The legendary career of Dustin Rhodes has seen him competing in the ring for over three decades. Dustin has wrestled for almost all the major promotions with stints in WCW, WWE, TNA and AEW. The ups and downs from Rhodes witnessed him having a few embarrassing moments in the spotlight.
Dustin primarily was a great worker known for being a professional and helping his opponents. That doesn’t he mean he was able to avoid falling into regretful scenarios. The stories range from him having poor performances to being stuck in bad creative to just dealing with bad timing. Find out what exactly was considered embarrassing in Dustin’s wrestling run.
10 Marriage To Aksana
The all-women third season of NXT featured the top female prospects from developmental competing with main roster stars as their pros. Goldust developed a relationship with the contestant Aksana on the show leading to a ridiculous wedding storyline.
The segment featured Dusty and Cody Rhodes appearing to sell the wedding element. Aksana using Goldust was the big reveal everyone saw coming at the end of the embarrassing storyline for all involved. Neither talent benefited from the storyline nor did they have a compelling payoff.
9 King Of The Road Match
WCW put Dustin Rhodes in an extremely controversial match against The Blacktop Bully at Uncensored 1995 PPV. The King of the Road match featured the two wrestlers competing in the caged off trailer of a truck as it was on the road.
Both wrestlers were put in an impossible situation of trying to make the match work. However, they didn’t upset WCW by having a bad match but rather by breaking the rules. Dustin and Blacktop were fired for blading when it was against WCW rules at the time when the company was stricter with talents.
8 Stardust Feud Not Having An Ending
Dustin Rhodes was upset with how WWE handled the feud against his brother Cody Rhodes. The Stardust character of Cody was obviously inspired by Goldust during the brothers’ last run teaming together until the breakup.
WWE booked a match for Fastlane 2015 that was received negatively by critics and fans. The feud never made it to WrestleMania 31 and Dustin revealed he thought WWE dropped the ball. Given how few programs Goldust had in the final few years, this was his last real chance at a WrestleMania singles match.
7 Val Venis' Relationship With Terri Runnels
The real-life relationship between Dustin Rhodes and Terri Runnels became part of WWE television. Terri was hired to play Marlena as the manager and love interest of Dustin’s Goldust character for a few years.
The eventual split would see Dustin having a few character changes before adopting a preacher heel gimmick. Val Venis was his target, but the new porn star character got the better of Dustin. Terri returned from some time off television in Val’s personal videos in segments that she admitted in shoot interviews embarrassed them both.
6 Howard Stern Interview In Character With Tourette's
The Goldust character witnessed a big change in the early 2000s when getting electrocuted during a segment on Raw. Evolution mocked Goldust in promos where he started having a stuttering problem and Tourette’s.
WWE sent Goldust on the Howard Stern radio show that was an extremely popular outlet at the time. The guests from the company were usually bigger names, but WWE clearly wanted Goldust to make a fool of himself overdoing the gimmick. Dustin did his best to make it work, but it is hard watch looking back today.
5 Seven Character Promos
Dustin Rhodes made a bold career decision to leave the Goldust character in WWE for a return to WCW in 1999. Vince Russo was one of Dustin’s biggest supporters and convinced him to join WCW when he was taking over control of creative.
The Seven character was a huge disaster with Dustin in a darker outfit with white face paint appearing outside of the windows of young children in a terrifying fashion. Turner’s standards and practices demanded the character end before his debut due to the skits making him look like a potential abductor.
4 WWE Pulling Advertised Segment For SummerSlam
The final noteworthy push of Goldust in WWE came after he turned on R-Truth for a heel run. Goldust ran vignettes for week setting up a big premiere at SummerSlam 2017. Rumors suggested Mandy Rose or another NXT star would get the call-up.
Nothing happened at the show with Goldust and this angle was never referenced again. WWE dropping his final big push without an explanation or payoff would provide embarrassment for any wrestler of Dustin’s stature.
3 Costumes For The Artist Formerly Known As Goldust
The heel turn of Goldust getting rid of Terri Runnels as Marlena led to WWE showing him without the face paint as Dustin Rhodes. Things escalated throughout the weeks with Dustin claiming he was now going by The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust playing into Prince’s new name.
Dustin started wearing risqué outfits with Luna Vachon as his manager with confusion from the fans. WWE tried to push the envelope with the new looks of Goldust playing into the edgier side of the Attitude Era that wouldn’t fly today.
2 Black Reign Promos Talking To A Rat
TNA tried to find success by adding Dustin Rhodes to the roster in the late 2000s when expanding the roster for the Spike TV television deal. Black Reign was the peculiar character played by Dustin meant to be the darker and scarier take on Goldust.
Dustin wore silver and black paint while talking to a rat that he carried to the ring for his matches. The segments were all embarrassing and it was arguably the worst chapter of his career. Dustin was dealing with his personal demons at the time leading to even worse results outside of just bad creative.
1 Mocking Dusty In WWE
The relationship between Dusty and Dustin Rhodes was fractured for years during Dustin’s time in WWE. Cody revealed he didn’t have a close relationship since he was barely part of the family during that chapter of their lives.
Dustin started impersonating other wrestlers like Sable, Chyna and Vader before trying his luck at playing a comedic version of his dad. The impersonation of Dusty coming at a time when the two had their issues was likely a regretful moment for Dustin. Future years would see Dusty and Dustin growing closer to make this segment more comedic today than it was at the time.