During a new interview on Chris Jericho’s “Talk is Jericho” podcast, Dustin Rhodes (Goldust in WWE) commented on leaving WWE, how WWE officials reacted to the news that he was leaving, and more. You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On how Dusty felt about the idea: “Yeah, I heard a lot from like a few in the back that they didn’t like it, that it’ll never work and things like that and I’m thinking to myself, you know, I’ve watched Owen and Bret, I’ve watched the Hardy Boyz and I’ve seen that it can work if you put a little bit behind it and you give it some substance and it organically grows. Because it is brother vs. brother. It is blood vs. blood and it does attract in a lot of arenas. And Dad never really said anything. He wasn’t against it. He was necessarily for it. Dad was more reserved in his thoughts about this and he got behind whatever his sons wanted to do. I appreciate that but I heard it from so many of my peers that I learned from that it’s no good, it will not work, it will not work, it’s frustrating to keep hearing that over and over. And I think we proved everybody wrong. It worked. It worked.”
On a possible rematch: “Now I will say this right now, I will never face my brother again. Ever. I cannot top that. That is like, tops for me. I wouldn’t want to step in the ring with him again, ever against him.”
On how he got his WWE release: “I was tired and to me it was like I was deflated. A lot. Terribly. I wanted out. I wanted to go because I really wanted to follow my other dream, which is acting. I think I can get in there… and I’ve done a few low-budget independent films. I’ve got a couple more on deck. It’s like, I wanna try something else. I’ve done this for so, so long, 31 years, and I love it and it’s my first love, but I wanna have some freedom to do some other things. There’s some things that had happened that really just kind of bit me the wrong way and I went in and I had a meeting with them and I said, ‘Look. I’m done. I’m tired.’ And I did not care. This was one of those moments where I did not care what they did, what they said, I wanted out. It was emotional, I did cry. And I think that when they finally did give me my release, we agreed that, ‘Yes, we’re gonna give you your release and we’ll pay you up to your injury’s done.’ Because I just came off those double knee surgeries. ‘And we’ll give you the 90 days and we’ll pay you through that.’ And I’m like ‘okay, that’s fine, no problem.’ And I get out of that meeting, I’m in the car and I’m driving back to the hotel in New York to fly out because it was like an in and out thing and I get a call back from Hunter and we’re just talking, just a little bit. Some tears are coming and it’s emotional and he was thanking me for everything that I’d done for them and for him, because I’ve known him a long, long time. I hung up the call and all was well…and then the legal battle started, and I just let my attorneys take it over. It took forever and I know it was a long process.”
On how he felt when he got the release: “When I’m finally released, man, what a frickin’ weight that was lifted off of my shoulder. It was incredible. I immediately got so much happier. Because it was stressful. I hadn’t been happy in a while, you know? I lost my passion in a sense for our business, and that’s terrible man. That’s horrible. And something like Double or Nothing happens, and my passion and love for the business was reignited. It was incredible because I frickin’ love talking about it now. I’m excited about AEW and what the future holds and what they are going to do because they are going to be great, man. Dang, it’s a special time and all those kids I saw for the first time, a lot of them I knew. A lot of the production crew I knew, but a lot of the kids, man, they’re so happy. You can tell that they’re hungry and that’s important. These guys are showing up to work and they’re excited about creating something that is brand new right out of the shoot and knocking it out of the park. And they’re passionate and they’re hungry. I see that and all these kids, man, it was just..it was unreal. It’s a special, special time to be in the wrestling industry and AEW, they’re riding on the tip of a lightning bolt and it’s gonna be kickass.”
(h/t 411 Wrestling)
