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Dusty Rhodes

Virgil Riley Runnels Jr. (October 12, 1945 – June 11, 2015), better known as "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, was an American professional wrestler, booker, and trainer who worked for the National Wrestling Alliance and the World Wrestling Federation, later known as WWE. Rhodes was considered a star wrestler and presented the persona of an American everyman, the American Dream personified. Rhodes is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time.

Rhodes was a three-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion, and during his time in Jim Crockett Promotions/World Championship Wrestling, he was a United States Heavyweight Champion, and multi-time World Television, World Tag Team and World Six-Man Tag Team Champion. He also won many regional championships, and is one of seven men inducted into each of the WWE, WCW, Professional Wrestling, and Wrestling Observer Newsletter Halls of Fame. His sons, Dustin and Cody, both pursued careers in professional wrestling, currently performing for All Elite Wrestling and WWE, respectively.

Following his retirement from wrestling, he made occasional on-air appearances on WWE television and pay-per-views and worked as a backstage booker and producer in WWE's NXT developmental territory. Billed as "the son of a plumber", Rhodes did not have a typical wrestler's physique; his character was that of the "common man", known for the personality exhibited in his interviews. WWE chairman Vince McMahon remarked that no wrestler "personified the essence of charisma quite like Dusty Rhodes".

Early life
Virgil Riley Runnels Jr. was born on October 12, 1945, in Austin, Texas.

After graduating from Albert Sidney Johnston High School in Austin, Rhodes played baseball and football at West Texas State (now known as West Texas A&M University). Turning professional, Rhodes tried out for the American Football League's Boston Patriots, but was cut. He then played for the Hartford Charter Oaks in the Continental Football League until the team folded.

Early career (1967–1974)
In 1967, Rhodes saw an advertisement in the newspaper for Tony Santos' professional wrestling promotion Big Time Wrestling, based in Boston. Rhodes drove to Boston, and despite not having any wrestling experience, bluffed his way into working for the company by using his real life friendships with Bobby Duncum and the Funk brothers. Billed as Dusty Runnels, one of his first matches was for the BTW World Heavyweight title against champion Frank Scarpa in the Boston Arena. Having little money, Rhodes slept in his car and spent Thanksgiving with Rufus R. Jones in a Boston soup kitchen.

Rhodes moved on to Fritz Von Erich's Texas territory World Class Championship Wrestling in 1968, at that time also called Big Time Wrestling. It was in Texas where Rhodes first adopted the ring name "Dusty Rhodes". Upon meeting Rhodes, Gary Hart suggested that he change his ring name to "Lonesome Rhodes", a character Andy Griffith portrayed in the film A Face in the Crowd. Rhodes reportedly replied: "Well...I don't plan on being 'Lonesome'. I think I'll stick with Dusty." Hart took an immediate liking to Rhodes and convinced Von Erich of the young wrestler's potential. Rhodes became a rule-breaking heel with Hart as his manager, teaming with Don Jardine, better known as The Spoiler.

In 1968, Rhodes left Texas and entered the Kansas City territory, tagging with fellow Texan Dick Murdoch to form the tag team The Texas Outlaws. The team traveled both nationally and internationally, appearing in Big Time Wrestling (Texas), NWA Western States Sports (Texas), NWA Detroit, National Wrestling Federation (NWF), Championship Wrestling from Florida, World Championship Wrestling (Australia), Tri-State Wrestling, the American Wrestling Association (AWA), and International Wrestling Enterprise (Japan).

National Wrestling Alliance territories (1974–1984)
Rhodes did not have a typical wrestlers' physique, but he was well known for his personality, charisma and interviews. In 1974, Rhodes's character became a hero after tag team partner Pak Song and manager Gary Hart turned on him during a match in Florida against Eddie and Mike Graham. This led him to break out as a solo wrestler, primarily in Florida, referring to himself as the "American Dream", a working class hero, and aligning himself with Eddie Graham.

In 1977, Rhodes wrestled for Vince McMahon, Sr.'s World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) on and off for lengthy periods of time until 1983. During that time, Rhodes main-evented twice in Madison Square Garden, both times challenging for the WWWF Heavyweight Championship against reigning champion Superstar Billy Graham. Rhodes won the first match on September 26 via countout, and lost the second, a Texas Death match, on October 24. Graham won after a mid-ring collision, falling on Rhodes for the three count.

Jim Crockett Promotions (1985–1989)
He eventually began working as a booker and wrestler with Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) in the Mid-Atlantic, which eventually purchased World Championship Wrestling (WCW), formerly Georgia Championship Wrestling. Rhodes also teamed with Magnum T. A. as "America's Team", who opposed the Four Horsemen and The Russian Team in 1985. They were one of the more dominant tag teams in the promotion until 1986, when Magnum's career was ended in a car accident. Subsequently, he teamed with Nikita Koloff as The Super Powers. Rhodes was also a two time World Six-Man Tag Team Champion with The Road Warriors.

Rhodes had feuds with Abdullah the Butcher, Terry Funk, Kevin Sullivan, Blackjack Mulligan, Nikita Koloff, Harley Race, Superstar Billy Graham, "Crippler" Ray Stevens and, most notably, The Four Horsemen (especially Ric Flair and Tully Blanchard). Rhodes, Flair and Race fought each other many times over the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Rhodes won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship three times; twice by defeating Race and once by defeating Flair. During a taping which took place The Omni on September 29, 1985, Rhodes would save Flair from a beatdown at hands of Ivan and Nikitia Koloff and Krusher Krushchev, only for Flair to then turn on Rhodes and have Ole and Arn Anderson assist him in breaking Rhodes' ankle; this also forced Rhodes to vacate his NWA Television Championship. In October 1985, during his feud with Flair, Rhodes gave an interview that became known as his "Hard Times" promo, arguably his most popular promo: First of all, I would to thank the many, many fans throughout this country that wrote cards and letters to Dusty Rhodes, The American Dream, while I was down. Secondly, I want to thank Jim Crockett Promotions for waitin' and takin' the time 'cause I know how important it was, Starrcade '85 it is to the wrestling fans, it is to Jim Crockett promotions, and Dusty Rhodes The American Dream. With that wait, I got what I wanted, Ric Flair the World's Heavyweight Champion. I don't have to say a whole lot more about the way I feel about Ric Flair; no respect, no honor. There is no honor amongst thieves in the first place.

He put hard times on Dusty Rhodes and his family. You don't know what hard times are, daddy. Hard times are when the textile workers around this country are out of work, they got four or five kids and can't pay their wages, can't buy their food. Hard times are when the auto workers are out of work and they tell 'em to go home. And hard times are when a man has worked at a job for thirty years, thirty years, and they give him a watch, kick him in the butt and say "hey a computer took your place, daddy", that's hard times! That's hard times! And Ric Flair you put hard times on this country by takin' Dusty Rhodes out, that's hard times. And we all had hard times together, and I admit, I don't look like the athlete of the day supposed to look. My belly's just a lil' big, my heiny's a lil' big, but brother, I am bad. And they know I'm bad.

There were two bad people... One was John Wayne and he's dead brother, and the other's right here. Nature Boy Ric Flair, the World's Heavyweight title belongs to these people. I'mma reach out right now, I want you at home to know my hand is touchin' your hand for the gathering of the biggest body of people in this country, in this universe, all over the world now, reachin' out because the love that was given me and this time I will repay you now. Because I will be the next World's Heavyweight Champion of this hard time blues. Dusty Rhodes tour, '85.

And Ric Flair, Nature Boy... Let me leave you with this. One way to hurt Ric Flair, is to take what he cherishes more than anything in the world and that's the World's Heavyweight title. I'm gon' take it, I been there twice. This time when I take it daddy, I'm gon' take it for you. Let's gather for it. Don't let me down now, 'cause I came back for you, for that man up there that died 10–12 years ago and never got the opportunity to see a real World's Champion. And I'm proud of you, thank God I have you, and I love you. Love ya!

The promo apparently resonated with wrestling fans so much that people came to him in arenas in tears to thank him for "honoring their plight". In 2015, an ESPN article referred to "Hard Times" as Rhodes' best interview, writing, "In just over three minutes, Rhodes fully encapsulated every ounce of his charm by endearing himself to blue-collar mid-America".

During his stint as booker, JCP were engulfed in aggressive competition with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). When the WWF introduced Mike Jones as Ted DiBiase's bodyguard, Bobby Heenan suggested naming the character Virgil as an inside joke on Dusty's real name. Also in the late 1980s, Rhodes became synonymous with what would become known as the "Dusty finish", a trick ending in which a wrestler would win a match while the referee was knocked out, and the decision would be overturned.

Rhodes is often considered to be one of the most innovative and creative bookers in the history of professional wrestling. As previously mentioned, his work in the development of "supercards" and gimmick matches did much to enhance the quality of entertainment and move the industry forward, as evident by other major promotions following with their own major cards and gimmicks. At the same time, however, he and JCP had an "old school" philosophy that did not bode well with the changes that were brought with fast moving media such as cable TV, etc. The long-standing storylines and the frequent use of the aforementioned "Dusty finish", techniques that had worked well during the NWA's territorial days, had now started to leave many fans dissatisfied with the promotion's booking.

Rhodes was fired after Starrcade '88, because of a taboo on-screen bloodletting (laid down by the Turner Broadcasting System following their purchase of the company) during a November 26 altercation with The Road Warriors. Furious with the interference, Rhodes booked a storyline in which Road Warrior Animal pulled a spike out of his shoulder pad and jammed it in Rhodes' eye, causing a severe laceration. Rhodes was then fired from WCW.

Professional Wrestling Federation (1989)
Meanwhile, in late 1988 during the acquisition of Jim Crockett Promotions the duo of Mike Graham and Steve Keirn were attempting to revive the dormant CWF Championship Wrestling from Florida territory. Once Dusty departed from WCW they reached out to him, and ultimately partnered to launch the new Professional Wrestling Federation in February 1989. Rhodes had larger visions for the fledgling regional territory, which included a name change from FCW to the non-regional PWF. The new startup promotion featured a raft of current and future stars, including Terry Funk, Dick Slater, Bam Bam Bigelow, Al Perez, The Nasty Boys, Scott Hall, Dustin Rhodes, Mike Awesome, Dallas Page and The Big Steel Man (Fred Ottman, who would become Tugboat in the WWF).

