WWE Early years and confrontations (2009–2010) In 1995, Dustin Runnels, the son of WWE Hall of Famer Virgil Runnels (better known as Dusty Rhodes), was re-signed by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), as it was then known. He was then given the
character of Goldust, a somewhat spooky and mysterious persona with sexually suggestive mannerisms, later nicknamed "The Bizarre One".
Vince McMahon, the promotion's chairman, described it as "androgynous". In his period of time with the WWF, Goldust went on to become a
three-time Intercontinental Champion, a
nine-time Hardcore Champion, and a
one-time World Tag Team Champion with
Booker T. However, his contract expired in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), as it is now known, and he refused to renew it in December 2003. In 2008, Runnels returned to WWE as Goldust at
Cyber Sunday. After a four-year stint in WWE, he was released in 2012. His half-brother Cody Rhodes is also fathered by Dusty Rhodes. Cody began wrestling in WWE's developmental territory
Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) in June 2006. On 9 July, Rhodes slapped Orton in return and, the following week, Cody faced Orton in his debut WWE match, but lost. In the following years, he would become a two-time Intercontinental Champion Goldust married
Aksana on 2 November 2010 on
NXT, with Dusty and Cody in attendance. In 2013, Goldust was a surprise entrant for the
Royal Rumble match on 26 January and was once again eliminated by his half-brother. Although he hinted at a possible feud with Cody, he later confirmed in an interview that his return was a one night only deal.
The Brotherhood (2013–2014) On the September 2, 2013 episode of
Raw, Cody Rhodes was fired Goldust returned the following week and similarly lost to Orton in a non-title match, thus failing to get his half-brother rehired. Eventually, their father Dusty Rhodes returned to
Raw in an attempt to convince
Stephanie McMahon to give his sons their jobs back. Instead, McMahon propositioned that Dusty could choose either one of his sons to receive a job, but not both. Dusty refused and Big Show
knocked out Dusty as per McMahon's orders. In return, the Rhodes Brothers ambushed Triple H's henchmen
the Shield on
Raw. The next week, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon (later known as
the Authority) offered the brothers their jobs back if they could defeat The Shield's
Seth Rollins and
Roman Reigns (the
WWE Tag Team Championship) at
Battleground. If they lost, they would never work in WWE again and Dusty would lose his job as a trainer at the
WWE Performance Center. All three members of the Rhodes family were then attacked by The Shield, including
United States Champion Dean Ambrose. On 6 October at Battleground, the Rhodes Brothers made their debut match as a tag team with Dusty in the corner and defeated Rollins and Reigns to earn their jobs back. Various WWE wrestlers and agents came out to celebrate with the Rhodes family, including
Arn Anderson,
Dean Malenko, and
Dave Finlay. On 11 October on
SmackDown, the Rhodes Brothers gave
The Wyatt Family their first-ever main roster loss. The Rhodes Brothers heaped more misery on The Shield as they defeated Reigns and Rollins in a No Disqualification match to win the WWE Tag Team Championship on October 14 on
Raw after interference from Big Show. This was Goldust's first championship in WWE in nearly 11 years. On the following
Raw, The Shield faced the Usos in a number one contender's match, which ended in a no contest after Ambrose provoked the Rhodes Brothers into interfering. As a result, the Rhodes Brothers faced both the Shield and the Usos in a triple threat tag team match for the titles at
Hell in a Cell and successfully retained them. The night after the pay-per-view event, the brothers experienced their first loss as champions to The Real Americans (
Antonio Cesaro and
Jack Swagger) in a non-title match. In a continuation of their feud against the Authority, on 11 November on
Raw, the half-brothers defeated Randy Orton in a handicap match. It was announced the following week that at
Survivor Series, the Rhodes Brothers would team up with the Usos and
Rey Mysterio against the Shield and the Real Americans in the traditional Survivor Series elimination match, but they lost after both were eliminated by Reigns, who was the sole survivor. On 22 November on
SmackDown, the half-brothers defeated the Real Americans to retain their WWE Tag Team Championship. The Rhodes Brothers were scheduled to face the team of
Ryback and
Curtis Axel, the team of Rey Mysterio and Big Show, and The Real Americans at
Tables, Ladders & Chairs, as they had recently been defeated by each of these teams. Once again, they successfully defended their titles. On 3 January 2014 on
SmackDown, the Rhodes Brothers defeated
Luke Harper and
Erick Rowan of The Wyatt Family to retain the championships and marked their first win of the year. They once again retained the gold on the special
Old School Raw episode when they again defeated The Real Americans. However, on the 17 January episode of
SmackDown, the half-brothers were defeated in a non-title match by
The New Age Outlaws (
Road Dogg and
Billy Gunn) after a distraction from the
General Manager of
SmackDown Vickie Guerrero. As a result, The Outlaws were named the number one contenders for the titles. At the
Royal Rumble pre-show on January 26, The Outlaws defeated the Brotherhood to end their championship reign. Later that day on the Royal Rumble main show, the Rhodes Brothers participated in the Rumble match; Goldust accidentally eliminated Cody, but was then quickly eliminated. The following day on
Raw, their rematch for the tag team titles was inconclusive when the Brotherhood were attacked by
Brock Lesnar. Thus, the Brotherhood received a rematch but in a
steel cage; they ended up losing to the Outlaws. In the following weeks, the Brotherhood feuded with different tag teams and
stables. On 10 February on
Raw, they teamed with Rey Mysterio and challenged the Wyatt Family, but The Rhodes Brothers yielded. On Friday, with the Usos on their team, they won against Ryback, Curtis Axel, and the Outlaws. This led to a victorious tag team match between the Brotherhood and RybAxel (with
Larry Hennig) at the
Elimination Chamber Kickoff. At
WrestleMania XXX, the half-brothers participated in the 31-man
battle royal for the
André the Giant Memorial Trophy, and were both eliminated by
Alberto Del Rio. The Brotherhood then returned for tag team action with consecutive losses to RybAxel and the Usos; after the latter loss on 21 April, dissension was teased between the brothers when Cody shoved Goldust and left by himself. After that, more tension was built up when Cody began frequently losing singles matches while Goldust frequently won; Goldust notably scored wins over
Alberto Del Rio and Curtis Axel, two opponents which Cody lost to. When Cody managed a win over
Damien Sandow in May, it was only because he resorted to cheating. The team disbanded at
Payback on 1 June when they lost to RybAxel, with Cody telling Goldust to look for a new partner, after he felt he was the weak link in the team. Cody then attempted to find a new tag team partner for Goldust, such as
Sin Cara or
R-Truth, but the new teams still lost their tag matches.
