Goldust: Better off now then he was two years ago?

[Mantaur Rodeo Clown]

I recall a certain promo cut by The Miz a few months back. He said that Late Nineties Goldust was cool, 2009 Goldust was irrelevant. How true this statement was when Dustin Rhodes was on RAW. He was floating around teaming with Hornswoggle as a comedy character. But what about now?

Dustin Rhodes has quite the history of jumping companies. This is his 5th stint in the WWE as I can recollect, and he has had a couple in TNA and WCW before that. What I want to focus on is this point in time of 2009, and two years back, in 2007, when Dustin Rhodes was hired by TNA.

We have two distinct characters that are/were being used. We have the old standby, Goldust and what was considered to be the worst gimmick of 2007 in Black Reign. We have an early part Goldust in 2009 being a comedy character with some tension with his brother Cody on RAW. In 2007 we had Black Reign, a split personality character that despite being laughed at, was featured in some big storylines and big shows such as Bound For Glory.

Then later on, we had Goldust being sent to ECW and being rejuvenated of sorts and featured in quite a few matches, whereas Black Reign was relegated to feuding with Eric Young/Super Eric before he stopped being used on TV. The question i pose to everyone is, if Dustin Rhodes had stayed in TNA and been used in the same fashion, would he be better off there or in the WWE? Was he better off as Black Reign or is he betteroff as Goldust?

My answer to the question would undoubtedly be ECW, in October 2009. He has completely changed from being Hornswoggles carer into being a wrestler, and one does his job amicably. This being, using his experience to mentor the future superstars of the business. Even though he may not be featured at Wrestlemania, or PPV's for that matter, he still can occasionally main event TV, and always gets a good reaction.

In a sort of contrast, TNA originally tried to make the Black Reign character serious and dangerous, but he ended up becoming a joke in the fans and presumably managements eyes. The reverse has happened with Goldust, who by all accounts was a comedy wrestler, who has evolved into a solid wrestler that the fans cheer for.

Your thoughts?

 

[Mustang Sally]

Was he better off as Black Reign or is he betteroff as Goldust?

I think he's better off as Goldust. If TNA had allowed him to remain a serious character, it might be different, but he seems to have found his modern-day niche in WWE and he should keep at it.

Dustin is wrestling better than he has in a long time. He's lost weight since his TNA run and is moving around the ring better than he has for years. Given that, there's always the chance he might receive some kind of a push in the future, although I doubt we'll ever again see him having featured matches at Wrestlemania, such as he did with Roddy Piper.

Let him be a good soldier and have a long run with the company. Perhaps good things will happen.....after all, even Funaki had a run as Light Heavyweight Champion.

Personally, I've always liked Goldust and am rooting for him.

 

[Mantaur Rodeo Clown]

I think he's better off as Goldust. If TNA had allowed him to remain a serious character, it might be different, but he seems to have found his modern-day niche in WWE and he should keep at it.

But herein lies the problem. They DID try to make his serious, oh, bless there 6 sided hearts the did try. The act of the matter was that the fans didn't accept them and for that matter, neither did his peers. Here is an excerpt from the most reliable source on the internet and anyone who speaks otherwise should be shot, Wikipedia:

The entire angle was seen by fans and critics as ridiculous, and as some of the wrestlers came out to stop Reign, it was notable that Sonjay Dutt was laughing during the segment.

It's hard to give him a serious push when the guy that played The Guru is laughing at you.

 

[TellMeWhy]

Dustin Rhodes is better off now in WWE that he's lost weight.

But I'll give you guys the same medicine you gave Black Reign in TNA. At the end of the day, Dustin Rhodes is a washed up hasbeen who should've retired years ago trying to relieve his glory. He should've retired years ago.

Oh the double standard lives!

 

[thewrestlinghero]

He is better off as Goldust in wwe. Sure he was getting a better scheduled and didn't have to work as much in tna. But in wwe he gets paid more and works better with the gimmick that made him successful in goldust.

 

[Loveless]

Dustin Rhodes is better off now in WWE that he's lost weight.

But I'll give you guys the same medicine you gave Black Reign in TNA. At the end of the day, Dustin Rhodes is a washed up hasbeen who should've retired years ago trying to relieve his glory. He should've retired years ago.

A year ago you may have been right, he was out of shape and looked finished. Now however, he's improved immeasurably to the point where I like watching him and I'm hopeful that he might get a deserved ECW title run or moved to Smackdown (never RAW, that show is the graveyard of midcard talent). The guy is old but he's worked his arse off to get back to respectability. Now if they can just stop the bollocks with the stutter and make him mean again, the guy is a star.

