Jake Roberts Gives His Thoughts On The Goldust Character

In the latest episode of the DDP Snake Pit podcast, Jake Roberts and DDP, Diamond Dallas Page, focused on the Rhodes wrestling family. In particular, they talked about Goldust, the WWE character portrayed by current AEW star Dustin Rhodes, one that Jake Roberts is a big fan of.

"I love that character," Roberts said. "He (Dustin) did a phenomenal job. Sometimes, you got to be careful when you're playing characters because you can let yourself become part of that character and I think for a while there, Dustin was flirting with disaster. And maybe it caused him some problems, but that character was done so well. He carried it off not just to here, but to here. It was mesmerizing for me to watch."

Jake Roberts believes that Dustin Rhodes was determined to make the idea work at all costs and ultimately did so. The AEW performer also commented on the rumor going around that Dustin took the gimmick due to issues with his father, "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, something Roberts believes isn't the case.

"He was going to make it work too, beyond all expectations," Roberts said. "It was a great idea. At the time, Vince (McMahon) loved vignettes. Man, he loved making vignettes because you could explore a character and that's what he did. He used vignettes to get Goldust started and people loved the fact that it was the natural becoming Goldust. The fans did. They thought that was very interesting. And what happened and all the bullsh-t that went around at the time. There were rumors of Dusty and Dustin had gotten into a fight and just crazy sh-t that he was doing this to slap his dad in the face and all this crap, man, they fooled around with at the time.

"So, that's not true, you know? Vince just did a character and went with it. Let's face it, if you want to get to the big show and a guy offers you 'you're going to carry a snake and wear like green and purple tights.' 'D-mn right I am. I'm not John Wayne yet, and I can't tell you what I will and won't do.' But when you're given that opportunity, you've got to take your tools and go to work. Because the bottom line is you still gotta work at it. You've got to make it believable. You've got to make people believe that's who you believe you are."

As for whether or not the Goldust gimmick was a rib on Dustin Rhodes or not, DDP stressed his belief that it was not a rib. He cited the commitment of both Dustin and WWE Chairman Vince McMahon as the reason for this belief.

"Nah, I don't really think so," DDP said. "In the beginning, I kind of did a little bit because of the Stardust. But then I saw the commitment that not only Dustin was putting it, but Vince was putting in. Like, when he gets behind something, that's not a rib. And again, I think Vince, in a meeting, giving you that when he started to spend the money and give the vignettes they do that, that was the smartest way to bring everybody in. I don't know why that ever changed anywhere about anything because that was just a really great way to build people caring or wondering or interest in the character and he put that in and then Dustin went out there was committed to it like I said earlier.

"And like, he really committed to it, and that's a redneck cowboy, that's who he is. And he can play that character like I told you in the back, he can be anybody. He could play anybody. So he had been doing for so long, so what are you going to do? Is he going to go out there and quote things from different movies? He's going to nail it. Because that was his commitment that he put into it and then I realized, this is not a rib at all. Like Vince is really pushing this. And it got pushed to a point where, I can't remember what pulled it back, but it was something that had to do with... I can't remember at the time to be perfectly honest. But, it got a hell of a run."

To quote this article, please credit DDP Snake Pit and provide an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription