Ted DiBiase on If Vince Promised him the WWF Championship

'The Million Dollar Man' Ted DiBiase looks back at his Hall of Fame career, from Mid-South, to Japan, to WCW, to WWF, and everywhere in-between! Join Ted and Marcus every Friday at 6am ET on all podcast platforms or if you want early access, get it commercial free on Premier+ with Premier Streaming Network!

[@mrmoose6619]

Ted DiBiase is one of the few heels where the belt needed him more than he needed the belt.

[@hectorlopez1069]

Certainly

[@monicaex724]

Yes sir!

[@volourn9764]

Not really. I like DiBiase, but stop that silliness.

[@mechastudio2590]

Ted was so good, Vince created a title just for him. The fact we still remember that title fondly is proof Ted never needed to win the championship

[@yoholmes273]

Nope.

[@yassarbutt9292]

Damn straight. He will stand the test of time...nuff said.

[@jasondiend4248]

That title also got over like a world title for a while. It meant something and Ted carried and made that title worth something. Ted was awesome heel. He is one of the guys who never needed the world title. Had he gotten it that would have been awesome however again he didn't need the belt he was that over. Some guys need the belt to get them over some guys are just over and a title is just 15 pounds more in their bags.

[@yoholmes273]

@@jasondiend4248 No. The Million Dollar belt was NEVER considered by anyone to be as important as The World Title. That is just a preposterous statement

[@Svankmajer]

"I would rather not have the belt and have more money". Life imitates art.

[@siegfriedc2332]

Ironically, his character spent lots of money to buy the belt.

[@donjohn2695]

Alot of wrestlers are in it for the money warrior and Hogan being to prime examples

[@jeff-ds2pr]

Only guys who were giant marks for themselves ( Bret Hart )would do the opposite. What is your purpose when you go to work? The amount of recognition awards you get from your boss, or getting paid and getting raises?

[@Svankmajer]

@@jeff-ds2pr Well, while wrestling is scripted there still is an amount of responsibility and honor in being "the champion", who's going to carry the company. Like Hogan, Austin or Cena, etc. If Bret and others wanted that thats not weird. People in that position would automatically get more money too.

[@hectorlopez1069]

He was smart, he wanted the money.

[@donjohn2695]

Ted should have been WWF champion back in the Day ted had personality charisma great in ring performer cut great promo's ted had everything to be WWF champion shame he wasn't

[@poisonous-shadows]

Ya but the million dollar belt was just as good he got alot of the same perks hogan got except for the money

[@yomedeer2695]

He was a great worker I think when after warrior,Ted should’ve gotten a run with the belt not hogan with the Steroid scandal

[@noneofuourbusiness]

Lmfao teddy is a gimmick and always was a gimmick....

[@hiddensword9387]

Hogan was money though and back then your top baby faces were protected by not being beat. If they were seen to be beaten too often then less people care.

[@Dock76]

I could see Ted being champion. Imagine giving him the belt in 90 and have Warrior chase. Money.

[@stevencarr4002]

How could anybody hate Ted DiBiase? He was so good as the Million Dollar Man.

[@Angrypokagon]

When I think of best wrestling heels, I always think of Ted.

[@jd9119]

Ted did get the WWF championship. I remember seeing him buy it off Andre.

[@andremarc1275]

Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase saw everything... he was a part of all of the biggest storylines in the history of westling. WWF was great in the Golden Era. Great podcast i respect him. Today i still watch WWF and i dont watch WWE anymore.

[@davidporter7051]

Mr. DiBiase, word of friendly advice. Make your bed after you wake up.

[@jasonbentley7087]

Virgil, must’ve called in that morning!

[@undertakerfanz628]

Why you worried about it David you want to sleep with him

[@davidporter7051]

@@undertakerfanz628 why don't you just tell me where we can meet? It's not a difficult thing to do.

[@undertakerfanz628]

@@davidporter7051 meet me at your mother's house where you still live 🤡

[@danielstokes6934]

​@@undertakerfanz628lol ya what a ferry, he's worried about teddy's bed not being made 😂

[@the_sixxness]

Iove the end of the video. Ted looks into the camera and just for a moment becomes the Million Dollar Man and says "I would rather not have the belt and have more money" Classic

[@ronaldwilliams5932]

Ted DiBiase I watched you since I was a little kid you were great man you are the champ one of many way to me you was you were great

[@mikey8086]

Looking back, my fav heels easily where Ted Dibiase, Rick Rude, and Mr. Perfect. all three were top dogs and could wrestle and cut a promo like no other during that time and even today they would be stars as well.

