So let's be honest. By 1999, the Gold Dust character that Dustin Rhodes is playing had essentially run its course, given that it was born in 1995 and we had just hit the attitude era, when I think everybody in the creative team and Dustin sat down and said, how far can we push the envelope? Some of these ideas went too far. There is a rumor out there, and who knows if it's true or not, the Dustin Rhodes sat down and said, well, I could go out there and get real fake breast, which is a contradiction in terms,

but you know what I'm talking about. Thankfully that was turned down, but I think when you get to that point of the process, it's best to draw a line under and move on. Now I would assume that Dustin Rhodes must have felt the same because soon after this, he did jump to WCW, and I think it's important to note,

you know who has joined him around the same time, maybe a couple of months later, it was one Vince Rousseau. Now the only reason I mention this is because between these two arrivals, all of a sudden we had a brand new character, and yes, it was known as Seven, you could see it on the screen here right now. Now, instantly, if you want to make the argument, wait a minute, that looks very much like The Undertaker,

and maybe Seven was meant to be the Dead Man version in WCW. I certainly wouldn't argue with you and this is why when you do read about the origins, you kind of have to question all of it. Because from my vantage point, if Vince Russo was already there, although he will dispute that otherwise, that we'll talk to later, one of the ideas, surely you would have come up with which you know what we can do and you know what was really successful in the WWE. It is the undertaker, it is the fiendarm, so maybe we can just copy and paste that. Now actually, I don't think that's the worst idea or the worst concept in the world if something is good. Why wouldn't you try and borrow it? And my example is always active reload from the Gears of War franchise. I think that is such a good mechanic. Every single third-person shooter should borrow it. If I am playing one and all of a sudden I get that too, I don't go, I can't believe you copy Gears of War. I'm like, as long as you've implemented it correctly, I'm totally fine with it. The issue, however, is when WCW did follow through with this. I'm not quite sure they nailed it as they had intended, because yes, we had weeks

a week's worth of vignettes when we saw Seven standing outside a kid's window, and I would implore you to go and watch these today, because one of your initial reactions is going to be, this is getting a little bit too creepy, and some of the things that Seven are saying to the child, well, I'll just leave it there, but I'm sure you're smart enough to put two and two together. I think the tone of this was totally off. Once again, it was also the first time we'd seen Dustin Rhodes in this gimmick, and look at it right now. He had the big hat, he had the big dark coat, and he painted his face completely white in order to come across like a ghost, I suppose. What does that sound like? almost like a demon. Now these did indeed go on for weeks when all of a sudden seven did debut on the November 8th Nightro. And yes, as far as I'm concerned, had one of the funniest entrances of all time. I'm not saying it didn't have atmosphere. I'm not saying he didn't have the, oh my gosh, creepy music, but he floats to the ring. The issue being when the camera zooms in, you can see the wires on his coat, and for me, that takes away the illusion. That'd be like the undertaker turn the lights on using his powers, and you see, like a production guy, pushing a little knob up on his board, that takes away from the magic man because you want to suspend your disbelief and believe, even if it's stupid. Tony Chavani and Bobby Heenan also for some reason pretend they can't recognise Dustin Rhodes, even though every single person on the planet could, when yes, Seven takes the microphone and the first words that come out of his mouth were, well, this sucks, who the fluff would want to do this gimmick? It's like, well, you were Dustin because you've been promoting this for weeks.

I mean, Dustin actually says the words, I used to be gold dust and gold dust sucked. And one of the reasons I left the WWF for WCW is I didn't want to do gimmicks like this anymore. But lo and behold, look at the crappy position I'm in right now. Now that begs the question why he floated to the ring,

but again, that's going to be another unsolved mystery,

where he actually talks aboutated to the ring, but again, that's

going to be another unsolved mystery, where he actually talks about listening to the creative team tell him the reason we don't want Dustin Rhodes to be Dustin Rhodes is because we think Dustin Rhodes is boring, so now you're going to be seven. He then makes some Adam's family references as well, and I really think if you were going to try and explain this to someone, you would call it a work shoot, which goes back to my conversation, about Vince Rousseau, because Dustin Rhodes was actively telling you, I have fallen out with management, I am not going to do what they told me to do, and from now on, his word's not mine, I'm going to make everybody's life's here a living hell. So then your hand goes up and you're like, if it was real, why the flood wouldn't you get fired? He also told us he's going to shove that gimmick up our asses.

I'm like, please don't do that.