 

[SAVE_YOURSELVES_111]

It looks as if, he's in the best shape of his career. I mean, I've never seen him look this fit, not even in his prime. And he hasn't been this motivated since the good ol' days of Goldust back in '96.

I think he may get a Dreamer-esque run with the belt, and I think he'd be fine with tat as reward for his efforts, and a great way to cap off his career.

Two years ago, watching that awful gimmick, he had in TNA, was just sad and pathetic. This was once the guy who had one of the most standout heel characters of all time. And he's in this really bad outfit, that looked so awful even a Pink Floyd acid trip wouldn't produce it, and the Rat?? Enough said there. He was out of shape, and his ring work was beyond awful.

Nowadays, even in a 3 minute match, he does everything he possibly can do, to make people take notice. I was at the Sept.15th SD taping, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and when they were filming ECW, during the #1 contender battle royal, the crowd was behind him more than anyone in the match.

 

[Joker ' Ferreira]

He is definitely way better now than he was in his TNA run.

No doubt about that. Goldust is a serious threat now in ECW's roster and I never tough about him like this, well since his hardcore championship reigns back in the day.

They tried to pair him up with Hornswoggle and it was good for him, it pushed him to the moon but it's not the kind of push he needed, Goldust at this point in his career he needs to be credible, a credible treat to his opponents and after his time in ECW has passed he will for sure look as credible as he never was.

 

[johnbragg]

LetEmKnow, I know it hurt when you got owned in your double standard thread. But why aren't you in a better mood? Your crowd was right for once--Impact was Awesome this week. Your biggest PPV is coming up and looks good.

So anyway, for a direct comparison of Goldust 2009 to TNA 2009, I'd have to go with Rhino. Two guys who are on the downside of their careers, but who are pretty much where they deserve to be on the food chain in their company, near the bottom and helping to develop newer talents. I don't know if we'll ever see Jesse Neal again, though.

 

[oldschool4ever]

Anything is better than the ol born again christian routine they pulled with dustin a few years ago in the wwe. i remember them doing the same thing with jake roberts. Not that it would be a great fued but im surprised they havent had him fued with cody. I guess cody has already surpassed dustins career in terms of success. I do remember one thing that was entertaining about the old golddust and that was the hidden camera he used to do. that was great and could always ignite some fueds.

 

[MoxViolence]

Goldust is better off now of course. wwe has a bigger fan base and that alone means he will be viewed by more people now then when he was in tna. and his tna gimmick was crap. real crap. him and rellik which is backwards for horrible character. but anyway! yea he'll get more exposure in wwe. its where he belongs. i'd like to see him and cody cross paths again.

 

["Cool Guy" Jensen]

There's not too many superstars who can find more success in WWE compared to TNA, but Goldust is one who can find more success in the WWE. I mean, he's been in the WWE and TNA more than once. Why does WWE keep hiring Goldust? Easy. He's popular and can work in various storylines. He's great in comedic roles, and if he's ever asked to look like a real contender for the title, he can also do it. One of the smartest decisions that WWE has done was draft Goldust to ECW. All 5 times he's been in WWE, he was on Raw, but never found much success. Take away the fact that he's won the Intercontinental Championship and World Tag Team Championship. In the meantime, in WWE, what has he done?

Goldust being on ECW could have easily resulted in the a push for him, but instead he's there to put over talent. It doesn't always have to be a bad thing. Besides usually jobbing on ECW, I believe he was the one who ended Sheamus' undefeated streak. If he stayed in somewhat of an alliance with Christian, Tommy Dreamer, and Yoshi Tatsu, in would really result in some wins against their counter-opponents, The Ruthless Roundtable and Zack Ryder (I assume... since I'm not sure if he'll be turning face).

So, I say that Goldust is better off now. I know he won't be winning the ECW Championship or anything, but him on TNA as Black Reign wouldn't exactly be doing much for him either. He might have one a title on TNA maybe, but after a while, TNA creative would just forget all about him. On ECW, Goldust can be one of the bigger, more experienced stars who can show the younger talents a thing or two, about the business and whatnot.

 

[ZAPX4V1]

All Goldust really is now is a generic wrestler with great entrance music. That sucks because his gimmick has always been great, but WWE isn't giving him the chance to run with it. A couple years ago there was some talk about bringing him in to main event as a heel against Cena, but Goldust turned it down to go to TNA. Maybe if he had came back then he would have been able to actually use his gimmick. Now he's just another roster spot, with zero momentum

 

[friarferguson]

I thought that Goldust was a BIG mistake for ECW as they didn't need a comedy character lurking around. But he has actually become a lot more serious and selling it in the ring. He was able to make Sheamus look good in their feud and put him over big time. Right now all he needs to do is fine some purpose and maybe another feud. A team with Dreamer or Tatsu looks like the best idea and feud with Kozlov and Jackson and maybe even jerishow at one point.

