Dusty: Reflections of Wrestling's American Dream (27 page)

“When we were little he was gone a lot, not as much as when Dustin and Kristin were young, but he was always hands on when he was home. He was always supportive of all our aspirations no matter how outlandish they might have been. He never missed one of my plays or any of Cody’s wrestling matches. I think there’s a great strength knowing you’re loved so much. There was an effort to be a family. Christmases were always my favorite memory. Christmas and special days like birthdays, which were always fun.”

—T
EIL
R
UNNELS

I know one thing, if she ever gets married, the guy who marries her or even dates her, better have a lot of money, buddy, because she’s high maintenance. She was carrying Louis Vuitton purses when she was six years old, before it was fashionable, when other kids didn’t even know what the hell they were. Kristin and Teil both have these bags and they will steal them from each other. If I give one a Louis Vuitton bag, the other will want one. Then they’ll find it at each other’s house and take them back and they’ll go back and forth like that. Jesus! Now I’m talking about all that in a funny way … it’s not like that’s what they live for.

“It’s their fault because they raised me that way, especially him. Dad spoiled me. I could have asked for a pet monkey and could have worked on it with my dad. I remember going on the road with them and I’d have my little red suitcase. I had a little Louis Vuitton like my mom. I think the term ‘Princess’ is a fair assessment.”

—T
EIL
R
UNNELS

Teil didn’t like school. Two of the funniest stories about Teil readers will find hard to believe. I wonder who she gets it from?

She went for PE class one day, and it was very hot out. They were running the girls around the track, and Coach Day, Cody’s wrestling coach at Lassiter High School and a very close friend of the family, was teaching this class. Teil came out of the locker room carrying a parasol—like an umbrella—to trot around the track with; holding it so she didn’t get the sun on her. Well, Coach Day called us and said, “This girl … this isn’t going to work.”

Another time she was playing softball. In slow pitch she didn’t get a hit but she walked a lot, though, and she was always messing with her hair. Well,
one of my closest friends and members of the posse, J.D. Douthit, was coaching her, and he would try to get her to slide into bases and she said, “I am not sliding on these legs here. These legs are going to Hollywood.” This was back when she was like 14 or 15 years old. So she wouldn’t slide into the base because of that. Later she was a little older and playing fast pitch, and the girls she was playing against looked like they weighed about 225 pounds and are on steroids or something, and they’re throwing the ball like 100 mph. Well Teil came up to hit and she took the bat and rested it between her knees like she was going to hold it there just for a second while she adjusted her pants or something, but instead she took a brush out of her uniform, and while she was standing in the batter’s box, she started brushing her hair to put it up in a ponytail, and the pitcher threw the ball for a strike. The coaches and everybody were hollering at her and I was looking at this scene, shaking my head and saying to myself, “She is not going to be on the U.S. Olympic softball team.”

I’m telling you, she’s a movie waiting to happen. She just has this knack. They would just walk her and she would trot down to first base. Now she did make a couple of big plays, and I remember that because I went crazy, but she’d always play the game. She sat on the bench most of the time, but they had to play them so many times over the course of the season, and she’d always do her thing. There was also always a big standing ovation for her because every boy in Marietta, in East Cobb County Georgia, who went to Lassiter High School, thought she was it; she was the one.

“The [wrestling] business was part of our life. We always compare it to growing up in the circus. There are all these larger-than-life people around you, but it’s normal. It wasn’t until high school or college that I realized how different our unconventional growing up was. What a crazy environment to grow up in. But there was always so much love in our house. I think that’s why Cody and I are so grounded.”

—T
EIL
R
UNNELS

This one time she lost the Miss Odyssey Contest. Now the Miss Odyssey Contest—to a parent—is like who do you know to have your ugly child win this Miss Odyssey Contest? It’s a bigger “work” than they say our business is. It’s unbelievable. Teil was so beautiful and both of my girls could have won that thing if they would have went out there with no makeup on. Teil went
out there—and it was always some big dress she had to have for whatever the occasion that would be a financial setback—and we were watching her and there was not even anyone close. Not because she’s my daughter, but because she really was beautiful. This girl who won it … and as a parent you want to stand up like a parent at the Little League game who just saw a bogus call and say, “Oh, this is bullshit! This is fucking bullshit!” You’re not knocking the other little girl, but you’re just saying, “Somebody’s got to know someone.” And then she was going to try to be a cheerleader. She really didn’t want to be a cheerleader, but she thought she did. Teil couldn’t do the jumping that she wanted to do, as she didn’t want to put that much effort into doing the jumping, so she lost that. Well, she thought that was the end of the world; her heart was broken.

The thing about Teil is, in a way she’s like me deep down because she has no prejudice whatsoever. She has a tremendous amount of African-American friends, both girls and guys, and there’s never been a line drawn with her and she can’t understand anybody who doesn’t understand that. For example, George W. Bush. She knows I voted for “W” and it eats her alive. She cannot stand him. But the biggest thing she has in common with me is she’s a huge Yankee fan! She loves Derek Jeter, and we never miss a Yankee game together when we have the opportunity.

“Sometimes dad gets a raw deal. For all the success he’s had, he worked very hard. Nothing was handed to him. His work ethic was so strong. There’s a misconception of him by total strangers. He really is kind and has a big heart. In his business I think it’s rare to find such a standup, loyal person. His character is exemplary. He has pride and dignity. What a dedicated, family person.”

