Dustin Rhodes
By Scott Keith on 20 December 2024
He could work when motivated, his storylines were sometimes interesting, but often not at the same time. If he could have avoided some of his demons, what realistically was his ceiling? How big of a star could he have been in the 80s in the NWA, where he unironically could have been a clean cut babyface?
Realistically the US title was his ceiling. He didn't have his father's charisma or connection with the crowd, but he was a solid worker, topping out at a level of “really good worker” around 1995. It wasn't until after his comeback in 2002 that really started developing the connection with the crowd but by then it was kind of too late to be anything more. The run against the Shield in 2010 was great, but that was “part time babyface in a tag team role” great, not World champion great.