Dusty Rhodes made his debut for the company on March 4, 1989, at an event in Titusville, Florida, when he teamed with Steve Keirn to defeat the duo of The Big Steel Man and Dick Slater. A week later at the PWF Homecoming event in Tampa, Florida, he pinned Big Steel Man to become the first PWF Heavyweight Champion. Later that spring as the PWF began to grow Rhodes received a surprise backstage visit from Bobby Heenan, who inquired on the state of the company's business. Shortly thereafter Vince McMahon reached out to Rhodes and made an offer to acquire the PWF as a developmental territory and to bring Rhodes into the WWF. He refused, as his desire was to grow the territory into a national brand that could compete with WCW and the WWF. However the Professional Wrestling Federation's backers did not have a desire to fund the company at a level necessary to enhance the territory further. In May he decided to part ways with the PWF and join the World Wrestling Federation as a wrestler.

Before departing, Rhodes was defeated by The Big Steel Man on May 13, 1989, for the PWF title at an event in Sarasota, Florida. His final match with the company was on May 20, where he wrestled Steel Man at an event in Fort Lauderdale.

During the spring Rhodes also returned to the AWA for a few appearances.

World Wrestling Federation (1989–1991)
Nine days after his final PWF match, Dusty Rhodes made his untelevised debut at a house show on May 29 in Montreal, Quebec. Substituting for Jake Roberts, he defeated Ted DiBiase. Promotional vignettes began airing, the first coming on the June 3rd edition of WWF Superstars of Wrestling with Rhodes appearing as the yellow polka-dotted "Common Man" Dusty Rhodes, a gimmick some felt was intended to humiliate him due to his synonymy with the rival JCP/WCW. Rhodes was introduced to WWF audiences through a series of vignettes in which he would gregariously and enthusiastically perform working class roles (including that of a plumber, butcher's apprentice, gas station attendant, taco cook, trash collector and pizza delivery man), eventually being recognized by others at the end of the skit ("Hey! Aren't you...?").

Rhodes continued to wrestle DiBiase on house shows that month and was undefeated. He was pinned however on June 6 in a dark match against DiBiase at a WWF Superstars taping in Madison, Wisconsin. Many years later, this match was included as part of the WWE Unreleased: 1986–1995 DVD set. It was said that Rhodes was asked to lose in this match to test his willingness to put over other talent. Aside from this defeat, "The American Dream" remained undefeated against the upper-level heel. Rhodes made his televised appearance on the July 22 edition of WWF Superstars; following a match between Big Boss Man and Jim McPherson he intervened to prevent Boss Man from using his nightstick against the defeated opponent. This transitioned Dusty into his first World Wrestling Federation feud.

Rhodes made his in-ring debut on the August 13th edition of Wrestling Challenge when he pinned Greg Valentine after his opponent was distracted by Ronnie Garvin. That month he began his house show series against Big Boss Man and was dominant, defeating the rulebreaker in every encounter. Rhodes scored his first televised win against Boss Man on the August 21 edition of Prime Time Wrestling. At SummerSlam 89 he appeared on his first-ever WWF PPV, defeating The Honky Tonk Man. Meanwhile, on the road his dominance continued as he remained undefeated against the Boss Man.

In October a Rhodes fan, Sapphire, began to be featured at ringside during his televised matches. Rhodes would eventually invite the woman to come in the ring and dance with her after a victory. She would become his manager and was named "Sapphire". As Dusty represented "The Common Man", she was intended to represent the "common woman". On November 23, 1989, at The Survivor Series he led a quartet dubbed The Dream Team composed of Brutus Beefcake, Tito Santana, and The Red Rooster to victory against The Enforcers (Big Boss Man, The Honky Tonk Man, Rick Martel, and Akeem). Rhodes would finish the year dispatching Boss Man in house show matches around the country, sometimes in "ball and chain" encounters.

Having finished the year with just one untelevised loss, Dusty entered 1990 as a dominant force within the World Wrestling Federation. He competed in the 1990 Royal Rumble and eliminated Bret Hart before in turn being thrown over the top rope by Earthquake. After dispatching the Boss Man, he next became embroiled in a heated storyline with "Macho King" Randy Savage and his manager/partner Sensational Queen Sherri, who in turn found a rival in Sapphire. Rhodes began facing the former WWF World Champion on the house show circuit. As with Boss Man he was victorious in every encounter, although each would come by countout. On the March 25, 1990 episode of WWF Superstars he finally faced Savage in a televised encounter; Rhodes won via disqualification after Queen Sherri interfered. After a confrontation between the two couples, Savage's ex-manager Miss Elizabeth allied herself with Rhodes and Sapphire and was instrumental in helping them win the WWF's first mixed tag-team match during WrestleMania VI.

Rhodes suffered a foot injury a few weeks later, leading to his temporary removal from the house show circuit and replaced by Roddy Piper. He returned on May 12 and resumed his house show series against Savage. This time his dominance was more profound as he started to defeat The Macho Man by pinfall around the country. This continued until June 3, 1990, when Dusty's lengthy undefeated streak was finally ended by Savage in West Palm Beach, Florida. Rhodes began teaming with Sapphire to face Savage and Sherri on house shows, resuming his winning streak and remaining undefeated. Later that summer Sapphire began to receive gifts from an unnamed benefactor during Dusty's televised matches. At SummerSlam Sapphire no-showed her scheduled match with Queen Sherri. Later that night Dusty was scheduled to face Randy Savage in a one-on-one encounter; prior to the match Ted DiBiase announced that Sapphire had left Rhodes for The Million Dollar Man's money. Distracted and distraught, Rhodes was pinned by Savage.

Dusty immediately transitioned to a feud with The Million Dollar Man. Unlike his previous series with Boss Man and Savage, this time Rhodes would come out on the losing end. He lost numerous house show matches after Virgil interfered on the behalf of DiBiase. That fall his son Dustin Rhodes began making televised appearances within the WWF; on the October 13 edition of WWF Superstars Dusty lost to Randy Savage by countout after being distracted by DiBiase attacking Dustin. Afterwards, Rhodes dropped the polka dot attire and adopted his traditional, Jim Crockett-esque attire. At the 1990 Survivor Series he led "The Dream Team" (himself, Bret Hart, Jim Neidhart, and Koko B Ware) against "The Million Dollar Team. Unlike last year's edition, the results were far different. DiBiase was teaming with Rhythm & Blues and a mystery partner, the latter who turned out to be the newly arrived Undertaker. The future Hall of Famer would dispatch Ware and later pin Rhodes, with Ted DiBiase ultimately remaining as the sole survivor.

Around this time in the fall Dusty Rhodes received an offer to return to World Championship Wrestling as its head booker. He now began to lose regularly, falling again in defeat to Ted DiBiase in house shows during December 1990 but also losing to Rick Martel, Virgil, and new top heel Sgt. Slaughter. Some of the losses were under 1 minute as the WWF leveraged Rhodes departure. On December 28, 1990, he teamed with Jim Duggan to face Slaughter and General Adnan at Madison Square Garden. The match, which would be televised on Prime Time Wrestling on January 7, 1991, ended when Rhodes submitted to Slaughter. The conclusion to the feud with DiBiase came at 1991 Royal Rumble, where Dusty teamed with his son Dustin against Virgil and DiBiase. The Rhodes Family was defeated in a match that saw Virgil turn face afterwards. This would mark the end of Dusty Rhodes' career as a full-time in-ring competitor.

Return to WCW and Extreme Championship Wrestling (1991–2001)
Rhodes returned to WCW in 1991 as a member of WCW's booking committee, making his first appearance only 11 days after his last WWF appearance at the Royal Rumble. On the May 25 edition of World Championship Wrestling he launched an interview segment called "The Bull Drop Inn". Booking disagreements between Rhodes and Ric Flair led to the latter's departure to the WWF and the Big Gold Belt controversy. Rhodes also served as the on-screen manager of Ron Simmons from 1991 to 1992, first forming a relationship with the former All-American during the summer of 1991. In a match that was advertised on World Championship Wrestling, on October 12, 1991, Dusty served as the special guest referee in a match at the Omni in Atlanta, Georgia, that saw Simmons and Barry Windham team up to defeat Mr. Hughes and Lex Luger. On the October 19 edition of World Championship Wrestling, Rhodes was announced as being in the corner of Ron Simmons when the latter was scheduled to face Lex Luger for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship at Halloween Havoc 91. Rhodes would go on to be Simmons' cornerman that night, although Luger retained his championship.

Dusty Rhodes made his return to the ring after nearly a one-year absence on January 4, 1992, at the WCW/New Japan Supershow II. Teaming with his son Dustin Rhodes once more, the duo defeated Kim Duk and Masa Saito in Tokyo, Japan. He began making house show appearances early in the year, usually in tag-team matches involving Dustin that saw Paul E. Dangerously tied to Dusty as part of the stipulation. On the May 16, 1992 episode of WCW Worldwide he seconded Nikita Koloff in his match with Big Van Vader; he battled Vader's manager Harley Race to the backstage as the match began. Later that summer Dusty was again in the corner of Ron Simmons, this time on August 2, 1992, when he defeated Big Van Vader to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. He later joined the broadcast team, usually working with Tony Schiavone on Saturday Night. He was paired with Schiavone and Bobby Heenan on pay-per-views.

On February 25 his son Dustin defeated Paul Orndorff to win the United States Championship, and after the match Dusty came out to the ring to celebrate. That led to a slowly simmering feud with The Assassin (Jody Hamilton), who continually challenged Rhodes. On the June 12, 1993 edition of WCW Saturday Night the Assassin vowed to track down Dusty's mother if that is what it took to gain a response. On the October 30 edition of WCW Saturday Night the Assassin (now representing Paul Orndorff) again challenged Rhodes. A week later United States Champion Dustin Rhodes announced that his father would be in his corner in his upcoming defense against the Assassin's charge Paul Orndorff. Dustin successfully retained against Orndorff at Clash of the Champions XXV; Dusty became involved after the match and attempted to unmask the Assassin.

As 1994 progressed Dusty became involved in another angle with his son and The Stud Stable, offering commentary on the May 21, 1994, edition of WCW Saturday Night on Col. Robert Parker's efforts against Dustin. At a television taping on July 25, 1994, in Macon, Georgia, he came to ringside and attacked Parker, before being overwhelmed by the manager and Bunkhouse Buck. After being rescued by Ricky Steamboat and Dustin, he made an appearance in Dustin's corner on the August 6th edition of WCW Saturday Night when his son faced Bunkhouse Buck. After delivering a bionic elbow to Buck when the referee was distracted, Dustin was able to gain the pinfall. This ultimately led to Dusty's second match since departing the WWF, where he would team with Dustin to defeated Terry Funk and Buckhouse Buck at Clash of the Champions XXVIII. After a vignette that saw Dusty travel to "The Scrap Bar" to recruit The Nasty Boys, he teamed with them and Dustin to defeat Buck, Arn Anderson, Terry Funk, and Rob Parker in a War Games match at Fall Brawl 94. He returned to the ring for three more house show matches that fall, teaming with Dustin to defeat the Stud Stable. His last in-ring match for World Championship Wrestling in this run came on November 24, 1994, in Albany, Georgia, where Dusty and Dustin Rhodes defeated Arn Anderson and Bunkhouse Buck in a steel cage.

