Details About Ted DiBiase's Forgotten All Japan Pro Wrestling Run
In the fall of 1982, The Rat Pack, consisting of Ted DiBiase, Jim Duggan, and Matt Borne, ruled Mid-South Wrestling. Duggan was the Louisiana Heavyweight Champion, DiBiase the North American Heavyweight Champion, and Borne co-held the Mid-South Tag Team Championships with DiBiase.
The trio was reviled by fans for their scheming ways, one of which resulted in the Junkyard Dog leaving the territory for 90 days after being pinned by DiBiase in a "loser leaves, no disqualification tag team match" on the October 30, 1982, episode of Mid-South Wrestling.
By the spring of 1983, the group was no more. Duggan fired Borne after they lost a tag-team championship match to Mr. Wrestling II and Tiger Conway Jr. on March 26. Several weeks later on April 16, DiBiase formed an alliance with Skandor Akbar, who put up $25,000 for DiBiase and Mr. Olympia to get a "winner takes all" tag team title match. This alliance angered Duggan, who wanted nothing to do with Akbar as he could "see through his phony, baloney crap" and told DiBiase he was going his own way.
After months of intense battles, DiBiase demanded — and was granted — a "loser leaves no disqualification" match against Duggan on September 10. Attempting to scheme his way to victory, DiBiase had The Road Warriors interfere in the match but Duggan had The Junkyard Dog watching his back. In the end, Duggan emerged victorious and sent DiBiase packing.
Return to Georgia and going to All Japan Pro Wrestling
Shortly after exiting Mid-South Wrestling, Ted DiBiase resurfaced in WCW for the first time in two-and-a-half years. The last image Georgia fans had of DiBiase was him being stretched out of the studio after receiving four piledrivers from Terry Gordy of The Fabulous Freebirds in March 1981.
In addition, DiBiase was touring for All-Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) as part of their annual Giant Series. During the said tour, DiBiase won the finals of a 12-man tournament for the vacant NWA United National Championship after Jerry Lawler forfeited the match in Sasebo, Japan, on October 14. That same night, DiBiase successfully defended the championship against Genichiro Tenryu in a 16-minute match.
Nine nights later, the two had a rematch at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan, which ended in a double count-out after 20 minutes of physical action. On October 31, DiBiase challenged Harley Race for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship at the City Gymnasium in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima, Japan. Race won after countering DiBiase's figure-four attempt into a small package.
DiBiase would lose the National Championship to Michael Hayes in Athens, Georgia, on January 28, 1984. In March, DiBiase participated in AJPW's "Grand Champion Carnival," where he faced Takashi Ishikawa, Masanobu Fuchi, Rocky Hata, Magic Dragon, Ashura Hara, Giant Baba, and Tenryu in various singles and tag team matches. Returning to the United States, DiBiase remained in Georgia through October before heading back to Mid-South to resume his rivalry with Duggan.
DiBiase gets his break teaming with Hansen
For the first quarter of 1985, Ted DiBiase's alliance with "Dr. Death" Steve Williams and Hercules Hernandez battled Duggan and the Rock 'n' Roll Express over the North American and Tag Team Championships in Mid-South Wrestling. After losing a "Loser Leaves Town Tuxedo Street Fight Coal Miner's Glove On a Pole Steel Cage Match" to Duggan at the Mid-South Superdome Extravaganza on March 30, DiBiase returned to AJPW in April for the month-long "Violence! Super Power Wars" event.
Teaming with Dick Slater for most of the tour, the duo faced tandems of Akio Sato/Magic Drago, Masanobu Kurisu/Shinichi Nakano, Sato/Mighty Inoue, Animal Hamaguchi/Masanobu Kurisu, Great Kojika/Inoue, Sato/Tarzan Goto, Norio Honaga/Nakano, and Ishin Gundan.
Towards the end of the tour, DiBiase began teaming with Stan "The Lariat" Hansen and they won three of their five matches — Jumbo Tsuruta/Takashi Ishikawa, Ishin Gundan, and Giant Baba/Takashi Ishikawa. Their only loss was to the team of Baba/Tsuruta and had a double count-out against Tenryu/Tsuruta.
"That was a big break for me," said DiBiase of his teaming with Hansen on "The Hannibal TV" YouTube channel. "[Bruiser] Brody left All-Japan and signed on with New Japan, which back then was unheard of because the Japanese are so into loyalty ... So, Stan came to me and said, 'Look, Brody is going to the other side and I need a new partner. Do you want the job?' And I said, 'Are you kidding? Is a pig's butt pork? Of course, thank you. I'll take it.'"
DiBiase becomes babyface in a double turn
Ted DiBiase returned to AJPW in late August for the Decisive Battle! Dynamite Wars tour, where he and Stan Hansen defeated Genichiro Tenryu and Jumbo Tsuruta for the PWF World Tag Team Championships on August 31, 1985.
