Dustin Rhodes Talks Nyla Rose, Harper’s AEW Fit, Cody’s Storytelling, More
Photo Credit: Dominic DeAngelo
AEW Star Dustin Rhodes (Goldust) recently talked with NY Post about a variety of topics such as the quick rise of AEW and his opinion on numerous superstars in the professional wrestling industry. Check out the highlights below.
On transgender representation among famous superstars helping the tolerance towards trans community:
This is 2020, man. Let somebody live their life like they want to. I don’t care what the Bible says. I don’t care what anybody else says. Live your life and be happy. That’s all I care about for my son is to be happy, and nobody picks on him because if they do they got to deal with me. I see that in Nyla. I treat her like she’s my child. I love Nyla to death, and I don’t think of any of that when I’m at work with her and I watch her perform — and she’s a great performer. This is not the Olympics, OK? This is pro wrestling, this is entertainment. This is scripted stuff that we do, and you’re gonna have Nyla Rose wrestle Riho and everybody get all bent out of shape about it and just really give her hell, I don’t like that at all. I take offense to that and I let them know it because it’s wrong.
On Luke Harper and Matt Hardy possibly being a good fit for AEW:
I think they’d bring creativity. Harper, man, is incredible. I’ve worked with him many times with the Wyatt Family, me and Cody did, and he knows his stuff and he’s not a greenhorn in the business. He can help people. He can take them to new highs and he can get them there and at the same time get himself over in a company that will allow him to do so. Matt Hardy, if he comes in here, my God, he’s been through so many different variations on YouTube and things like that with WWE. He’s so creative in all the things that he does that when we do it with him, it’s gonna touch gold.
On how hard it was to step away from his long time ‘Goldust’ gimmick:
A: Piece of cake. That’s probably the easiest thing I’ve ever done. But it was the hardest thing to leave a company where they made you a household name in Goldust. I became a star there with something other than the Rhodes name with the full-on Goldust character. And to take it to the levels that I did. Getting out of WWE is a very tall order once you’re in there. It’s tough. It’s like a prison. I compare it to a prison, getting out of prison, breaking out of prison. I’m very thankful for all the things they’ve done for me and my career, but when I got out of there, my head lifted and I got the phone call from Cody and we went to “Double or Nothing” and after that night, my passion reignited. It was a very special time, and since that night, I’ve had probably the funniest time that I’ve had in my 32 years in the business, every single week here doing this with my brother, with my family, with these passionate kids.
On watching Cody evolve as a storyteller and helping AEW grow so quickly:
He is so creative and has so much of our father in him and just him taking the ball and running with it and hurdling over these little ant mounds. Everybody makes everything mountains, but he’s hurdling over these things and he’s handling it. He’s got so much now on his plate, doing so much in the back, running things day-to-day. I’m partial to my brother because he’s my brother — and I watch him and he’s just, it’s unbelievable the knowledge in such a short time that he’s picked up. Not everybody has that gift of gab. MJF has a great gift of gab, but you have to give him structure. You have to give him a little structure, otherwise he might step over the line, and we don’t want that right now. We need to protect that.
You can read the entire interview here courtesy of NY Post.
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