Goldust on Gimmick’s Origins, Savio Vega’s Influence, and Scott Hall Issues

Recent episode of the E&C’s Pod Of Awesomeness podcast show had Goldust as the guest discussing the origins of his gimmick, Savio Vega’s influential role, and Scott Hall being very uneasy with the gimmick’s tone.

On the topic of the origins of the “Goldust” gimmick, Goldust stated it was pitched to him during a call from both Vince McMahon and Bruce Prichard after he left WCW. He mentioned the main reason he accepted the idea was not realizing what the word “androgynous” meant and had some regrets afterwards when he actually looked up the word in a dictionary.

“Me and my dad, we were kind of not on the best of terms at that point,” Goldust noted. “And I had just gotten released from WCW, so it’s like I’m sitting at home and Vince [McMahon] calls and he presents this idea, and then, Bruce Prichard on the phone, he presents this idea. He kept saying, ‘this is an androgynous character’ and I’m just agreeing with him, but I have no idea what the hell that means, so I’m like, ‘yeah, sure. I’ll give this a try’ because I really wanted to try to do something on my own other than the Dustin Rhodes name, try to accomplish something that is fresh and new and then go from there and see if I could do that.” Goldust added, “opened up the dictionary and looked to see what ‘androgynous’ was and I just shook my head. I’m like, ‘well, I can’t back out now – let’s go and just give it my all.'”

While discussing more about his gimmick, Goldust revealed Savio Vega played a very influential role with the gimmick’s development. He stated Savio told him to embrace the gimmick’s outlandish potential including the idea of rubbing his body on his opponents for heel heat.

“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.’ And I’m just like, ‘no, man, no,’ so finally one night, in The Garden, the first time I did it, and Vince was there. This is when he used to go hang out and watch the shows, the live events, with the boys. He’s one of the boys. It was fun for him. And I decided to do it in The Garden and I went behind Savio and I rubbed up his chest and down with both of my hands. And he brushed it away from me and he looked at me and I just ran. I scooted out of the ring and the place just erupted, man. And I was like, ‘holy s–t! That was easy!'”

On the topic of if anyone backstage had issues with the tone of his gimmick, Goldust revealed Scott Hall was a big vocal opponent of his gimmick. He stated the feud with Razor Ramon was very difficult due to backstage issues but felt he finally found a groove for his character after Hall left for WCW and Roddy Piper stepped in as the replacement.

“Yeah, yeah, Razor wasn’t keen on it, man, and he fought it. I’m just trying to get a character over and do what’s best for the company, best for business, best for me, and I’m young, so I’m not in other people’s point of view sometimes. And even though this business is a work, people take it too seriously. For me, it’s probably when I had the most passion for the business and where I did not let the little things get to me, and not care so much about what they’re thinking of me, man, just go out there and do what I can do to perform and put on a great performance, whatever. And to have him kind of, to have Razor be kind of a speed bump, it was frustrating, but we got through it and it ended with a Roddy Piper special because Razor left.”