ming doing the trapezius hold. I'm less cool with Savio doing it for some reason. He has a nice corner elbow though. Dustin hits a few kicks and a DDT out of nowhere. Savio's up first, slams him, but then does a splash into Dustin's knees, for what I think has to be the start of the babyface comeback. Yep. Dustin hits the dropdown punch off the ropes, some clotheslines, and the ten punch. He's so much better as a babyface (as Goldust) now. He really didn't work any of his bizarre stuff in at that point. He was wrestling this match as sort of a less fiery Natural Dustin Rhodes in a weird costume. He gets up to the top and Savio gets a foot up. Dustin catches it on the way down though, but gets tripped by Crush off the ropes. Savio misses an elbow and Dustin rolls out to nail Crush only to roll in and get hit by a glancing spin wheel kick. He plays it up as blind. I'm not sure if that was intentional or not. Regardless, Savio can't keep up the offense. D-Lo gets up on the apron and Dustin swipes at him. Crush is back up, though and rolls in and the Nation swarms until Miguel Perez makes the save.

 

It's not a great match. I do think it was sort of effective in getting over how dangerous and overwhelming the Nation was as a group. Dustin has some natural face tendencies when he's working this style that are just too good to not be there in his matches but he was pretty damn listless in this thing and all of those great elements that we see in all three runs of 00s babyface "Goldust" just weren't there.

 

Goldust/Miguel Perez, Jr. vs Savio Vega/Crush - Shotgun Saturday Night - 3/1/97

 

Well, worst case, I have Cornette announcing. Perez and Savio have a spirited exchange while Dustin lumbers about with Crush on the outside. Dustin comes back to the apron and the faces do a little shine offense on the Savio's arm til he hits an eyepoke and tags Crush. Vince even says that Goldust isn't on his game as of late, but he does duck the clothesline well and hits the kneeling uppercut in a decent enough spot. Perez tries shine control offense on Crush's arm but he just picks him up and brings him to the heel corner. This all ends with Perez doing a somersault plancha over the top onto Savio. Early match dives bug me lately. I do like the transition a lot, which is Vega, eating a Perez corner ten count, just moving forward and dropping him down, face first, onto the top rope.

 

And now I have to watch Crush. Eh, his Belly to Belly is pretty good and I liked his headbutt to cut off a few hope punches. He just slides Perez out on his face too. Dustin comes in like the idiot pissed off face partner and Savio takes Perez out the floor. I like Savio (on the apron) casually pushing Perez' foot off the rope a moment later during a pinfall too. Savio's corner offense is good and Dustin's playing his role on the apron alright, even if it's not very remarkable. Cornette asking Vince the difference between blatantly choking someone and not blatantly choking someone and then translating his response to "smart choking or dumb choking" is pretty funny. Crush is a little bit lumbering but he really doesn't look THAT bad here. His stomps are pretty intense following a nice sunset flip nearfall by Perez.

 

Goldust just ran away, presumably because of Hunter and Chyna menacing Marlena backstage or something? We go to commercial and came back to another trap claw, this time by Crush. Hooray for the nation. Oh good, Goldust is back and Perez fights up and out only to end up in a middling (as in sort of crummy in execution as he fell to the side but it was enjoyably lightning quick) Crush pile driver. Dustin breaks it up but distracts the ref in the process and the heels do a blind switch. This is an okay heat segment. Crush comes in and hits a huge press slam which is exactly how Crush should be used. He lifts him up at two, though, which leads to a float over suplex reversal and a flash DDT.

 

Dustin clears house at half speed while Cornette tries to convince us we're watching something intense. Bless him. It breaks down. The ref is distracted by Perez. Vince is pissed that the director misses it. Crush uses a chair on Goldust who is pinning Vega.

 

Ok, I think I should go watch a Buddy Rose match or something. Dustin was totally by the numbers here. He played his role and did what should have worked but there was, again, just no life to any of it. It's night and day between this and his tag work with Booker or Cody.

 

One last match.

