Dusty

Reflections of Wrestling's American Dream

By: Dusty Rhodes, Howard Brody

Narrated by: Kerry Woodrow

Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

There has been much said about Dusty Rhodes, the 'American Dream', over the years by both his fans and peers. Aside from the frequent fictional prose penned by wrestling magazine journalists and internet smart marks that run rumor-mill websites, however, there has not been much written about him. Until now.

With the exception of a select few, there has been no bigger name or personality in the annals of pro wrestling history than Dusty Rhodes. Of those few, none of them can claim the compelling back story Rhodes shares in Dusty: Reflections of an American Dream of an industry plagued with political loyalties and disloyalties, greedy promoters, manipulative bookers, destructive personalities, multi-millionaires, and great leaders. Behind the "million-dollar smile" and the million dollar gate receipts is a man with a story to tell - not just of tall tales, yarns, and fabrications, but of a life filled with aspirations, dreams, disappointments, challenges, controversies, angst, conflict, success, and reflection.

Dusty: Reflections of an American Dream is the story of a transformation from mediocrity to superstardom. It is the story of how the boy Virgil Runnels Jr. became the man Dusty Rhodes and truly lived the 'American Dream'. This is his story.

©2005, 2006, 2012 Dusty Rhodes and Howard Brody (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

What a horrible job

The narrorater ruined this book, he butchered every name he tried to say. Who ever was in charge of the audio version should be ashamed

terrible narrator

stories were great, narrator was awful. get Bruce Prichard to read it in Dustys voice

Decent at best

Some good stories in this book. A little too much background on his time growing up. But overall a good book. However, the narrator is just plain awful. He clearly had no knowledge about the wresting business or the people in it. He mispronounced many names in the book. Really took away from the enjoyment of the book.

Do not waste your time

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Kerry Woodrow?

No

Any additional comments?

If you are going to narrate a book at least research the subject matter. I know this is not Shakespeare or Austen but for the love of God at least learn how to pronounce the names of the characters.

Great story, horrible narration.

I liked the stories and the writing style, but the narrator was absolutely awful. Not only did he mispronounce most of the names (e.g. Ted DiBiase [DEE-Be-YAH-See] he says "Ted DeBase." Additionally, he tries to do the voices of the people who are quoted, but shouldn't even bother if he isn't going to sound anything like them (KEVIN SULLIVAN HAS A THICK BOSTON ACCENT. JIM ROSS IS AN OKLAHOMAN WITH BELL'S PALSY. JUST STOP.)
All in all, I enjoyed the stories, but if Kerry Woodrow is featured on other books, I will avoid them like the grating plague his voice made this listen.

The American Dream

man I wish the dream read this himself. long live the American dream dusty rhodes

Not really a book, more a collection of stories

If you're expecting a comprehensive book of Dusty's career this will leave you extremely disappointed. This is more a collection of stories from over the years. The book jumps all over the place, repeats itself a lot and isn't read very well. With that said, some of the stories are really interesting and some are very funny.

As I said the reader isn't very good -- he reads in what I guess he must thinks Dusty sounds like since it's sort of a Texas drawl -- of course if you're getting this book you know Rhodes sounds nothing like a typical Texian so it doesn't make much sense. Also the additional voices, which I know are done so you can seperate who is talking, are for the most part really bad. Finally he mispronounces numerous names and locations. With all that said I'll still give him 3-stars since if he did a straight read I think it would have been even worse since this book is written at a pretty low level.

So overall just know what you're getting, a collection of stories. If you can accept that you'll probably enjoy much of the book - but it's still quite disappointing that someone with so much knowledge of the industry would produce such a poor effort.

Horrible reader

Story is good, the guy reading it does a horrible job trying to sound like Dusty. If you don’t understand Dusty and his family it is slightly condescending.

A Bio... If You Will!!!

It was an ok bio. Would have liked more in ring stories. The narrator is at times so bad it makes it "good". It made me lol at the various name pronunciations. For example, the guy had at least 3 or 4 different ways to say Jarrett. And let's not forget the classic Bis-ch-off

Good book, TERRIBLE narration

Great stories from one of the all time greats in wrestling. The narrator though may be THE WORST of all time. He reads in a fake, overly exaggerated southern accent with mispronunciations galore. He obviously did ZERO research on how to pronounce names, towns, etc. Just GOD AWFUL.

enjoyed it

Really enjoyed it but the narrator really butchered the names of the legends of wrestling

Mixed bag

The guy doing the voiceover doesn’t know how to pronounce a lot of the names and delivers Dusty without the bounce of his real voice. He’s got a souther swagger that means the words don’t carry as well as they could.

The book starts strong, then it seems like Dusty realises he has 10000 words left to write and starts ramming in any old stuff that comes to mind.

Great listen

As a dusty fan it was a great insight into the history of him not wonky as a character but as a person in general

Great but..

The stories are great and enjoyable, the narrator was annoying, mispronouncing so many of the wrestlers names.

Nobody tells a story like Dusty

Great trip down memory lane, the stories told and Dustys take on them kept me hooked from beginning to end. Must listen for any wrestling fan.

Cure for Insomnia!

Story is boring AF! Narrator also mispronounces names alot, most of which you can't decipher exactly Who he's talking about.
Not many pauses or gaps between sentences/paragraphs either, it's like one continuous sentence... which also ruins it, but the story itself is really bad & is mostly made up of comments that others have made on a specific event or Dusty himself.
I was hoping to get some good stories from this... but was feeling very disappointed!!

Only one dusty rhodes

A true man's man.. A family man a superstar.
Very well put together.. Easy listening at its best.
Just like you was in the room with the man your self.

love it

it shows dusty as you would expect. i still love the american dream and im glad.

Ruined by Narrator

Great story ruined by poor narration. Kerry Woodrow needs to learn how to pronounce some really famous names and his impression of Harley Race was embarrassing, he gave him a high pitched voice!!

Just a load of rambling

It feels like Abe Simpson is telling this story. repeats himself chapters later. Also a lot of quotes from people and you don't know who says them until after so half the time you don't even know who is telling the story I had to stop listening is just impossible to keep up with.