Through 1995 he was exclusively on commentary for WCW and did not participate in any in-ring angles. Dusty was originally on the side of WCW when its battle with the New World Order (nWo) began in 1996. At Souled Out 1998, Larry Zbyszko asked Rhodes, who was working the PPV broadcast, to accompany him to the ring for his match against Scott Hall. Zbyszko won the match by disqualification due to interference by Louie Spicolli. Rhodes entered the ring, delivering his trademark elbow smashes to Spicolli as Zbyszko stood and grabbed Hall. Rhodes went to elbow Hall, but seemingly inadvertently hit Zbyszko instead turning heel in the process. Hall then pointed to Rhodes as he revealed an nWo shirt. The three began to drop repeated elbows on Zbyszko before Rhodes announced, "That's tradition, WCW! Bite this!". Announcer Tony Schiavone left the broadcast booth in shock, but later returned ripping Rhodes for his actions for most of the rest of the night. As a member of the nWo, Rhodes served as the manager of The Outsiders, Hall and Kevin Nash. This lasted until the November 30, 1998, episode of Monday Nitro, when Rhodes, who was guest refereeing a match between Barry Windham and Dean Malenko after being appointed by Eric Bischoff, defected back to WCW by disqualifying Windham and awarding the match to Malenko. Bischoff then fired Rhodes. On the December 28, 1998, edition of Monday Nitro, Ric Flair faced Eric Bischoff for control of the company for 30 days. After Flair submitted Bischoff, Dusty was amongst those who came out to the ring to celebrate with The Nature Boy.

He left WCW in 2000 and went to Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), making an appearance at the Guilty As Charged PPV on January 8, 2000, where he was attacked by former ECW World Heavyweight Champion, "King of Old School" Steve Corino. On January 28, 2000, he wrestled his first match in over five years, teaming with Tommy Dreamer to defeat Corino and Raven at a ECW on TNN episode that was taped in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. On March 12, 2000, Dusty pinned Steve Corino in a singles match at the Living Dangerously PPV in Danbury, Connecticut. He continued to remain undefeated until he put over Corino at the CyberSlam event on April 22 at the ECW Arena. His final appearance came at an ECW TV taping in Toledo, Ohio, where he accompanied The Sandman to ringside in his match against Rhino, who was seconded by Steve Corino.

Dusty then returned to WCW for a where he reignited the feud once more with long-time nemesis Ric Flair. On the WCW Greed PPV on March 18, 2001, he entered a WCW ring for the final time, teaming with Dustin Rhodes to defeat Ric Flair and Jeff Jarrett. Following the purchase of WCW, the World Wrestling Federation allowed Turner South to continue to air classic matches on their "WCW Classics Program". Much like Heenan and Monsoon, Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair hosted the program. The duo would bicker throughout the show, which lasted throughout the summer of 2001 and represented the last "original" programming of the old WCW.

Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling and other promotions (2000–2003)
After both WCW and ECW were bought by WWE (WWF), Rhodes went to compete in his own promotion, Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling with ex-WCW and ECW superstars in Georgia, Florida and Tennessee.

During this time he feuded with Terry Funk and Steve Corino in other territories.

In 2002, Rhodes competed in Pro Pain Pro Wrestling based in Philadelphia feuding with Kevin Sullivan. This would lead to a Texas Bullrope match on November 23 in which Rhodes defeated Sullivan.

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2003–2005)
Rhodes began appearing with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in 2003, returning to the ring to feud against the villainous Sports Entertainment Xtreme faction. on the January 15 NWA-TNA PPV, Rhodes, Road Warriors and Jeff Jarrett lost to Vince Russo and Triple X. on the January 22 NWA-TNA PPV, Rhodes called out Nikita Koloff to reform the Superpowers, but Nikita turned on him. On the February 26 NWA-TNA PPV, Rhodes and Vader defeated Don and Ron Harris by disqualification. On the March 19 NWA-TNA PPV, Rhodes, Jeff Jarrett and D-Lo Brown defeated Erik Watts, Brian Lawler and David Flair in a six-man tag team match a week later Rhodes defeated David Flair in a Bunkhouse match. On the April 9 NWA-TNA PPV, Rhodes defeated Brian Lawler in a Ladder match. On the August 13 NWATNA PPV, Rhodes and America's Most Wanted defeated Glenn Gilbertti and Simon Diamond and Johnny Swinger the following week Rhodes lost a bullrope match to Glen Gilbertti after Christopher Daniels interfered. On the October 1 NWA-TNA PPV, Rhodes and Jarrett defeated A.J. Styles and Russo. The following week Rhodes got a shot at the NWA title against Styles but lost when he passed out during the figure-4. On the October 15 NWA-TNA PPV, Rhodes and America's Most Wanted defeated Legend, Sonny Siaki and Ekmo Fatu. On the November 26 NWA-TNA PPV, Rhodes and Jarrett wrestled to a no contest in a Lumberjack Fan Strap match. After taking a few months off Rhodes returned on May 19, 2004, where he and James Storm defeated Dallas and Kid Kash in a "Bunkhouse Brawl" this led to the duo getting a shot at the NWA World Tag Team Championship on June 2 but they failed to win the titles. On the June 4 episode of Impact, Rhodes gave an interview with Mike Tenay but got punked out by NWA champ Jeff Jarrett. On the July 14 NWA-TNA PPV, Rhodes, Larry Zbyszko and 3Live Kru defeated Jarrett, Ken Shamrock, Hernandez, Chad Collyer and Onyx. On the August 25 NWATNA PPV, Russo suspended Rhodes from TNA and banned him from the Asylum a few days later on the August 27 episode of Impact, Rhodes showed up in the front row, and got attacked by Scott D'Amore and ejected again. On the September 1 NWA-TNA PPV, Rhodes under a mask billed as Midnight Rider teamed with Konnan and B.G. James to defeat Team Canada (Eric Young and Bobby Roode and Johnny Devine). On the September 8 NWA-TNA PPV, Rhodes defeated Scott D'Amore with Russo as the special guest referee. On the October 29 episode of Impact, Rhodes started his campaign to replace Vince Russo as the Director of Authority. Later, he became the Director of Authority at their November 7, 2004 pay-per-view, Victory Road. At the same time, Rhodes acted as head booker and writer. On the April 8, 2005, episode of Impact, Rhodes made the on-air decision to make all matches at Lockdown PPV in Six Sides of Steel. Then on the April 29 episode of Impact, Rhodes announced that MMA fighter Tito Ortiz will referee the World title match at Hard Justice (2005). In May 2005, TNA President Dixie Carter asked Rhodes to move onto a creative team, which included Jeremy Borash, Bill Banks, and Scott D'Amore. Rhodes resigned as booker, waiting out the rest of his contract with TNA, which expired soon after.

Independent circuit (2003–2006)

Rhodes made his first indy circuit appearance on April 12, 2003, for Ring of Honor (ROH), when he participated in the "I Quit Bunkhouse Riot" as a member of Homicide's team. On December 12, Rhodes defeated Jerry Lawler at an International Wrestling Cartel show that also featured Mick Foley as the special guest referee. Rhodes returned to ROH on March 13, 2004, where he competed alongside The Carnage Crew in a Scramble Cage match against Special K, which the Carnage Crew won.

On July 24, Rhodes returned to Full Impact Pro (FIP) and defeated Gangrel. In October, he appeared for Northeast Wrestling in a victory over Kamala. Later in the month, he appeared for IWA Mid-South in a tag team match with Ian Rotten in a victory over Chris Candido and Steve Stone. Rhodes made three appearances for the Japanese promotion HUSTLE in 2004, the first being on January 4 in a six-man tag team match with Steve Corino and Tom Howard against Mil Mascaras, Dos Caras, and Sicodelico Jr., which Rhodes' team lost. The second was on March 7, where he teamed with his son Dustin against Shinjiro Otani and Satoshi Kojima, which he also lost. The third was on May 8, where he defeated Corino.

Starting in December 2004, Rhodes made regular appearances for Carolina Championship Wrestling (CCW), where his first match for the promotion saw him team up with The Rock 'n' Roll Express to take on Dennis Condrey, Bobby Eaton, and Stan Lane, all three of the best-known members of the Midnight Express. He also briefly resurrected his feud with Tully Blanchard in CCW, earning two consecutive victories over him, the second being in a Bunkhouse Brawl. On April 9, 2005, Rhodes challenged Jeff Jarrett (who was still contracted to TNA, but due to TNA's then-affiliation with the NWA, he was allowed to appear for other affiliated promotions) for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. In a match that featured Jimmy Valiant as the special guest referee, Jarrett retained the title after Terry Funk made a surprise appearance and interfered. This led to Rhodes challenging Funk to a Falls-Count-Anywhere Bunkhouse match, which Rhodes won. This would be Rhodes' final appearance with CCW until August, where he would team with his son Dustin against Phi Delta Slam.

On July 15, 2005, Rhodes participated in Ballpark Brawl IV in a victory over Kid Kash. Rhodes participated in the first WrestleReunion, competing in an eight-man tag team match with D'Lo Brown, The Blue Meanie, and Tom Prichard against Steve Corino, Andrew Martin, Evil Clown, and the Masked Superstar. Rhodes faced Tully Blanchard at a Starrcade Tribute Show on November 19, where he was managed by Magnum T. A. and where Blanchard was managed by J. J. Dillon. Rhodes ended up losing the match.

On December 3, 2005, Rhodes returned to Carolina Championship Wrestling for one night only to face Terry Funk in an "I Quit" match, which Rhodes won. Rhodes made his final major appearances on the independent circuit before returning full-time to WWE in mid-2006, defeating Jerry Lawler by disqualification at a Southern Championship Wrestling (SCW) show and also earning a victory over Steve Corino in a Texas Bullrope match for Big Time Wrestling.

