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Ted DiBiase Comments on Dave Meltzer's Claim, Chris Benoit, Steroids and the WWE

Posted: Jul 15th 2007 By: CMBurnham

The Chris Benoit tragedy has put the WWE, Vince McMahon, steroids and wrestling under a microscope. Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer is opinionated and maintains a website where he shares his views. Meltzer has called out Ted Dibiase, suggesting that he's just towing the company line.
Dave Meltzer writes: "After writing the past week about how sad it is to see people more concerned with protecting the business, which keeps a deadly status quo, than offering suggestions on how things can improve, we get www.ken-kennedy.com This business divisiveness of people "choosing sides" as opposed to working for improvements is outright pathetic. Not surprising, but sad. When you read this, you'll realize that unless it comes from the outside, nothing will ever change. Every wrestler on top at 30 has this attitude, and when they are on the scrap heap at 45, they have a very different view (unless they have a child wanting a job, in which case they toe the line, as witnessing the complete 180 of Ted DiBiase three years ago and Ted DiBiase today). But I thought the column was very important to read. Some of you will like it if you subscribe to the viewpoint that it's us against them and above all, we have to save our industry no matter what the cost. Some will have a very different idea reading it."

Those are some lofty allegations. Ted Dibiase was kind enough to respond to Mr. Meltzer here and on Wrestlingobserver.com.

The Million Dollar Man writes:

Dave, I need to set a few things straight with you. First of all, my objections to the business (the business that I've known all my life and know much better than you do) three years ago centered on programming. My objection has always been that I think there is too much sex and that there should be more family friendly programming. That hasn't changed.

I have been somewhere that nobody else giving an opinion lately has been. I've been on the inside and behind the closed doors. For a year and a half I worked as part of the creative team and also as a "producer". The truth is Dave, that the rock and roll atmosphere that existed 20 years ago is gone. As a talent in the WWE today, you can make anywhere from three hundred thousand to five million dollars a year. That certainly wasn't true 20 years ago. Nobody ever encouraged me to take steroids. Nobody ever told me my job depended on how great my body was. I think many wrestlers put that demand on themselves. I also think there were a few wrestlers that didn't have anything to offer other than a body (they were the greatest abusers) I was expected to stay in good shape and workout regularly. Twenty years ago everybody in every sport turned a blind eye to steroids. I was subject to the drug testing policy that was eventually implemented then and the one today is far greater in its scope that the previous one. The WWE doesn't choose who is tested or who is punished. They are all subject to the same rules.

My question to you and to all the disgruntled ex-employee's of the WWE is this, "what would you have them do?" I said it in every interview, "WHEN DO WE HOLD THE INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR ACTIONS?"

I nearly lost everything in 1992 because I was out partying and running around. I had the big head and was just too cool. I had to make a conscious decision to change. The choice was mine. It wasn't the WWE's fault that I was caving into the temptations out there. It was my own stupidity. I talk about the 60 or more wrestlers that have died in the last 10 years all the time. Of that 60 how many were really wrestlers who regularly worked in the business and how many were wanna-be's? In either case, 99% died of drug and alcohol related instances, not steroids.

The time off now is much better than it was 20 years ago. I laugh at the guys who complain today. They work 4 days a week unless they go on an overseas tour. When I needed time off I asked for it. The company always worked something out with me.

If you're making between three hundred thousand and five million and can't fund your own retirement and get great health care, you're either very immature or just plain stupid. Every injury I every got wrestling was taken care of by the company. I've funded my own retirement and done it on a lot less than guys are making now. AGAIN, I MUST BE MATURE ENOUGH TO MAKE GOOD CHOICES. I was 38 years old when the crisis in my life hit. I look back at that now and realize how immature and foolish I was. I didn't start becoming a man until I made a choice to change. But the choice was mine then and it's mine now.

I personally think many professional athletes in major sports today and pampered and coddled. They are given everything on a silver platter and it's never enough. Your talent can always take you where your "character" won't sustain you. That was my problem in 1992. It's the problem of many pro athletes today who, in spite of their great talent and big pay checks don't have the character and integrity to go along with it.

There is another issue I'd like to cover here. I heard one report about a certain wrestler's wife who was beaten by her husband. I don't condone men ever hitting a woman for any reason. What I take issue with is the suggestion that it is something rampant in wrestling. The suggestion was that most wrestler's wives suffer from abuse by their husbands but that it is a hush hush subject, swept under the rug and just not talked about. This is the most ludicrous thing I've ever heard. This person would have you believe that it is common place in wrestling for men to beat their wives. Again, I grew up in this business. My father never laid a finger on my mother. I've never laid a finger on my wife and don't know of any wrestlers in my 32 years experience that have. Are there isolated cases where this happens? I'm sure there is, just as there is in any other walk of life. But to suggest that most wrestlers are abusive to their wives and children is simply not true.

Last but not least, it has been suggested that I am defending the WWE because I have sons who aspire to be wrestlers. Do you really think that I would encourage any of my children to follow me into the wrestling industry if I didn't think it was a much better atmosphere now than when I was there? I can assure you, I would not. The truth is that the industry has changed greatly and for the better. I was impressed by the changes I saw there in the year and a half I was there. Everything constantly changes and evolves. I hope the WWE continues to do so and for the better.

Most of the condemning accusations thrown at the WWE as a result of the Benoit tragedy, in my opinion, have come from people who have an ax to grind with the company. As a result, their opinion is never going to be an objective one. I'm all for change where change is necessary. The greatest change that needed to occur in wrestling was in the wrestlers themselves. When you see your friends dropping left and right as a result of drug and alcohol abuse, it's time to wake up and smell the roses. It's time to stop acting like a stupid teenager and grow up. I started growing up when I took the focus of my life off of myself and my selfish desires and put them on my wife and kids. The bible says, "you will reap what you sow." In spite of anything the WWE does or doesn't do, it comes right down to personal choices. Our personal choices will lead us to success or failure, riches or poverty, and life or death. The choice is yours!

-- Ted