On the most recent episode of E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness, Dustin Rhodes talked about being introduced to the Goldust character and growing into it:
“Me and my dad, we were kind of not on the best of terms at that point. I’d just gotten released from WCW, so I’m sitting at home and Vince calls and he presents this idea. He and Bruce Prichard were on the phone. He kept saying ‘This is an androgynous character,’ and I’m just agreeing with him, but I have no idea what the hell that means. So I’m like ‘Yeah, sure. I’ll give this a try,’ because I really wanted to try to do something on my own other than the Dustin Rhodes name. Try to accomplish something that is fresh and new and then go from there and see if I could do that.
“So I hung up the phone with them after agreeing to meet and sit down with all the music and costuming and all that crap that they do up there in Stamford. I open up the dictionary to look and see what ‘Androgynous’ was. I shook my head, I’m like ‘Oh well, I can’t back out now. Let’s go,’ and just give it my all. For the first six months of doing it, it was very tough because I’d always been a babyface. He wanted me to be a heel and I had to figure out this character with the wig and the robe and the double entendre promos and things like that.
“Savio Vega kept pushing me and kept pushing me as he was teaching me too, how to be a heel and things. ‘Let’s just try this tonight. We’re locked up, you go behind me and rub up and down my chest,’ and I’m just like ‘No, man, no.’ So finally one night in the Garden, the first time I did it and Vince was there. That’s when he used to go and hang out and watch the shows with the boys. He was one of the boys. It was fun for him. I decided to do it in the Garden, and I went behind Savio and I rubbed off his chest with both hands and down. He busted away from me and looked at me and I just ran. I scooted out of the ring and the place just erupted man. I was like ‘Holy s**t, that was easy.’ They’re screaming all kinds of horrible things.
“Now you do that today and they’re just going to like not care or whatever because it’s so accepted in our society. But back then, they hated that. So I took that first big, giant boo from the whole building and especially in the Garden where they don’t like that kind of s**t, and I went ‘Wow, that was easy.’ So we continued and Savio said ‘I told you so, man, I told you,’ and he kind of led me into a couple more things during that match and it just worked so well and I was like ‘Wow man, this is really fun. I can grab hold of this and do something with it.’”
Dustin also discussed the Hollywood Backlot Brawl vs. Roddy Piper at WrestleMania XII and the longevity of the Goldust character. To hear more, check out E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness.
Please credit PWPodcasts when using any part of this transcription.
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