Final matches and retirement (2005–2010)
In September 2005, Rhodes signed a WWE Legends deal and was brought onto the Creative Team as a creative consultant. He made an appearance on the October 3, 2005 WWE Raw Homecoming in which he, along with other legends, beat down Rob Conway, to whom Rhodes delivered a signature Bionic Elbow.

Rhodes made an appearance on the June 19, 2006, episode of Raw, appearing in a backstage segment with Vince McMahon where he promoted his new DVD, The American Dream – The Dusty Rhodes Story. A few weeks before Survivor Series, Rhodes returned to WWE to be a part of Team WWE Legends, led by Flair. The team, which consisted of Sgt. Slaughter, Ron Simmons, and Arn Anderson (acting as manager) competed against The Spirit Squad at Survivor Series.

Rhodes was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on March 31, 2007, by his two sons, Dustin and Cody. During his acceptance speech, Rhodes asked Ric Flair and Arn Anderson to hold up the "sign" and induct him and Harley Race into the Four Horsemen. He has also inducted several other people into the Hall of Fame, including his mentor Eddie Graham in 2008, The Funk Brothers (Terry and Dory Funk Jr.) in 2009, The Road Warriors in 2011, and longtime rivals The Four Horsemen in 2012.

A few weeks before WWE's 2007 broadcast of The Great American Bash, Rhodes returned to WWE television to feud with Randy Orton. At The Great American Bash, Orton defeated Rhodes in a Texas Bullrope match after hitting Rhodes with a cowbell. This would be Runnels' final WWE match, officially retiring for the first time soon after at age 61. The following night on Raw, after Orton defeated Rhodes' son Cody, Orton delivered a kick to Rhodes' head while he was trying to tend to his son. On the December 10 episode of Raw, Rhodes was at ringside to see Cody and Hardcore Holly defeat Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch for the World Tag Team Championship.

On August 31, 2009, during the time Cody was part of The Legacy with Randy Orton and Ted DiBiase, Rhodes was the special guest host of Raw and booked a match between Cody and Orton for Orton's WWE Championship with John Cena as the special guest referee. It quickly turned out to be a ruse with Dusty's intention to allow Legacy to attack Cena, as well as D-Generation X (Triple H and Shawn Michaels) once they came to make the save. Despite the four standing tall together, Orton quickly gave an RKO to Rhodes, and though initially angered, Cody fell in line behind Orton.

On July 9, 2010, Rhodes briefly came out of retirement and wrestled the final match of his career at an FCW live event, where he teamed up with Cody and Goldust to defeat the team of Caylen Croft, Curt Hawkins, and Trent Barreta in a 6-man tag team match. He would again retire shortly after.

Sporadic appearances (2010–2015)
Rhodes was the head writer and creative director for the weekly NXT Wrestling television broadcast. On September 12, 2013, he was removed as NXT Commissioner. Rhodes made his return to Raw on September 16, 2013, after accepting a "business proposition" from Stephanie McMahon in an attempt for WWE to rehire both his sons Cody and Dustin. After learning that McMahon would only rehire one son of his choosing, Rhodes turned down the offer and was subsequently knocked out by Big Show on the orders of McMahon. Rhodes also appeared at Battleground in the corner of Cody and Goldust as they took on The Shield (Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns with Dean Ambrose at ringside) in a tag team match. The stipulation of the match would be that if the Rhodes Family won, Cody and Goldust got their jobs with the company back, but if they lose Dusty would be fired as an NXT trainer and none of them could appear on WWE programming ever again. The Rhodes brothers won the match, thus reinstating them to the roster and allowing Dusty to retain his position in NXT. During the match, Dusty got into an altercation with Ambrose and performed the Bionic Elbow on him.

Rhodes appeared on the February 16, 2015, episode of Raw, in an effort to reunite Goldust and Stardust, who were engaged in a conflict. Rhodes appeared at Fastlane on February 22, in a backstage segment with Goldust. Rhodes' final appearance on WWE programming would be on March 28, when he appeared on the Hall of Fame: Live From the Red Carpet show.

Personal life
Runnels was married to Sandra McHargue from 1965 to 1975, with whom he shared two children: Dustin, and Kristin Runnels, a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. In 1978, he married Michelle Rubio, with whom he had two children: Teil Runnels and Cody Runnels. The couple were married for 37 years until his death in 2015. He had six grandchildren: Dakota, the daughter of Dustin and his ex-wife, Terri Boatright; Dalton and Dylan, children of Kristin and her husband Don Ditto; Kellan and Maris, children of Teil and her husband Kevin Gergel; and Liberty, daughter of Cody and his wife Brandi. He also had a brother, Larry, and a sister, Connie. He played baseball and football for Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas before transferring to West Texas State University.

Illness and death
In his later years, Rhodes suffered from kidney disease.

On June 10, 2015, paramedics responded to Rhodes' home in Orlando, Florida, after getting a call reporting that he had fallen. They drove him to a nearby hospital, where he died the next day at the age of 69 from the effects of kidney failure. Rhodes was cremated, and his ashes were spread in November 2015 by his son Dustin on a ranch that Rhodes loved to visit.

At the 2015 Money in the Bank pay-per-view event, a ten-bell salute was given in honor of Rhodes, with the entire WWE roster and the McMahon family on the entrance ramp. The next night on Raw, they honored him with a video tribute and a special after Raw on the WWE Network. At the NXT tapings following his death, he was honored with another ten-bell salute.

Legacy
Rhodes has been called one of the best wrestlers in history, praising his charisma and interview skills. His "Hard Times" promo has been labeled as one of the best interviews in pro wrestling. According to Jim Cornette, his NWA World title reigns were of short length since he was not what NWA was looking for in a champion, but not winning the title would hurt his credibility.

Since Rhodes worked as a backstage producer in WCW, he helped several wrestlers with their careers. Diamond Dallas Page, who has in turn helped Rhodes' son Cody with his career, and Missy Hyatt in particular have praised Rhodes' influence on their respective careers. During his late years, Rhodes became a trainer in WWE's development territory NXT, where several wrestlers like Kevin Owens, Becky Lynch, and the tag team FTR, praised his lessons.

In August 2015, WWE's NXT introduced the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, a tag team tournament in honor of Rhodes. The tournament has been held annually since, with a women's version added in 2021.

All Elite Wrestling named their "Go Position" (best known as the Gorilla Position), "The Dusty Position", after him on October 16, 2019.

In the promo room of the WWE Performance Center, where Rhodes would teach promo classes, there is a puppet of Rhodes hanging on the equipment, symbolizing that he is still there, watching the students.

New Jack, the controversial ECW wrestler, cited Dusty as his favorite wrestler growing up.

The characters of Steve and Marcy Rhodes on the sitcom Married With Children were named in honor of Rhodes.

Championships and accomplishments

 * 50th State Big Time Wrestling
 * NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (Hawaii version) (1 time)
 * Big Time Wrestling
 * NWA World Tag Team Championship (Detroit Version) (1 time) – with Dick Murdoch
 * Central States Wrestling
 * NWA Central States Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * NWA North American Tag Team Championship (Central States version) (1 time) – with Dick Murdoch
 * Championship Wrestling from Florida
 * NWA Brass Knuckles Championship (Florida version) (2 times)
 * NWA Florida Bahamian Championship (1 time)
 * NWA Florida Global Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Magnum T. A.
 * NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship (12 times)
 * NWA Florida Tag Team Championship (4 times) – with Dick Murdoch (1), Dick Slater (1), Bobo Brazil (1), and André the Giant (1)
 * NWA Florida Television Championship (2 times)
 * NWA Southern Heavyweight Championship (Florida version) (10 times)
 * NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Florida version) (2 times) – with Bugsy McGraw (1) and Blackjack Mulligan (1)
 * NWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship Tournament (1978)
 * NWA United States Tag Team Championship Tournament (1980) – with Bugsy McGraw
 * George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
 * Class of 2017
 * Georgia Championship Wrestling
 * NWA Georgia Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * NWA National Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * NWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * Cadillac Cup (1984)
 * International Wrestling Alliance (Australia)
 * IWA World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Dick Murdoch
 * Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling/Jim Crockett Promotions/World Championship Wrestling
 * NWA Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Buff Bagwell
 * NWA United States Heayvweight Championship (1 time)
 * NWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * NWA World Six-Man Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with The Road Warriors
 * NWA World Tag Team Championship (Mid-Atlantic version) (2 times) – with Dick Slater (1) and Manny Fernandez (1)
 * NWA World Television Championship (3 times)
 * Jim Crockett, Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament (1987) – with Nikita Koloff
 * Bunkhouse Stampede (1985–1988)
 * WCW Hall of Fame (Class of 1995)
 * Pro Wrestling Federation (Florida)
 * PWF World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * National Wrestling Alliance
 * NWA Hall of Fame (Class of 2011)
 * NWA Legends Hall of Heroes (Class of 2016)
 * NWA Big Time Wrestling
 * NWA American Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Baron von Raschke (1) and Dick Murdoch (1)
 * NWA Brass Knuckles Championship (Texas version) (3 times)
 * NWA San Francisco
 * NWA United States Heavyweight Championship (San Francisco version) (1 time)
 * NWA Tri-State
 * NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (Tri-State version) (1 time)
 * NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Tri-State version) (2 times) – with André the Giant and The Spoiler
 * National Wrestling Federation
 * NWF World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Dick Murdoch
 * New Japan Pro-Wrestling
 * Greatest 18 Club inductee
 * Pro Wrestling Illustrated
 * Feud of the Year (1987) with Nikita Koloff and The Road Warriors vs. Four Horsemen
 * Match of the Year (1979) vs. Harley Race on August 21
 * Match of the Year (1986) vs. Ric Flair in a cage match at The Great American Bash
 * Most Popular Wrestler of the Year (1978, 1979, 1987)
 * Stanley Weston Award (2013)
 * Wrestler of the Year (1977, 1978)
 * Ranked No. 193 of the top 500 wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2001
 * Ranked No. 11 of the top 500 wrestlers of "PWI Years" in 2003
 * Ranked No. 76 and No. 88 of the top 100 tag teams of the "PWI Years" with Magnum T. A. and Manny Fernandez, respectively, in 2003
 * Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum
 * Class of 2010
 * World Championship Wrestling (Australia)
 * IWA World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Dick Murdoch
 * World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE
 * WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2007)
 * Slammy Award (1 time)
 * "Say What" Quote of the Year (2013) – "One stipulation: I'm in my boys' corner and I'll be your huckleberry all night long".
 * WWE Bronze Statue (2016)
 * Wrestling Observer Newsletter
 * Best Babyface (1980)
 * Best Booker (1986)
 * Most Charismatic (1982) tied with Ric Flair
 * Most Embarrassing Wrestler (1990)
 * Most Overrated (1987, 1988)
 * Most Obnoxious (1988, 1989)
 * Readers' Least Favorite Wrestler (1987, 1988)
 * Worst Feud of the Year (1988) vs. Tully Blanchard
 * Worst Gimmick (1988)
 * Worst Television Announcer (1997)
 * Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)

1This Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, while currently operating out of the same region of the United States and having revised some of the championships used by the original Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, is not the same promotion that was once owned by Jim Crockett Jr. and subsequently sold to Ted Turner in 1988. It is just another NWA-affiliated promotion.