It sounds like, if it was real, why the flood wouldn't you get fired? He also told us he's going to shove that gimmick up our asses and like, please don't

do that. It sounds uncomfortable. And I will say, when he does take the hat off, he looks a butt like Darth Vader. Once again, the example's on the screen right now. This then gets really out of control because Dustin does start talking about his father, Dusty Rhodes, and tells us that

WCW had just fired him,

even though not only was he the most creative guy in the backstage area, but the amount that you're done for World Championship Wrestling,

this is a pile of BS. It's no wonder that around this time fans got so frustrated with WCW though,

because again, we had just invested weeks of our entertainment hours into these videos where we were told, you've just wasted your life because the payoff is nothing and this character is dead. Which really blows my brain is that even after all this, Dustin still drops the gold dust line at the end of this, you will remember my name, as Dustin Rhodes, to all of a sudden just make it such a confused mess. It's like, well, are you into this or you're not into this?

What the hell are we going to do next week? The answer was a lot of nine. Now, straight away, it's fair to say that we have proceeded with this gimmick. Maybe it would have been worse because I do not think it was going to succeed in the way that WCW hoped, but there are two kind of results here that we need to get into. The first, of course, is the most obvious one, although it doesn't mean it is true, which is that Vince Russo loved fans peeking behind the curtains, so maybe he had sat down and said, okay, sure, we have this idea on the table, but I'd tell you what's a lot more fun, you go out there and you completely crap all over it. Rousseau has said it before, too. He always thought the worst part of wrestling was the wrestling itself, so how can we get wrestling out there without the wrestling? If you as a fan is

insulted by that, you should be, it's a ridiculous thing to say. Now the other excuse to this, and the part two comes from Vince Rousseau himself, who did sit down and do an interview about it, where he said by the time he got to WCW, Dusty Rhodes and Dustin Rhodes had already come up with this creation and now of respect to them, he decided to go along with it. And yes, look, Dustin left the WW for around June time and Vince Russo came in around about October time. So that could be true. But by the time the vignette started to wear on Nitro, standards and practices, or the Turner execs saw them and they were like, why is there a creepy man talking to a kid? You can't do this. Our products is meant to be PG, so the whole thing got pulled. I want to make it very clear that could absolutely be true. You can go and watch them and decide for yourself. Now, Dustin Rhodes has also come out and said that is absolutely not true. And it was Vince Russo that just nixed it. Which again is why I get so obsessed with this work shoot kind of a thing. because from this point, until WCW died in 2001, the whole thing was basically about worked shoot. Hilariously, too, after Rhodes had dropped this, he started billing himself as the American nightmare. And again, this was 1999. So it was years before Cody Rhodes started to do it, but Cody has come out and talked about this, he basically borrowed it from his brother. Dustin then got fired within storyline because he failed to prevent Terry Funk win in the hardcore championship, which is as ridiculous as it sounds. And actually Rhodes was there until WCW did die in 2001, but at first his contract wasn't picked up. So after that, he actually went to work for Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling, which yes, was indeed the promotion being run by Dusty Roads. By the end of the year, he had returned to WWE and essentially became Gold Dust again before you knew it. But the big question, of course, is hanging over our heads when it comes to an unsolved mystery, what would WCW have done even if they had carried this on? Now, I don't think it would have changed the world, and I do think it would have fizzled out quite quickly, even though quite a lot of effort had gone into that entrance. So maybe it was

standard as a favour. I do always think you have to put the argument out there though that maybe Vince Rousseau just didn't want to use anybody else's ideas because when he was brought in, he got told you can essentially do whatever you want Vince Rousseau. You've just got to get the ratings up. And even then, I'll give him a little bit of a caveat. If you saw the character of seven written down a piece of paper, you probably went, guys, I don't think this is it. It still feels like we were doomed, though, even if we went full Undertaker, because that's just not what the WCW audience wanted in the late 90s. I mean, that was essentially the issue with Hulk Hogan, even though he was sort of a baby face for a while. Eventually, the hardcore audience was like, we don't want this WWF nonsense because down here in WCW, we just want good old-fashioned wrestling. Then what happens in 1996, the NWO starts, the fans can boo Hulkomania and they're over the moon about it. I suppose if you need a more modern version, even though it happened about a decade ago, it would be like Emma becoming Emmelina and then going back to Emma. It was just one big tease with a bunch of videos and that always ruined somebody's career. Like Dustin Rose didn't really do that much in WCW after this because most fans sat there and remembered, well, you trolled us that one time, so how now can we ever believe you again? Even though it wasn't his fault, but sometimes it is the performer that gets in the neck. Still, though, we will never know what this was ever meant to be, although really I don't think WCW knew it either. I thought they just wanted more supernatural in their wrestling. Dustin

Dustin Rose was coming in, who was a dude could go in the ring. So, you know, we can make you all

dark and scary and I can't believe it. And we can go from there. But even today in 2025, so that's

26, I certainly wouldn't do it when you're outside of kids' bedroom at night. I mean, really,

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