 

Goldust vs Savio - Raw - 10/13/97

 

Savio's with Los Boricuas now. This is right after Pillman died, with Marlena back with babyface Dustin,. Right from the get go, Goldust has more of a presence than in the last two matches. Okay, yeah, he's figured it out. He's crouching forward before the lock ups, moving with more zip, and he does the hands on the chest taunt after a winning exchange. Back and forth after that until Boricua distraction/interference leads to a Vega superkick. The ref tosses them out but Savio's in charge now. Everything's more compressed now. We get a hope spot and a cut off and then it goes straight to Savio going after Marlena and luring Goldust into another nice kick. We get the splash/knees up for the third time in 6 matches or so then a duck of the Spin Wheel Kick and the Curtain Call/Float Over counter too. This is followed by another nice kick. This is hugely back and forth and sprint-ish with Dustin hitting the kneeling punch counter and Savio hitting a spinning kick in the corner (and out of the ring). Finish is clever as Marlena tosses the cigar in, distracting the ref so that Dustin can use her purse for the KO punch. Cute solidarity stuff. This was fine but obviously slight. Dustin was considerably better than earlier in the year.

 

Enough of Vega (and this era). I'm doing Dustin/Regal next to make myself feel better.

[bradhindsight]

Is there any tape of the Goldust/HBK title match (dark match) after the Buried Alive PPV?

[Matt D]

Forgot I wrote this up before:

 

WWF - 8/24/96 - Toronto - Shawn Michaels vs Goldust - Ladder Match

 

I can see why this match is slept upon. The term "ladder match" creates a certain set of expectations, and those expectations were even more prevalent a few years ago. In this match the craziest bump has nothing to do with the ladder and there's only one real jump off of it. The first half of the match, the ladder doesn't even come into play. It's still really good though, and in some ways more structured and better than most ladder matches.

 

Michaels' intensity in the beginning is great. I've seen very little WWF in 96, actually, so I'm not sure if he started most of his matches with that or not. He has this brutal looking chairshot early on when Goldust is going for the ladder the first time, which sort of explains why the ladder doesn't play much of a role for the first half of the match (as Dustin paid bigtime for trying to get it too early). Dustin's punches and general offense look great. Michaels bumps big for him, including one crazy no-hands catapult over the top rope. When the ladder comes into play it's mainly just a prop that Dustin uses to enhance his attack on Michaels' back and he finds smart ways to use it that aren't all that dangerous but look really good.

 

The teases of the finishers are fun for the time. One transition where Goldust sidesteps a roll up in the corner is actually pretty neat. They do a good job at cutting off comebacks and timing everything well. I wish Shawn didn't do this floatover out of a move (twice Curtain call, once slam, once suplex) as a reversal. Three times sort of worked and led into the finish. Four times frustrated me. It's a fancam and cuts now and again towards the end but it's minimal and you can generally figure out what little bits you missed with ease (though at one point Shawn gets his foot stuck in the rope and I kind of wish what happened immediately thereafter had been retained).

 

Also, when watching Shawn 96 Raw matches, I had a few other Shawn vs Dustin ones I'm not reawtching now. Let me C+P:

 

Shawn vs Goldust - Raw - 9/6/96:

 

I thought it was actually better than I've seen. It didn't have the fast action, necessarily, but it was really solid. Goldust was very aggressive in the early going and it was obviously he wanted to win the thing. Dustin's offense was both believable and smart. Exactly what the match called for. Shawn was a bit more active from the bottom; instead of just laying there in a chin lock, he'd kick his feet and what not. You really got the sense that Dustin knew this was for the title, that he had earned the shot, and he wanted to WIN it. I thought for sure the kip up was gong to come after the double clothesline but it didn't, and I would have bought the finish after the elbow-drop as into SCM but they twisted it a bit.