Media

 * Books
 * Autobiography: Dusty: Reflections of an American Dream (2005) ISBN 978-1-58261-907-1
 * DVDs
 * The American Dream: The Dusty Rhodes Story (2006) WWE Home Video
 * Movies
 * Scooby-Doo! and WWE: Curse of the Speed Demon
 * Video Games
 * Runnels has appeared in the video games ECW Anarchy Rulz, Showdown: Legends of Wrestling, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007, WWE Legends of WrestleMania, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010, WWE 2K17, WWE 2K18 and WWE 2K20 as a non-DLC character, and had also appeared in WWE 2K14, WWE 2K16 and WWE 2K19 as DLC (Downloadable Content)

title: Dusty Rhodes


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Airline Passengers for Safer Skies

 This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was DELETE. dbenbenn | talk 23:05, 28 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Airline Passengers for Safer Skies
Non-notable; a whopping 32 Google hits. Szyslak 20:57, 15 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. Not notable to be in Wikipedia yet. "Little has been written about the group" says it all. In time, maybe. But not now. Zzyzx11 23:06, 15 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * delete unable to find anything beyond the Michelle Malkin reference. it wouldn't shock me if they don't even exist. Wolfman 01:53, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete per above. —Korath (Talk) 02:13, Feb 28, 2005 (UTC)

This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text: User talk:67.85.244.196

title: User talk:67.85.244.196


text:
Can-Am

The Canadian-American Challenge Cup, or Can-Am, was an SCCA/CASC sports car racing series from 1966 to 1974, and again from 1977 to 1987.

The Can-Am rules were deliberately simple and placed few limits on the entries. This led to a wide variety of unique car body designs and powerful engine installations. Notable among these were Jim Hall's Chaparrals and entries with over 1,000 horsepower.

History
Can-Am started out as a race series for group 7 sports racers with two races in Canada (Can) and four races in the United States of America (Am). The series was initially sponsored by Johnson Wax. The series was governed by rules called out under the FIA group 7 category with unrestricted engine capacity and few other technical restrictions.

The group 7 category was essentially a Formula Libre for sports cars; the regulations were minimal and permitted unlimited engine sizes (and allowed turbocharging and supercharging), virtually unrestricted aerodynamics, and were as close as any major international racing series ever got to have an "anything goes" policy. As long as the car had two seats, bodywork enclosing the wheels, and met basic safety standards, it was allowed. Group 7 had arisen as a category for non-homologated sports car "specials" in Europe and, for a while in the 1960s, group 7 racing was popular in the United Kingdom as well as a class in hillclimb racing in Europe. Group 7 cars were designed more for short-distance sprints than for endurance racing. Some group 7 cars were also built in Japan by Nissan and Toyota, but these did not compete outside their homeland (though some of the Can-Am competitors occasionally went over to race against them).

SCCA sports car racing was becoming more popular with European constructors and drivers, and the United States Road Racing Championship for large-capacity sports racers eventually gave rise to the group 7 Can-Am series. There was good prize and appearance money and plenty of trade backing; the series was lucrative for its competitors but resulted, by its end, in truly outrageous cars with well over 1,000 horsepower (750 kW) (the Porsche team claimed 1,500 hp for its 917/30 in qualifying trim ), wings, active downforce generation, very light weight and unheard of speeds. Similar group 7 cars ran in the European Interserie series from 1970 on, but this was much lower-key than the Can-Am.

On-track, the series was initially dominated by Lola, followed by a period in which it became known as the "Bruce and Denny show", the works McLaren team dominated for five consecutive seasons (1967-1971) until the Porsche 917 was perfected and became almost unbeatable in 1972 and 1973. After Porsche's withdrawal, Shadow dominated the last season before Can-Am faded away to be replaced by Formula 5000. Racing was rarely close—one marque was usually dominant—but the noise and spectacle of the cars made the series highly popular.

The energy crisis and the increased cost of competing in Can-Am meant that the series folded after the relatively lackluster 1974 season; the single-seater Formula 5000 series became the leading road-racing series in North America and many of the Can-Am drivers and teams continued to race there. F5000's reign lasted for only two years, with a second generation of Can-Am following. This was a fundamentally different series based initially on converted F5000 cars with closed-wheel bodies. There was also a two-liter class based on Formula Two chassis. The second iteration of Can-Am faded away as IMSA and CART racing became more popular in the early 1980s but remained active until 1987.

Can-Am remains a well-remembered form of racing due to its popularity in the 1960s and early 1970s, the limited number of regulations allowing extremely fast and innovative cars and the lineup of talented drivers. Can-Am cars remain popular in historic racing today.

Notable drivers
Notable drivers in the original Can-Am series included virtually every acclaimed driver of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Jim Hall, Mark Donohue, Mario Andretti, Parnelli Jones, George Follmer, Dan Gurney, Phil Hill, Denny Hulme, Jacky Ickx, Bruce McLaren, Jackie Oliver, Peter Revson, John Surtees, and Charlie Kemp all drove Can-Am cars competitively and were successful, winning races and championship titles. Al Holbert, Alan Jones, Keke Rosberg, Patrick Tambay, and Al Unser Jr. are among the drivers who launched their careers in the revived Can-Am series.

Pioneering technology
Can-Am was the birthplace and proving ground for what, at the time, was cutting-edge technology. Can-Am cars were among the first race cars to use sport wings, effective turbocharging, ground-effect aerodynamics, and aerospace materials like titanium. This led to the eventual downfall of the original series when costs got prohibitive. However during its height, Can-Am cars were at the forefront of racing technology and were frequently as fast as or even faster around laps of certain circuits than the contemporary Formula One cars. Noted constructors in the Can-Am series include McLaren, Chaparral, Lola, BRM, Shadow and Porsche.

McLaren
McLaren cars were specially designed race cars. The Can-Am cars were developments of the sports cars which were introduced in 1964 for the North American sports car races. The team works car for 1964 was the M1. For 1965 the M1A prototype was the team car and bases for the Elva customer M1A cars. In late 1965 the M1b(mk2) was the factory car in 1966 with Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon as drivers. In 1967, specifically for the Can-Am series, the McLaren team introduced a new model, the M6A. The McLaren M6A also introduced what was to become the trademark orange color for the team. The McLaren team was considered very "multinational" for the times and consisted of team owner and leader Bruce McLaren, fellow New Zealander Chris Amon and another "kiwi", the 1967 Formula One world champion, Denny Hulme, team manager Teddy Mayer, mechanics Tyler Alexander, Gary Knutson, Lee Muir, George Bolthoff, Frank Zimmerman, Tom Anderson, Alan Anderson, David Dunlap, Leo Beattie, Donny Ray Everett, and Haig Alltounian (all from the US), Don Beresford, Alec Greaves, Vince Higgins, and Roger Bailey (UK), Tony Attard (Australia), Cary Taylor, Jimmy Stone, Chris Charles, Colin Beanland, Alan McCall, and Alistair Caldwell (NZ). The M6 series used a full aluminum monocoque design with no uncommon features but, for the times, there was an uncommon attention to detail in preparation by the team members. The M6 series of cars were powered by Chevy "mouse-motor" small-block V8s built by Al Bartz Engines in Van Nuys, California. They were models of reliability. This was followed in 1968 by the M8A, a new design based around the Chevy big-block V8 "rat motor" as a stressed member of the chassis. McLaren went "in house" with their engine shop in 1969. The M8B, M8C, M8D and M20C were developments of that aluminum monocoque chassis. McLaren so dominated the 1967-1971 seasons that Can-Am was often called the "Bruce and Denny show" after the drivers who very often finished first and second. There was even a one-two-three finish at the Michigan International Speedway on September 28, 1969. McLaren first, Hulme second, and Gurney third. Nine months later, Bruce McLaren lost his life, on June 2, 1970, at Goodwood when the rear bodywork of his prototype M8D detached during testing resulting in a completely uncontrollable car and a fatal high-speed crash. McLaren continued to succeed in Can-Am after Bruce's death with a number of other drivers, but the works Porsche effort with a turbocharged flat-12 engines and a high development budget meant that they could not keep up with the 917. Although private McLarens continued in the series, the works team withdrew to concentrate on Formula One (and USAC, for several years). Team McLaren went on to become a several time F1 champion and is still a part of that series.

Porsche
The Porsche 908 spyder was used in Can-Am, but was underpowered (350 hp) and mainly used by underfunded teams. It did win the 1970 Road Atlanta race, when the more powerful cars fell out. The 917PA, a spyder version of the 917K Le Mans car, was raced, but its normally aspirated flat-12 was underpowered (530 hp). In 1971 the 917/10 was introduced. This was not turbocharged, but was lighter and had cleaner body work, and Jo Siffert managed to finish fourth in the championship.

For 1972 the 917/10K with a turbocharged 900 horsepower five-litre flat-12 was introduced. Prepared by Roger Penske and driven by Mark Donohue and George Follmer these cars won six of the nine races. In 1972 Porsche introduced an even more powerful car, the 917/30KL. Nicknamed the "Turbopanzer" this car was seen as a monster. With 1,100 or 1,580 horsepower (820/1161 kW in race or qualifying trim) available from its 5.4 litre flat-12 and weighing 1,800 lb (816 kg) with better downforce this car won six of eight races in the 1973 championship. Porsche's dominance was such that engine rules were changed to try to reduce the lack of competition for one marque by enforcing a fuel-consumption rule for 1974. This kind of alteration of rules to promote equality is not unknown in other forms of American motorsport. The category that the car had been created for and competed in was discontinued and in 1975 Donohue drove this car to a closed-course world-speed record of 221 mph (average)(356 km/h) at the Talladega Superspeedway (then called the "Alabama International Motor Speedway"). It was capable of 240 mph (386 km/h) on the straights.