[@hollydizzle3986]

Glad that this podcast has come to fruition. Love Teddy's book. He's got hours of amazing stories to tell.

[@EverybodysGotAPod]

Thank you!

[@hollydizzle3986]

@@EverybodysGotAPod You're certainly welcome!

[@jasonbentley7087]

Me too, but I’d say it will be from a prison cell soon.

[@BlackMoore82]

DiBiase did have a week long reign with the WWF Championship but he didn't really need it, besides he was a four time Mid-South North American Heavyweight Champion. In some fans eyes that made him a World Champion.

[@EverybodysGotAPod]

For sure! He mentions on the next episode that he was also in line to win the NWA World Title if he had gone to JCP instead of the WWF!

[@fritztheworld057]

Are you referring to the time he bought the championship off Andre?

[@siegfriedc2332]

​@@fritztheworld057 He is. Ted apparently defended it on a show back then, and was introduced as the WWF champion, before he was stripped of the belt around a week after.

[@kefkarothsephka7708]

@@siegfriedc2332 and he was announced as the new wwf world champion as well

[@randymiller7524]

The Million Dollar Man Mr. Ted DiBiase

[@user-pt7mx5ct2t]

I totally agree with that if I don't have the belt but more money I'd rather have the money

[@titansrule72]

had randy never turned heel with the mega powers stuff... i couldve seen dibiase as world champ feuding with hogan over 1989 while savage moved onto another heel feud.

[@mr.green2341]

It was cool when Andre gave Dibiase the “World Tag Team Championship” that one time. 😁

[@jasonbentley7087]

Tag team?

[@ham4fun]

take out the words "tag team" and you would be correct

[@dpj1]

@@ham4fun when Andre was handing the belt over to MDM, after beating Hogan, he did a little speech in the ring, misspoke and called it the 'World Tag Team Championship"

[@ham4fun]

@@dpj1 guess I forgot about that part. i mean it has been about 40 years since it happened

[@kefkarothsephka7708]

@@ham4fun 35 years officially

[@ynotwilliams2000]

I think Ted got a good run as a heel that it took away the need for the world title run. Ted worked main events with top stars and I'm sure he was paid a good amount with the house shows. Plus Ted was on video games and was well known in and outside of the wrestling ring. Not so many have a run like Ted and they need a world title to help them get over. Now my personal views, I would have loved to see a program where Ted won the world title. Ideally give him a run from summerslam to Rumble and let Hogan vs Savage happen at WM5. With that said, it would have lessen the win for Hogan at WM5 beating a full year title run rather than a 3 monrh championship run. I still would have like to see Ted with the title. After Ted's run with Hogan and Savage, his time as a main eventer was cooling off ,

[@jasondiend4248]

Ted as world champion would have needed more time than a few months. We're talking about an awesome heel champion. He'd need atleast 6 months to a year. Him getting wins over Savage and so on till he faces Hogan for the world title at Mania. That would have been a great run. Ted however never needed the belt. He got his own which was an awesome title itself.

[@jameskelly5672]

Ted had some good match against the Spoiler back on tbs in 1984. I also liked when he purchased Hercules Hernandez from Bobby Heenan ,made Hercules his slave.

[@TranslatedAssumption]

In pro wrestling all championships are acquired via kayfabe and thus I recognize Ted's World championship acquisition as 100% perfectly legitimate.

[@brianjohnson4955]

tell us where u got headset

[@marcbarhausen8132]

Teds opinion on holding the Title is the same as Scott Halls. Both men come in fans mind, to name a top wrestler to never held a world title (along with Hennig). Scott said, he was never a mark for the belt, like Ted says, it's a show. I think they're we're right. Wrestling was and will always be telling stories.

[@airfixx_8952]

For storyline/character's sake I'd have liked to have seen MDMs money prevail more than it did...... Would have made seeing him eventually foiled mean so much more. I will argue to the death that MDM should have won the 89 Royal Rumble (The storyline that he bought Bossman's number from Slick was wasted too; although given Bossman still came out at #22 it didn't make much sense).....Possibly even the 88 one too; although Duggan decent shout to for that one.

[@tonyd7601]

I was surprised when Mr DiBiase never won the title. No wrestler got a better gimmick or character ot portrayed it better.

