Dustin Runnels (Goldust) has made his first public comments since the passing of his father Dusty Rhodes.

He writes on Facebook that Dusty was surrounded by his family in the final moments:

Yesterday my father passed away with his four children, my daughter and his wife of 38 yrs. he was our hero and the greatest father in the world. He is the reason why I am who I am today. He taught me so so many lessons in life. He had 1 thing that he wanted to be and that was he wanted to be forever young. Now he is. Now he is dancing with angels in heaven. He was my mentor, my hero and a dad that I strive to be like. I love you dad. Thank you for all the overwhelmingly amount of love and support. He would have been on cloud 9 with this. Thank you all. Dustin Runnels.

Eden (the wife of Cody Rhodes) noted on Instagram that the WWE Hall of Famer was suffering from a “brief illness” before his death.

It’s believed that he suffered a fall in his home on Wednesday morning and passed away in hospital later on. One of the complications was kidney failure.

The mainstream media has treated The American Dream as the true legend he was, with coverage from the UK Guardian, the LA Times and New York Times.

Jim Ross summarized his impact in a blog post:

He was arguably the most charismatic performer of all time. His amazing unique verbal styling will never be duplicated or exceeded. He was exactly what he portrayed on TV: A blue-collar, common man, who rose from being son of farmer to being a part of American pop culture, whose memory will live forever. Therefore, for many he was truly the American dream.

WWE have announced that following Monday’s RAW they will be airing a special on the Network entitled “Celebrating the Dream.”