We talk about other feds, like RoH and LU. I’m the only one over 30 in that thread, so when I reminisce about the good ol’ days, the kids think I’m doing some kind of senior moment rambling. I could use some old school backup. 
Ahem.
You may be the only one over 30, but I’m the only one over 40. Kids these days don’t know how lucky they are what with the cable and the world wide web and the intertubes giving you instantaneous wrestling news. Back in the day we had to work those rabbit ears to get a good signal on the TV and wait for the Apter mags to get our news. And it was all kayfabe! A work! IT WAS REAL TO ME, DAMMIT!
You want to know about hard times, well I lived 'em, daddy!
I remember Bob Backlund becoming WWWF champ. I remember happily the first time I found FCW on the Spanish UHF channel, where I was first introduced to Dusty. I remember getting cable for the first time and being introduced to Georgia Championship Wrestling. I remember ECW before it was extreme. I used to read the Apter mags, and remember when I was first introduced to the newsletters, which would be mailed out weekly.
Talk about hard times.
Naw. Damned if I can remember much about it, but my dad did take me to a WCCW Wrestling Star Wars at Reunion Arena back in the day.
Dusty’s heyday in NWA was before my time, but I did get to see him wrestle live once when I was 7 or 8. It was around 1990 or 1991, during his WWF run. My dad took me to a house show at the San Diego Sports Arena where he and Dustin (during his first WWF run, long before he became Goldust) were in a tag team match against a heel team I’m not really sure of - I want to to say it was the Oriental Express and Mr. Fuji in a 3-on-2 handicap tag, but I’m not entirely sure. I do recall the Rhodeses getting the win and little me, who didn’t yet know it was all a work (my dad had told me it was fake, but I didn’t believe him) marked out big time.
I don’t recall it being a particularly amazing match, but little me loved his theme music and the polka dots. From everything I’ve learned about him since then, it seems like he was a good friend to those around him, the best father he could be to his kids, and a dedicated worker who even in his final years helped make NXT what it is today.
He will be missed. Per his obituary in the Tampa Tribune, his family requests donations to Connor’s Cure in his memory.
Wrestling was very regional when I was a kid, and Dusty Rhodes never made a big mark in the Northeast, where I grew up.
Hence, I thought the “Dusty Rhodes” in the thread title was the old pinch hitter of the 1950s New York Giants! (That Dusty is still alive at 88, apparently.)
Depends on when you grew up and what you mean by a “big mark”. Dusty main evented Madison Square Garden during a run against Superstar Billy Graham in the late 70s.
That was just when I started to watch, though my cheapskate dad never took me to any MSG events. Didn’t get to go until much later, on my own dime. Dusty, despite being an import, was over huge, though I didn’t know him (it was before I discovered FCW on channel 47, the Apter mags, and well before we had cable for GCW on TBS). A few months later, Backlund would dethrone Graham, and then I really started following wrestling.