Elijah Burke Wants to Win the NWA World Title and Defend It Against Dustin Rhodes

– Battleground podcast recently spoke to NWA wrestler Elijah Burke, who shared his feelings that when he grew up watching NWA, Dusty Rhodes was the closest the promotion came to “black representation” on TV. He also said his next goal was to win the NWA World Championship and have an NWA vs. AEW crossover match against Dustin Rhodes. Below are some highlights (via Fightful):

On his goal of becoming NWA World champion: “The next goal is real simple and that’s to become the second black man in the history of the NWA to become world champion. It makes me emotional just to think about it. A little boy from Jacksonville, an Afro-headed black kid that had no black heroes in the National Wrestling Alliance. The closest thing we had to a black champion was ‘The American Dream’ Dusty Rhodes.”

On why he loved Dusty Rhodes: “When he reached out and said, ‘Your hand touching my hand,’ I was at the TV reaching out to him. He made me believe. Yes, I never overlooked my Rocky Kings. I never overlooked ‘Pistol’ Pez Whatley, ‘Big Cat’ Ernie Ladd, and all of them that came through from time to time, Abdullah The Butcher, but we just never had that black representative. That representation has never been there even dating back to when they were doing it — a shout out to my man R-Truth who succeeded in joining the TNA version, affiliation with the NWA. Though there were no kids looking at that and then we know that the internet and wrestling today is not what it was then. No one was able to see no one recognized and it was it just kind of happened on A weekly pay-per-view and then, you know, a week later was done, no celebrations, no real acknowledgments other than maybe the magazine. So yeah, that’s what I want to do. I want to bring that to the National Wrestling Alliance and to the scene of professional wrestling.”

Elijah Burke on wanting to defend the 10 pounds of gold against Dustin Rhodes: “As soon as I win the Ten Pounds of Gold, if I am to welcome anyone to come through my door, or anyone that I want to defend the NWA Ten Pounds of Gold against, It is ‘The Natural’ Dustin Rhodes. It would be so fitting. He knows what he means to me. He knows what his dad has meant, and means to me. I think it would only be fitting that Dustin and Pope go at it for the Ten Pounds of Gold.”

Wants an NWA vs. AEW crossover for match with Dustin Rhodes: “Dustin, we go back, we go way back to my arrival on the professional scene, and we’ve only had nothing but respect for each other. nothing but love. Dustin, Tony Khan, I’m telling you now, go ahead and make it happen when that time comes, Pope’s walking through that Forbidden Door, and I want Dustin Rhodes. Whether that’s under the AEW banner, or headlining for the NWA, we’re gonna get funky like a monkey.”