MANILA, Philippines – Professional wrestling legend Dusty Rhodes passed away on Thursday, June 11, reported WWE.com. He was 69 years old.

Born Virgil Riley Runnels Jr, the WWE Hall of Famer and three-time World Champion is famous for his “American Dream” gimmick, where he portrayed a common man and the “son of a plumber.”

Runnels is the father of current World Wrestling Entertainment superstars Goldust (born Dustin Runnels) and Cody Rhodes, also known as Stardust (Cody Runnels).

The cause of his death has yet to be reported as of posting time.

Runnels, as Dusty Rhodes, made a name for himself in the National Wrestling Alliance and Jim Crockett Promotions (which soon became World Championship Wrestling or WCW) in the late 1970s and 1980s. He battled the likes of Harley Race, “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair, and members of The Four Horsemen stable.

He won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship 3 times, as well as a slew of other titles such as the NWA United States, Television, World Tag Team, and World Six-Man Tag Team Championships.

He later became the booker, or match-maker, for WCW in the late 1980s.

Runnels went to the WWE in 1989, donning polka dot attires alongside his manager Sapphire. But he stayed there only until 1991. He retired from active in-ring competition shortly thereafter.

Runnels was then signed from 2003 to 2005 by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, where he became the promotion’s head booker and on-screen Director of Authority.

In 2005, he came back to the WWE under a Legends contract as a creative consultant. He had since become a trainer, head writer, and on-screen commissioner of WWE’s developmental branch, NXT.

He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2007.

Until his death, Runnels was among the trainers in the WWE Performance Center, where wrestling upstarts are trained and groomed to become the next WWE superstars.

His last appearance on a WWE TV show was in February 2015, when he served as the mediator between sons Goldust and Stardust, who were in a feud at the time. – Rappler.com