 

Shawn vs Goldust - 8-9-96 house show:

 

I'll say off the bat that the most interesting thing about Shawn in 96 is that he really changes things up. I know I said that before, but here it is again after seeing a few more matches. This didn't look all that much like the other two Goldust matches I saw. Lots of different spots and some unique spots, such as missed kick to the head by Goldust (trying to counter a back body drop set up by Shawn) followed by a missed elbow drop by Shawn. Or the beginning of the match being Goldust reversing a Shawn attempt at a piledriver on the floor. The real meat of the match storywise was Goldust grounding Shawn and hooking in a chinlock. Shawn comes back the first time with the elbows but is cut off with a kneelift to the gut. Comes back the second time in a test of strength sort of way a couple of minutes later, but is powered down, and then the third time actually powers out of the thing and tosses Goldust across the ring. It's a solid story if not an entirely compelling one. Goldust's chinlocks are pretty good though Shawn's selling isn't as interesting. The fans pop for each comeback but I think in this case, the blending of a slightly quicker pace and the story being told in the TV match worked better.

[Matt D]

Dustin/Pillman vs Austin/Regal - Worldwide - 3/5/94

 

I actually have a rule against watching 94 WCW. I was totally out of watching wrestling as a kid and I never saw much of any of it and it's sort of thing thing I hold in reserve for a rainy day. Someday I'll buy a year comp for WCW SN and Worldwide and The Main Event and all the clashes and PPVs and it'll be at a time where I need great wrestling and it will get my back. I'm making a rare exception for this.

 

This is a chicken suit vs title shot match. Robert Parker has the chicken suit in hand, so that's great from the get go. Regal and Bryan do a lot of fun matwork to start, mostly back and forth stuff with Pillman being the aggressor and taking the advantage as Regal stooges somewhat. Dustin tags in and does a lot of the Dusty punch/elbow stuff which I thought he had mostly stopped doing by 93 for some reason. He hits the ropes and then hits Austin's knee from the outside and that's our transition. I love the pissed off Worldwide crowd.

 

Regal and Austin work on Dustin. There's a hope spot that's just one punch from Dustin but Regal sells it so well and then has to stumble forward and trip the leg to get back on top. Dustin finally catches Austin off the top and goes for the bulldog, but Austin either twists out of it or they flub it. The great thing about Austin is that you can't tell which because he realizes what it looks like and one way or another, he's just going to keep on Dustin because of it. His staggering selling of Dustin's punches is just as great as Regal's, as is the desperate grapevine cutoff. Maybe it's the smaller ring, but there's just a real manic energy to this comeback/hot tag. Austin misses a move in the corner and Dustin staggers over with perfect timing. Pillman dropkicks the world. The fans go nuts for the double nogging knocker. Heels get rid of Pillman and double team Dustin, but Brian's the legal man, so when Regal turns around he eats the flying body press. Pillman wins a title shot vs Regal by winning.

 

Enjoyable little match with a fun Regal promo post match. When he starts and Heenan starts to chime in, his aristocratic flustered hand motions agreeing with the Brain are so great.

 

Goldust vs Stephen Regal - Raw - 11/2/98

 

I'm expecting this to be a sad, entertaining bit of nothing. I kind of want to see Regal vs Bradshaw from this period as well. Regal's in pretty bad shape in every way possible. He demands a man to come out to face him. A man's man. A real man's man. Dustin obliges. I need to rewatch Dustin vs Venis at some point, but this is probably the only 98 Dustin I'm touching now. Regal at his worst can still stooge and bump but he can't quite take a hiptoss and some of the counterwrestling has Dustin really walking him through it (at least as far as I can tell). Maybe he shouldn't have tried for the kip up. This really isn't that bad and it's kind of a strange testament to both guys. At one point Regal redirects him out and Terri (who was just with Val but got dumped by her during the pregnancy angle) comes down as Marlena. Regal ambushes a distracted Dustin as he rolls in and I wish they just went home there. Even Blitzed Regal throws great uppercuts and forearms though. Dustin doesn't even bothering going down to his knees for the uppercut comeback. He sets up the shattered dreams but here comes Kane and for once it's sort of a mercy killing. The crowd so badly wants Kane to kill Terri, but we'll just move past that. No! Not Tony Garea! God dammit Kane. Let's just move forward a few years.

