Dustin Lee Howard (born Aprill 22, 1986) is an American Professional Wrestler from Murray, KY as Chuck Taylor. He debuted in 2002 at the age of 15 but had to wrestle in Tennessee due to being too young to compete in Kentucky. He has wrestled for CHIKARA, CZW, Ring of Honor, IWA Mid-South, All Elite Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, Dragon Gate USA, and numerous other promotions.
Among his in-ring achievements, he is also a former CHIKARA Young Lions Cup Champion
, a 2x CHIKARA Campeon de Parejas with Johnny Gargano as Team F.I.S.T., a former IWA Mid-South Light Heavyweight Champion, a former CZW World Junior Heavyweight Champion, a former EVOLVE Tag Team Champion with Drew Galloway, and a former 2x PWG World Heavyweight Champion.
He has nothing to do with that brand of sneakers that A.J. Lee wears or any of those other Chuck Taylors.
"LET'S GO CHUCK TAYLOR YOU'RE THE BEST TROPER IN THE WORLD YOU'RE IN WAY BETTER SHAPE THAN TYLER BLACK!":
- Abnormal Ammo: In CZW. He was able to defeat Danny Havoc in a table match because Drew Gulak(illegally) assisted him by shooting Havoc in the face with a confetti gun.
- Arch-Enemy: Fire Ant, Ricochet
- Crowd Chant: The quote at the top of the page is him trying to start one at AIW Absolution V, June 27, 2010. It didn't take.
- Fighting in the Playground: At CHIKARA Aniversario And His Amazing Friends, May 21, 2011, he and UltraMantis Black fought out of the Palmer Center in Easton, PA into a playground next door. The fight involved Taylor coming down the slide and Mantis chopping him.note
- Finishing Move: Kentucky Crab, Omega Driver/Awful Waffle
- Godwin's Law: Downplayed. He faced The BDK's Jakob Hammermeier at The Marta Complex on September 27, 2015. He didn't specifically call Jakob a Nazi, but, he did say that, just like in World War II, Kentucky was coming out on top over Germany, which is what happened, since he beat Jakob with a Superkick.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Envy was the motivation that led to him leading The Gentleman's Club into EVOLVE. He once had the best record in the promotion but he couldn't win when it really counted, unlike his Ronin partners Rich Swann and Johnny Gargano, causing him to lash out at them.
- Hillbilly Moonshiner: As the leader of The Moonshinin' Men of Appalachia in Olde Wrestling.
- I Have Many Names: In CHIKARA, a temporary retirement lead to Stokely Hathaway stealing the name Chuck Taylor from him. The former Chuck Taylor began switching names constantly, trying to find one he liked. He used Scoot Tatum, Rick Beanbag, Bugg Nevans, Touch Phillips, "The Office" Stewie Scrivens, "Bareback" Benny Figg, Trent Baretta (later claimed he had to drop this one after receiving a cease and desist from WWE), Karate Durling, "Hardwood" Rich Mahogany, "Top Shelf" Slim Perkins, and "This Is" Howie Do-In. Eventually (after disappearing for several months) he settled on DUSTIN.
- Legacy Character: As part of Icarus's reconstituted Team F.I.S.T., with Icarus as himself and Travis Huckabee taking the Gran Akuma role, Tony Deppen is going out of his way to imitate Chuckie T as closely as possible.
- Lethal Joke Character: Sure, he's goofy, but he won the 2007 Young Lion's Cup, the inaugural Rey de Voladores, 1/3 of the winners of 2009 King of Trios, and retired Worker Ant I.
- Metaphorgotten: From his promo at Best Imitation of Myself:"I'm a King of Wrestling, baby. I'm a king. I feel like Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic. I'm gonna stand on the edge of the ring, they're gonna hold me high… except I'm not gonna die in the end, because Kate Winslet is not gonna not let me up on… seriously, there was a door floatin', that door was big enough for two people, seriously. Come on, Kate, let Leo up there, right. You could have saved much people from cryin'. I cried… I… I…um…"
- My Old Kentucky Home: He's from Murray and his Red Baron is "The Kentucky Gentleman." At Small But Mighty, October 7, 2011, which was held in Burlington, NC, he called "the dirty South" his hometown.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: It's easy to think he's harmless when he's shrieking while being knife edge chopped or appearing in goofy videos where he sleeps until 3 in the afternoon and admits he cried during the end of Titanic. However, he's won the 2007 Young Lion's Cup, the inaugural Rey de Voladores, 1/3 of the winners of 2009 King of Trios, retired the original Worker Ant and made Bryan Danielson tap out.
- One-Hit Kill: His former finisher, the Omega Driver/Awful Waffle, has only been kicked out of twice in history.
- Power Stable:
- (in CHIKARA): The Kings of Wrestling
- Team F.I.S.T., with Icarus, Gran Akuma, Johnny Gargano, and Sugar Dunkerton
- The Gentleman's Club, with Drew Gulak, Orange Cassidy, and The Swamp Monster
- Best Friends, with Trent Beretta, Orange Cassidy, Kris Statlander, Wheeler Yuta, and Danhausen
- (in PWG): The Fighting Taylor Boys
- (in Olde Wrestling): The Moonshinin' Men Of Appalachia
- (in Dragon Gate USA and EVOLVE): Ronin
- (in New Japan Pro-Wrestling): CHAOS
- (in CHIKARA): The Kings of Wrestling
- Put on a Bus: Kept attempting to put himself on the bus for the greater part of 2015 by claiming that he was retiring. Finally succeeded in January 2016, as he was moved to the Alumni section of the roster. Unfortunately, this directly led to him losing the rights to the name, gimmick, and intellectual property associated with Chuck Taylor and having to change his name.
- Bussed out for real from May 2016 until mid-August 2016, under unknown circumstance
- Rule of Funny: His "grenade," where he pulls out an invisible grenade and either throws it down on the mat or, as he did at Top Banana, stick it in his opponent's tights and give him an Atomic Drop (knee to the tailbone). He's even done it in slow motion!
- Screams Like a Little Girl: Shrieks like an 8 year old girl when he's chopped. Sometimes also when put in holds and when being slammed down on the mat.
- Shout-Out: As part of his "retirement" tour in 2015, he promoted the hashtag "#DustinChecksOut", a reference to the Jason Alexander orangutan comedy film Dunston Checks In.
- Sissy Villain: To a degree.
- Tag Team:
- An Officer and a Gentleman, with Dan Barry
- Best Friends, with Trent Baretta
- The Goonies, with Slacker J
- Men Of Low Moral Fiber, with Kenny Omega
- Teen Genius: As noted, he debuted at the age of 15.
