I chose to go down a very dark place, and I can't change that, but those moments have served as an education for me.
Here are the five guys I learned the business from: Barry Windham, Ricky Steamboat, Arn Anderson, Larry Zbyszko, and Bobby Eaton. Those guys taught me how to do everything in the ring. I learned so much from each of them.
If anything, I was the definite edge of the spear into The Attitude Era, I believe, so it was way before its time, the stuff I was doing, and it kind of set the tone for what was to come.
Tell a story. You don't have to do a thousand things in two minutes when you can do one just as good and still tell that story with your face or how you land or your reaction. That's a lost art. Storytelling is a big part of our industry, and if given time, you can do it properly.
Savio Vega kept pushing me, pushing me, as he was teaching me, too, how to be a heel and things. And how to... 'Let's just try this tonight: just, we'll lock up, you'll go behind me, rub up and down my chest.'
I am Dusty's son, but I learned the hard way I was never going to be 'The American Dream.' That was difficult for me, and I made some molehills into mountains.
The business changes, and we don't all have to like the change, but it's, ultimately, the business is changed. But, that being said, I don't like it, and I'll tell you why. Because without the new school that we have right now, or without old school, there would be none of this new school, so it started somewhere, right?
The backstage stuff is not for everybody. I'm very hands on; I like to train and teach young guys now because there's so many of them. There are certain ways to do things, to get crowd reactions and sell your emotions and sell stories.
Working heel works different for me, being Dustin Rhodes for so many years and then a giant switch of a character and everything.