 

Goldust & William Regal vs RVD and Edge - Raw - 2/18/02

 

I have no idea why this match exists. I think they brought Dustin back to stalk RVD or something, but I don't feel like tracking the No Way Out match. I actually think RVD/Edge could work fairly well as a tag team. RVD's offense is set up well for a babyface shine AND a hot tag and Edge can probably eat offense during a heat segment well enough. Apparently the Rock just got shot or something since that's all anyone wants to talk about. The crowd doesn't care. They want to chant RVD.

 

RVD and Goldust work surprisingly well together. The shine is basically a collision and double spin wheel kick. Dustin hits the drop down uppercut and takes over. They're sprinting. This is a 5 minute match. Regal hits the knee trembler. Goldust hits the butt butt.

Goldust keeps on RVD until he catches RVD's foot and RVD hits that reverse spin kick. Hot tag to Edge. He clears house. Goldust and RVD brawl outside. Edge hits the spear and hey! Educator. I love the Educator. Regal taps. Edge spears Goldust post match and that was mildly amusing. I'm so glad Regal turned it around between 99 and 02.

 

Goldust vs Regal - Heat - 8/4/02

 

Amazingly horrific Regal pre-match promo with Terri where he's just terrible to her. "He's going to be crying tears as big as October cabbages!" This is going to get about four minutes too. We're so much better off now. D-Lo Brown is announcing. I always say you learn things from watching wrestlers in any situation. Here, despite the lack of time they're getting, they started with back and forth chain wrestling. Dustin got the better of it so Regal got in a cheap shot knee and started to hammer him in the corner. Dustin comes back with whip reversal and back body drop but Regal cuts him off by dropping him groin first on the top rope after catching a body block. Knee Trembler gets a two count. Goldust punches back. Regal reverses a whip but Goldust drops down for the punch. Regal forearms out of the Curtain Call but Goldust gets a lightning roll up while he's fumbling for the knuckles. Post match, Regal gets a revenge shot in.

 

Like I said, it's interesting to see what two masters of their craft do with four minutes and how they decide to fill the time, what they put in or leave out, but it's not anything to actively seek out.

 

We'll skip the 10/7/02 Showgirl match from Raw just saying that Regal's pretty hilarious, Goldust's punches on the interfering Lance Storm look great, and Regal's victory strutting had to be the most fun he had all year.

 

Hurricane/Goldust vs Regal/Storm from the Survivor Series 2002 Pre-Show gets a whole three minutes but at least Regal got to hit an exploder on Hurricane. 30 seconds Hurricane shine. 1:30 heat on Hurricane with one hope rope up. fifteen seconds or less for the come back into the hot tag. Goldust clears house for about 30 seconds. and we get a 30 second "it all breaks down" period with a nice looking finish (Goldust goes for the Curtain Call, but Regal clotheslines him from behind and Storm rolls him up). We even get 15 seconds of Dreamer beating guys up with a kendo stick. Maybe I should have stuck with 1997.

 

I think I'm done for now. I have the Bookdust vs Unamericans stuff and a lot of ECW left, but this went downhill quick. What I will say is this: Dustin gets it by 02. He really, really gets it. I need to actually look at some of the Black Reign stuff because I just can't imagine him unable to work a good match after this point. Everything he does, even in these three minute matches, is just the right thing. He may not have the time or the opportunity or even the mandate to do enough to have a great match, but the stuff that he does do really does stand out to me as almost unquestionably good. That wasn't the case at all in early 97.

[Troy]

I preferred Dustin Rhodes to Goldust

[Ryan Faulconer]

Does anyone think Dustin could have made a better lead babyface in WCW than Sting? I'm starting to ask that same question. If Dustin had stayed in WCW the entire time the quality of his matches would have piled up faster than Sting.

