NWA Wrestling: 5 Best Dusty Rhodes Moments

NWA Wrestling through its TBS arm was programming gold in the 1980s.

It’s what gave us the Four Horsemen — probably the greatest stable of villains professional wrestling has ever known — as well as their number one adversary.

That defender of truth, justice, and the American way himself, “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes.

While WWE (then WWF) was busy printing money with superhero-like characters, the best talent and the best product was hands-down NWA Wrestling, and much of it was owed to the long-running rivalry between Flair and Rhodes.

In honor of the man that we lost too soon, I’ve put together my 3 favorite Dusty Rhodes moments from his days in the NWA. I hope these will bring a smile to your faces, wrestling fans, as you continue to cope with the loss we’ve all suffered. Let’s get started.

The “Hard Times” promo is a legendary piece of babyface talk. Dusty had the blue-collar look down better than any wrestler I’ve seen in this video, and while there is a moment or two where he loses track of the words, it’s simply because his energy and passion were out-pacing what he’d planned to say. This is an example of the magic that can happen when you take Creative away from the writers and entrust it to the performer.

Dusty Rhodes was never the type of guy that you envisioned coming off the top rope to win a match, but whenever the NWA World Heavyweight Championship was on the line, he pulled out all stops. Rhodes doesn’t employ his famous bionic elbow here to beat Harley Race, but for a guy of his physique to fly through the air like this, well, you just have to respect that, daddy. (Apologies for the video quality on this one.)

Dusty Rhodes and Jim Cornette were synonymous with NWA Wrestling, so it was only a matter of time before the two locked up in a war of words. This series of interviews leaves little doubt that these guys were/are two of the best talkers in the business.

As you saw from the Jim Cornette/Dusty Rhodes interview series, the Midnight Express had brought hard times of their own to the American Dream, and that resulted in a steel cage match between “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton and Rhodes. It did not end well for Eaton.

If you don’t mind Japanese commentary — and even if you do, hit mute — you’re going to love watching Arn and Ole Anderson and Ric Flair do battle with Dusty Rhodes and the Rock ‘n Roll Express inside a steel cage. How much more ’80s can it get?

So those are my five favorite Dusty moments from NWA Wrestling. What are yours?

[Image via YouTube screen grab, linked above]