Dusty Rhodes

[Hitman81]

I'm a child of the 80s. I grew up on 80s and 90s WWF. My dad watched NWA/WCW but I remember never getting into it. So I got the network because I wanted to watch all of the NWA/WCW events beginning with Starrcade 83. Now I understand this is probably past Dusty's prime but I was surprised to learn he was only their champion 3 times for a mere total of 107 days. I was under the impression he was like their 2nd or 3rd biggest star of all time. His charisma is undeniable so why didn't they keep the belt on him? Did he not draw? Was he better chasing the title? What was it?

 

[Batjester]

Faces are almost always better chasing the title.

 

[Pliny Pete]

The NWA model was a bad guy world champion that could travel to each regional territory and take on the local beloved babyface
The bad guy would barely escape by the skin of his teeth which would make the local star even more beloved by the local fans and also convince everyone that he was definitely gonna beat the champ the next time he came to town six months down the road
This kept the local stars strong and able to sell tickets week in and week out without the fans losing faith in them
That didnt work as well if you had a strong popular babyface like Dusty coming to town because the local fans would either cheer Dusty, which would hurt the local guy, or you had to put your local hated bad guy up against Dusty and the fans didnt want to see him win anyways so that would just piss the fans off

Dusty holding the belt for 107 days was still the 3rd longest amount of days in the entire decade of the 80's, only behind Harley Race and Ric Flair, widely considered to be the two greatest NWA world champions of all time

 

[The Elemental O]

I would go as far as to say, he gave the best babyface promos in the business.