Wow you guys! I am surprised at the response to this thread. I didn't know what kind of responses would come out of it and didn't necessarily expect such a positive response. I am glad that so many of you agree with me on this one because I really thought it was something that shouldn't be overlooked. Just as much as I like to point out the crap in wrestling, I also like to shed light on the things in it that are still great.
Responding to some of the posts I read, one thing I noticed was a popular trend in peoples posts was classifying him as either a lower mid-carder or upper mid-carder and so on. A lot of folks saying he is better than a lot of the upper/lower mid-card but not so much the upper echelon. That is where I disagree and part of the reason I made mention of it all. His ring work and so on was so crisp and so polished.
It definitely looked to me like the guy could easily run with the main event superstars, and probably wear a lot of them out. I could see some of those guys being blown up trying to wrestle him no problem. That finisher too, damn! I don't see a lot of people kicking out of that one.
Some of you mentioned his ability to work a crowd, and stated how much people do like watching him wrestle. That reminded me of a time I saw him wrestle live. It was 2006 Wrestlemania Revenge Tour here in Des Moines, Iowa. It was just a regular house show with the main event being John Cena vs Triple H for the WWE title.
One of the first few matches was Goldust against Chris Masters. I have to tell you, Chris Masters got worked over pretty bad in that match. Goldust wrestled circles around him, and he did have amazing crowd control, the people responded to him so well in fact that I was surprised he wasn't doing more with the WWE then.
I guess since he never has been to the top of the card I can understand peoples arguments that top of the mid-card is as far as he can go. Realistically I see that, my whole point though was that his ability is that of a true champion. Some of you also mentioned that it would be ok for him to go for the U.S title but I have to disagree on that too. I think since he is a former Intercontinental Champion that if he is to be in a title picture it be that title. I also thought of that title run because of the current holder, Chris Jericho. I think they could have an amazing program together.
Just imagine the mic work between those two. Jerico could mock everything about Goldust completely underestimating him, Goldust could do the stutter thing and just make fun of Jerico somehow. They have a match, upset victory for Goldust. Let him run with it for a while, and see how that goes. I say then based on the success of that run, you might then be able to parlay that into a main event run if people take well enough to him.
I think some of the hold up with Goldust is that he's from the yesteryear's of the WWF, and was one of the more bizarre characters that they ever made. Right now they have found use for him, but as so many of you agreed, I think that he is grossly underused. I must admit though I think it's a real treat to us all that he is being used period.
You just don't see too many guys who have that kind of work ethic, and ability in the ring. A lot of guys have a move-set that is parallel to the personality of their character i.e. Batista, Triple H, Big Show just for example to give you an idea what I am talking about. Goldust can just wrestle masterfully. He is his character but his character isn't what defines his move-set, he just has years of experience and natural ability (go figure, being the son of Dusty Rhodes) and like I said in my first post, has excellent ring generalship. When you really look at it, this guy is a solid a wrestler and rounded out performer as you could ask for.
