Top 50 Ted DiBiase Sr. Quotes

My first WrestleMania, which was WrestleMania 4, was a milestone.

By the time Vince McMahon called upon me to become this character, the Million Dollar Man, I had already been wrestling for 12 years.

The truth is, the WWE has changed incredibly since my wrestling days. The work schedule is not as demanding overall, and the compensation is much better.

I was fortunate. I probably could have saved more money, too. But, it’s like, even though I’m not really the Million Dollar Man, I have a retirement account, I saved some money, and I did some right things.

Usually a manager is put with someone who has got good rings skills, but is not necessarily good on the mic. So I have no idea why they put me with Steve Austin, he didn’t need any help!

I’ve been asked many times, do you regret never having been the world champion, you know? I kind of laugh. I say well, you know, this business is a work. It’s like, none of those guys are ever really the world wrestling champion. The titles are props in this business.

So I went to WCW for three years and quite frankly, it was the most miserable three years of my life in terms of business.

I am a minister and I preach forgiveness all time.

I think with a lot of comics, their gift is improv. They don’t have a script. They’ll have a couple of good ideas they start with, and go from there. And it’s the same in wrestling.

We have all said things in anger in a moment that we don’t mean.

WCW started basically buying talent created by Vince McMahon because that’s what they did with Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and myself and gave us contracts.

My son wanted to become a wrestler because I was a wrestler. I was his hero. I didn’t want them to wrestle. It was the same reason my dad didn’t want me to wrestle. It’s not the wrestling. It’s the lifestyle that goes with it and the demands it puts on you. It’s not so bad for single guy.

The Million Dollar Man thought he could buy anybody or anything and that was the essence of the character. About as evil as you can get!

The road can become a very lonely place. It’s not what it’s cracked up to be. Of course, it’s what you make it.

No matter how many times you get beat, you don’t mind seeing them get beat again. That’s what a good heel is in our business. I think JBL did it just as good as anybody.

As a young man, I had a strong faith in God. It dwindled and I pretty much abandoned it when I went to college. Basically, what I tell everybody is what took over my life was my pride.

Well, I think everyone would agree that Vince McMahon, although he doesn’t get it right every time, he gets it right most of the time, and he is a marketing genius.

Business is business and I take it very serious.

I was ordained into the ministry through my local church in February of 2000. I had already been doing a lot of speaking. So basically, my vocation in life changed and I went from a professional wrestler to a itinerate preacher.

I have the love and respect of my wife and my kids. I could look in the mirror and I’m happy with that guy now. He’s okay. He’s not a schmuck.

I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t stay too long. I would get out at the top of my career and not be one of those guys who’s body had started to go away and sag and look like and old man trying to still make a living.

It is funny that fans will come up to me constantly asking when I’m going into the Hall of Fame. I respond, ‘Well, I don’t know. I know they listed me in the Top 50. So sooner or later, I guess.’

Dusty Rhodes was a great athlete. Actually, he was a baseball player as well. He played football but he played baseball. That was his number one sport. He wasn’t always heavyset like he is. But Dusty Rhodes, The American Dream he just gets charisma.

Even in a given territory what would work in one city in front of one crowd might not work in front of another crowd. Every crowd is different in what they are looking for and what they’ll respond to.

I understand the psychology of the business. I understand who I am and I know how I interact with other people, but that’s a gift, the storytelling. Not everybody has that gift and it’s kind of like the way I work.

I was smarter when I was 15, 16 than when I was 18 to 26, because instead of caving in to being cool, I stuck close to my convictions and I was rewarded.

Bobby Heenan to me, he was the best. Of all the guys that have been managers that can pick up a microphone and talk, he was a natural and so good. His character like mine was so hated, it was like a little weasel.

Reality is, I could have made Japan a career. I could have just gone to Japan and I’d have been great.

It’s just one of those things. When you’re a wrestler you’re thinking about one guy, yourself, your character and whatever guy it is you’re working with. When you’re a writer and you’re kind of in a booking type role, you’re thinking about the entire roster so you’re thinking about wrestling 24 hours a day.

I was supposed to be the mouthpiece and financial backer of the NWO but what really happened as this thing got hotter, Eric Bischoff saw where he could slip himself into the role that he hired me for. And that’s what he did.

Wrestling is sports entertainment for sure. But to be really good at what we do you have to be both an athlete and an entertainer. And actually, if you’re going to be lacking in one, then be more of an entertainer and less of an athlete.

Some of the top grossing movies now are children’s animated features, they’re making more money than action movies. And you’d never find a Hollywood A-lister years ago doing voice-overs for those films and they do now. You know why? Because everybody’s got a price.

I feel like my era was an era in which guys learned their trade the old school way.

I always looked like an athlete but I didn’t look like Charles Atlas.

I am Heart of David because Heart of David Ministry, the Ministry is a Ministry of evangelism. It’s like I’m the chief cook and bottle washer. What the Ministry is is it’s me going out, it’s me going to churches. I go to prisons. I go to foreign countries and I share the gospel.

We got in the ring and wrestled almost every night and didn’t have many days off… The only thing I knew for certain when I got in the ring was exactly how I went in. We told a story and the match was the story.

The owner of Mid-South Wrestling, ‘Cowboy’ Bill Watts was and is extremely intelligent and unbelievable at understanding the psychology of our industry and I probably learned more from him then just about anybody.

I’m a minister, I preach forgiveness all the time.

Vulgarity, in my mind, is not cool.

When I tagged with Andre, and I loved tagging with Andre, but Andre started having some physical issues, so I did all the bouncing around in the ring, and I did it joyfully.

As a boss I can’t complain, I know Vince has given a lot of guys that had differences with him second chances. I know when I left to go to WCW he wasn’t particularly happy with me but he brought me back, we buried that hatchet and everything is fine.

Stan Hansen is arguably the most popular, most famous, foreign wrestler in Japanese wrestling history. One of the absolute biggest names in wrestling.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that Eric Bischoff doesn’t know that much about wrestling. This guy was selling meat out the back of a truck and became a ring announcer for Verne Gagne and I’ve always wondered how he ever got a job.

My dad was a wrestler, so I grew up old school.

The last thing I thought I would be doing is traveling the country and traveling the world preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, but God had a plan and nobody is more surprised than me. A lot of people who knew me before have been equally surprised over the years.

The real art of what we do, at least back in the old-school days, was improv. If you were a great worker, you were able to adapt and that skill developed over time because of all the traveling and working in different areas. You learned how to read a crowd.

Yeah, the first television match that I’m going to have, I got put out there with Danny Hodge and I was scared to death.

I was not a big fan of the Attitude Era. Some of the things they did were very good and very funny but I was never a fan of the sleazy stuff.

When you’re a celebrity, you don’t have to find trouble because it will come find you.

You can’t promote change standing on the sidelines.