 

[JBK2008]

Goldust is soo much better and his role on ECW is great and we get to see more of him. He's put on some nice matches. I'm not saying ECW Championship, but he's putting over young talent and he's doing a great job of it there. No way should he ever go back to TNA. He just needs to stick with what he's doing now.

 

[Viola Moonlight]

Why does this even come into question? Goldust is quite better off right now than that Black Reign gimmick he had been sporting in TNA. Goldust is doing something positive for the business where he is met with praise. He has gotten back into shape, is looking great in the ring... quite possibly the best I have seen in my entire lifetime and seems to be as fast as some of the younger guys... has a great successful character that is connecting with the audience and is looking formidable as a threat in ECW as well as putting over talent.

What did he do in TNA? Sure, he received a push and tried to accomplish another out-there gimmick again in a different company with unlimited creativity, but he is not quite the same as he is currently. The way he was made to act then is nothing compared to how he is being used in the WWE. It was indeed a great move to rejuvenate his character in ECW and hopefully find some success for the character. However, in the WWE unlike TNA... a gimmick like Goldust probably won't be able to get the push anything past the midcard area so he must re-invent himself somehow.

But to answer the question at hand, WWE Goldust is much better off than the 2007 version.

 

[Doctor_What]

Personaly I have always liked the Goldust character. Dustin Runnels/Rhodes is a seasoned veterenan who can offer a lot of knowledge to upcoming talent so he deserves his contract. I can recall wwe themselves ruining the character a couple of times with that whole 'artist formaly known as' bollocks and that stammer a few years back. Id like to see him have 1 last push with his original character I remember in the 90's he debuted and used to sit ringside watching Razor Ramone and got into Razor's head and stalked him before taking the IC title from him. I feel that if done correctly Goldust could do the same in ecw stalking Christian before eventually taking the ecw belt. Then he could have a good run as a heel champion before putting over a new talent at Mania- Evan Bourne perhaps? Used correctly Goldust can be a top heel in ecw.

 

[johnbragg]

I think that the best use of Goldust would be to bring back the old school stalker-movie villain Goldust and have him mess with Glen Jacobs until he breaks down and takes the Kane mask from Goldy and then Team Freak runs rampant for a while.

 

[Derekjt]

Goldust fits right in on ECW. Since we can no longer have the guys jumping through tables and running into barb wire, seeing how it's PG - ECW, he is a good character for kids to get into.
Back in the day Goldust was way better, by far. The one with Marlena. The guy who pushed homophobic peoples buttons. He was much more mysterious and was a better character. He had sweet feuds with Roddy Piper and Brian Pillman. He was a damn good heel.
Now, I think that Dustin is way better off with where he is, rather than TNA. Black Reign sucked. It was too much of a rip off and everyone knew it. I believe that he can keep tagging with the young guns of ECW and keep getting cheered. Maybe deep down I'm a Goldust fan, but he truly is a pretty cool character. A lot cooler than Hurricane Helms or that annoying, ( I have deep hatred for this guy) Hornswoggle.

 

[Shua]

Aside from the stuttering gimmick, Goldust has improved a lot since returning the the E. Just look at how many times he's been featured on TV (win or lose). He was even in the main event a few weeks ago. That's a huge improvement from not doing a damn thing.

I'll admit, Black Reign was interesting. Sort of like a Jekyll & Hyde type deal. For newer viewers, they might have actually bought that but, for those more "experienced", we just couldn't bring ourselves to buy into it. Not to mention the fact that, not only was Reign clearly a Goldust knock-off but the fact that Dustin has lots of extra...heft did not help.

Dustin is much better off where he is now.

 

[BDaMan612]

I recall a certain promo cut by The Miz a few months back. He said that Late Nineties Goldust was cool, 2009 Goldust was irrelevant. How true this statement was when Dustin Rhodes was on RAW. He was floating around teaming with Hornswoggle as a comedy character. But what about now?

Dustin Rhodes has quite the history of jumping companies. This is his 5th stint in the WWE as I can recollect, and he has had a couple in TNA and WCW before that. What I want to focus on is this point in time of 2009, and two years back, in 2007, when Dustin Rhodes was hired by TNA.

We have two distinct characters that are/were being used. We have the old standby, Goldust and what was considered to be the worst gimmick of 2007 in Black Reign. We have an early part Goldust in 2009 being a comedy character with some tension with his brother Cody on RAW. In 2007 we had Black Reign, a split personality character that despite being laughed at, was featured in some big storylines and big shows such as Bound For Glory.

