Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
‘The American Dream’ Dusty Rhodes has been praised as both a creative genius and an ego maniac only out for himself and his friends. His booking helped catapult Jim Crockett Promotions to the national level. Some say he also led JCP into financial ruin with many of his decisions. Whether you are pro or anti Dusty as a booker and creative mind…we mustn’t lose sight that many of his ideas are still used today. Let’s also not forget that time when Dusty tried to start his own national promotion. This is the story of the PWF…The Professional Wrestling Federation and its place in wrestling history.
In late 1988, Dusty Rhodes was fired from Crockett Promotions which was just purchased by Turner Broadcasting for using blood in an angle. Despite warnings from management, Rhodes went ahead with the use of blood and was let go. At the time, Mike Graham and Steve Keirn were trying to revive the Florida territory. A territory that Mike’s father Eddie Graham ruled for over two decades. When Dusty became available, Graham and Keirn reached out to Dusty to partner with them in their new venture.
Rhodes was a huge star for Championship Wrestling from Florida for years. Both Keirn and Graham felt that having Dusty’s name attached to their promotion would only help it to expand. Rhodes saw the potential in Florida Championship Wrestling and was initially excited about joining the promotion. Dusty’s vision, however, wasn’t to keep FCW small…but eventually become a player for the big time.
The territorial name of Florida Championship Wrestling was changed to the Professional Wrestling Federation or PWF for short. Legendary play by play man Gordon Solie would be the voice of the company and was also an investor. Solie’s son would head up the production team for the promotion. Realizing that Graham and Keirn were not prepared financially for Dusty’s vision….Rhodes brought in a financial backer named Randy Roberts. Roberts had years of experience running casinos and other corporate start ups.
With a solid money stream coming in…many talents were brought on board to the PWF including the Nasty Boys, Scott Hall, Dick Slater, Mike Awesome, Bam Bam Bigelow, Al Perez and others. Their shows would be taped at the famed Tampa Sportatorium each week. The show was syndicated all over Florida in places like, Tampa, Tallahassee, Miami, Orlando and Jacksonville. Diamond Dallas Page, who was still trying to “make it” in the wrestling business was brought in as a manager and color commentator.
Page was recommended for the gig by Mike Graham who had Page audition for Dusty over the phone. Page basically did a Dusty Rhodes impression for about 45 seconds and was hired then and there. In a not so shocking surprise, Dusty was crowned the inaugural PWF heavyweight champion defeating his brother in law Big Steele Man aka Fred Ottman (Tugboat, Typhoon, Shockmaster). The PWF would run regular house shows throughout the state of Florida and in the Bahamas.
With the PWF gaining momentum, Dusty said that they got a surprise visit from Bobby ‘The Brain’ Heenan before a television taping. Heenan was still employed by the WWF at the time and he said he was there at the taping merely for a visit. Dusty said he knew something was up when Heenan started asking questions about the business they were doing. Dusty simply told Bobby that business was doing great and knew that Heenan would go back to Vince McMahon and report to him whatever he had heard.
Sure enough, not long after…McMahon called Dusty and offered him a job with the WWF. Not only that, but offered to purchase the PWF from him (potentially making that a developmental territory for the WWF) Dusty said no and declined McMahon’s offer…at the time feeling that the PWF had a real shot of one day competing with the WWF and WCW. It was a decision that Dusty says he would later regret.
Ultimately, Rhodes saw that his business partners were not keen on continuing to reinvest into the promotion to make it grow bigger than what it already had become. With the writing on the wall, Dusty swallowed his pride and joined the WWF as a wrestler for far less than what he was initially offered. The PWF continued to operate without Dusty for a couple of more years before folding in 1991.
Dusty’s first attempt at becoming a national promotion was all gone. He would later open up Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling based in Georgia with little success. Could the PWF have eventually become a wrestling powerhouse? It makes you wonder if his son Cody learned from both Dusty’s successes and failures to do what he is doing today.
david fullam
Should have just tried to keep it in Florida.