[ButchReedMark]

You know, I was trying to think where he'd fit in WCW 96-99 earlier! I honestly didn't have a clue what he'd end up doing.

[Matt D]

He'd be the hogan friend to turn on him like Orndorff.

[goodhelmet]

Dustin as Dusty-lite would not be a main player. Dustin who undergoes a Golduest-esque transformation could have been a main event player. I am not saying he becomes Goldust. I am simply arguing that he needed a major image change to be a player in nWo era WCW.

[Grimmas]

Dustin as Dusty-lite would not be a main player. Dustin who undergoes a Golduest-esque transformation could have been a main event player. I am not saying he becomes Goldust. I am simply arguing that he needed a major image change to be a player in nWo era WCW.

He was so over in 1994 though, I think he could had been the man. Just as a working man who does not take any shit. It worked for Steve Austin.

[goodhelmet]

He was never built as well as Austin. Austin had a "cool" every man's look (bald head, goatee, balck trunks, skull shirts). Austin rocked it on the mic. I don't know of too many pre-Goldust Dustin promos worth watching. Not saying they don't exist. I am saying I don't know which ones are Austin worthy.

[Grimmas]

He was never built as well as Austin. Austin had a "cool" every man's look (bald head, goatee, balck trunks, skull shirts). Austin rocked it on the mic. I don't know of too many pre-Goldust Dustin promos worth watching. Not saying they don't exist. I am saying I don't know which ones are Austin worthy.

Yeah he never would had been as big as Austin but he could had rivaled Sting. Even though the promos were not great his sympathy and charisma in the ring were huge.

[Dylan Waco]

There are two ways of approaching this question.

 

The first is would Dustin have been as successful (or more so) a drawing card as Sting. The answer there is that it's hard to fathom him being any worse, but there is no reason to think he would have been better either. It's likely that he just would have been another guy fucked by WCW booking and incompetence. If he had been pushed as the top face from say 92 (the earliest when that is even feasible, and that is a stretch) through til Hogan came in in 94, he would have probably slid into that "other face" at or near the top of the cards role that Sting had prior to the Hogan heel turn in the middle of 96. This means it's possible he would have headlined some decent house show runs, and maybe had a memorable feud or two, but not one would have seen him as THE star of the show. It's hard to imagine him coming through all of that without at least one heel turn given the nature of the business in the MNW Era. In a sense the best case scenario for Dustin in WCW might have been to weather the storm of 95 in a U.S. title level role, maybe turning heel then, and then coming back as a WCW aligned face during the NWO breakout in the Summer of 96. From there I could actually see Dustin being one of the most over babyface acts in the company as a sort of "heir to tradition" good, but tough, guy. Sort of a less hammy, more rooted version of DDP.

 

The second question is would Dustin have been as good or better than Sting artistically. To that point I would argue that he already was in the period when they were in the company together, and since Dustin is one of the only guys who paired up with Vader nearly as well as Sting did, there is every reason to believe he would have been just as good, if not better had he been positioned in the top position during those years.

[goodhelmet]

Hell, I have no idea that tragic Dustin in the rafters would be better than Crow Sting. We already know that he rocks the make-up well. We know he can gather sympathy in the ring and in interviews. His offense is credible and snug. HE doesn't have Sting's physique which he would have needed unless he was rocking a Goldust-like body suit. I think Dustin would pull much better matches out of the entire NWO, Hulk Hogan at Starrcade, been credible against Goldberg and have sweet matches against DDP and the cruisers. The entire argument is one of cosmetics.

[Grimmas]

What if Hogan was brought in as a special attraction. He was already only on about half of the shows. The Flair and Dungeon of Doom stuff could had been without the title and not been the focus of the show.

 

If they did that and made Dustin the champion and the guy there every week, it could had worked.

[Bix]

On a related note, does anyone know if the stuff in the old WONs about Dustin being planned as getting a main event push as the guy to unify the WCW and NWA/WCWI belts was really in the cards before they made the play for Hogan? Because if so, he kind of got screwed there.

