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The book begins with author Dustin Rhodes discussing his life growing up with his professional wrestling father, “The American Dream†Dusty Rhodes. Dustin Rhodes talks about how, from a young age, he always wanted to follow in his fathers footsteps and become a wrestler. Dustin Rhodes also goes into how he grew up with a father who was a wrestler and how his dad’s traveling kept him from seeing his son more often.
Dustin Rhodes then talks about his introduction to being a professional wrestler by his father during a trip from an airport. Dustin Rhodes also talks about the people who helped break him into the business, like the late General Skandar Akbar. Territories are covered next, because the author talks about working in the Florida and North Carolina areas early in his career.
Dustin Rhodes then discusses his marriage to former WWE Diva Terri, who also performed as Marlena during the Goldust era. This marriage and relationship with Terri is one of the factors that lead to a five year father/son discord between Dustin and Dusty Rhodes. The readers will definitely feel the pain that Dustin Rhodes went through when Dustin Rhodes discusses the once strained relationship with his dad.
The debut of Goldust is discussed next by the author, but this is where my biggest disappointment with the book starts at. Early in this section of the book, Dustin Rhodes goes into great detail about how Vince McMahon and himself created the Goldust character. Author Dustin Rhodes evens dedicates an entire chapter of his book to his WWE Wrestlemania 12 encounter with Roddy Piper.
However, for the majority of the last ten plus years of his professional wrestling career, Dustin Rhodes had competed as Goldust. When you read the book though, only a handful of pages are given to his entire run as the flamboyant character. This is what disappoints me because the Goldust character was an integral part of the early attitude era and the book kind of makes the character feel like an afterthought.
The most passionate and overall best part of this autobiography is when Dustin Rhodes goes into detail about his addictions to painkillers and other drugs. This is easily a great portion of the book to read, especially because the author pulls no punches about his situation. Dustin Rhodes even tells a story about the time he worked matches for the TNA promotion while being high on drugs.
Dustin Rhodes even talks about how his drug addictions lead to his divorce from Terri and how he lost visitation rights from his daughter Dakota for that time. Dustin Rhodes then discusses how he hit the bottom and then went to a WWE sponsored rehabilitation program. If there were ever an argument for the WWE Wellness Program, this portion of the book does a great job making that point.
Overall, what this autobiography lacks in wrestling detail is more than made up for when Dustin Rhodes discusses his addictions. While Dustin Rhodes/Goldust may not be one of the biggest names in the wrestling industry, he does have an inspirational story to tell and a lot of great lessons can be learned.
This book is available at the PWInsider Store for only $10.00!
You can contact David Tees at bigteesps3@yahoo.com