Gold and Stardust (2014–2015) On the 16 June episode of
Raw, Cody announced that he had found the perfect tag partner for Goldust. This turned out to be himself, appearing under the ring name Stardust while wearing a jumpsuit and face paint similar to Goldust. The two quickly defeated RybAxel on that night, and also at the
Money in the Bank. After weeks of primarily appearing in vignettes cryptically expressing their desires to acquire "The Cosmic Key" (their name for the WWE Tag Team Championships) that The Usos now have, they successfully defeated The Usos in a non-title match on the 18 August episode of
Raw. On the 25 August episode of
Raw, they challenged The Usos for the Tag Team Championships and won by
countout, thus not winning the championships. They would accuse the Usos of a purposeful countout to retain the titles, and then attacked them, turning
heel in the process. At
Night of Champions, Goldust and Stardust, now referred to simply as Gold and Stardust, defeated The Usos for their second WWE Tag Team Championship, and successfully retained them against the Usos in a rematch at
Hell in a Cell. They also successfully retained their titles the following night on
Raw; after
Mark Henry turned on his partner Big Show to give Stardust the pin. After trading wins throughout the tag division over the next few weeks; Gold and Stardust lost the WWE Tag Team Championship to The Miz and Damien Mizdow in a Fatal 4-Way match in
Survivor Series that also included the Usos and
Los Matadores, ending their second title reign at 63 days. After failing in regaining their titles the next night on
Raw, the following
SmackDown, the duo cut a more sinister promo than usual on their loss of the Cosmic Key, claiming that "science" had failed them and adding that "darkness would fall on the New Day", possibly referring to
a stable that had debuted on the same episode. After being hastily defeated in a number one contender Tag Team Turmoil on the 1 December edition of
Raw by
Kofi Kingston and
Big E; Gold and Stardust returned later on in the match and attacked their manager,
Xavier Woods, distracting them enough to cost them the match, thus setting up a feud. A match between the two teams was scheduled for the Kick-Off show of
TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs on 14 December, where Big E and Kingston defeated Gold and Stardust.
Disbandment and feud (2015) In early 2015, the two again began showing signs of tension between them as Stardust became further entrenched in his
gimmick, leaving Goldust to try and communicate with his brother through his new persona. Stardust would respond to this by walking out on Goldust on the February 5 episode of
SmackDown before their match had concluded. On the February 16 edition of
Raw, Dusty Rhodes returned to speak to his sons for the first time since their debut in an attempt to smooth out the problems they were having. While Cody seemed to be in agreement with his family at first, Stardust hit his old finisher
Cross-Rhodes on Goldust after he took the loss for their team in a match against
The New Day, dissolving their partnership entirely. When Dusty approached Stardust backstage afterward, Stardust claimed that it was Dusty and Goldust that were responsible for the intense pressure Cody was subjected to from a young age. He then stated that Cody, and now his own family, were
dead to him. A match between Goldust and Stardust was set for
Fastlane, with Goldust promising to vanquish Stardust, reclaim his brother, and rekindle their partnership. Due to their father asking Goldust not to cause any real harm to Cody, Goldust won their first encounter via roll-up. On the January 8, 2020 episode of
AEW Dynamite, Rhodes Brothers teamed up to take on
Lucha Brothers. Throughout 2020, The Nightmare Family would become a stable who mostly supports Cody Rhodes in big matches while also teaming amongst themselves, the group consists firmly by Cody Rhodes, his wife Brandi Rhodes, his brother Dustin Rhodes, his manager/coach Arn Anderson, Q. T. Marshall, Lee Johnson and The Gunn Club. Diamond Dallas Page is also a part-time member. == Championships and accomplishments ==