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JJ Dillon is the panel host with Magnum TA, Kevin Sullivan, Tully Blanchard and Barry Windham sitting in. They noted it would be a discussion as if they were in the locker room amongst the boys but will take fan questions early.
Dillon discussed how early in his career, he was working for The Shiek’s territory and faced The Texas Outlaws as one of the talents who would put over the stars coming in. Tully noted that Dusty started in Texas and Joe Blanchard booked him into his first main event. Tully said he was playing football at the time, so he didn’t have any real contact with Dusty at the time.
They noted that Tully and Dusty both went to West Texas State University and discussed a lot of the pro wrestlers who came from that school. Bruiser Brody’s name got a big round of applause.
Kevin Sullivan noted that hw grew up in Boston and at the time there were two territories there that co-existed. He said that the company with TV would run the Boston Garden every few weeks and used the big names from national TV as well as their own TV stars. He said the other company ran smaller towns and went to the vacation towns in the summer season. He said the first time he saw Dusty he was wrestling Frank Scarpa for the World title in the Boston Arena. He said he believed Rhodes was billed as Buddy Rodgers. Also on the card was Rufus R. Jones billed as Hobo Brazil.
Dillon said that once you’ve received a certain level of success, how someone breaks in is often forgotten and discarded. Guys are so happy to have made it that it’s rarely ever discussed. He said that when The Texas Outlaws split, Dusty went to Florida and was not s fan favorite. The turning point in his career was his babyface turn against Pat Song and Gary Hart. Hart’s name got a huge round of applause.
Dillon talked about his own career getting started in Charlotte and wrestling Gene Anderson in his first match at the Park Center. He said at the same time, Dusty was turning and joining Eddie Graham and Mike Graham ad began his journey as “The Anerican Dream.â€
Windham said he first met Dusty when he was ten years old in 1970 in Austin, Texas when he was helping his father backstage. Magnum said he had been in Florida for several months when Dusty just blew in. He said to have the friendship at the beginnings of “everything†was special and talked about how lucky he was to travel alone so much with Dusty. He said they had a friendship that was unique since it was before he became a star as Magnum TA and said Dusty gave him a lot of time and opportunity to improve.
Magnum said that Dusty was a mentor and taught him a lot about the philosophy of the business. He said that Dusty was bigger than life. He told a story about some of the adventures they had together including jumping on a moving freight train.
Sullivan said that everyone sitting here was very lucky. He said that learning the psychology that was one-off from Eddie Graham. He talked about the importance of Eddie Graham as a promoter and went into his background learning under the Funks and how Graham, who only had a seventh grade education, was a genius who rubbed off on Bill Watts, Dusty and himself. He said that lots of guys learned that booking wasn’t as easy as you’d think it was.
Dillon talked about going to Florida and being asked to work in the office by the Funks and when Dusty came in to take over the booking, Dusty asked him to stay on. He said that Dusty was a big picture guy while he was something of a details person. Dillon said that he couldn’t do what Dusty did but felt they complimented each other.
When Dusty made the deal to come to Charlotte for the Crocketts, he invited Dillon to come with him. He said that Dusty turned the company around. Dillon said that last year, he watched the Crockett documentary, he watched it and saw a lot of opinions that had never been spoken about. He noted that the first thing Ted Turner did when they bought Crockett Promotions and turned it into WCW, they fired Dusty which shows what they thought his involvement in the end of Crockett Promotions was.
Kevin said that Dillon doesn’t get enough credit for everything that be brought to the table. He said that Eddie Graham was involved with having Dillon being Dusty’s assistant. He said that before it was the Dusty finish, it was the Eddie Graham finish. He told a story about overusing the finish and said that Dillon would often keep Dusty balanced and kept him from doing the same thing all the time. He said that Dusty did over-do it with that finish.
Tully was asked if Dusty gets a bad rap. He responded, “They shouldn’t have gotten rid of me and Arn.†Dillon talked about the chemistry of the early Four Horsemen and how they worked and drew money. They praised Dusty as the leader of the babyfaces helping the Horsemen. Tully talked about how what a great athlete Dusty was and how he suggested that Dusty, who had been beating everyone in 30 seconds, needed to show he could go 20 minutes and felt that really enhanced Dusty’s credibility. He said they then went to the thing where Dusty stole Baby Doll.
They talked about the attack they filmed on Dusty in the parking lot. They noted it was only a one camera shoot and they received so much flack because of it. Tully said that the Horsemen happened because they were doing multi-man tag matches to not give away all the main event singles matches and it clicked. After Arn said “Four Horsemen on an interview, it went BOOM!†Tully said that it’s still discussed today because it was generated by the fans, not by the promotion.
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