Then later on, we had Goldust being sent to ECW and being rejuvenated of sorts and featured in quite a few matches, whereas Black Reign was relegated to feuding with Eric Young/Super Eric before he stopped being used on TV. The question i pose to everyone is, if Dustin Rhodes had stayed in TNA and been used in the same fashion, would he be better off there or in the WWE? Was he better off as Black Reign or is he betteroff as Goldust?

My answer to the question would undoubtedly be ECW, in October 2009. He has completely changed from being Hornswoggles carer into being a wrestler, and one does his job amicably. This being, using his experience to mentor the future superstars of the business. Even though he may not be featured at Wrestlemania, or PPV's for that matter, he still can occasionally main event TV, and always gets a good reaction.

In a sort of contrast, TNA originally tried to make the Black Reign character serious and dangerous, but he ended up becoming a joke in the fans and presumably managements eyes. The reverse has happened with Goldust, who by all accounts was a comedy wrestler, who has evolved into a solid wrestler that the fans cheer for.

Your thoughts?

Hands down, Dustin Rhodes as Goldust is better than Dustin Rhodes as Black Reign because it's hard to take him real seriously (considering all he's done as Goldust). From what Mantaur Rodeo Clown stated, when Dustin Rhodes was in TNA as Black Reign, his role wasn't too solid.

No matter how many stints he has had, Goldust is better off in WWE because they can figure out how to use him, whether it be comedy related or his current role on ECW as "the veteran who can put others over".

 

[Isaac Kaye]

Definitely as Goldust. I saw the Black Reign gimmick a couple of times and I don't think it really worked. Didn't help that he was horribly out of shape at the time either. I don't think it's any co-incidence that Runnells is still wrestling as Goldust 13 years after his debut... It's almost like I take him less seriously if he's not Goldust lol!

Goldust is up there with my favourite wrestlers of all time, honestly. I only really started watching WWE in late 95 early 96 and I remember his big build up and push where he won the IC belt and got a couple of good shots at Michaels World Championship. Runnells was an absolutely amazing wrestler back then. The gimmick was original and I just liked how a guy dressed so ridiculously could be so damn mean in the ring.

His move to ECW is the best thing thats happened to him in years. I saw his match against Sheamus on Superstars and that was a fabulous fight - shame he lost the feud but he really put Sheamus over. He looks in good shape and I love his new finisher. It's a shame we have only seen him do it once in 9 months!

This said, I honestly think Goldust was best as a heel. I remember his feud with HHH and that whole Marlena thing and since then he has pretty much consistently been a face. He doesn't have that ring craft as a face and I think his ring routine is old and repetitive.. clothesline, clothesline, atomic drop, slide onto back and punch...

I just hope they give him a nice little run on ECW rather than making him job constantly to average midcarders...

 

[PEP3]

Let me just say right now that Goldust, when he debuted, was one of the best characters WWE produced in a long time. Serving shades of "Exotic" Adrian Street, Dustin Rhodes finally had personality and charisma to spare. His early feuds with Pillman and later Razor Ramon were near-legendary. His mysterious, movie-quoting stalker phases were awesome!

Unfortunately, Black Reign was not only a half-assed rip off of this, Rhodes was in probably the worst shape of his career physically. As much as I really wanted to get into that character, it simply didn't ring true to me . . . AND Dustin was in no shape to make it work.

Now in ECW, he genuinely seems to have a great following. In the #1 Contenders' Battle Royal, the fans were all about him! He's putting on great matches. His ring work is at the best it's been in years. At a minimum, he's a respected veteran. At his best, he could be a legit contender.

In fact, I'd personally love to see Goldust make a return to his classic persona, taking an unhealthy interest in Christian. He could stalk the champion for a bit. Maliciously bating him. Then the two could face off for the belt. It would be INCREDIBLE to see Goldust with a run with the title before dropping it back to Christian.

Seriously, I'd believe Goldust could take the strap from Christian before I'd buy Yoshi Tatsu as a legit contender.

 

[Tastycles]

Black Reign is absolutely one of the most terrible characters I have ever seen in the wrestling ring. Goldust is great at getting people over because his history will always make him a legitimate contender no matter how many times he loses. His comedic skills mean that he is perfect for the brand with the most midcard segments. Goldust is, well, gold dust when it comes to a brand like ECW, and he is probably in the best place he has been career wise for the last ten years.

 

[The Wolf]

Golddust needs to leave VKM needs to let him be DUSTIN most WWE fans you know the ones who never followed WCW dont know crap bout his potentail. VKM is holdin him back and needs to stop.