Dusty Rhodes Quotes

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.

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.

While the boys are in the back, laughin’ and jokin’, the Dream’s out back. cookin and smokin’!

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.

I love teaching. I love coaching. I love teaching communications class. I love giving back to the kids and the industry.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I’ve wined and dined with kings and queens, and I’ve slept in the alley eating pork and beans.

Get a dream, hold on to it and shoot for the sky.

I am the hit-maker, the record-breaker. I got style and grace, a pretty face. I’ll make your back crack, your liver quiver.

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.

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.

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.

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.’

Dick Murdoch is a true Hall of Famer.

I have supped mead with lords and ladies; so to have I slumbered in nameless lanes and gored upon mutton.

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.

Ole Anderson! Layin’ down could not take me out with a steel toed boot! Could not put me away with a steel toed boot! And I’m gonna say it right now and get it through your head… BOTH OF
YA (Ole Anderson and Ivan Koloff) THIS THANG WILL NEVER BE OVAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Terry Funk. Any time I got to wrestle with him, it was cool. Superstar Billy Graham was another one.

The business is my life, the ring my salvation, the locker room and roads my nourishment.

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.

Ric Flair, the stratosphere is reserved for you and me.

I have wined and dined with kings and queens and I’ve slept in alleys and dined on pork and beans.

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 am I thankful for? MY POLKA DOTS!!

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!

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.