AEW's Dustin Rhodes Opens Up About What Keeps Him Going In Wrestling

At 54 years old, Dustin Rhodes remains as good as he's ever been, continuing to have top-level performances in AEW against the likes of TNT Champion Christian Cage. And while Rhodes acknowledges he has a ton of wear and tear, he also feels the urge to just keep going. During an interview with "Denise Salcedo," Rhodes credited that drive to him getting sober more than a decade ago.

"To be honest with you, I think it's my sobriety that keeps me going," Rhodes said. "Since I've gotten clean and sober 15 years ago, it has put this kind of new shine on my life that I need to kick it into gear and continue growing and continue what I love to do, which is this wonderful business we're in, and have some fun. And it's all about having fun. If you can't have fun at your job, you don't really need to be in it." 

Rhodes also sees every opportunity he gets to wrestle as a chance to teach younger wrestlers about incorporating old-school wrestling with new-school philosophy. And the most important facet of that, to Rhodes, is telling stories within the match.

"It's [storytelling] very important to me because the fans...they've made us," Rhodes said. "Without the fans, we're nothing, and the fans that are going through their day, and they might be having a terrible day or whatever, and they turn on the TV on AEW just to watch us, it's my job to take them out of that day, and entertain them, but make them feel something. That's the most important thing, it's to move somebody, to make them feel something. If you make them feel something, they're going to come back. So that's kind of my goal every time that I go out there."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Denise Salcedo" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription