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Million Dollar Memories

Posted: Mar 27th 2010 By: CMBurnham

Professional wrestling is full of legendary characters with legendary catchphrases. Only one of those catchphrases, however, was attached to a laugh. "Everybody's got a price, hahahahahaha."

"The Million Dollar Man," Ted DiBiase, will be inducted into the World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame on Saturday, the night before WrestleMania in Phoenix, Ariz. DiBiase, who played football at West Texas State, took some time away from his duties as an evangelist to talk wrestling. DiBiase resides in Clinton, Miss.

What's it like being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame?

"To be inducted into the hall of fame is to be honored by your peers. I don't think that there is a greater honor you can have. This is not just a bunch of sportswriters who just talk about wrestling, these are the guys that did it with ya. These are the guys who've been down that road with you. They are saying that you are one of our best. It's a tremendous honor and it's humbling at the same time. It's one of those moments in my life where I wish my dad could be there."

What are your thoughts on TNA moving to Monday nights and going head-to-head with WWE?

"The WWE is a machine. It is a well-oiled, fine-tuned machine, and it's rolling. I have nothing against any of those guys over there (in TNA), I worked with a lot of those guys. I seriously think they don't have a chance. They do not have a chance of competing with the WWE. Their programming is not nearly as good. Nothing about the quality of that show is near the quality of the WWE. It's almost like they are trying to go back and relive the old wrestling wars. I'm 56 years old, I'm the same age as (Hulk) Hogan, and at some point you've gotta know it's over. I wish them well. Competition is always good for business, but to think you can actually compete with the WWE in the same hour, to me is just pretty naive."

Any specific Amarillo memories?

"The biggest wrestling memory that I have is not my own, it was my dad's ('Iron' Mike DiBiase). I was in the sixth grade when they had this Texas Death Match that went for three hours and fifteen minutes. I guess they would go back to the dressing room and take a break and come back out. Can you imagine two men able to hold a crowd for 3? hours. The match actually ended in a draw because the police came in and stopped the match because there was a curfew on the building."

What about one involving you?

"One of the most fun was a battle royal. In that battle royal were the Funk brothers and me, as well as others. I won the battle royal. The last three guys were me, Terry Funk and Dory Funk, Jr. They ultimately put me over. My winning that match really was kind of like them putting the stamp of approval on me. It brought me up a notch."

Any thoughts of stepping into the ring one more time, maybe with your son (Ted DiBiase, Jr.) next to you?

"Everybody's got a price, hahahaha. Never say never but my knees are shot, my shoulder is gone. I've had surgery on my neck. If it ever did happen you'd see me out there in a full body suit. I wouldn't want to embarrass myself."

Where did the idea of the Million Dollar Belt come from?

"There was some talk of me being WWE champion. What they came to me with was 'you're the Million Dollar Man.' The idea was you're so arrogant that you don't need the WWE title, you'll just create your own. The whole concept is you want the people to dislike you as much as they possibly can. The arrogance of a guy creating his own belt and wearing it to the ring every night, it worked. It was a great idea."

Tags: Ted DiBiase, WWE, TNA, Mike DiBiase