[Matt D]

Goldust vs Bam Bam Bigelow - Survivor Series 1995

 

This is almost completely a blind spot for me. I had no idea that Bam Bam lasted so long into 1995, though I know he had a lead babyface run around KOTR that got quashed by the Clique or something. It's interesting how they portray him, as if he was some sort of famous Hollywood star. This was set up on Superstars with an interview with Lawler. Goldy quotes House of Wax and Lawler is pretty funny in parroting the movie name. I really love the movie quote thing. It's a shame they went away from that later on. Anyway, this is Bam Bam sort of returning the favor on his way out. It reminds me a little of him beating Bossman at Royal Rumble 1993 on his way in. As with the Jannetty and first Vega match they really make a big deal out of the entrance. JR claims that it's in his contract. I think his theme restarts three times during the entrance. It's long enough that I've had to revamp my expectations for the match. It may not seem it but there's a huge difference between a nine minute match and a thirteen minute match.

 

They go to toe from the get go. Goldust actually outpunches Bigelow. They're selling that Bam Bam doesn't know how to deal with him which is something they really hadn't played up well in his first couple of matches. Dustin looks really smooth here, actually. He's got a real zip to him. It's fairly even until Dustin accidentally punches the pole on the outside. Weirdly enough this somehow lets Goldust take advantage, catching Bam Bam after he follows him into the ring. He clotheslines him over the top, plays to the crowd/camera, and catches Bam Bam on his way back in again. Bam Bam fights out of the corner but gets cut off quickly. After a bit of grinding, Dustin tosses him again, this time following him out and slamming him onto the stairs.

 

Bam Bam finally grabs a foot and swings him around into a belly to back but he misses a falling headbutt and Dustin takes back over, smothering Bam Bam for a moment and then going for a seated chinlock/neckwrench. Bam Bam gets him into an electric chair out of it and falls backwards. JR cannily points out that Bam Bam has been unable to put two offensive moves together. They go back to the punches but Dustin gets the better of it and hits a flying clothesline and goes back to the grounded chinlock. Bam Bam turns it into another belly to back and starts his comeback. He hits a few nice clotheslines but misses a corner splash. Dustin hits the out of nowhere Bulldog and picks up the three count.

 

It was worked well enough but the transition to the heat was really confusing. Dustin got the advantage after accidentally punching the pole? Regardless, this was wrestled far differently than the Jannetty match and Goldust came out of this looking like much more of a force. It wasn't a better match but it was a more useful match in getting across the character and what I think they wanted to do with him. They may not have had it so thoroughly worked out the month before. Vince/JR/Perfect wasn't a bad announce team.

 

Goldust vs Razor Ramon - IC Title - Royal Rumble 1996

 

They really did rush Goldust right to the IC title, didn't they? Razor's obviously on the way out but I forget if he had told Vince about it yet or not. The set up of this everyone knows, I think. Flowers, a gift of a photo, the Razor heart "tattoo". The pretty memorable backstage brawl that ended up in the snow. The idea was that the mind games had taken Razor to the brink Marlena debuts here. I liked the usher. If they ever bring Naylor back in, he'd make an awesome usher for Goldust. Entrances/introductions are more than six minutes.

 

Pose. Toothpick. Effeminate stalling. Razor finally grabs and arm and just wrenches Goldust around the ring before locking in an armbar and paintbrushing him. Headlock, break, consulting with Marlena. Lock-up, go behind, reversal by Goldust, fondling, scramble away. Lock up. Press into corner. Clean Break? No, fondle. Shove away. Effeminate stalling. Back to the arm meanly. Hammerlock. Reversal. Big Goldust slap. Drop toehold and more paintbrush, then a shot to the rear. Goldust likes it. Razor punch and to the outside. Goldust hides behind Marlena. And this is a pretty good opening altogether. It's very character driven but Goldust is playing the character well.

