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Million Dollar Man comes to Metro

Posted: Apr 19th 2010 By: CMBurnham

When you've lived most of your life on the road, it's hard to get that out of your system.

Professional wrestlers, those that have made a career out of it anyway, are on the road more than most touring musicians. Wrestlers aren't off the road to learn new wrestling holds like a musician would be to record new songs. They perform in the ring in venues, from arenas to high school gyms, almost every night.

Ted DiBiase knows that lifestyle well. The one-time "Million Dollar Man" began his career as a professional wrestler in the mid-1970s, following in his father's footsteps.

For DiBiase, it was never just a job.

"The wrestling industry to me and my family is not just a career choice," he says. "It's a way of life. It's been a part of our lives for as long as I can remember. It's put a roof over my head and food on the table."

After surviving the "rock n' roll" lifestyle of professional wrestling in the 1980s, DiBiase took what many might be seen as a left turn in the early 1990s. He found religion and later became an evangelist.

Largely retired from the wrestling business since the late-1990s, DiBiase now operates Heart of David Ministries. He makes both wrestling- and church-related appearances across the continent, sometimes mixing both.

This weekend, he'll appear at Radical Speed Sport car show at the Moncton Coliseum to sign autographs throughout the weekend, but he'll also give a sermon at the First Baptist Church, 157 Queen St., Moncton, on Sunday.

DiBiase says while wrestling will always be in his heart, evangelism is his passion today. It gives him the chance to spread the word of God, and it gives churches a chance to invite people to church who might not otherwise come.

DiBiase laughs when he says, "I'm a form of bait."

Not everyone will stay with a church, but he says that's OK too.

He spoke candidly to the Times & Transcript recently about his wrestling days, the demons he battled and how he found faith later in life that led him to where he is today.

DiBiase broke into the business in the mid-1970s, only a few years after his father, "Iron" Mike DiBiase, suffered a heart attack in the ring. Fellow wrestlers rushed to "Iron" Mike's aid, but were unable to revive him and he died in the place he made his living for so many years.

While the elder DiBiase's death had nothing to do with his career choice, his son decided then he wouldn't "stay too long" in the wrestling ring.

"Hulk Hogan is a good guy. Ric Flair ... I've known these guys for a long time. I consider them friends, but I'm 56 years old," Dibiase says. "I'm the same age as Hulk Hogan. And he's still trying to (wrestle). Ric Flair is over 60. I think he's 61 or 62, and he's still trying to go out there. Both those guys had tremendous careers, and to me, what they're doing now, it just tarnishes what they had."

A gifted technical wrestler, DiBiase worked the regional wrestling circuit early in his career, finally debuting in the cartoon world of the World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment) in the late-1980s as "the Million Dollar Man," an evil millionaire who paid off referees and famously claimed that "Everybody's got a price for the Million Dollar Man."

With his trademark laugh, he would invite audience members into the ring to perform menial tasks and then embarrass them. He stuffed dollar bills into defeated opponents mouths while laughing in their faces.

His wrestling career had many highs. His first main event match was against legendary grappler Harley Race at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis sometime in the late-1970s or early '80s, he says. Another career high was an angle he was involved in when he "paid" Andre the Giant to win the WWF World championship from Hulk Hogan and give it to Dibiase.

He headlined Wrestlemania 4 against "Macho Man" Randy Savage and later wrestled in front of over 80,000 people at Wembley Stadium in 1992.

Dibiase describes wrestling in his heyday as a "rock and roll" lifestyle.

"You were always on the road, away from your family," he says. "The divorce rate in wrestling was huge. Similar to other people in other fields of either athletics or entertainment, you get hurt out there on the road, but the show's got to go on, so you take pain pills. And (some would) get addicted to pain pills and then mix it with booze.

"How many stories have you heard about guys dying by mixing the two? I did my share of drinking, and I did some drugs too. But I was never addicted to any of that stuff."

Cocaine was his drug of choice, but again, he says it never became an addiction.

"It was more because it was a stimulant more than anything else. In other words, 'Hey, I can take this stuff and I can stay up and drive for hours,'" he explains.

Dibiase says his "weakness" was women, and it nearly cost him his marriage and family.

At his career's peak, DiBiase says he probably had only six days off a month. His wife Melanie raised their three children essentially on her own. Meanwhile, DiBiase tried to fill the void in his life with other relationships.

Eventually, in 1992, his wife confronted him about his affairs and it was then and there that DiBiase says he realized he'd thrown away everything he cared about.

"In a fraction of a second, I realized what a fool ... what a fool I had been."

A pastor friend helped the DiBiases deal with their issues and helped set Ted back on the right path. He credits his friend, along with his wife's strong Christian faith, for setting him straight. The DiBiases will celebrate 29 years of marriage this year.

DiBiase's marital troubles came around the same time he had spinal surgery, which ended his in-ring career.

DiBiase later returned to wrestling as a manager and commentator, first at his old home with the WWE (then World Wrestling Federation), and later at the competition, World Championship Wrestling but, as time went on, he began travelling as an evangelist. Initially, he was invited into various churches to explain how he found religion.

When his WCW contract expired in 1999, he made evangelism and autograph signings his full-time career. He also serves as a goodwill ambassador for the WWE.

DiBiase says not everyone understands how he got to where he is today, but he's OK with that.

"I don't know how to describe this to people who aren't Christians, but to know what I know and to understand what God has done in my life ... and to be able to share that with somebody else, and for it to be a vehicle, it to be a tool for them to see the same light that I have seen for them to change their life ... nothing has ever given me greater joy than to see this happen."

All that said, DiBiase doesn't have any interest in being a pastor at one church.

"I don't know if I have the patience to be a pastor," he says with a laugh. "I'm a wrestler. I'm a competitor. And basically, that's what the evangelist does. He blows in, he blows up, and then he blows out of town. And he gives the (reins) to the pastor and says, 'OK, I beat'em up, now you can nurse the wounds.'"

DiBiase continues to travel because he enjoys it and, well, it pays the bills.

"Just so everybody knows, I'm not 'the Million Dollar Man,'" he laughs. Today, two of DiBiase's three sons are wrestlers. Ted DiBiase Jr. is currently a World Wrestling Entertainment superstar, while his younger brother Brett is in the WWE's developmental league.

The younger DiBiases recently inducted their father into the WWE Hall of Fame, which he says was a proud moment.

"Regardless of what avenue of life you go down, to be inducted into a hall of fame, no matter what your field of endeavour is, is to be honoured and set apart by your peers. It's them giving you their stamp of approval and saying, 'Hey man, we're going to send you out there and tell the world that you're one of our best.'"

Also appearing at Speed Sport this year is Mike Jones, another retired pro wrestler who had his greatest success as Virgil, The Million Dollar Man's bodyguard in the late 1980s and early '90s.

Tags: Ted DiBiase, Mike DiBiase, Ric Flair, WWF, WWE, Harley Race, Andre the Giant, WCW