Quotes from Dusty Rhodes

If I'm selling, I want them all selling in the audience. If I'm coming back, I want them all coming back. If I'm bleeding, I want them bleeding. If I win, they win. If I lose, they lose.

I admit, I don't look like the athlete of the day's supposed to look. My belly's just a little big, my heinie's just a little big, but, brother, I am bad, and they know I'm bad.

You pay your dues and work your way up through the system, whatever system there is - something guys in the business today don't really understand, don't have a clue.

When you walk behind and you're not a leader, the view never changes.

I did not cause the downfall of Jim Crockett Promotions. Not by a long shot.

Kevin Sullivan? He's Anthony Hopkins. The Prince of Darkness. The devil himself. Against the 'American Dream' Dusty Rhodes, the chubby plumber's son from Austin, Texas. My God, those billboards go up, and you're going to want to go see it.

My mom was from Germantown and was of German descent. She was a real force behind me and my dream. She was always my biggest fan, even when I was wrestling at an early age.

I love teaching. I love coaching. I love teaching communications class. I love giving back to the kids and the industry.

They say behind every successful man is a powerful woman. And there is no more powerful performer I would rather be in the ring with for a conversation than Stephanie McMahon.

What am I thankful for? MY POLKA DOTS!!

I'm thankful for my POLKADOTS!

When I became 'The American Dream,' they needed a hero down here. I had no money - I couldn't buy a car without being tied under - but I had to have a Cadillac with blue stars on the hood no matter what it cost because just driving in it will set how they look at me and perceive this guy; they'll know.

I don't want to be someone saying 'Hey, why don't you use my boy?' You can ask Mr. McMahon or anybody. Never once. Cody calls his own shots.

You don't know what hard times are, daddy. Hard times are when the textile workers around this country are out of work, they got 4 or 5 kids and can't pay their wages, can't buy their food. Hard times are when the autoworkers are out of work, and they tell 'em to go home.

Terry Funk. Any time I got to wrestle with him, it was cool. Superstar Billy Graham was another one.

One of the regrettable things in my life is that my dad was not around to see my stardom, to see me wrestle or to see what I achieved by the dream I had at an early age, influenced by where he would like to go.

What takes Hollywood weeks and months to film takes professional wrestlers and the companies behind them literally minutes to put together. A spontaneous explosion of emotion unleashed before your very eyes.

I can't explain it, but from the first day I stepped into a wrestling ring, I knew that one day I was going to be a big superstar. I knew that one day I would be the NWA World Heavyweight Champion like my hero, Lou Thesz.

The combination of old and new is what every wrestling organization should be like. That way, you have a chance to match up the legends in dream main events.

You look at driving down the road, night after night, tryin' to make a town, getting $25 - that's hard times. It's our duty to make it good times for the fans that pay their money to see us perform each and every night.

Hard times are when a man has worked at a job for 30 years - 30 years - and they give him a watch, kick him in the butt, and say, 'Hey, a computer took your place, daddy.' That's hard times!

At the time when I started, coming out of football, I always used a forearm or an elbow. When it became Bionic is when I said it was Bionic. I went to some secret doctor in Istanbul who put some Bionic stuff in there.

I've wined and dined with kings and queens, and I've slept in the alley eating pork and beans.

If I could not be in this free and wonderful country - I wouldn't want to be anywhere else, mind you - Mexico is where I would live. I love Mexico, and I love the Mexican people.