Forgiven: One Man's Journey from Self-Glorification to Sanctification by Vince Russo

Author:Vince Russo
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Published: 2012-01-25T23:21:47+00:00

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I was with Kevin Dunn over at the television studio when Vince conferenced us in on a call. Vince told us he had an idea for Dustin Rhodes, a new character named Goldust. Vince described Goldust as an eccentric individual straight out of Hollywood. Goldust would recite lines from movies, as well as put every situation and opponent into a Tinseltown context. Vince then broke into this deep, somewhat effeminate voice, a voice he wanted Dustin to master. When Vince hung up, I couldn’t quite put my finger on what he wanted, but I went back to my computer and started writing for Dustin — I mean Goldust. I bought a few books with famous movie quotations and tried to fit them with the various wwf superstars who would be foes of Goldust. Immediately I came up with the phrase, “You will never forget the name . . . Goldust.”

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Forgiven

In the first vignettes promoting the arrival of the new character, you never saw what Goldust looked like, only a graphic that read,

“Coming soon to the wwf . . . Goldust.” So the anticipation was built up for weeks. Then finally, the curtain parted and out he came, literally. In perhaps one of the most glamorous entrances in the history of the business, Goldust graced the runway in a gold sequined robe trimmed with glorious golden feathers. His long platinum-blond wig caressed his golden painted face as the fans immediately began the infamous chant of “Faggot, Faggot!” Hearing this — we just went with it, not blatantly, but through innuendo. The promos I wrote for Dustin were some of the best work I’d ever done. If you listened, you would have found them hysterical. Just imagine what he said when Jake “the Snake” Roberts was his opponent. . . . In no time, Dustin became the character — he was Goldust. His wife Terri was added as his valet, Marlena, and as Jim Cornette would say, we had “the hottest heel in the territory!”

Goldust was on fire. Everybody was talking about him — not just the fans, but also mainstream media. He became so popular, I even had the opportunity to write and produce a skit between Goldust and Conan O’Brien on Late Night with Conan O’Brien. Predictably, Vince started to get a lot of public flak over the character, so he came up with the notion that Goldust wasn’t in fact gay, but simply playing on the homophobic fears of others. A great concept at the time — and it made all the sense in the world. There is no doubt people weren’t forgetting the name “Goldust.” Man, it was magic. I wrote it, Dustin played it, and it was the hottest thing on wwf programming. No question this character was ahead of his time. At that point nobody knew what was around the corner. Nobody realized that in about a year wrestling would be out — and sports entertainment would be in.

Not to be arrogant — but I knew.

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