The Crusher vs Dusty Rhodes: My Hometowns most famous match
Inevitably when long time fans find out I'm a pro wrestler and start talking to me about their memories of wrestling growing up, they bring up the AWA. The great Midwest promotion run & owned by Verne Gagne. Gagne, as many old time promoters did, kept himself the champ for most of his career. Who better to trust with your belt than yourself?
Though fans respected & liked Gagne there was one character they talk about far more. The Crusher. The man who made Milwaukee famous. A seventies version of Stone Cold Steve Austin. Crusher was a beer drinking barrel chested blue collar man who loved to fight.
He could cut a great promo too. He was entertaining, would make people laugh, but still sell the upcoming brawl as no joke. Of Polish descent, he appealed to the adult Midwest crowd who still could relate to the mother land in Europe. He talked about dancing with the dolls at night to Polka music, if they were a bit heavy, even better for him.
When I was training in Texas I met a neighbor lady who was from Milwaukee. I asked her if she knew The Crusher. She went on for 15 minutes about him. About how much all her family loved to see him and how the whole town knew who he was.
I once had dinner with the great Nick Bockwinkell & asked him about The Crusher. He loved him but said having a match with him wasn't always easy. "Crushers idea of a match was you get TWO minutes of heat on him AND he starts a 15 minute comeback!"
Well around the early 70's a brash young bleach blonde Texas wrestler showed up in the AWA. At that time he was known as "Dirty" Dusty Rhodes. He was a great talker, entertaining as could be also, tough & loved to draw big crowds since that meant big $$ for him. He & his fellow Texan Dick Murdoch formed the Texas Outlaws. They created havoc all over the wrestling world after they were introduced to each other in the Kansas City territory. They drew big money in Australia, Kansas City and all over before coming to the AWA.
Rhodes & Murdoch became almost as famous for their antics outside the ring getting into bar room brawls & harassing a young Ric Flair incessantly. They were young, tough, damn good at what they did & were CASHING BIG CHECKS. They were having the time of their life.
In the AWA Crusher & Bruiser battled Rhodes & Murdoch. Rhodes mentioned in his RF Video shoot in Chicago "they were chanting before the matches even started. 'We want blood.' We got our asses kicked every night but still kept our heat, that's not easy."
Muscatine would have occasional small shows promoted by George Long as a fundraiser for his semi pro baseball team The Muscatine Red Sox. These were small shows that not all the wrestlers in the AWA roster worked. I never heard of Verne Gagne wrestling in town for example. But they seemed to be spot shows where wrestlers looking for a few additional dates and extra cash could work to round out the famously light AWA schedule.
Well one day the stage was set for one of these spot shows to be headlined by Muscatines favorite wrestler, The Crusher vs "Dirty" Dusty Rhodes. It sounds like a cliché but the place was sold out. Over sold actually. I've been told on numerous occasions by different people the Fire Chief threatened to shut the show down as Central Middle School was over its capacity. A local convinced him otherwise as he told him he may have a riot on his hand if he did.
When people talked about the match hammerlocks & amateur takedowns are not mentioned. All I've ever heard is it was a brawl all over the building from start to finish. Rhodes took an old fashioned butt kicking that involved chairs, stomps, kicks and bites.
As Bockwinkell said I imagine a young Rhodes got about TWO minutes of heat on Crusher and then took a 15 minute comeback from him. as Rhodes said, he probably got his butt kicked and still kept his heat.
Some old timers tell stories that sound a little exaggerated. "They were hanging from the rafters!! We tore the house down!" This time I believe every word I've ever heard about the most famous match in Muscatine history.
