Bruce Prichard Says WWE Made The Wrong Call In Turning Dustin Rhodes Into A ‘Normal Guy’

During the early years of the Monday Night Wars, WWE made an abrupt decision to alter Dustin Rhodes’ Goldust character, a choice that Bruce Prichard recently took issue with on his Something to Wrestling podcast (per Wrestling Inc). Prichard expressed the view that Rhodes’ ensuing characterization was far less entertaining and compelling than the Goldust persona and damaged the wrestler’s credibility with the fanbase. While the choice was partially made in order to take shots at Dustin’s father, WCW’s Dusty Rhodes, Prichard felt the efforts ultimately fell flat. You can find a few highlights on the topic from Prichard and watch the full episode below.

On why he disagreed with the decision at the time: “I didn’t like taking Goldust out of the Goldust character. I knew Dustin wanted to do this, and felt very strongly that there were real feelings and emotions about the Goldust character and Dusty. I just felt that the reason Goldust was Goldust, was because it was a persona Dustin could put on and be someone else. I think he was better at portraying a character than he was as The Natural.”

On the contrast between Goldust and Rhodes’ ensuing work: “That Goldust character was so rich, flamboyant, and all-consuming. When you take it off of him, he becomes a normal guy. He wasn’t interesting, right off the bat, in my opinion. I thought Dustin had come so far in the character work he had done, that when you stripped all that away, all of a sudden, he was a regular guy. I don’t think people paid money to see a regular guy next door.”

On why removing Goldust was a negative change: “Nobody gave a shit about Dustin Rhodes. They only gave a shit about Goldust. We stripped him of that, and everything that the audience had an emotional attachment to. It’s hard to talk about because I fucking loved Dustin Rhodes, I thought he was one of the most talented talents I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with. But when you take a flamboyant character like Goldust and strip it all away, and you make someone a boring husband, I’m not watching TV, and I’m not watching WWE to see a boring husband with a kid who goes on TV and says, ‘My daddy was mean to me. We didn’t get along.'”

On how the change might have worked if both Rhodes’ were employed by WWE: “There were more people attached to Dusty Rhodes than Dustin Rhodes. That audience, the WWE fans, didn’t watch that other shit [WCW]. Even if they knew that Dustin was Dusty’s son, they didn’t care. And I just thought that everything interesting, everything emotional, we took away from him.”