Ted DiBiase's millions

[Martin: #TeamBella Treasurer]

Was it ever explained on WWE TV/magazines why Ted DiBiase was so rich?

Was he a tycoon or oil baron of some sort? Did he win the lottery? Was he part of a 'get rich quick'/pyramid scheme? One of the first shareholders in Apple? Just curious

[Sephiroth]

Actually I think there were a few times it was implied he ran protection rackets

[Deleted]

He owned all the Shell gas stations along I-90 from Jacksonville to Miami.

[andrew8798]

Was suppose to be from a dead family member

When Paul Boesch used to work for the WWF

Actually, on the DiBiase one, they had a little inadvertant help from Houston promoter Paul Boesch. Boesch had just started promoting with WWF around the time DiBiase signed and insisted that they do something to turn DiBiase in front of the longtime UWF fans in the city.

DiBiase came in as a face, pretty much the same guy he had been and challenged One Man Gang, one of his top UWF arrivals who had also recently come to WWF.

OMG pinned DiBiase in the next show's singles match, leading to a tag match with Gang and Ron Bass vs DiBiase and another recent UWF member, Sam Houston. Houston kept trying to tag out, as he was getting demolished. Finally, he got to the corner and DiBiase slugged him, allowing him to be pinned.

On the interview platform, minutes later, a shocked Boesch asked Ted why, and DiBiase said he was tired of carrying around loser, deadweight tag partners (a clear shot at local favorite Steve Williams) and didn't have to anymore, since he'd recently inherited a huge sum of money. He even tied it into his old saying when he was a Mid-South heel, that MONEY was what made the world go around.

That was a Friday night. The next morning, Saturday, the first Million Dollar Man sketch aired in Houston. They did this in NO other city, even in the other Mid-South strongholds.

[fuzzywarble, squat cobbler]

Very nice segue into that gimmick! I never knew that

[jmule]

He bet against koko b ware

[Hit Girl]

In my head canon, he ran a Wall Street investment firm. It was the 1980's. I figured he was like Gordon Gekko. Making a fortune from insider trading. But now he's poor because he lost it all which explains why he shows up on WWE programming ever so often in comedy skits. He needs the money!

[Martin: #TeamBella Treasurer]

I've watched WWE since the early 90s but never heard a reason for his wealthiness.

Sept 30, 2014 18:48:48 GMT -5 Sephiroth said:

Actually I think there were a few times it was implied he ran protection rackets

Oh I like this. Could also explain his stable in the mid 1990s with Kama Mustafa and Bam Bam Bigelow as his heavies.

Sept 30, 2014 19:04:39 GMT -5 andrew8798 said:

Was suppose to be from a dead family member

When Paul Boesch used to work for the WWF

Actually, on the DiBiase one, they had a little inadvertant help from Houston promoter Paul Boesch. Boesch had just started promoting with WWF around the time DiBiase signed and insisted that they do something to turn DiBiase in front of the longtime UWF fans in the city.

DiBiase came in as a face, pretty much the same guy he had been and challenged One Man Gang, one of his top UWF arrivals who had also recently come to WWF.

OMG pinned DiBiase in the next show's singles match, leading to a tag match with Gang and Ron Bass vs DiBiase and another recent UWF member, Sam Houston. Houston kept trying to tag out, as he was getting demolished. Finally, he got to the corner and DiBiase slugged him, allowing him to be pinned.

On the interview platform, minutes later, a shocked Boesch asked Ted why, and DiBiase said he was tired of carrying around loser, deadweight tag partners (a clear shot at local favorite Steve Williams) and didn't have to anymore, since he'd recently inherited a huge sum of money. He even tied it into his old saying when he was a Mid-South heel, that MONEY was what made the world go around.

That was a Friday night. The next morning, Saturday, the first Million Dollar Man sketch aired in Houston. They did this in NO other city, even in the other Mid-South strongholds.

Oh cool. So was the first M$M skit a local one put on the WWF TV show just in that area then, yeah?

Sept 30, 2014 23:03:57 GMT -5 Hit Girl said:

In my head canon, he ran a Wall Street investment firm. It was the 1980's. I figured he was like Gordon Gekko. Making a fortune from insider trading. But now he's poor because he lost it all which explains why he shows up on WWE programming ever so often in comedy skits. He needs the money!

Oh yes!!! I always thought he looked out of place in that corridor skit with Snitsky, Oprahdust and Mae Young,  before Booker T and Sharmell fought Boogeyman at WrestleMania. 

[Display Name]

Is there or has his last mid-south promo ever been on youtube?

[Joe Neglia]

Oct 1, 2014 9:45:22 GMT -5 Display Name said:

Is there or has his last mid-south promo ever been on youtube?

I don't believe it ever aired to begin with. Was just done for DiBiase's local arena crowd so they wouldn't be super confused when he showed up on WWF programming the next day as a wealthy heel millionaire. DiBiase was the biggest babyface UWF had at the time, and it was just as the WWF was starting to really swarm on the Texas market. Kinda figure they knew the area wouldn't accept this new-fangled WWF product if the big babyface suddenly showed up the next day as a completely new character on TV. Can't remember all of the details, but this was during a weird moment in time when Paul Boesch - who promoted Houston Wrestling, but had for a while been working in association with Bill Watt's UWF and pretty much just using their TV as his own instead of having his own roster (I don't think he really had any crew of his own since at latest the earliest 80s; he just "rented" other promotions' guys) - had some sort of falling out with Watts and switched allegiances to McMahon, and started putting their show on during Houston Wrestling's tv time instead of UWF. So this wasn't a UWF show, it was a WWF show, just one promoted by Boesch since it was *his* territory, utilizing a bunch of guys who had just jumped ship from UWF to WWF. Watts wasn't involved at all.

[James Fabiano]

This should be reported to the Lost Media Wiki, then. Similarly, people have claimed that the "Jake DDT's Hogan in the Snake Pit" angle WAS shown...only in the Rhode Island market where a house show was to be main evented by Hogan vs. Roberts.

[Capt Lunatic]

Strip malls...the 80's were a very different time.

[Futureraven: Beelzebruv]

A factory that makes rubber duckies.