Chaparral
Jim Hall's Chaparrals were very innovative, following his success in the United States Road Racing Championship (USRRC). The 2 series Chaparrals (built and engineered with a high degree of covert support from Chevrolet's research and development division) were leaders in the application of aerodynamics to race cars culminating with the introduction of the 2E in 1966, the first of the high wing race cars. The 2E was a defining design, and the 2G was a development of that basic design. The FIA banned movable aerodynamic devices and Chaparral responded with the 2H 1969. The 2H broke new ground, seeking to reduce drag but did not achieve much success. The 2J that followed was perhaps the ultimate example of what Group 7 rules could allow in a racing car. It was a twin-engined car, with the by-then usual big-block Chevrolet engine providing the driving force, and a tiny snowmobile engine powering a pair of fans at the back of the car. These fans, combined with the movable Lexan "skirts" around the bottom of the car created a vacuum underneath the car, effectively providing the same level of downforce as the huge wings of previous vehicles, without the drag. Although far too mechanically complex to survive in racing environments, the theory was sound, and would appear in Formula One a few years later in the BT46B "Fan Car" of 1978.

Lola
The Lola T70, T160-165, T220, T260, and T310 were campaigned by the factory and various customers, and were primarily Chevy powered. The Lola T70 driven by John Surtees won the first Can-Am championship in 1966. Lola continued to experiment with new designs versus McLaren which refined the design each year. The 1971 Lola T260 had some success with Jackie Stewart taking two victories. In 1972 a radical new design, the Lola T310, made its appearance. The T310 was the longest and widest Can-Am car of the era versus the short stubby T260. The T310 was delivered late and suffered handling problems the entire year with its best finish a fourth at Watkins Glen.

Others
While McLaren and Porsche dominated the series for most of its existence, other vehicles also appeared. Well-established European manufacturers like Lotus, CRD, in the form of their Merlyn Mk8 Chevrolet, Ferrari and BRM, appeared at various times with limited success, while March tried to get a share of the lucrative market in 1970–71, but could not establish themselves. Ford also flitted across the scene with a number of unsuccessful cars based on the GT40 and its successors. American specialist marques like McKee, Genie and Caldwell competed, alongside exotica like the astonishing four-engined Macs-It special.

British-born mechanic and engineer Peter Bryant designed the Ti22 (occasionally known as the Autocoast after one of the team's major backers) as an American-built challenger to the British McLarens and Lolas. The car made extensive use of titanium in its chassis and suspension, and Bryant experimented with aerodynamics and with early use of carbon-fibre to reduce weight. Although the car was quick it did not achieve consistent success; problems with the team's funding saw Bryant move on to Don Nichols' UOP-sponsored Shadow team. The Shadow marque had made its debut with an astonishing car with tiny wheels and radiators mounted on top of the rear wing designed by Trevor Harris; this was unsuccessful, and more conventional cars designed by Bryant replaced them; Bryant was sidelined when Shadow moved into Formula One but after his departure, turbocharged Shadows came to dominate as Porsche and McLaren faded from the scene.

Decline and revivals

The last year for the original Can-Am championship was 1974. Spiraling costs, a recession in North America following the oil crisis, and dwindling support and interest led to the series being canceled and the last scheduled race of the 1974 season not being run.

The Can-Am name still held enough drawing power to lead SCCA to introduce a revised Can-Am series in 1977 based on a closed-wheel version of the rules of the recently canceled Formula A/5000 series. This grew steadily in status, particularly during the USAC/CART wars of the late 70s and early 80s, and attracted some top road-racing teams and drivers and a range of vehicles including specials based on rebodied single seaters (particularly Lola F5000s) and also bespoke cars from constructors like March as well as smaller manufacturers. To broaden the appeal of the series a 2L class was introduced for the last several years—cars often being derived from F2/Formula Atlantic. The series peaked in the early 80s but as the CART Indycar series and IMSA's GTP championship grew in stature it faded. In 1987 the series changed as Indycars started to become a source of cars. The SCCA took away the Can-Am name but the series continued as the Can-Am Teams Thunder Cars Championship. After a single year the teams took the sports bodies off and evolved into American Indycar Series.

In 1991, after 18 months of development, a Shelby Can-Am series was created using a production line of Sports bodied cars designed by Carroll Shelby powered by a 3.3 litre Dodge V6. The series ran for five years before it was dropped by the SCCA. A large number of cars were relocated to South Africa and ran from 2000 onwards.

The name was once again revived in 1998, when the United States Road Racing Championship broke away from IMSA. Their top prototype class was named Can-Am, but the series would fold before the end of 1999 before being replaced by the Grand American Road Racing Championship. The Can-Am name would not be retained in the new series.

title: Can-Am


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Warthog Jump

 This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was MERGE. dbenbenn | talk 23:07, 28 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Warthog Jump
Not Notable Brookie 21:00, 15 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Merge and redirect to Halo: Combat Evolved. Zzyzx11 23:01, 15 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Merge and redirect to Halo: Combat Evolved or maybe Machinima or Red vs Blue. Johntex 02:32, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Merge anything useable to Halo: Combat Evolved, and add redirect. Megan1967 04:31, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, non-notable virtual car flipping. Nothing worthwhile to merge. —Korath (Talk) 07:55, Feb 16, 2005 (UTC)
 * Redirect to Halo: Combat Evolved. JamesBurns 07:11, 27 Feb 2005 (UTC)

This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.


text:
Three-Day Week

The Three-Day Week was one of several measures introduced in the United Kingdom in 1973–1974 by Edward Heath's Conservative government to conserve electricity, the generation of which was severely restricted owing to industrial action by coal miners and railway workers.

From 1 January 1974, commercial users of electricity were limited to three specified consecutive days' consumption each week and prohibited from working longer hours on those days. Services deemed essential (e.g. hospitals, data centres, supermarkets and newspaper printing presses) were exempt. Television companies were required to cease broadcasting at 22:30 to conserve electricity, although this restriction was dropped after a general election was called. The Three-Day Week restrictions were lifted on 7 March 1974.

The measure was a major disaster for the Heath government, contributing to the losses in both the February election and the subsequent October election. Following the losses Margaret Thatcher challenged Heath to a leadership contest and subsequently won.

In the 21st century, those such as Anna Coote, the head of social policy at the New Economics Foundation and British sociologist Peter Fleming, among others, have proposed the re-introduction of a three-day work week. The arguments for its re-introduction include a better work-life balance, more family time, improved health and well-being, greater sustainability (such as via reduced carbon emissions), increased work productivity, and a reduction of overwork, unemployment and over-consumption.

Background
Throughout the 1970s the British economy was troubled by high rates of inflation. To tackle this, the government capped public sector pay rises and publicly promoted a clear capped level to the private sector. This caused unrest amongst trade unions as wages did not keep pace with price increases. This extended to most industries, including coal mining, which provided the majority of the country's fuel and had a powerful trade union.

By the middle of 1973, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) – drawn from a workforce who almost wholly worked for the National Coal Board – were becoming more militant with the election of Mick McGahey as vice-president. The national conference passed resolutions for a 35% wage increase, regardless of any government guidelines, and for the election of a Labour government committed to "true socialist policy" including nationalisation of land and all key monopolies.

As inflation increased, miners' wages fell in real terms and, by October 1973, average wages were 2.3% lower than recommended by the Wilberforce Inquiry, which reported on miners' pay in 1972. In November 1973, the national executive committee of the NUM rejected the pay offer from the NCB and held a national ballot on a strike. The vote was rejected by 143,006 to 82,631. However, an overtime ban was implemented with the aim of halving production. This action hurt the coal industry and was unpopular amongst the British media, although the Trades Union Congress supported the NUM's actions.

The Three-Day Week
In the 1970s, most of the UK's electricity was produced by coal-burning power stations. To reduce electricity consumption, and thus conserve coal stocks, the Conservative Prime Minister, Edward Heath, announced a number of measures under the Fuel and Electricity (Control) Act 1973 on 13 December 1973, including the Three-Day Work Order, which came into force at midnight on 31 December. Commercial consumption of electricity would be limited to three consecutive days each week. Heath's objectives were business continuity and survival and to avoid further inflation and a currency crisis. Rather than risk a total shutdown, working time was reduced to prolong the life of available fuel stocks. Television broadcasts were to shut down at 22:30 each evening, and most pubs were closed; due to the power surges generated at 22:30, the Central Electricity Generating Board argued for a staggered shutdown on BBC and ITV, alternating nightly, and this was eventually introduced. The television broadcasting restrictions were introduced on 17 December 1973, suspended for the Christmas and New Year period, and lifted on 8 February 1974.

Strike vote
On 24 January 1974, 81% of NUM members voted to strike, having rejected the offer of a 16.5% pay rise. In contrast to the regional divisions of other strikes, every region of the NUM voted by a majority in favour of strike action. The only area that did not was the Colliery Officials and Staff Association (COSA) section. Some administrative staff had joined another union, APEX, to distance themselves from the increasing militancy of the NUM. APEX members did not strike, which led to resentment amongst NUM members.

In the aftermath of the vote, there was speculation that the army would be used to transport coal and man the power stations. McGahey called in a speech for the army to disobey orders, and either stay in the barracks or join picket lines, if they were asked to break the strike. In response, 111 Labour MPs signed a statement to condemn McGahey. He responded "You can't dig coal with bayonets."

Results by NUM area
Taken from John Douglass' Strike, not the end of the story (National Coal Mining Museum for England publications), p.24:

Election call
The strike began officially on 5 February and, two days later, Heath called the February 1974 general election while the Three-Day Week was in force. His government emphasised the pay dispute with the miners and used the slogan "Who governs Britain?". Heath believed that the public sided with the Conservatives on the issues of strikes and union power.

On 21 February 1974, the government's Pay Board reported that the NUM's pay claim was within the Phase 3 system for claims and would return miners' wages to the levels recommended by the Wilberforce Inquiry in 1972.

NUM control of picketing
There had been some violence on miners' picket lines during the unofficial strike of 1969 and the official strike of 1972. Aware of the damage that could be done to the Labour Party's electoral prospects by media coverage of picket-line violence, the NUM instituted strict controls over pickets. Pickets had to wear armbands saying "official picket" and had to be authorised by areas. Unlike in 1972, students were discouraged from joining miners' picket lines. Every picket line had to be authorised by the local NUM area with a chief picket to ensure that no violence took place.

Media
Most of the media were strongly opposed to the NUM strike. An exception was the Daily Mirror, which ran an emotive campaign to support the NUM. Its edition on election day in 1974 showed hundreds of crosses on its front page to represent the miners who had died since nationalisation in 1947, accompanied by the message, "Before you use your cross, remember these crosses".