—T
EIL
R
UNNELS

So both of those girls are just the most talented, special people any father could have. They’re tremendous.

“I think all of us are performers. We are performers. No matter how that manifests itself, it’s influenced by him.”

—T
EIL
R
UNNELS

Which brings me to my youngest son, Cody.

Cody was a two-time State of Georgia high school wrestling champion who now has his sights set on acting. I call him the hardest working man in show business, because once he puts his mind to doing something, there’s not anything at all that will stop him. I remember reading in a book this guy wrote about the last season that he wrestled—he said that when he walked into a gymnasium, it was like he had walked into an alley that was dark and you were scared when you walked in there because you had seen him step out of the shadows and you pissed your pants. Well, Cody had that ability to instill fear into his opponent that he learned; he had an intimidation on the mat and in the gyms.

“When I was wrestling, my opponent’s parents wanted their kids to beat Dusty Rhodes, not Cody Runnels, so the pressure was on them. When you’re born into that type of situation, you’re almost given a choice to step out of that shadow. There’s nothing selfish about matching or being better than your famous father. That would motivate me … get my ire up. I’m my father’s son. I never complained about it, because it made me stronger.”

—C
ODY
R
UNNELS
, S
ON

When he walked into a high school gym, in his junior and senior years, you knew who he was. He was like a rock star and he owned it, he owned that place. He would walk around for two to three hours before his match, with headsets on, just walking around the gym, while everybody else was laughing and joking and training, and of course the guy he was going to wrestle never took his eyes off of Cody, and so he was already beat. The guy was so intimidated because Cody was the most menacing wrestler I think I’ve seen on an amateur scale, ever, and I think a lot of local reporters have written that about him. So to beat him, you had to beat him. He wasn’t going to beat himself. He was amazing in that aspect, but he loved drama too, and watching his plays with his school as well as watching him wrestle was equally exciting. When it came down to having to make a choice, he chose drama, also at the Howard Fine Acting Studio in Los Angeles.

Cody and Teil shared an apartment in L.A. as they went there together to chase that dream. Since she had already completed college while he was finishing up high school, she waited on him. He’s 20 years old and she’s 24.
I think he’s the next big thing out there. A lot of people say that, but I think he is because of his work ethic—it’s so amazing … unbelievable … I can’t imagine that.

“When I discontinued playing football and said I just wanted to wrestle, my dad supported my decision with reluctance, because he was unsure if I was going down the right path. He wanted to see the work and not the talk. He wanted to see the actions. Now when I made my choice for acting, he was less reluctant about me going to Hollywood because he saw my earlier decision flower into the right decision.”

—C
ODY
R
UNNELS

The funny thing is that both of them weren’t worth a shit in school. They got through school to get through school. I remember the Penn State coach wanted to know what Cody’s grade point average was for wrestling, but Cody knew he was going to go to California; he was headed there. He doesn’t like California that much, but he knows he’s got a job to do, and he’s going to get it done. He’s going to do his thing and make it happen.

Like Dustin, he was just a little pretty baby when he was born. He loves wrestling. He saved all the dolls. He watched all the matches. He went through that whole phase. I could always tell through him if wrestling was hot or not, because he’d be watching both shows:
Nitro
and
Raw
, with a clicker, and pretty soon you didn’t hear the clicker. When that happened, you could tell one of those shows were not as hot. Then when he stopped talking about wrestling with his friends, you knew it was bad.

“You don’t know my dad’s a celebrity unless you ask someone else. He’s actually a very humble person. My dad’s fame has this mystique … it’s like a Cuban cigar, so you know it’s the best. In
The Odyssey
Homer describes certain gods as ‘Earth Shakers’ and my dad was like that in the wrestling biz. He was an ‘Earth Shaker.’”

—C
ODY
R
UNNELS

Cody and Dustin both taped all of their early matches that they put together in the backyard. They did the same things in our backyard that I did in my parents’ backyard, except we didn’t have any videos back in the ‘50s. But they did the identical thing I did. They promoted matches, both
of them. It was amazing to see how they kind of did the same thing that I did when I was a kid about the business. And then Cody of course, in his junior year in high school, refereed his first Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling match, like Dustin did when he was younger. But Cody wanted to be in a different industry, and I think that’s good.

“Wrestling is all I wanted to do and the only thing I thought I was going to do. Watching WrestleMania and the Academy Awards were the two things that gave me chills. In my own personal time, I think I could—as dad calls it—tell a better story wrestling, but at this time I want to concentrate on acting and eventually win an Oscar.”

—C
ODY
R
UNNELS

When Cody got his first truck, we bought him this $9,000 old Chevy. It had all the lifts and everything, so then it cost $22,000. The motor blew up, so I’d say it eventually cost $25,000. Like I said, we paid $9,000 for it and sold it for $7,000, so I really lost my ass on that truck. But you knew it when you saw him coming.

And he’s like Dustin in that they’re drop-dead handsome guys. He’s got the cold blue eyes and a look that’s amazing. But I think one of his best attributes is that he’s a great writer and has published a couple of poems, even as a young high school student in the big artsy books that are published in Atlanta, and he’s very deep in what he says and what he believes.