Dale Earnhardt Jr. is hopeful that someone from today’s era of professional wrestling will catch his attention as Dusty Rhodes did in the NWA back in the day.
During this week’s episode of Xfinity Racing, Dale Earnhardt Jr. opened up about his love for the National Wrestling Alliance when he was growing up.
“I was a big NWA fan. Back when it was on Saturday morning,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. “During you had cartoons and wrestling, and every Saturday…couldn’t wait. Teresa didn’t allow us to watch, so we had to sneak it in somehow, but there were days when she was hovering too close. We just didn’t get to see it; she said it made me too wild.”
When asked if he had any favorites in the NWA, he named Dusty Rhodes first and foremost.
“Dusty Rhodes,” Darle Earnhardt Jr. said. “I did have friends that lived down the street, and we made belts, you know, who didn’t make paper belts, right? And I would go up to their house, and we wrestle and have our matches, and we had our championship belt and then the Mid Atlantic title and all that. And so I liked Dusty Rhodes, Magnum TA. And then Magnum TA got in a car crash, and it sucked. And so it was just Dusty at that point. And I guess Wahoo McDaniel a little bit, but he was a little before my time, but I don’t know.
While he got away from wrestling after Dusty Rhodes left the NWA, seeing Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock in WWE during the Attitude Era brought him back for a number of years, but now he’s just waiting on someone to connect to today.
“I mean, I kind of went away from it after Dusty Rhodes left there, and the NWA kind of went away,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. admitted. “I kind of stopped watching it, and then I saw Stone Cold wrestle one time when I was hanging out with Tony [Eury] Jr. and Tony Sr. We were watching wrestling, and I was hooked again. So I watched it for a long time while Stone Cold was a big deal and The Rock, and then I kind of went away from it. I don’t really watch wrestling now because there’s really nobody that’s compelling to me that I connect to, but it’ll happen. Somebody will come along.”
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What do you make of Dale Earnhardt Jr’s comments? What star in professional wrestling today do you think he would connect with? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit Xfinity Racing with a link back to this article for the transcription.
