Ted DiBiase Talks Nixed WWE Championship Run Against Hulk Hogan, WrestleMania 4, His New Documentary
Ted DiBiase's recently spoke to Andy Malnoske of Wrestling Inc. about his new documentary, wrestling stories and much more.
The Price Of Fame released today and centers around DiBiase's redemption and faith. DiBiase said he and Peter Ferriero struck up a friendship after a shoot interview because DiBiase's story resonated with him, so Ferrerio, who works as a wedding videographer, eventually approached him about doing a documentary about him. Instead of simply following him around with a camera, DiBiase's son Ted Jr. proposed the idea of telling a story through his father's perspective.
"[Pete] said, 'I've never tried this before, but I would love to do a documentary piece on your story.' And I said, 'Wow, OK, let's go for it, whatever you want to do. And then my son Ted Jr. came along... He said let's tell the story, but let's tell it maybe through my eyes or the eyes of me and my younger brother Brett, and that's what we did," DiBiase said. "So the story, it speaks of the relationships between a man and his wife and a man and his children. It really is a story of personal redemption, the redemption of my marriage and the relationship that I have with my sons today."
DiBiase is currently a Christian minister and travels the world preaching to churches, camps and conferences. He said he hopes the documentary is able to cast a greater light on the importance of family.
"My whole [thing] is family, and if you don't have family, if you don't have that peace in your life, if you don't have integrity in your life, then you really don't have anything that matters," he said. "And that's really the message that I want people to be able to walk away from this movie [feeling]."
One of the most memorable moments from DiBiase's career is when he introduced the WWF Million Dollar Championship after not being able to buy the World Heavyweight Championship from Hulk Hogan. DiBiase explained the origins of the championship, saying it was a better decision to generate heat for his character rather than winning the title at WrestleMania 4.
"Initially the thought was at WrestleMania 4, I somehow through my scheming and money buy my way to the title and then I go have the run with Hulk Hogan and then eventually obviously he gets the title back and goes on to the next opponent," DiBiase said. "But I think it was Pat Patterson who suggested it to me, he said, 'Ted, what if you don't win the tournament and in your arrogance you create your own championship belt, declare yourself the champion, and you wear it to the ring every single night?' As soon as he said it, I said, 'Let's do it,' because that put so much heat on me, the arrogance of a guy to go out and create this bigger-than-life belt and just declare himself champion regardless of what the WWF had to say. It just made people hate me all that much more, so it really was a stroke of genius."