Goldust is one of the most controversial characters in the history of World Wrestling Entertainment. If you watch WWE in 2017 you wouldn’t have any idea about that, but if you watched Goldust in his prime in the mid-1990s, then you know Dustin Rhodes/Runnels pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable as much as anybody.
On the latest edition of the Edge & Christian Podcast, which is fast becoming my favorite wrestling podcast, the buddy duo welcomed Goldust to the show to talk about his career. During the discussion, Goldust talked about how he thought that his character helped spark the Attitude Era in the late 1990s in WWE. Thanks to Wrestling Inc. for the transcript.
“I would like to think that [the debut of Goldust in WWE sparked The Attitude Era] too. Everybody else thinks that it was DX and all those other groups and things. If anything, I was the definite edge of the spear into The Attitude Era, I believe, so it was way before its time, the stuff I was doing, and it kind of set the tone for what was to come.”
I think he’s right. The character did things that nobody else was doing in late 1995 and into 1996, which was before the launch of the Attitude Era in mid-1997.
Goldust also reflected on his early 1996 rivalry with Razor Ramon that didn’t result in a WrestleMania 12 match because Razor wasn’t thrilled about the feud and also because he had agreed to go to WCW a few months later. Razor was replaced by Roddy Piper, who Goldust had a “Backlot Brawl” left.
“Yeah, yeah, Razor wasn’t keen on it, man, and he fought it. I’m just trying to get a character over and do what’s best for the company, best for business, best for me, and I’m young, so I’m not in other people’s point of view sometimes. And even though this business is a work, people take it too seriously. For me, it’s probably when I had the most passion for the business and where I did not let the little things get to me, and not care so much about what they’re thinking of me, man, just go out there and do what I can do to perform and put on a great performance, whatever. And to have him kind of, to have Razor be kind of a speed bump, it was frustrating, but we got through it and it ended with a Roddy Piper special because Razor left.”
When thinking about Goldust’s career, it’s amazing how he has been in professional wrestling for over 25 years and has survived being fired from WWE several times. I think it’s fair to say Goldust is one of the best wrestlers ever that didn’t become a World Champion in WWE or WCW. It’s also fair to say that one day he’ll be in WWE’s Hall of Fame, where he belongs.