On the November 16, 1985, episode of Mid-South Wrestling, DiBiase challenged Ric Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. As the match was about to begin, Dick Murdoch, who had been feuding with Flair for the past month and trained DiBiase, got in the ring and told DiBiase to step aside as he didn't deserve the title shot. When DiBiase refused and said Murdoch was "yesterday's headlines," Murdoch sucker punched DiBiase and slammed his head into the ring post, deeply lacerating the challenger.
Not wanting his opportunity to pass by after having waited a year, DiBiase demanded his match against Flair and was granted it by Bill Watts. A bloody mess during the match, DiBiase went for the spinning toe-hold on Flair in the center of the ring but "The Nature Boy" kicked him off. DiBiase went flying to the outside and hit his head on the steel ring barricade.
As the crowd chanted "Teddy," DiBiase attempted to get up but the blood loss was too much and he was counted out. With the match over, Murdoch returned ringside and delivered a brainbuster to DiBiase on the outside floor. The double turn was complete: DiBiase was Mid-South's new spirited babyface while Murdoch was the dastardly heel.
Real World Tag League winners
Written off of Mid-South television, Ted DiBiase returned to AJPW to team with Stan Hansen in the Real World Tag League tournament from November 23 through December 12. Competing against Rusher Kimura/Ashura Hara, Nick Bockwinkel/Curt Hennig, The British Bulldogs, Riki Choshu/Yoshiaki Yatsu, Giant Baba/Dory Funk Jr., Harley Race/Jesse Barr, and Jumbo Tsuruta/Genichiro Tenryu, DiBiase and Hansen (3-1-3) won the tournament by one point over Tsuruta/Tenryu.
For the duration of 1986, DiBiase continued going back and forth between Mid-South — which was renamed to Universal Wrestling Federation in March — and AJPW. In the UWF, DiBiase attempted to win the UWF Championship from Terry Gordy while battling the rest of The Freebirds, while in AJPW, DiBiase and Hansen took part in the Champion Carnival and Summer Action Series events.
Looking to be the first back-to-back winners of Real World Tag League, DiBiase and Hansen finished the 1986 tournament tied for first with Tsuruta and Tenryu on 10 points. However, Tsuruta and Tenryu won the tournament on a tiebreaker as they defeated DiBiase and Hansen in the tournament final by count out.
In 1987, DiBiase continued his pursuit of the UWF Championship, which was now around the waist of the One Man Gang, while still battling The Freebirds. DiBiase and Hansen would later participate in AJPW's Champion Carnival, which would be his second to last tour teaming with Hansen.
The WWF comes calling
"The opportunity to work for Vince McMahon and the new WWF came along," said DiBiase in his Hannibal TV interview. "I remember having to go to Giant Baba and tell him you know as much as I appreciated what he (had) done for me, the opportunity to go to the WWF was one that I couldn't pass up because if I was going to stay relative in the wrestling world, there wasn't any place else to go then and everybody understood that. So did Giant Baba. And he just told me, he said, 'The door is open anytime you want to come back, we'll be here,' and so I was grateful for that."
After working a handful of WWF house shows in June, DiBiase finished up his AJPW commitments by teaming with Stan Hansen for the Summer Action Series tour. On the first night, they were defeated by Tsuruta and Tiger Mask for the PWF World Tag Team Championships. Eight nights later, DiBiase and Hansen regained the PWF World Tag Team Championships. They would successfully defend the titles against Shinichi Nakano and Yoshiaki Yatsu and go to a double count-out against Ashura Hara and Genichiro Tenryu.
Following their last match against Hiroshi Wajima and Jumbo Tsuruta at the end of the tour, DiBiase worked WWF house shows in early August while his "Million Dollar Man" vignettes began airing on WWF television.
One more ride together
After a successful six-year run in the WWF, Ted DiBiase lost to Razor Ramon in the opening match of SummerSlam 1993 in what would be DiBiase's last WWF match. The following month, DiBiase returned to AJPW to team with Stan Hansen in the Summer Action Series event. In their first match back together on September 3, 1993, they defeated Holy Demon Army to win the AJPW World Tag Team Championships.
For the remainder of the year, DiBiase and Stan Hansen competed in either tag team or six-man tag team matches as part of AJPW's Giant Series tour. DiBiase only competed in several singles matches, one of which was against Jun Akiyama on October 23. The other two matches were against Kendall Windham and Tamon Honda.
Looking to become two-time winners of the AJPW Real World Tag League tournament, DiBiase and Hansen entered as the AJPW Tag Team Champions. Unfortunately, DiBiase withdrew from the tournament due to injury after only two matches and Giant Baba filled in as Hansen's partner. The tournament was won by Mitsu Misawa and Kenta Kobashi, who edged out Baba and Hansen by one point and won the vacant AJPW World Tag Team Championships.