Dustin Rhodes is still an active performer for AEW, but he already has his mind on the future.
Joining Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, Rhodes revealed that he has plans on opening his own wrestling school in early 2021.
"I am opening a wrestling school. I'm going to wait until after the holidays for the grand opening, I guess. It's gonna be in January. So, probably November, I'm going to lockdown a building and we're going to go from there. I'm going to build this brand of Rhodes Wrestling Academy, a place for kids to come to really learn the art of telling stories and pro wrestling done the right way. There's a lot of schools in America and the world, but I think people will come and get the knowledge that I have because of my name. That's a blessing that I've been in the business so long and I do have something to teach and I know so much and have so much knowledge of our sport. I'm probably going to take no more than 20 students, every three months. So, we'll have camps. It's just on the backburner right now, but stay tuned for January for Rhodes Wrestling Academy," he said.
Rhodes mentioned the possibility of Ricky Starks serving as a trainer for his wrestling school, praising Starks as a "good kid with a bright future." Starks recently signed with AEW following his performance against Cody in a TNT Title bout.
Fightful reached out to Starks about Rhodes wanting him as a trainer. He replied, "Damn. That's cool."
Rhodes does work behind the scenes in AEW as a producer and trainer along with being a veteran who is just willing to give advice to those who ask.
"There's different ways of doing things and getting into things today that kids might not know. I don't want to crutch them, I want them to be their own characters, but I want to know what it is so I can fix certain things so they can look better on TNT. It's important to me. I love teaching them and switching up little things every week in our training sessions, I hold Zoom classes as well when we're not at work and we watch old matches. It's fun for me. If I ever want to be remembered in the business for anything, that's the legacy I want to leave behind; me passing on my knowledge to the future world champions," said Rhodes.
Rhodes mentioned that many WCW veterans were willing to give him advice when he first started out and said AEW has a team environment where everyone is willing to pick each other up and pay it forward.
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