Background and career
Dustin Patrick Runnels (born Virgil Riley Runnels III on April 11, 1969) is an American professional wrestler. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he performs under the ring name Dustin Rhodes and is a former AEW TNT Champion. He also appears in AEW's sister promotion Ring of Honor (ROH), where he is a member of the Sons of Texas stable. In ROH, Rhodes is a former ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Champion and ROH World Tag Team Champion. He is best known for wrestling in the World Wrestling Federation/WWE from 1995 to 2019 (on and off), under the ring name Goldust. A second generation wrestler, he is the son of WWE Hall of Famer Dusty Rhodes and the half-brother of Cody Rhodes. He is also known for his appearances with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). Between WWE, WCW, ROH, and AEW, Runnels has won 26 championships. In WCW, he was a two-time WCW United States Heavyweight Champion, a one-time WCW World Six-Man Tag Team Champion, and a two-time WCW World Tag Team Champion. In the WWF/WWE, he was a three-time WWF Intercontinental Champion, nine-time WWE Hardcore Champion, one-time World Tag Team Champion, and two-time WWE Tag Team Champion. He won his first AEW championship, the TNT Championship, in July 2025 at All In, after having been one of the first talents since the company's inception in 2019. Runnels has also appeared in the sixth most Royal Rumble matches, at 13. Runnels headlined multiple pay-per-view events for WWE (then WWF) and WCW during the 1990s.
Runnels is the son of Virgil Runnels, better known as "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes (1945–2015), and his first wife Sandra. His parents divorced when he was 6 years old. Growing up he spent a majority of his time in Austin, Texas with his mother and would visit his father during vacations in Florida. During his junior and senior years of high school Runnels moved in with his father in Charlotte, North Carolina. Runnels played football in high school, and wanted to compete in college however after not having the grades to do so his father then introduced him to the wrestling business. His half-brother is fellow wrestler Cody Rhodes. He has a sister named Kristin Runnels Ditto, who is a former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader, and a half-sister named Teil Gergel.
Runnels made his professional wrestling debut on September 13, 1988, as "Dustin Rhodes", defeating Bob Cook in a match for the Tampa-based Championship Wrestling from Florida (CWF) promotion. In September, he would defeat Rex King and Scotty the Body (the future Raven) in house show matches. He was defeated by Jim Backlund in a "Loser Leaves Town" match on November 30, 1988.
In December 1988, Runnels debuted in Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP). Rhodes teamed with Kendall Windham in an undercard tag team called the Texas Broncos who saw success against the Cruel Connection and The Commandos. Their first defeat came against The Original Midnight Express at a house show on December 10, 1988, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Rhodes' first singles match came two days later at a television taping in Atlanta, Georgia when he defeated Trent Knight. Rhodes' run lasted only a few months, as he exited the company two months after his father. After suffering a loss to Butch Reed during a dark match for an NWA Main Event taping in The Omni on February 12, 1989, Rhodes closed out his run with a win over Trent Knight in Walterboro, South Carolina on February 24, 1989.
After departing the NWA, Rhodes rejoined the CWF, which had been renamed the Professional Wrestling Federation in March 1989 after Runnels' father, Dusty Rhodes, began wrestling there. He made his return on March 4, 1989, in Titusville, Florida, defeating Commando Boone via disqualification. Seven days later he achieved the biggest win of his career at this point, defeating Terry Funk via disqualification in Tampa. On May 9, 1989 he captured his first ever championship, teaming with Mike Graham to defeat Southern Force (Bobby Jaggers and Black Bart) to win the PWF Tag Team Championship. Fourteen days later, Runnels captured the NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship from Al Perez on May 23, 1989, holding it for a month and successfully defending it against the Big Steel Man and The Terminator. He was defeated for the NWA Florida Championship on June 27 by former Texas Bronco partner Kendall Windham in Tampa, Florida.
In March 1989, Runnels toured Japan for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in its annual Champion Carnival, under the name "Dusty Rhodes Jr.". He returned to AJPW for further tours in the spring and summer of 1990. Runnels began wrestling in the United States Wrestling Association (USWA) in July 1989. There, he feuded mainly with Tony Anthony for Anthony's CWA Heavyweight Championship but never won the title. On October 2, 1989 he entered a tournament to crown the USWA Southern Heavyweight Champion, where he defeated Mike Davis, Chris Champion, and Kevin Dillinger in successive rounds before losing to Tony Anthony in the finals. He left the USWA in the spring of 1990.