Election result
The election resulted in a hung parliament: the Conservative Party took the largest share of the vote, but lost its majority, with Labour having the most seats in the House of Commons. In the ensuing talks, Heath failed to secure enough parliamentary support from Liberal and Ulster Unionist MPs; and Harold Wilson returned to power in a minority government. The normal working week was restored on 8 March, but other restrictions on the use of electricity remained in force. A second general election was held in October 1974 cementing the Labour administration, which gained a majority of three seats.

The new Labour government increased miners' wages by 35% immediately after the February 1974 election. In February 1975, a further increase of 35% was achieved without any industrial action.

In the campaign for the 1979 general election, following the Winter of Discontent running into that year, Labour reminded voters of the Three-Day Week, with a poster showing a lit candle and bearing the slogan "Remember the last time the Tories said they had all the answers?"

title: Three-Day Week


text:
Talk:Victor Paul Wierwille

Untitled
I am the copyright holder for the page in qustion. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.79.147.192 (talk • contribs) 21:01, 15 February 2005 (UTC)

NPOV statements that keep showing up:

"Believing the original New Testament was written in the native tongue of Paul and the other apostles Aramaic"

-This is disputed as to whether Greek or Aramaic was the native tongue of Paul. Most Biblical scholars teach the original NT was Greek.

"...died of natural causes in 1985."

He died of liver cancer - this is what his death report says. What's so anti-Wierwille about that?

"Mr. Wierwille also wrote three pioneering works..."

Very glowing and not NPOV at all.

Yahnatan 01:50, 10 October 2005 (UTC)

NPOV removal
I will remove the NPOV stub in 48 hours unless someone objects. Deckiller 23:27, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

Religioustolerance.org
This article uses the religioustolerance.org website as either a reference or a link. Please see the discussion on Wikipedia talk:Verifiability/Religioustolerance.org and Verifiability/Religioustolerance.org as to whether Wikipedia should cite the religioustolerance.org website, jguk 15:04, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

That there's a difference of opinion and there's discussion is not the same as giving tacit permission to delete usages of that site as a resource. They document their statements, and wikipedia readers can read them (and other sites, including the pro-TWI sites) and form their OWN opinions as to whether any site is incorrect on a subject. Pete Snowball 04:13, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

Dr.
someone went through the article and prefixed "Dr." to every instance of Wierwille's name. This is contrary to Wikipedia's naming conventions. If it were established that he did in fact have a doctorate from an accredited institution, then we could note that, but we still don't put "Dr." in front of every instance of a person's name. -- Antaeus Feldspar 12:54, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

 * Ten, I have read enough of greasespot to believe someone does have info on how they are rumoured to be a degree mill, but that should probably be sourced to stop future "disagreements" with posters. This line here: "a non-accredited institution that was reputed to be a degree mill" Ya think?  Lsjzl 15:10, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

 * Yeah, I agreeTen of Swords 15:50, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

If we agree there needs to be a credible source in order to include this statement, then why is it still in the article?JoeCool03 21:36, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

Most famous?
One line of this article states that "Wierwille's most famous book was Jesus Christ is Not God"

I don't know if there is anyway to every prove it was his most "famous" book. I think it was the one that might have shocked say people on the bus while you are reading it etc. But, that is just my opinion. Wierwille himself was proud of his work in Receiving The Holy Spirit Today and many Way believers talked about it being a "landmark" book yet that is not a NPOV unless someone outside of the way says so..or so I think. I just felt that (well 1st that this thing I am writing is probably too long for my stupid small point but...) somehow the word "famous" was misleading or just wrong.

 * Then I'd suggest mentioning both books and describing them as his most "notable" books. If we get a reliable source talking about which one is most "famous", we can use that, but in the meantime, we don't need to talk about fame, specifically.  Can you maybe dig up a reference to where Wierwille talked or wrote about being proud of Receiving in particular?  I don't think you need to wait until you have such a reference to add it to the article, necessarily, but having a reference will be good if any later reader wonders "hmmmm, why was this book held up for particular attention?" -- Antaeus Feldspar 01:24, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

 * Done. Didn't add the RHST book ref as I am not sure about it at all. Still, I feel that these new changes work. Thanks for the advice! Lsjzl 15:48, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

 * Looks good to me! -- Antaeus Feldspar 01:53, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Hmmmm... Okay... Here we go...

The foremost rationale that I can discern for making Jesus Christ is Not God the first book mentioned is a journalistic "principle" (so much as such animals exist). The (what we used to call) "shock value," of just the title alone, is a great hook for the reader to read on. I understand this, because seeing the book lying on a coffee table at a Way "Twig" in 1975, I was both shocked and intrigued by its title.

I find it hard to believe that "shock value" is not the motive here...which is fine. A little journalistic spice is sometimes nice, sprinkled on Wikipedia's sometimes too-vanilla NPOV. But let's be honest about it, okay?

The statement -- "One of the books was [JCNG]," as the article stood previous to my edit -- from my perspective, is loaded with irony. JCNG was the work that, in the early 1970s (during the seminal years of the anti-cult movement and of so-called "deprogrammers" such as Ted Patrick), propelled the so-called "orthodox" into (I won't say "insanity") naming and defaming The Way International as a so-called "cult." As far as controversy, JCNG was, or is, hardly The Birds of North America, to say the least...

...hence...my edit. But I'm not married to it. I'm sentient enough to realize that my own NPOV on the matter is rightfully suspect.

By the way (heh), if this article is going to refer to The Way International as TWI, will it be okay, if they're mentioned again, that the Evangelical and Reformed Church be refered to as the EEARC and the United Church of Christ as the UOCC? Are we trying to save Wikipedia's bandwidth, or what? ô ¿ ô 14:31, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

On JCNG, Wierwille himself carried his status as an outsider with pride, and he himself went out and deliberately started his own controversy with this book. At the end of the Rock of Ages 1977, he went with a bus of people with big signs and copies of this book. Claiming it was similar to what Martin Luther did, he went to local churches, and affixed copies of his signs, which read "Jesus Christ is not God-never was, never will be!" and left an AUTOGRAPHED copy of JCNG at each door. (Mind you, what he had told the people at Rock of Ages 1977, was that they'd be attaching a list of all the anti-Trinitarian verses in the Bible, and affixing them to the church doors, a la Martin Luther's 95 Theses at Wittenberg Cathedral.) He specifically set out to be controversial with it.

Further, when people want to know about TWI, they want to know what is MOST pertient about it, and the same can be said about Wierwille. That will always include JCNG.

Finally, the organization's name is on the page. You can read the name clearly. Abbreviating it saves space on the page, saves typing, and is the same for ALL groups, not just this one. TWI will not get special treatment on its page despite your beliefs that it should. Pete Snowball 04:41, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

 * Since motivation was not listed, I recommended removing the word "famous" as I thought it was put in by a pro-Wierwille-ite who wanted to hope it was that "famous". I agree that it was a shockvalue title and good points Pete. I suppose to write all here in the article would be attacked as NPOV in a sense haha..so maybe the word "Famous" puts it all together. Still the word reads differently if you had no clue about this article. "Famous" here at Wikipedia, when it truly has no global notability could still be struck down. Just thoughts. Lsjzl 13:34, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

I found some of the book quoted on the Internet but it is not clear if the father and HG are god in the book, so is the book Liberal/Modern Christian or Unitarian?82.47.203.94 (talk) 10:56, 16 May 2019 (UTC)

Removing his cause of death?
I see someone anynymous removed Wierwille's cause of death and marked that it was a "NP-POV edit." However, his cause of death, as per his death certificate, reads "metastatic melanoma of the liver" and "ocular melanoma", which, in plain English, means "cancer of the liver and eye." Dr Winegarner, himself a member of TWI, signed the death certificate. It is a matter of public record. That which comprises an official government document, complete with the seal of the Ohio Department of Health, by definition is neutral in and of itself.

I can post a copy of this if anyone wishes.

A "NP-POV" is actually HIDING the cause of his death.

Pete Snowball 14:21, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

There seems to be a fascination with REMOVING THE CAUSE OF HIS DEATH. I restored it AGAIN. The specific cause of death is STILL a matter of public record. Removing it for reasons of it being "morbid" are EXCUSES. "Morbid" details would be "and his entrails gushed out". The public record stands.

The real reason some people are obsessed with HIDING THE CAUSE OF HIS DEATH centers around his theology. According to VPW, a Christian who experiences suffering is operating the negative side of the "Law of Believing", and their own fears are CAUSING them to suffer physical events. According to VPW, positive believing will counteract any physical problems or "challenges." Therefore, any Christian of significance should be able to believe away illnesses and injuries. That's why TWI BURIED the cause of his death when addressing the average member. Some people on grounds knew, but the vast majority heard "he just stopped believing."

When he was beginning to suffer from cancer and had to lose his eye, he himself told his congregation that he got cancer in his eye from the bright lights used in 2 weeks of filming a class in the previous decade. Mind you, he was a chain-smoker while announcing that bright lights gave him cancer. Pete Snowball 20:39, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

As a former member of "the Way" i can tell you that the "way"today is not what it used to be. once a very powerful ministry, it has fallen into disrepute by the lack of truth taught by many in the "way" VPW once said, you shall know the TRUTH and the TRUTH shall set you free. Sod what the "way" says, their version of events was tainted as soon as vPW died. I Knew him from Years before, and he was a GREAT teacher. His cause of death was not as the way put it, "lack of believing". It was, plain and simple, cancer. He knew it and never kept it secret. If anyone says his cause of death should be removed, take it from me, he would turn in his grave! sorry to edit this, but i feel the need to. Teknomancer2008@live.co.uk —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.130.240.255 (talk) 22:01, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Acceptable sources for quotation
I'd like to submit that the following are acceptable sources for quotation on Victor Paul Wierwille, as they are each written and published BY The Way International, and by definition that organization has "vetted" each of them as accurate by their standards: "The Way:Living in Love", by Elena Whiteside. It was written in the early 1970s as a booklong advertisement, and includes much of Victor Paul Wierwille's life as spoken by himself and his brother. "Born Again to Serve," by Mrs Dorothea Wierwille. It was written in the late 1990s by his widow and documents her own perspective-as edited by TWI-on its early days, covering, in fact, much the same timespan as the previous book. "VP and Me," by Loy Craig Martindale. It was written in the early-to-middle 1980s by VPW's hand-picked successor as a documentation of the "loving instruction" he received from VPW. Although it was probably meant to cement his own pedigree as President-as the man who stood closest to VPW- it does so by including many accounts of VPW as reported by LCM, who had an interesting interpretation of many of the things VPW said and did.

