This man is a Hall of Fame member of the Dusty Fraternity. The kings and queens part seems like something that definitely happened, too. I can see Queen Elizabeth II (RIP) as a wrestling fan. The Saudi royal family are definitely wrestling fans. The current leader of the free world is in the WWE Hall of Fame and Vince McMahon’s wife Linda is in the U.S. Cabinet.
Everything is wrestling. If you don’t recognize kayfabe, works, and shoots when you see them, you’re a mark and not seeing the whole picture.
Virgil Riley Runnels Jr. (October 11, 1945 – June 11, 2015), better known as “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes, was an American professional wrestler, booker, and trainer who worked for the National Wrestling Alliance and the World Wrestling Federation, later known as WWE. Rhodes was considered a star wrestler and presented the persona of an American everyman, the American Dream personified. Rhodes is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time.
Following his retirement from wrestling, he made occasional on-air appearances on WWE television and pay-per-views and worked as a backstage booker and producer in WWE’s NXT developmental territory. Billed as “the son of a plumber”, Rhodes did not have a typical wrestler’s physique; his character was that of the “common man“, known for the personality exhibited in his interviews. WWE chairman Vince McMahon remarked that no wrestler “personified the essence of charisma quite like Dusty Rhodes”.
Rhodes had feuds with Abdullah the Butcher, Terry Funk, Kevin Sullivan, Blackjack Mulligan, Nikita Koloff, Harley Race, Superstar Billy Graham, “Crippler” Ray Stevens and, most notably, The Four Horsemen (especially Ric Flair and Tully Blanchard). Rhodes, Flair and Race fought each other many times over the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Rhodes won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship three times; twice by defeating Race and once by defeating Flair. During a taping which took place at The Omni on September 29, 1985, Rhodes would save Flair from a beatdown at hands of Ivan and Nikitia Koloff and Krusher Krushchev, only for Flair to then turn on Rhodes and have Ole and Arn Anderson assist him in breaking Rhodes’s ankle; this also forced Rhodes to vacate his NWA Television Championship. In October 1985, during his feud with Flair, Rhodes gave an interview that became known as his “Hard Times” promo, arguably his most popular promo:
First of all, I would like to thank the many, many fans throughout this country that wrote cards and letters to Dusty Rhodes, The American Dream, while I was down. Secondly, I want to thank Jim Crockett Promotions for waitin’ and takin’ the time ’cause I know how important it was, Starrcade ’85 it is to the wrestling fans, it is to Jim Crockett promotions, and Dusty Rhodes The American Dream. With that wait, I got what I wanted, Ric Flair the World’s Heavyweight Champion. I don’t have to say a whole lot more about the way I feel about Ric Flair; no respect, no honor. There is no honor amongst thieves in the first place.
He put hard times on Dusty Rhodes and his family. 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 four or five kids and can’t pay their wages, can’t buy their food. Hard times are when the auto workers are out of work and they tell ’em to go home. And hard times are when a man has worked at a job for thirty years, thirty 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! That’s hard times! And Ric Flair you put hard times on this country by takin’ Dusty Rhodes out, that’s hard times. And we all had hard times together, and I admit, I don’t look like the athlete of the day supposed to look. My belly’s just a lil’ big, my heiny’s a lil’ big, but brother, I am bad. And they know I’m bad.
There were two bad people… One was John Wayne and he’s dead brother, and the other’s right here. Nature Boy Ric Flair, the World’s Heavyweight title belongs to these people. I’mma reach out right now, I want you at home to know my hand is touchin’ your hand for the gathering of the biggest body of people in this country, in this universe, all over the world now, reachin’ out because the love that was given me and this time I will repay you now. Because I will be the next World’s Heavyweight Champion of this hard time blues. Dusty Rhodes tour, ’85.
And Ric Flair, Nature Boy… Let me leave you with this. One way to hurt Ric Flair, is to take what he cherishes more than anything in the world and that’s the World’s Heavyweight title. I’m gon’ take it, I been there twice. This time when I take it daddy, I’m gon’ take it for you. Let’s gather for it. Don’t let me down now, ’cause I came back for you, for that man up there that died 10–12 years ago and never got the opportunity to see a real World’s Champion. And I’m proud of you, thank God I have you, and I love you. Love ya!
The promo apparently resonated with wrestling fans so much that people came to him in arenas in tears to thank him for “honoring their plight”. In 2015, an ESPN article referred to “Hard Times” as Rhodes’s best interview, writing, “In just over three minutes, Rhodes fully encapsulated every ounce of his charm by endearing himself to blue-collar mid-America”.
