I worked one show for Big Dust as a ring announcer/time keeper back when he was doing Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling right after WCW had closed down. It was down around Birmingham in Irondale and there couldn't have been more than a couple of hundred people that showed up for a card that had Dusty headlining and a lot of former WCW guys like Erik Watts, Ron Reis, Ray Lloyd, etc.
Before the show I was hanging around outside the locker room and struck up a conversation with Joel Watts, who had come in for the night with his brother. Meanwhile in the background, Reis, Lloyd and some of the younger guys on the card were milling around the ring and generally horsing around when Dusty walked in.
Dusty milled around a bit and took care of a few things before eventually making his way over toward the ringside area, where he then watched a couple of the young guys go over a few things and added some input. From there things sort of broke down to the guys just hanging around the ring and shooting the breeze and of course the conversation always seemed to revert back to the elder statesman and clown prince of the group, Dusty himself.
At some point the conversation turned to the topic of Japan with a couple of the veterans reflecting on having worked a show or two over there and asking Stardust about his time overseas. Dusty responded by talking about all of the innovative moves that the guys over there came up with and said that he had learned something over there that he bet none of the guys had seen before, but first he needed a volunteer.
Dusty, never one to back down from a challenge, decided that bigger was better and set his sights on the 7 foot tall, 300 pound Ron Reis and asked him to volunteer. Reis seemed a little surprised to have been picked and asked Rhodes if he was sure that he could execute this fancy move on a guy his size. Dusty assured him that he would have no problems and asked this giant of a man to get down on the canvas on all fours in a amateur wrestling stance. Reis seemed a little unsure but was eventually coaxed into complying by 'the Dream' assuring him that everything was okay.
From there Dusty began surveying the situation as he took a couple of laps around the big man, taking a moment to adjust Reis' leg and posture like so and then finally raising one of 'Big' Ron's arms up off the canvas and sort of curling it up like so. Reis seemed a bit puzzled by all of this and was now reasoning with Dusty and asking him if he was going to show him the move or not.
Again Dusty assured him that everything was going to be alright he was almost ready and after a couple more quick adjustments stepped back and said to that mountain of a man...
"NOW BARK LIKE A DOG!"
The whole place erupted with laughter as 'Big' Ron knew that he had been had, but you just couldn't stay mad at a guy like Dusty for very long. It was a good-natured rib and it was just like Dusty to single out the biggest man in the room as his victim.
They say that you should remember someone for how they lived, not how they died.
Dusty Rhodes not only lived, but was the living embodiment of the one thing that we all strive for, the American Dream, and boy did he live it!
Thank You Adam Tucker for such a fitting tribute.
Working on it now.