Edge and Christian open this week’s show speaking about Sami Zayn’s recent heel turn. Christian says that Zayn has cut a great heel promo on Smackdown Live two weeks in a row and he believes this turn has added some great layers to Zayn’s character.

Edge and Christian welcome Goldust to the show.

Goldust comments on the notion that it may have been his work in the mid-late 90’s that started the attitude era. He says that he likes to think that’s the case from time to time, but most people tend to agree that it was DX, NWO, Rock, Austin and all the other stars during that era that truly ushered in that cutting edge style.

He’s still very proud of what he accomplished with the Goldust character at that time, and he thinks a lot of the work he was doing back then was well before its time. He admits that when he transitioned from WCW to WWE in the mid 90’s he was determined to make his own success, separate from the ‘Rhodes’ name. He was handed the Goldust character and it took him a while to feel comfortable with it.

He credits Savio Vega with really helping him get the subtleties of that character down during that time. He had never been a heel before so that was a challenge for him, and the Goldust character was something that nobody had seen before so it took a while to figure that character out. Luckily, Vince McMahon gave him full control over the character and rarely told him to stop doing something.

Goldust informs that Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) wasn’t overly fond of the sexual nature of their feud during that time. On the other hand, ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper was completely on board with working a program with Goldust. Goldust says it was during that feud that he really got to know Piper, and he was a great person and performer.

He asked Piper to cause him to bleed ‘hard way’ during their 1996 backstreet brawl, because he wanted to bleed but McMahon wouldn’t let him. He says that Piper punched him so hard at one point trying to bust him open, that Piper broke his own hand and gave him a concussion. They did the entire thing in one take.

Christian mentions that Goldust looks great today, even better than he did 20 years ago. Goldust says that he hit rock bottom between 2005-2008 when he was drinking half a gallon of vodka a day, taking 70 pills a day and doing cocaine as well. He didn’t care about life or family and he was in a very tough place. One night he knew he had enough, and he called his father. Dusty set him up in rehab and he never looked back; he’s been clean and sober for 10 years now.

Edge points out that Goldust still moves so fluidly in the ring, so much so that people have a hard time believing that he’s 6’4”. It’s difficult for big men to move that well but Goldust makes it look easy. Goldust says he always felt like he moved well in the ring but it’s still nice to hear those types of compliments from time to time.

Goldust says Christian is one of the greatest in-ring workers of all time in his mind, and he really enjoyed the matches they had together. Christian agrees, saying that they had terrific matches together and he believes that had a lot to do with the fact that they just tried to have fun every time they worked together.

Goldust mentions that he would have loved to work with Kurt Angle, because that’s one competitor he hasn’t had a chance to work with yet. He also points out that even though he’s great friends with Kane, he’s only worked with him a couple of times. He only worked one short match with Edge on Sunday Night Heat as well, and he thinks they could have really torn the house down if they had the opportunity.

He says that he has watched Bray Wyatt grow up backstage because his father (Mike Rotunda) has been a WWE wrestler/employee for decades. For this reason it was very special to work with Wyatt recently on RAW, and he really wishes the writers would have included him in that program further.

Goldust believes WWE is in good hands moving forward. He believes Superstars like Wyatt, Balor and Nakamura are all going to be huge stars, and A.J. Styles and Roman Reigns are incredible talents. He says it has been incredible to watch Reigns develop into a locker room leader over the last couple of years and his improvement as a performer in the ring has been equally as impressive.

That sums up this week’s episode of E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya next week for another recap!