 

Back in the ring they do some chain wrestling (a minor amount). Razor gets another shot in and Goldust rolls out and uses Marlena as a shield again. Both Dustin and Terri play this role pretty well. Goldust comes back in and stalls and now the fans are really on him. They went past the breaking point. When Razor finally gets a clothesline on him knocking him out the fans love it. And they go right back to using Marlena as a shield. This time Razor picks her up and moves her. Dustin's right there to nail him and slam his back into the top of the apron twice, followed up by a huge punch. Great transition, not because of the idea of it, which was just okay but by the execution and timing and the way Dustin made it work and Razor made it believable.

 

They come back into the ring with a double axe handle to the spine. Razor hits the corner hard three times and Dustin follows up with the bulldog for a near fall (believable since he beat Bigelow with that at Survivor series). Dustin does a slingshot belly to back which he should use now because it looks pretty cool. He follows it up by bringing him to the bottom rope, face first, and to Marlena who blows gold dust at him. Razor fires back but drops his head and gets his face slammed into the mat. Dustin follows up with a swinging neckbreaker and then a sleeper. It's interesting just how varied his offense has been just in the two years or so that I've looked at him as Goldust. The stakes are high here and the fans are sort of getting behind Razor but I've seen a lot better sleepers, both from the top and the bottom. Finally Razor starts to fight up, pressing the ref into the corner while still in the sleeper and mulekicks his way out. Both guys selling. Goldust is up first for a two count but then Razor kicks out and starts blocking punches to start his comeback. On paper the mule kick/kick out/comeback should have worked better I think. The fans didn't pop for it even though they set it up well.

 

Razor hits a chokeslam and fallaway slam for a two counts, but Goldust gets the eyes as they start to head towards the finish. Goldust gets into moonsault position which would be fine now, since he uses that turnaround crossbody a lot but was blatantly obvious in this match. It's the set up for the second rope belly to back. Razor catches him and hits it while Marlena comes in, distracting the ref first by getting into the ring and then twisting her ankle. While the ref is distracted distracted, the 1-2-3 Kid comes out of the crowd and hits a nasty spin kick off the top. Goldust crawls over for the pin and the belt.

 

There was a lot to like about the match, certainly. I thought everything up to the transition to the heat segment paid off really well. There were a couple of layout issues later on though. Was the Kid in the crowd just waiting to come out when he had an opportunity? Were they in cahoots? In general I like Marlena being there because the fans were supposed to expect that the mind games were the plan all along and instead he brings her out. I guess she could have been another feint and the Kid could have been the real plan but I don't really buy that. Had Marlena planned to leap up on the apron whenever Razor started to hit the belly to back regardless? A lot of things just seemed to happen because they were supposed to, which is never a good feeling coming out of a match. I also think the mule kick transition to comeback was a little flat. Maybe they gave away too many Razor punches early on?

[goodhelmet]

I have never heard anyone say it before but I will say it now... when WCW sent Eaton & Arn to ECW, they should have sent Dustin and Buck instead. I think those guys could have matched Sabu & Cactus for insanity move for move, blood drop for blood drop. Would have been a much better match too, maybe the best in ECW history.

[goc]

I have never heard anyone say it before but I will say it now... when WCW sent Eaton & Arn to ECW, they should have sent Dustin and Buck instead. I think those guys could have matched Sabu & Cactus for insanity move for move, blood drop for blood drop. Would have been a much better match too, maybe the best in ECW history.

I'm not sure the crowd would have taken as kindly to Dustin & Buck as they did Eaton & Arn, but it was an earlier time for ECW as well.

[goodhelmet]

Well, in the end they didn't really warm to Eaton & Arn because they intentionally just let Sabu & Cactus dominate the match. I think Dustin & Buck may have adapted and died for the pleasure of the crowd.

[Cox]

As much as I love Jimmy Golden and as much as this board loves Jimmy Golden, I think the ECW Arena crowd would have shit all over Bunkhouse Buck. And a lot of hardcore fans still thought Dustin was a product of nepotism in 1994. It might have made for a better match, but the crowd would not have given it a chance.