Lariat's Old School Talker's series: (4)Superstar Billy Graham vs (5)Dusty Rhodes

[It's...Baylariat!]

Lariat's Old School Talkers series​

Superstar Billy Graham​

vs​

The American Dream Dusty Rhodes​

The Superstah... vs The Son of a Plumbah. Both were poets with the stick... who do you trust?! FIGHT!

 

[Ding_Dong_#2]

Hat's off to you Mr Lariat Sir, a great match-up. Very difficult, very difficult indeed.

Superstar Billy Graham in his prime was as good a talker as I have ever seen and I think in some ways, invented the intelligent, "monster-heel" talking persona; heels in those days very rarely said anything, leaving it to the exceptional quality of managers at the time, Freddie Blassie, The Grand Wizard etc. to do the necessary mic work and build-up.

Dusty Rhodes was unique - we have not seen his like since and are unlikely to hear anything like the "working man's rap" from a wrestler again. An amazing innovator - he could just reel off reams of believable analogies - one of the greatest in making you believe everything was personal, particulary when feuding with Tully Blanchard over the NWA TV title.

I would just hand it to Dusty, purely for consistency over the entire span of his career. Superstar was like nothing else in the mid-seventies but he lost it badly when adopting the Karate persona; drugs and steroid abuse also made him slur his emotionless, dreary words - heartbreaking to see such a proud man fall so far.

 

[#hamler]

This one could go either way to be honest. Dusty often had some horrible promos, but at the same time, those very promos were still very entertaining. His gimmick often forced me to listen to him and that I believe may be the same reason the fans loved him so much, he was just like them. Superstar Billy Graham wasn't the best in the ring. And he knew that. But he knew he could attract people with his amazing promo skills. Billy Graham was a preacher and he used that to his advantage using the techniques he learned from talking throughout his life. He always dramatized his stories and using sound bytes to get himself over like few had before. My pick will be Billy Graham. I mean after all, have you ever heard a preacher who can't talk good?

Vote Bill Graham

 

[Fenris]

This one could go either way to be honest. Dusty often had some horrible promos, but at the same time, those very promos were still very entertaining. His gimmick often forced me to listen to him and that I believe may be the same reason the fans loved him so much, he was just like them. Superstar Billy Graham wasn't the best in the ring. And he knew that. But he knew he could attract people with his amazing promo skills. Billy Graham was a preacher and he used that to his advantage using the techniques he learned from talking throughout his life. He always dramatized his stories and using sound bytes to get himself over like few had before. My pick will be Billy Graham. I mean after all, have you ever heard a preacher who can't talk good?

Vote Bill Graham

Real quick, Billy Graham the Preacher from that era and Billy Graham the wrestler aren't the same guy.


As for the question that's tough. On one hand you have Dusthay Rhodes baybay, the lisping working class redneck. He didn't reinvent the wheel but what made him so absolutely great was he knew how to strike a chord with the fans and bring them into his world. The average adult wrestling fan could fully relate to the words he spoke in his promos the same way fans could relate to the Austin/McMahon feud. There wasn't an adult fan in any of the arenas he hit or that were watching on TV that didn't understand the hard times and the sacrifice he would bring up.

On the other you have Superstar Billy Graham. Graham DID reinvent the wheel. He took the wheel from a broken wooden wagon wheel and turned it into a well crafted Indy 500 racing wheel. Superstar brought the catch phrase into being in the wrestling world, crafting poetic tales about his opponents and his ability. The 22" pythons came long before the 24" pythons, the Reflection of Perfection preceded The Body, ect. He was the cool, cerebral heel when that didn't previously exist. Back during an era when the heel and his manager went out and cut a promo in front of the fans Graham cut his promos WITH the fans, interacting with them with his promos. Interacting with the announcers interviewing him. The fans loved hating him for it.

What does Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Jesse Ventura and The Rock have in common? Aside from being the greatest mic workers in history, they all borrowed from Superstar and they all infused parts of his style with their style. Dusty Rhodes promos are a great great part of wrestling history, Superstar Grahams promos CHANGED history. With that I give the nod to Superstar Billy Graham.

 

[#hamler]

Real quick, Billy Graham the Preacher from that era and Billy Graham the wrestler aren't the same guy.

Seems as if someone needs to brush up on their history a bit. Billy was a devout christian way before he even started to notice wrestling. He even chose his ring name after Billy Graham the evangelist, who was responsible for his conversion to Christianity. In 1998, he returnd to preaching after retiring from the ring. He, unlike many others, found christ before his down fall from wrestling. Billy Graham (the wrestler) is very much a preacher and religious man. That's why I said he incorperated that into his legendary promos.

 

[wrestling89]

Unfortunatley i can't make a comparison here, as I never really heard any of Graham's promos. I heard him as a commentator in the WWF in the late 80's, but that's about it. I understand he was HOLLYWOOD before Hogan, he was the BODY before Jesse, he was the real POPPA PUMP before Scotty, he was the TYE-DYE GUY before Muraco, etc,etc. But I just can't say that I know his work.

So my vote goes to big Dust.

Dusty just made the crowd feel his pain and his jubilation. They cried when he cried, they were excited when he was. I think my favorite part about the old Crockett NWA was when he hit that standing elbow, the ENTIRE crowd went "phhhhuuh" with each hit. When he was in the WWF, he took the bullshit polkadot nonesense and made it work. When he was a commentator, for years in WCW after Jim Ross left, he was the only one worth listening too........."Der dat Mafia kick Tony!!!"

 

[The Prodigal Anti-Lemming]

I'll go with Graham. Now admittedly, I've never been a fan of the "Dweam." He was overweight, obnoxious, and I could understand maybe every two words in twenty that Rhodes spoke. I thought he was incredibly petulant to book Flair the way he did while on the NWA booking team, and for all his talk, he really only held the NWA title for three transitional reigns.

Graham, meanwhile, was simply the more accomplished wrestler. He held the WWWF title for nearly a year, and was among the first heels anywhere to win a major world championship and keep it for more than a fortnight. Incidentally, the two wrestled many times in their career. Graham won a few and lost a few, yet he continuously beat Rhodes when and where it mattered the most.

Perhaps most importantly, Graham was a proven draw throughout the northeast. Rhodes never showed he could draw outside of Florida.

Incidentally, I am currently compiling a list of the 100 greatest wrestlers of all time. It's more of a book, really (well, four books actually) and after years at it, I'm almost done. I've chosen to list the names alphabetically rather than numerically, but had I chosen the latter, it would be easy to rank Graham ahead of Rhodes.