[@jd9119]

Yeah but if Ted had got the WWF belt at WM4, he would've been working with Hogan at WM5 and making the biggest payday of his career. Instead he was working with Beefcake in like the 2nd match of the night.

[@jonathanturbide2232]

Ted was awesome, but there's no way he would have held the title for a full year, Macho would have won it that summer or around it (maybe at the inaugural Summerslam). Vince wanted a babyface champion while Hogan was making the movie, other than Billy Graham bad guys were never given lengthy reigns as champion in the WWWF/WWF, so if Ted would have won the title it would have been for a short run.

[@michaelr.4878]

I can't believe that DiBiase is doing podcasts right now considering the amount of trouble he is in.

[@ganglabesh]

i know! wtf, his kid going to prison

[@HardheadedG32]

Not him it's his son

[@t-fresh1008]

He didn't need the world title. The million dollar title is still the coolest title ever made plus Money In were great tag team champions

[@jd9119]

He did get the world belt. He had it for a week when he bought it off Andre.

[@davequinn3484]

Vince created a belt just for him...

[@yomedeer2695]

Does he have comments on Bret hart being champion! The Hitman really knows how to wrestle as well curios

[@Scorch1028]

Ted DiBiase was a "main event superstar" which is every bit as prestigious as actually being the World Champion. Not every wrestler gets to work in a PPV main event in their career. So, Ted was in that very select 5-percenter club of talent that got to be in the main event against the reigning World Champion.

[@lonniec7603]

👏

[@TheRuns2]

I agree with the comments that he didn't need the belt. But I'm also convinced WWF would have made a lot more money with him having a run with the belt and having Hogan & Savage chasing it. I understand the then WWF mentality of a face champ sending the fans home happy, but he would have been such a money drawing exception! They missed out, as far as I'm concerned.

[@volourn9764]

No they wouldn't have.

[@scottsignorelli6396]

What about the million dollar championship belt he did have that 😉

[@hectorlopez1069]

Jake the snake tried to get it, but Virgil got it and ran away with it at Wrestlemania 6.

[@bobnewfart7630]

Ted should have been NWA Champ once anyway.. Flair should have dropped it to him the same night Murdoch Brain bustered him on the concrete. That would have been epic for the NWA.

[@jonathanturbide2232]

Not really since nobody outside of Mid-South would have cared about it or would have understood the significance of it, it was an angle only for the territory itself. The Flair match allowed Ted to turn babyface and to gain all his fans back, that was better than getting the championship (I have that match on dvd, on the Mid-South set released by WWE 10 years ago, fantastic moment for Ted).

[@bobnewfart7630]

@@jonathanturbide2232 Wth you can't say that would have not have been epic.

[@bobnewfart7630]

I seen it live btw

[@Parlimant_Strifey]

He once became the slave owner of Andre during that era. A wrassler essentially becoming a manager during those times, insane. They were trading wrasslers with each other like it was nothing in the era, times really changed.

[@yoholmes273]

What?

[@chad3452]

TD woulda been one of the most hated champs ever imo... MDM coulda helped sell alot of tickets by dropping the belt to hogan or whoever after like 2-3 months

[@jabrockobiden9434]

Sorry the world champ is the best. Whether it be worker, stooge or politician or just being dependable, back then you was the best at something to be champ.

[@js09js09]

Bret Hart should watch this video. DiBiase keeps saying that the world champion isn't really the world champion because it is just a show and that a world champion is a world champion in a make-believe story. Bret allowed his obsession with being the champion to ruin his life. He still goes on about losing the belt to Shawn Michaels at the Montreal Screwjob. He should have just taken his paycheque and not cared if he left WWF as champion.

[@jeffh278]

Algorithm

[@wrericdog]

Hey Ted you did hold the wwe belt so say that,the nwa ,you worked their in the 70s , as a b guy, flair even said you should have have been nwa champ in the 80s,,,Ted was an a very underated superstar from early 70 early 90s, his son Ted jr, was like a blank of his father , very quite, no character, etc thats why his son is going too jail for his sins !!!!

[@jasonbentley7087]

Yeah, and so will Ted Sr., maybe they’ll be cell mates!

[@HereIsWisdom1318]

Id rather not have the belt and have more money too

[@KingPossum]

I disagree with you Ted simply because if you are telling a story and it has a world champion then that is the world champion because it is part of the story that you are telling. but honestly what do I know, I have never wrestled and your career speaks for itself.

[@GameTime-yj6qv]

I agree.

[@kevinfitz8516]

did he ever pay the welfare money back?