Do the posters here (those who actually participate in the discussions) agree that these are acceptable for the purpose of quotation? Pete Snowball 13:47, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

Pete, since it's THEIR publication, I can't imagine what the problem would beTen of Swords 21:02, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

Removed link
Check for my edit made today. I removed the Bible Bulliten page link. It really offers nothing to show why it should be a link to this page. "The Way denies the deity of Christ like all cults" isn't really what this article is about. (I know it says a lot more.. but not really related to this page.) One could argue that anything Way related is VPW related, but there is a reason we have seperate pages for seperate parts of this TWI entity. (Prob too much writing for the removal of one link but still...) Lsjzl 06:56, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Allegations of sexual abuse
As much as I personally believe some of the stories of rape and/or sexual abuse that I have heard, none ever went to court, nor were charges ever filed, unlike his successor LCM. Therefore they should not be included in this article.Ten of Swords 02:21, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

 * If substantial allegations were reported in reliable sources then we can mention them. We should be careful to indicate the disposition of the charges. -Will Beback · † · 05:24, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Anonymous Changes
I pulled "which was used by early Christians." I'm a modern day Christian, and I still use Acts 9:2; it's just useless and ambiguous information. Also, why isnt there anything about his plagiarism on this article? It is factual and seems more at home here than on the TWI article. 65.123.80.28 19:52, 13 June 2007 (UTC)Dafhgadsrhadjtb

 * These aren't really anonymous changes, but I don't know where else to put them. I'm not entirely familiar with Wikipedia's system of edit and discuss.  Anyway, I removed abbreviations for The Way International and added the full name to avoid confusion for people unfamiliar with the organization.  Also, I quoted the specific biblical verses to show where Victor Paul Wierwille derived the organization's name (please excuse and adjust any poor quotation formatting). JoeCool03 21:51, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

 * I personally think the addition of the verse is a little superfluous without further explanation; people could just look up the verse without it being here (not that i'm concerned with conserving wikipedia's bandwidth). Do we have any documentation on WHY he chose that verse?  Why it isn't John 14:6 or some other verse that uses the word "way"?  It could also be that wikipedia would not be the place for such things like justification of doctrine.  I'll just proofread but leave the changed info for now.Dafhgadsrhadjtb 07:29, 30 June 2007 (UTC)dafhgadsrhadjtb

 * We should remove the verse. This article isn't about TWI so we shouldn't dwell on details about it like how it got its name. Since we don't say why this verse is meaningful to Wierville it's just distracting trivia. ·:· Will Beback  ·:· 23:03, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

I killed the verse. Wierwille said that this was a name that early Christians used for themselves, but the verse as quoted doesn't really demonstrate that. Ten of Swords 19:57, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Regarding plagiarism, go ahead and start a section, but considering that it's in the TWI article, I don't think it is needed,Ten of Swords 19:57, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Way Corps and WOW program reference
"He also initiated the "Way Corps", the leadership training program offered by the Way International, and the (now-defunct) "Word Over the World" (WOW) Ambassadors progam, which was its version of a missionary program"

I removed that sentence mainly because it didn't seem to flow with the rest. I have no problem with mentioning either, but the way it was worded makes it sound like a huge accomplishmentTen of Swords

Pikes Peak
Is the link for Pike's Peak a link to a successor organization to the one Wierwille recieved his "doctorate" from? It doesn't appear to be the same organization.21:35, 22 August 2007 (UTC)Ten of Swords 21:36, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

On reflection, I'm yanking the link, since even if it is a successor organization, there is no information linking it to Wierwille's doctorateTen of Swords 13:29, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Limits to External Links
I removed the link "waybeliever" added to this and another entry. "waybeliever" seems to be under the impression that you can say ANYTHING and it's fine to include or link to a Wikipedia page. However, HIS page (and it's a personal page) falls short of the guidelines in several areas. The following are all direct quotes from Wikipedia's guidelines on what to avoid, and illustrate how this link falls short:

Self-promotion. It can be tempting to write about yourself or projects in which you have a strong personal involvement. However, do remember that the standards for encyclopedic articles apply to such pages just like any other, including the requirement to maintain a neutral point of view, which is difficult when writing about yourself or about projects close to you. Creating overly abundant links and references to autobiographical articles is unacceptable. See Wikipedia:Autobiography, Wikipedia:Notability and Wikipedia:Conflict of interest.

Per our policy on original research, please do not use Wikipedia for any of the following: 1. Primary (original) research such as proposing theories and solutions, original ideas, defining terms, coining new words, et cetera. If you have done primary research on a topic, publish your results in other venues such as peer-reviewed journals, other printed forms, or respected online sites, and Wikipeia will report about your work once it becomes part of accepted knowledge. Citations of such reliable sources are needed to demonstrate that material is verifiable, and not merely the editor's opinion.

Except for a link to an official page of the article's subject—and not prohibited by restrictions on linking—one should avoid: 2. Any site that misleads the reader by use of factually inaccurate material or unverifiable research. See Reliable sources for explanations of the terms "factually inaccurate material" or "unverifiable research". 10. Links to social networking sites (such as MySpace and Facebook)

Advertising and conflicts of interest It is true that a link from Wikipedia to an external site may drive Web traffic to that site. But in line with Wikipedia policies, you should avoid linking to a site that you own, maintain, or represent — even if WP guidelines seem to imply that it may otherwise be linked. When in doubt, you may go to the talk page and let another editor decide. This suggestion is in line with WP's conflict-of-interest guidelines.

Now, the link itself... The editor called it an "Official Way" site- which is FRAUD. TWI has no connection to that MySpace page whatsoever. The editor claimed it was of "historical" value-but its content entirely consists of an advertisement for another organization composed of ex-TWI members. The site itself claims that there's "results" of some sort of "research", but gives no indication of actual research, as if they made up the "research" and the "results" completely and just continued with their advertisement.

Rather than just consider all of cyberspace a matter of advertising and talking AT people, some editors should consider the idea of DIALOGUE- a two-way process of communication where ideas are EXCHANGED. That is more in keeping with what Wikipedia is about- not making up claims, disguising advertisements, then claiming they're "official" sites for groups they're not even about. Pete Snowball (talk) 06:50, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Controversy
This article definitely needs a section on controversy. There are clearly a variety of views on Weirwille (the Parcast podcast show Cults is currently doing two episodes on Wierwille as a cult leader!), both from within and from without his own church, and Christianity in general. An article that leaves out a report of the existence of that controversy is seriously lacking, and flawed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Artekka4 (talk • contribs) 18:59, 22 November 2018 (UTC)

title: Talk:Victor Paul Wierwille


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Roberto Weiss

 This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion of the article below. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was KEEP. —Korath (Talk) 02:16, Feb 28, 2005 (UTC)

Roberto Weiss
While probably a very good UCL professor, his own grandson was unable to write enough about him to expand the article beyond a stub. A.D.H. (t&m) 21:02, Feb 15, 2005 (UTC) Contrary to my expectations, this article has been expanded into a brief but informative biography. In light of this, and given current consensus, I'm removing the VFD notice. A.D.H. (t&m) 19:59, Feb 16, 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep. Roberto Weiss was an important scholar who published several influential books and many articles on the renaissance and humanism. He was a member of numerous academies and held the professorhip of Italian at UCL for 23 years. Have you tried searching for information on Weiss before making this nomination? / u p p l a n d 22:31, 15 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * There are thousands of university professors and even more published academics—my own family is not without its share—and these accomplishments do not automatically imply encyclopedic notability. The article, a series of single-sentence factoids, is "fluffed" to begin with, and yet still does not exceed a single paragraph.  A.D.H. (t&m) 22:54, Feb 15, 2005 (UTC)
 * The current policy on academics on Wikipedia is the professor test: "If the individual is more well known and more published than an average college professor, they can and should be included". Roberto Weiss clearly meets that requirement. / u p p l a n d 14:36, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * This is not current policy. Please read the linked page you cite. It is a proposal. It has never received consensus. Please do not attempt "proof by repeated assertion." And it is not not a test "for academics," but one proposed measure of notability for inclusion of any biography. Dpbsmith (talk) 15:06, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Fine, it is not current policy then, but is the best we have until people agree on something. A policy is needed. Judging the notability of academics by voting in each case is difficult and puts them at a disadvantage compared to pop-culture celebrities and sportspeople (and slashdot trolls, for that matter). / u p p l a n d 16:50, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * That's true, but this isn't the forum for discussing it. I suppose Village pump would be the best place to raise it and start a discussion. Let me know if you do. Mattley 17:41, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * very weak keep. Borderline for sure but the article is nicely done (overlinked, though). Search on "The Renaissance discovery of classical antiquity" yields 180 hits, virtually all relevant. The book is in print, in a paperback edition that Amazon can ship within a couple of days, but only has a sales rank of 1,216,577 (my personal rule-of-thumb is the rank should be higher than 200,000). The John Buchan connection is mildly interesting. www.abebooks.com turns up 31 used copies books by him; interestingly enough there are many other titles besides "The Renaissance discovery of classical antiquity." My local public library doesn't have any books by him but the local library interloan network has "Humanism In England During The Fifteenth Century." and "The spread of Italian" humanism. I'm being inconsistent because I've voted to delete roughly comparable academics, but, hey, Ralph Waldo Emerson, right? I think I'm being swayed by the snapshot. Note that if the article is voted for deletion, this would be very appropriate material for User:Squiquifox's user page—and Wikipedia user pages are indexed by Google. Dpbsmith (talk) 00:05, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep. I'm not especially keen on people writing articles on family members but this man seems more than significant enough for inclusion. It is a specialised field but he seems to have been a very big contributor, with books still in print and widely referenced on university reading lists, and collections established by him in use at several institutions. Note, incidentally, that a Professor at a university in the United Kingdom is what Americans would call a full professor. Mattley 00:27, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep. I don't think the fact it was written by his grandson is actually relevant, the article should improve with expansion and some rewording to remove POV. --nixie 02:02, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep, though it's rather bad form to write about one's family. James F. (talk) 02:34, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep, cleanup and expand, notable. Megan1967 04:34, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep and expand. Notable scholar in his field. Capitalistroadster 10:53, 16 Feb 2005 (UTC)

This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like some other VfD subpages, is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion, or the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.


text: User talk:68.17.9.254

title: User talk:68.17.9.254